Passing the basin

In our Bible study, we're reading the book John: The Gospel of Light by Adam Hamilton.  This morning, I am reading chapter 4 in which Hamilton discusses the Final Discourse.

Hamilton is good at creating pictures in my mind with his words.  I can visualize the scene he sets.  This morning I'm thinking (as let by Hamilton) about the Last Supper, especially the moments when the disciples entered the room.  He tells us that there would probably have been a basin and pitcher by the door so that those who entered could wash their feet. Why didn't they?

He suggests that they had been with Jesus long enough to know that if they stopped to wash their own feet, the action of a servant would have been to wash everyone's feet.  Perhaps none of them wanted to do that, so they ignored the basin.

Do we do that?  Do we know what following Christ means - that it means service and humility?  That it means washing one another's feet, but instead, we pass the opportunity by, hoping someone else will do it instead?

Jesus showed them the way by picking up the towel himself.  There are those in my life who do the same - who pick up the towel, when I walk by it.  I see Christ in them, and yet a I fail to demonstrate Christ to others, hoping someone else will do it.