CHONGQING, China (Mennonite Mission Network) — Foot-washing is traditional in Chinese culture. People wash their feet at night, because they believe it will help them sleep. Occasionally, a younger person will wash the feet of an elder to assist them or as a sign of respect. But people of senior social status do not normally wash the feet of younger people.

When Li first heard the foot-washing story in the Gospel of John, her shock was similar to Peter’s when Jesus washed his feet. “How can he do this?” she exclaimed.

Li is a young doctor studying English at Chongqing University of Medical Sciences in Chongqing, China. In Philip Bender’s work with Mennonite Church Canada Witness, Mennonite Mission Network and China Educational Exchange, he teaches Li and 28 of her medical colleagues in an Advanced English program.

“Neither Li nor her classmates have had exposure to Christian beliefs or the church. Growing up, they were taught that religion is for ignorant or superstitious people. But in my English classes last fall, these students sometimes asked insightful questions about Christianity,” Bender said. “Two weeks after Christmas, Li expressed interest in going with my wife, Julie, and me to the large Chinese church we attend in Chongqing. ‘I have never been to a church before,’ she cautioned when we invited her to join us.” 

That Sunday the theme was Christian service and as the preacher read the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, Li suddenly blurted out “How can he do this?  His students should feel apologetic!” 
 
“She was puzzled how such a great man could perform such a humiliating action, and how his disciples could accept it. When I suggested that Jesus’ gesture might be comparable to her Chinese or North American English teachers washing her classmates’ feet, she replied that she could never conceive of such a thing happening in her culture, which exalts teachers,” Bender said.

After the worship service, Bender asked Li how she felt about her first visit to a church.   “It opened a whole new world for me,” she reflected. “I am not familiar with it.” She commented on how she was impressed by the social concern Christians showed.  Sensitive to how her peers would look upon her if they knew she had gone to church, she added, “Please don’t tell anyone I went with you.”
 
Bender met with Li a few days later to talk about the foot-washing story and the rest of her church experience. “Li also voiced questions about other biblical stories — the creation, the Ten Commandments, and ‘a story about a boat in a flood.’  We agreed to talk about them sometime,” Bender said.
 
Like Li, Bender desires to feel afresh the shock of some of the Bible’s familiar stories.

“Familiarity tends to tame and blunt the Bible's sharp and controversial challenges to faithful discipleship. Feeling the shock of the Bible's stories may be unsettling and uncomfortable. But I think more shock would also spur me to more repentance, humility, trust, and risky action in the name of Jesus,” Bender said.

Though Li has not yet become a believer in Jesus, Bender prays that the seeds sown during her first visit to a church, and through their follow-up conversations and ongoing friendship, might take root and grow.

“I am eager for the day when she will ask to go to church with us again,” said Bender.