The spiritual meaning of washing is purification – cleaning the mind spiritually much as water cleans the body naturally. “Feet” represent our lives on the natural level – the day-to-day outward thoughts and actions that absorb so much of our time. Washing the feet, then, symbolizes purifying the natural level of our lives, applying what the Lord teaches us to our outward, ordinary actions.

Think of it this way: Are you nice to the cashier at the grocery store? Can you forgive someone who accidentally cuts you off in traffic? Do you hold the door for strangers? Such small things may be signs of good clean feet. It also became a ritual, however, with a host honoring his guests by washing their feet. The most famous example of this is in John 13, when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper.

10243. 'They shall wash with water' means purification effected by means of the truths of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'washing' as purification from evils and falsities, dealt with above in 10237; and from the meaning of 'water' as the truths of faith, also dealt with above, in 10238. Anyone who does not know what 'washing' means, nor what 'feet' and 'hands' mean, cannot possibly know what is implied by the following words in John,

Jesus poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the linen towel with which He was girded. And He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, Do you wash my feet? Jesus answered, What I am doing you do not know as yet; but you will know afterwards. 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. Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and head. Jesus said to Him, He who has been washed has no need except to wash his feet, but the whole person is clean. Already you are clean. John 13:5-10.

Is there anyone who can know what the real meaning is when the Lord said, 'What I am doing you do not know as yet, but you will know afterwards', also 'If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me', as well as 'He who has been washed has no need except to wash his feet', and 'the whole person is clean'?

[2] These words refer to purification from evils and falsities, but no one can know of this except from the internal sense. From this sense it is evident that 'washing' is used to mean purification from evils and falsities; 'water in a basin' to mean the truth of faith within the natural; 'the linen towel' which the Lord was girded with, and which He used for wiping, to mean Divine Truth emanating from Him; 'feet' to mean the natural level in a person; and 'washing the head, hands, and feet' to mean regeneration, as is 'he who has been washed', so that 'washing the feet' is used to mean purifying the natural level in a person. Unless this level with a person is purified and cleansed while he is living in the world he cannot ever be purified after that. For whatever a person's natural level is like when he dies it remains the same; no improvement takes place afterwards, for it is the level into which interior things, that is, spiritual ones flow, and it is their receptacle. Consequently when it has been perverted the interior things are similarly perverted on flowing in. The situation is like that with the eye or any other sensory organ or a member of the body when it has been damaged; inner abilities to perceive or to act by means of that organ or member are conditioned by the state of reception there.

[3] A person's inability therefore ever to be purified if his natural is not purified in the world is the meaning of the Lord's words, What I am doing you do not know as yet; but you will know afterwards. The fact that nothing except the natural needs to be purified in one who has been regenerated is the meaning of He who has washed has no need except to wash his feet, and of the whole person is clean. And the accomplishment of all purification by the Lord alone is the meaning of If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me. The accomplishment of it by means of the Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord is meant by His wiping with the linen towel with which He was girded.

'A linen towel' means truth from God, see 7601, so that 'the linen towel with which the Lord was girded' is Divine Truth from Himself.

'Water' means the truth of faith, 10238.

'A basin' or a laver with water in it means the natural, 10235.

'Washing the head, hands, and feet' - that is, the whole body - means regeneration, 10239, 'feet' being the natural within a person, 10241.

From all this it again becomes evident that the Lord spoke by means of correspondences, thus in accordance with the internal sense, since He spoke from heaven's point of view, where that sense exists. Consequently there is little understanding of the Lord's Word unless it is understood on that level of meaning.

5649. 'And they said, Over the matter of the silver put back in our pouches [at the beginning] are we brought to [this place]' means that because truth in the exterior natural appears to be something freely given, they were being made subservient. This is clear from the meaning of 'the silver put back' as truth freely given, dealt with in 5530, 5624; from the meaning of 'the pouch' as the opening to the exterior natural, dealt with in 5497; and from the meaning of 'brought to' as being linked and made subservient to, dealt with immediately above in 5648.

[2] The implications of all this are as follows: Because it had been perceived that the facts present in the exterior man which held truths within them had been freely given and were therefore being led on to become joined to the internal, which would make them subservient to it, it was consequently perceived that, as stated just above, they would be deprived of their freedom and so of all the delight that life holds within itself. But man has no conception of such a thing, that is to say, of its being perceived that facts holding truths within them can be given freely and that this happens in the natural, in either the exterior part or the interior part of it. The reason he has no conception of this is that he does not enjoy any kind of perception like that, for he does not have the vaguest idea about what is given to him freely, let alone about what is stored away in the exterior natural and what in the interior natural. The common reason why he does not have any perception of this is that his heart is set on worldly and earthly things, not on celestial and spiritual ones, and therefore he has no belief in any influence coming from the Lord by way of heaven and so no belief whatever in the gift of any such things to him. Yet in actual fact all the truth which he arrives at by the use of reason based on factual knowledge and which he imagines he arrives at by his own power of understanding is something that is given to him. And man has even less ability to perceive whether that truth is stored away in the exterior natural or in the interior natural, because he is ignorant of the fact that the natural has two parts, namely an exterior part which leans towards the external senses and an interior part which leans away from these and turns towards the rational.

[3] Since man has no knowledge of any of these matters he cannot have any perception at all regarding such ideas; for acquaintance with a reality must come first if there is to be any perception about it. But angelic communities are properly acquainted with and have a right perception of those matters. They are acquainted with and perceive not only what is given them freely but also in what place this exists, as the following experience makes clear: When any spirit who is moved by good, and therefore has the ability to do so, enters some angelic community, he enters at the same time into all the knowledge and intelligence belonging to this community, which he had not possessed before. At such a time he is not aware of anything different from this - that he was already in possession of such knowledge and understanding, and through his own deliberation. But when he stops to reflect he realizes that it is something freely given him by the Lord through that angelic community. He also knows, from the angelic community where he is, whether that truth exists in the exterior natural or in the interior natural; for there are angelic communities situated in the exterior natural, and there are those situated in the interior natural. But their natural is not like man's natural; rather it is a natural that is spiritual - one that has been made spiritual by having become joined and made subservient to the spiritual.

[4] From all this one may see that the matters mentioned here in the internal sense describe what actually happens in the next life. That is to say, those there are quite aware of what is freely given them and also of where it is stored away, even though man at the present day knows nothing at all about such matters. In ancient times however those who belonged to the Church did know about them; their factual knowledge told them about such matters, and so did their religious teachings. They were people of a more internal frame of mind; but since those times people have become progressively more externally minded, so much so that at the present day they live in the body, thus in what is the most external. A sign of this is seen in the fact that people do not even know what the spiritual is or what the internal is; and they do not believe even in the existence of such realities. Indeed people have moved so far away from things on a more internal level to what is most external within the body that they do not even believe in the reality of a life after death, or in the existence of heaven or hell. Indeed because of their departure from things of a more internal level into what is most external they have become so stupid. So far as spiritual realities are concerned, as to believe that man's life is similar to that of beasts, so that in death man is no different from them. And what is so surprising, the learned believe these kinds of things more than the simple; and anyone whose belief is different from theirs is thought by them to be a simpleton.