Jesus Became a SLAVE: 1-Minute Case

Street Theologian

4 min readOct 23, 2024

Jesus Washing the Disciples’ Feet : Wikimedia Commons

Washing feet was normally for slaves

Got big questions about slavery in the Bible? We’ve got you covered in our detailed guide:

SLAVERY and the Bible: Your Comprehensive Guide

Washing feet

Washing feet was for slaves but Jesus washes his disciples’ feet (John 13:5)! DA Carson, explains in his commentary, “This was a task normally reserved for the lowliest of menial servants…Some Jews insisted that Jewish slaves should not be required to wash the feet of others; this job should be reserved for Gentile slaves, or for women and children and pupils. In one well-known story, when Rabbi Ishmael returned home from synagogue one day and his mother wished to wash his feet, he refused on the ground that the task was too demeaning (Eerdmans, 1990, p.834).” Jesus’ counter-cultural behaviour sent shock waves.

The servant heart of Jesus

Jesus claimed he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28). While equal with God, Jesus emptied himself taking on the form of a slave (Phil. 2:7). Peter parallels Jesus to a mistreated slave (1 Peter 2:22–23).

Slavery to sin

Jesus became a slave to untangle sinners from slavery to sin- replacing our fallenness with his goodness before the eyes of God (John 8:34, 2 Cor. 5:21) . Our failed performance as slaves to sin is replaced by Jesus’ sacrificial act of servanthood on the cross.

Kissing campaign

This led to what Cambridge Professor Peter Williams describes as the scandalous kissing campaign. In the first century, masters would not kiss their slaves, nor would a Jew kiss a Gentile. Yet, people from all different classes of society and races would greet one another with a holy kiss in Christ (Rom. 16:16, 2 Cor. 13:12, 1 Thess. 5:26, 1 Pet. 5:14).

Social hierarchy turned upside down

Jesus turned the social hierarchy upside down by becoming a slave; the social barriers in Roman society were broken down. In Christ, the hierarchy between slaves and masters is broken down for in Christ Jesus there is neither slave nor free, male nor female, Jew nor Greek (Gal. 3:28–29).

Got big questions about slavery in the Bible? We’ve got you covered in our detailed guide: