Washing feet for Jesus John 13: 1-17
A young lady called her boyfriend one evening and said, “Will you come over here and help me, I’ve got a new jigsaw puzzle and I can’t even seem to get it started.” He said, “What’s it supposed to be?” And she said, “According to the picture on the box, it’s a tiger.” Well, he had nothing else to do so he decided to go over and give her a hand. She lets him in and shows him the puzzle spread all over the kitchen table. He studies the pieces for a minute, then looks at the picture on the box and turns to her and says, “First of all, no matter what we do, we’re not going to be able to assemble these pieces so that they’ll look anything like that tiger on the box.” And then he took her hand said, “I want you to relax. Let’s have a nice cup of tea and then we’ll put all the Frosted Flakes back in the box.”
This story shows us that not everybody knows everything. And I’m certainly one of those people, so you’ll have to be a little bit patient with me as I try to deal with this portion of scripture both this week and next.
Now, according to verse 1 Jesus and His disciples were gathered in the upper room for the Passover celebration. And you have to understand that the upper room was just a large empty room that probably had a low table for the food and not much else. This room would have been rented out to anybody during the Passover season or any other Jewish celebration. They’d probably have afternoon and evening rentals. And remember that this was the time of the year when all Jews everywhere paused to observe a thanksgiving feast in honor of God’s deliverance from Egypt.
So, they would come and have a meal where each of the foods had something to do with what God did for His people during the night of their deliverance from the Egyptians. And during this meal they’d share what the scriptures had to say about the first Passover. And in this passage they may have done all that and afterwards Jesus gave them a message. And the message begins in chapter 13 and ends in chapter 17 and it’s the longest message that Jesus ever gave that we have a record of. It’s commonly referred to as the upper room discourse simply because that was where He gave it.
And basically, Jesus uses this opportunity to prepare His disciples for the dramatic events which are about to unfold. And here He speaks of His betrayal by Judas, the denial of Peter, of their home in heaven, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the rejection of the world and His impending death, burial and resurrection. And all this is in the next four chapters.
In verses 1-3 of chapter 13 we have the introduction and it’s not introducing just this first chapter but it’s introducing the entire message. We often gloss over verse I in an attempt to move into the action parts of the message but I believe there is a wealth of information here about the heart and mind of Jesus and particularly in the latter part of verse one.
Look at it again, “Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” And the first thing it says is that He knew that His hour had come. And ‘His hour’ is a term that is used several times by Jesus in the gospels.
In John 2:4 when He was speaking to His mother Mary at the wedding in Cana it says, “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” In John 7:30 it says, “Therefore, they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.” And then in John 8:20, it says, “These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.” In John 12:23, “But Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.’” And John 17:1, “Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your Son also may glorify You.” And then in Mark 14:41 it says, “Then He came the third time and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough the hour has come; behold, the son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.’”
The only other time a phrase like this is used in scripture is back in Esther 4:14 where Mordecai challenges Esther about using her position as queen to deliver the Jews and he says, “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” And what he is saying to Esther is this, God may have created and prepared you to deliver His people from the hands of their enemies but if you miss this opportunity to do God’s will then the whole purpose of your existence on earth will have been squandered. In other words, he’s telling her, this is your hour!
The hour that Jesus was referring to was the hour or time of His crucifixion. That was why He came into the world. He came to die and through His death He would accomplish several things.
First, He would save us from our sins. Matthew 1:21 says, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” John 1:29 says, “The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him, and said, ‘Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’” I John 3:5, “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.” So, these verses tell us very plainly that Jesus came to take away our sins and then Hebrews 9:26 tells us how He would do this. It says, “But once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” So, no matter what anyone else says about the purpose of Jesus’ life, He came to take away our sins. He didn’t come to check out our situation, He didn’t come to be a good example and He didn’t come just to teach us how to live. He came to take away our sins.
And second, He came to destroy the power of death. We are told in Hebrews 2:9, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.” The scripture says, “The soul that sins it shall die” and when He took our sins away He experienced the death that we should have experienced. And then in Hebrews 2:14 it says, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” So, this tells us that death no longer has any power over the believer. Now having said that I’m sure a few of you are thinking; I know believers who are dead. Are you saying that they weren’t saved? And the problem is that we really don’t know what death is.
Death isn’t just when your heart spots beating but death is separation from God who is the source of life. Jesus was separated from the Father for the first time in all eternity so we would never have to be. As Paul writes about the death of the believer he says, “We are absent from the body but present with the Lord.” So, while we are alive we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God and when we leave these bodies we immediately go into the presence of God. So we are never separated from Him.
In the epistles when Paul speaks of the death of the believer he says, we sleep. Our bodies sleep waiting for the resurrection but our souls are awake and alive. We never experience death in the sense that we are never separated from God and I guess in the same sense we could say that the non-believer never really experiences life.
So, He saves us from our sins, destroys the power of death and then the third result of Jesus’ death is found in I John 3:8 where we are told that He also came to destroy the works of Satan and it says, “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” The devil is the enemy of every believer but this tells us he is a defeated enemy. The only power he exercises over us is when we knowingly step outside of the will and protection of God. And we do that when we knowingly sin and when we are consciously walking in his territory.
And then the fourth result of Jesus death is that He would identify with us as we struggle with our mortality or our life while we are in these bodies. Hebrews 2:17,18 says, “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” This tells us that Jesus experienced not only the temptations of the devil but also the aging process like we do but unlike us He knowingly faced a vicious and painful death. And that means that there is nothing we can experience in this life where He can’t say, “I know exactly how you feel.” You see, He’s been tempted at every point like we are, but without sin.
So the first sentence is, “His hour had come for Him to depart from the world to the Father.” And then it says, “Having loved His own who were in the world He loved them to the end.” Now, this is a difficult phrase to translate because it means more than the fact that He loved His disciples to the end of His life because it actually means that His love for them was the perfect expression of His love. Consider the fact that His crucifixion was less than twenty-four hours away and yet He was so consumed with concern for His disciples and how His death would affect them that He didn’t seem to be concerned at all about what He was about to endure on our behalf.
And later, we’ll see how Jesus showed His love to others right up until the time He died. Just think, when He was arrested, He arranged so that His disciples would all get away. And when He was questioned by the Pharisees He didn’t lash out at any of them. As He stood before the high priest He just told the truth and if the high priest or any of his followers had believed they would have been saved. And then when He was tortured by the Roman soldiers He didn’t say anything. And when He was questioned by Pilate He told him who He was. And from there He was sent to King Herod and Jesus didn’t say anything rude or otherwise. After all, He knew there was no sense is saying anything to him because he was just looking to be entertained. And then when He hung on the cross He made sure that John took care of His mother Mary. And even in His dying hours He reached out to the thief who was dying beside Him. You see, He was always concerned about the needs of others regardless of what He Himself was going through.
And then the second verse of the introduction is the first mention of Judas as the betrayer. It says, “And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him.”
This tells us that Judas wasn’t a victim or patsy of the devil but He was a willing participant in his plan. He had heard the message of salvation and since he had been on the various preaching trips with the other disciples he probably even preached the gospel he rejected. He had seen Jesus performing many miracles and he may have even been the instrument God used to perform some of them. After all, he was one of the seventy who had come back and reported about the cases of healing and deliverance as they had gone from town to town. He watched Jesus closely for three years and would later testify to the chief priests that the Lord was sinless when he said, “I have betrayed innocent blood.” But, in spite of all he saw, heard and experienced he knowingly rejected the Son of God.
I can’t help but think that he was sitting at this dinner table seething with anger and trying to find out how he can get even with Jesus because he had been rebuked over the incident of Mary’s anointing Jesus. And also because he saw the chances of getting rich were gone. Everyone else was sitting at the table hanging on every word Jesus said but Judas was sitting there trying to figure out how he could cash in on Him. And yet we might ask ourselves, why was he so angry? Jesus hadn’t done anything wrong? The problem was in his mind. His shallow approach to life had been exposed and he couldn’t take it and refused to repent.
There could be other things as well. He might’ve always resented the fact that he was not one of the inner circle. I mean, it’s obvious that Peter, James and John were chosen to accompany Jesus to places and situations where the others weren’t invited, like the Mount of Transfiguration, the raising of the young girl from the dead and even into the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went to pray. And unlike the other disciples who didn’t even seem to notice Judas might have been slighted by the attention these three were receiving.
Then again, Judas was the only disciple who wasn’t a Galilean. He was from Judea and Judea was an upper class area compared to where the others had come from and he might have been ribbed by the other disciples for being a cut above them. And whether it was real or imagined he might have felt like he was never accepted.
And so, he may have had a poor image to start with and being different from the others would only add fuel to his fire or his anger might have stemmed from his guilt. He knew he was stealing from the funds he was in charge of and rather than assuming responsibility for his actions he projected his anger outward.
Or maybe he was frustrated because he wanted an earthly kingdom and now Jesus was making it clear that the kingdom He was offering was not of this world. And then again, it could have been that he was just rebelling against authority and let’s face it, Jesus was the ultimate authority figure.
Whatever it was that motivated him, I’m sure of this, he wasn’t the grotesque monster that artists have portrayed down through the ages because when Jesus prophesies about His betrayal not one of them thought of Judas.
So, verse 1 talks about Jesus love for His disciples, verse 2 talks about Judas’ intent to betray the Lord and then verse 3 tells us that Jesus was in total control of the situation and was conscious of who He was and what He was doing.
And so it says, “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God.” The ‘all things in His hands’ refers to the whole work of salvation and the means to accomplish it. So, Jesus was totally aware of His pre-incarnate existence in heaven and the position He would occupy when this whole ordeal was over.
Looking at these three verses is like seeing the events taking place in the same room from three different perspectives. In verse one, we focus on the time space event of the Passover and the quality of Jesus’ relationship with His disciples, then in verse 2, we have the spiritual view as we see into the heart of Judas, and then in verse 3, we have the eternal perspective of Jesus as He looks backward and then forward into eternity. And that’s just the introduction to the passage.
When Luke writes about this Passover meal he gives us some background information. And he tells us about the conversation that the disciples were having at the table. It’s in Luke 22:24-26, it says, “Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And He (meaning Jesus) said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.’” So, what’s happening here is that the disciples were arguing about their favorite subject which was which of them would be greatest in the kingdom when something very strange happened.
I And that brings us to the issue of foot washing.
And it’s here that verses 4 and 5 say, “Jesus rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciple’s feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.”
It was customary in the Middle East for a servant to wash your feet as you came into the house. You would step inside and take off your sandals, your feet were washed and you went barefoot during your time there.
And then during the meal the one who invited you or who was the host would go around the table between the courses of the meal and provide a pan and cloth to wash the hands of the guests. This was considered a kindness and a way to show their appreciation for your visit and we have to understand that they didn’t use forks or knives the way we do and I think they might have saved a lot of money on serviettes as well. And keep in mind that everything they ate was considered finger food.
The disciples might have thought that Jesus was about to play the part of the host as He got up from the table and yet even if He did they should have been surprised because this was the very thing He had condemned the Pharisees for. The problem was when the Pharisees washed their hands before the meal and then in between the courses they made it look like it was some kind of a religious practice. So, Jesus didn’t condemn them because it was wrong in itself but because they used the hand washing to portray a level of internal cleanliness that simply didn’t exist in their lives. And to drive the point home about how unclean they were, Jesus referred to them as white washed tombs. The tombs on the hillsides of Jerusalem were dazzling in appearance because they whitewashed them so no one would be defiled by coming in contact with them and so they might have looked nice but they were really defiling in their affect on anybody who came in contact with them.
So, Jesus wouldn’t do the very thing He had condemned the Pharisees for, because He knew that the disciples would misunderstand His actions. But, what He was doing was the ultimate act of humility. He was taking the part of the lowest kind of slave. And washing feet was something that no slave ever got excited about. It was a dirty and humiliating job and it reminded the slave who he was. He was nobody in the eyes of the world. And Jesus was not only willing to do this but He did it.
A number of years ago the queen came to Canada for a boat race or regatta as they called it in Kingston, Ontario. And I remember reading about how they had built a special bathroom a few rows up from where she was seated, just in case she needed it. They said it cost around fifty thousand dollars. After all, this was the queen. Imagine if the queen heard you were sick and came to clean your house. Well, you can imagine all you want because we all know that’s not going to happen. After all, she’s the queen. She’s not the Son of God. And that’s the contradiction of this passage. He does what no expects and what no one else was willing to do.
And remember, the disciples of Jesus day were no different than the people of ours. They were proud and it seems like they were always arguing which one of them was the greatest, so, none of them would dare to look like a slave in front of the others. They were too concerned with their appearance to ever stoop that low.
As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Today, it’s considered normal for people to promote themselves, to put themselves first and most importantly to put themselves ahead of everyone else. People hire publicists to tell the world how great they are. We have men like Donald Trump and Don Cherry and the whole Hollywood crowd who act as arrogant as possible and they think that this is what makes them attractive. They’re rich and famous and appear as though everyone should be grateful just for the opportunity to see them.
On the other hand scripture is clear, that the promotion of self has no place in the life of the Christian. As a matter of fact, we are to die to self. And yet, those who display humility in any field are considered to be weak in the eyes of the world but we have to remember that we are to follow Jesus and as we see here, Jesus is just the opposite of the world.
So, while His disciples were arguing about who was the greatest Jesus assumed the position of the lowest slave, walked over to the basin and then removed His outer robe, His belt and most likely His inner tunic which left Him clothed like a slave. He wrapped a towel around His waist and then and went around washing their feet.
I don’t know how many of you have ever been to a foot-washing ceremony. I was at one in the seventies that was held in our commune. Foot washing is a practice that’s still held in a few churches around the world today. Some actually considered this to be an ordinance of the church and it’s often done at the same time they observe the Lord’s table and then there are a few others who do it once or twice a year.
Often they just wash or wet and then dry one of the feet and then they move on to the next person. One lady wrote about this practice and said, “If you don’t scrub the toenails and dry between the toes then you’re not really washing feet. You’re only pretending.” I’m glad we don’t have to determine the proper way it’s done because as you study the scriptures and observe history you’ll find that foot washing was only done in private homes and was never practiced in a temple service or even in the early church.
And there are several reasons why we don’t believe that it’s an ordinance like baptism or the Lord’s table. First, Jesus never told us to do it. He told us to follow His example and I believe that His example wasn’t the actual act of foot-washing but that He was pointing to both His humility and His act of service.
Second, unlike baptism or the Lord’s table foot washing doesn’t really remind us of salvation. And then third, it was never commanded in the epistles. Fourth, it wasn’t practiced in the early church. And fifth, we have to take into account that since every one wore sandals it was a cultural custom for a slave to wash the feet of a guest when they entered a home and if you didn’t have a slave then you would probably allow them to wash their own.
If we were to be really rigid in following the practices of scripture as they were done in the first century, then we would have to it in every situation. And if we were to see someone bleeding and unconscious by the side of the road, we wouldn’t call the police or an ambulance and have them taken to the hospital but we’d have to go get a donkey and take them to a hotel, meet their medical needs ourselves and then pay their bill and allow them to stay there at our expense until they were well.
And then we’d have to take the same attitude toward the common cup which was used in the first century. In spite of what you see in DaVinci’s portrayal of the Last Supper everybody drank out of the same cup. They didn’t have little plastic cups and the unleavened bread didn’t come with a cellophane wrapper like it does now. But in the day of aids and even cold sores there are many and myself included who think that this is the better part of wisdom.
I remember Sally and I were at another couples house for fellowship one night and we watched Tammy Faye Baker on television. She was sharing how she had been to a communion service where they had the common cup. She said that at the time she had a large and very painful cold sore on her lip and when the cup came around she felt led to push her lip into the cup and then she said, “God healed her cold sore.” Maybe it’s my lack of faith but I wouldn’t want to be the next person to drink out of that cup.
I think the problem with this practice of foot washing is that washing feet once or twice a year might make us feel like we’re servants of others because we think we’ve done an act of service for the Lord. We can leave the church with our heads held high knowing that all the toes are sparkling clean. But when you think about it, washing one another’s feet can be giving someone a ride to church, helping someone who’s unable to move furniture, bringing a meal to the sick, cleaning someone’s house, encouraging the depressed, being patient with the angry or spending time with the lonely. There are as many ways to serve people as there are people.
And to really serve people takes a certain measure of love and humility and listen, pride and humility do not go together. Have you ever met someone who was a very proud but loving person? Well, the fact is, there’s no such thing. Pride and love go together like oil and vinegar.
Example
I think it’s a good thing that we don’t wash feet today. Trustees might be upset that the carpet is getting ruined. There would be an endless debate about whether the feet should be dipped, wiped, sprinkled or swabbed. And then there’s the issue of whether we should just use water or add some kind of anti-bacterial, non-perfumed soap to make sure they’re really clean. And then if we were actually washing the feet we have to wonder about the practice of many who just wash one foot or if we did both do we do the right or the left first? And then again, should we tell people to wash their feet before they come to church for the foot washing? I mean, nobody wants to wash dirty feet.
And for those of you who really feel the need to be literal on this issue, remember that the apostle Paul told us to greet one another with a holy kiss. And you have to keep in mind that the cultural way of doing this was for the men to kiss the men and the women to kiss the women. And I hope you’re not offended but I don’t want to be kissed by anybody.
I believe that what Jesus was doing was showing both His disciples and us an excellent example of how to have the right attitude because if we have the right attitude then we’ll do what needs to be done.
II Peter’s reaction and Jesus’ explanation in verses 6-10
“Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, are you washing my feet?’ Jesus answered and said to him. ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this. Peter said to Him, ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.’ Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.’ Jesus said to him, ‘He who bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.’”
Here we see that Peter was an extremist by nature. He was what we call an all or nothing kind of guy. He goes from saying, you will never wash my feet to give me a bath. First, he says, you’re doing too much for me and then you’re not doing enough. I believe the problem that Peter had to overcome was his pride because if Peter couldn’t accept Jesus humbling Himself as He washed his feet then he would never be able to accept the fact that Jesus humbled Himself enough to go to the cross.
Sensing that Peter didn’t understand what was going on Jesus uses an analogy of one who has taken a bath as a parallel to salvation. He says that we don’t have to be saved again but we do need to be constantly cleansed from sin. It’s like the theological explanation of our sanctification. Positionally, as believers, we are perfect in the eyes of Jesus. We are saved and on our way to heaven, but practically, the way we live our lives leaves a lot to be desired. We are cleansed for eternity but we need to be constantly cleansed during our daily walk in this world.
Conclusion
There are a couple of things that are taking place at once in this passage. We have Jesus demonstrating His love for His disciples while Judas is devising a means of destroying Him. The Lord Jesus is motivated by love and Judas is motivated by selfishness. And seeing the situation from Judas’ perspective reminds me of the story of Cinderella and her wicked step-sisters. Imagine if you will, that the story is told from her step-sisters viewpoint. They might say something like this: “We used to have it so much better around here before that adopted brat showed up. Now we have less money, less food and less room. And they say, ‘Hey Cinderella, why don’t you get lost, have you ever considered running away? Go play in the traffic.’ And then after Cinderella marries the prince and lives happily ever after the step-sisters would change their tune and say, ‘Well, how do you like that little ingrate? Not even an invitation to the wedding. After all we did for her. We shared what little we had and when she got lucky, not even so much as a thank you. Then again, what can you expect from someone like that.”
With Judas attitude toward Jesus I’m sure he would have responded in the same way. As Jesus said or did something kind to someone else Judas would probably say to himself, “Sure, you do it for them but you wouldn’t do it for me.” And then when Jesus did something for Judas he’d probably say to himself, “He’s just trying to butter me up either to make a point or to try and make me feel guilty.”
You see, his mind was made up and there was no changing it and as far as Judas was convinced any salvation Jesus had to offer was useless and he wanted no part of it. And just as Judas saw money as more important than eternal life we need to realize that while the things of this world may make us comfortable for the few days we are here, eternal life is forever.
This tells us, we need to face and deal with the issue of salvation. And then after we’re saved we need to understand the responsibility we have to serve the Lord and to realize that we serve Him by serving one another. And that means washing one another’s feet or another way of saying that is simply doing things that we might consider to be beneath our dignity.
I remember years ago reading a book by Watchman Nee who was a Chinese Pastor and writer and ended up dying in prison for his faith. And he tells a story about a man who was approaching a Chinese village and looking to ask someone for directions to the parsonage. He said he didn’t want to ask the first man he saw because he was pushing a wheelbarrow full of the contents of an outhouse. And that without doubt that has got to be one of the most disgusting jobs available. There was no one else to ask so the visitor said to the man with the wheelbarrow, “Where might I find the pastor of the village?” And he said, “I’m the pastor, what can I do for you?”
And Watchman Nee went on to explain that in the poorest of areas the people had the greatest sense of humility. And he said that the one who was considered to be the most spiritual got to do the greatest work of humility and so it was considered an honor to clean out the outhouse.
Foot washing is a wonderful image of humility and hospitality and I think we should practice whatever is going to put people at ease but I don’t think actually washing anybodies feet is going to do this today. At the same time I think we should be always be willing to condescend and do what we can to serve one another with an attitude of humility and that simply means doing what needs to be done.
I’m sure there was a knack to washing feet. The feet are sensitive and the purpose of washing them wasn’t really to get them clean but it was meant to refresh the one who was traveling on hot and dusty roads. And when you washed them you had to be careful, the water couldn’t be too hot or too cold and you also had to be very gentle. Some people are ticklish and others may have problems with their feet.
I was thinking about how this applies to our relationships with one another and it reminds me that we can’t always be like a bull in a china shop knowing that others may be going through deep waters in their lives. And who knows, there may come a time when we’ll be the ones who need a sensitive and caring ear.
I think this passage tells us something about our attitude. I think it tells us that we as Christians should be very sensitive to the needs of others and more concerned with serving rather than who’s in charge. It’s a choice between pride and humility. And when you are tempted to put yourself above others just open your Bible to John 13 and look at Jesus. Here He is the God of all glory humbling Himself by washing the feet of sinners.
I remember a few years ago reading about a college reunion where there was a prestigious group of the graduates that were called the white jackets. And every time there was a reunion they showed up wearing their white jackets. Some of them were professors and a few were presidents of companies. They were considered by all to be the upper crust of the graduates. The white jackets they wore were the same ones they had when they were back in college and there were what they wore while they served food to the other students. And now they were in a sense rewarded for their humility.
