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.

7601. 'And the flax' means the truth of the exterior natural. This is clear from the meaning of' the flax' as truth, but the truth of the exterior natural, dealt with below. The natural is exterior and interior, see 4570, 5118, 5497, 5649, and therefore the truth and good there are interior and exterior, 3293, 3294. The truth and good of the exterior natural are meant by 'the flax and the barley', and the good and truth of the interior natural by 'the wheat and the spelt'.

[2] This verse and the next deal with the truths and forms of good that were destroyed and laid waste, and the forms of good and truths that were not destroyed or laid waste. Thus they deal with the truths and forms of good that were stored away and placed in safe keeping for [future] use, and those which were not stored away and placed in safe keeping. For when those who are evil undergo vastation, that is, when they are being separated from truths and forms of good and are left with their own evils and falsities, those truths and forms of good that are present in the exterior natural - where they have become linked to falsities and evils - are what are laid waste. These truths and forms of good look downwards and cannot for that reason be safely stored away, as will be seen below in 7604, 7607. But the truths and forms of good of the interior natural are not laid waste but are taken to an even more interior position, where they are held in safe keeping for [future] use. Communication between the interior natural and the exterior is then closed to such an extent that no good or truth at all can pass from there into the exterior natural, apart from just a general kind of communication of them which enables those people to engage in reasoning and put together arguments to lend support to falsities and evils. Those forms of good and truths that are placed in safe keeping are meant in the Word by 'the remnant', dealt with in 468, 530, 560, 561, 576, 661, 798, 1738, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5342, 5344, 5897-5899, 6156, 7556. These then are the things which the two present verses deal with and which are meant by 'the flax and the barley were struck; for the barley was a ripening ear, and the flax a stem', and by 'the wheat and the spelt were not struck because they were hidden'.

[3] The meaning of 'flax' or 'linen' as truth has its origin in representatives in heaven. In heaven those who are guided by the truth of the natural are seen clothed in white, like the whiteness of linen. The actual truth of the natural is also represented there as fabric made from the finer kind of flaxen threads. These threads have the appearance of silken ones, and clothing made from them has a similar appearance - brilliant, wonderfully translucent, and soft - if the truth represented in that way is rooted in good. But on the other hand those threads which look flaxen do not have a translucent, brilliant, or soft appearance, but a hard and brittle appearance, though they are still white, if the truth that is represented in that way is not rooted in good.

[4] From all this one may now recognize what is meant when it says that the angels whom people saw appeared in garments of flax or linen, such as those referred to in John,

Out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues, clothed in linen, white and splendid, and girded around their breasts with golden girdles. Revelation 15:6.

In Daniel,

I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a man clothed in linen whose loins were girded with gold of Uphaz. Daniel 10:5.

In Ezekiel,

Behold, six men coming from the direction of the upper gate, each with a weapon of dispersion in his hand. But one man in the midst of them was clothed in linen and had a writer's inkhorn at his side. ¹ Ezekiel 9:2.

More is said about this angel [clothed in linen] in verses 3 and 4 of the same chapter and in Chapter 10:2-7. The same prophet also says, in reference to the angel who measured the new temple, that he had a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand, Ezekiel 40:ff. Also, the angels who were seen in the Lord's tomb appeared clothed in white, splendid and flashing like lightning, Matthew 28:3; Mark 16:5; Luke 14:4; John 20:11-12.

[5] Since 'linen' or 'flax' meant the truth of the exterior natural, and the exterior natural is what clothes things more internal, that truth is what was represented by the linen garments with which angels were seen to be clothed. It is also meant by the linen garments worn by Aaron whenever he ministered in the Holy Place, spoken of in Moses as follows, When Aaron comes into the Holy Place, he shall put on the holy linen tunic, and gird himself with a linen sash, and place the linen turban on himself. These are holy garments. Leviticus 16:3-4.

Similarly in Ezekiel,

The priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, when they enter the gates of the inner court they shall put on the linen garments, and no wool shall come upon them. When they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within, the linen turbans shall be on their heads, the linen under garments shall be over their loins. Ezekiel 44:17-18.

This is referring to the new temple and the New Jerusalem, which mean the Lord's kingdom. For the same reason also the priests wore linen ephods, 1 Samuel 22:18; when the boy Samuel ministered before the Lord he wore a linen ephod, 1 Samuel 1:18; and David too wore a linen ephod when the ark was brought into his city, 2 Samuel 6:14.

[6] From all this one can also see why the Lord girded Himself with a linen towel when He washed the disciples' feet, and wiped their feet with the linen towel with which He was girded, John 13:4-5. Washing of the feet was a sign of purification from sins, which is accomplished by the truths of faith, since these teach a person how he ought to live.

[7] 'Linen' means truth in the following places too: In Jeremiah,

Jehovah said to the prophet, Go, buy yourself a linen girdle, and place it over your loins; but you are not to pass it through water. Take the girdle, and arise, go away to the Euphrates, and hide it in the cleft of a rock. At the end of many days, when he took the girdle from where he had hidden it, behold, the girdle was spoiled; it was profitable for nothing. Jeremiah 13:1-7.

'The linen girdle over the loins' represented truth arising from good, as it is in the beginning when the Church is established by the Lord, and as it becomes subsequently, when around the end it is has become spoiled and profitable for nothing. In Isaiah,

Those that make linen out of silk threads, and the weavers of curtains, will blush. Isaiah 19:9.

This refers to Egypt. 'Making linen out of silk threads' stands for counterfeiting truths.

[8] In Moses,

You shall not plough with an ox and an ass together. You shall not put on a mingled garment made of wool and linen together. Deuteronomy 22:10-11.

'Ox' means the good of the natural, 'ass' its truth; and much the same is meant by 'wool and linen'. Their being forbidden to plough with an ox and ass together or to put on a mingled garment made of wool and linen together meant that they were forbidden to be in two states at the same time, that is to say, in a state of good from which they looked to truth and at the same time in a state of truth from which they looked to good. These prohibitions embody much the same as those declared by the Lord in Matthew,

Let him who is on the roof of the house not go down to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his clothing. Matthew 24:17-18.

Regarding these prohibitions see 3652 (end). For those who look from good to truth are in the inner part of heaven, whereas those who look from truth to good are in the outer part. The latter look from the world towards heaven, the former from heaven towards the world. Consequently they are in a kind of inverse ratio to each other, and therefore if they were put together the one would destroy the other.

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