Washing of feet was a courtesy done to dinner guests by the lowliest servant in the house in Jesus’ time. Washing feet rinsed off the dust and other debris and refreshed the guest as well. You can imagine what streets filled with animals might contribute to your sandaled feet back in the day.

Once Jesus was a guest of a Pharisee named Simon. While there, a woman came in and washed Jesus’s feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Simon was shocked because he knew the woman was “a sinner.” But this was Jesus’ response:

“Simon, I have something to say to you.  A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?”  Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And He said to him, “You have judged rightly.”  Then turning toward the woman He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for my feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You gave Me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil, but she has anointed My feet with ointment.  Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Luke 7:41-47

So in this instance, washing Jesus’ feet was an act of contrition or repentance. It can certainly be that today, but there is another meaning in the act. It is an example Jesus used to illustrate the doctrine of servant leadership that He had preached to His disciples in Matthew 20:

“But Jesus called them to Him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28

And so Jesus demonstrates servant leadership with the washing of His disciples feet at the last supper.

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist. 

“Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.  He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”  Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”  Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with Me.” 

“Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”  Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you  are clean, but not every one of you.”  For He knew who was to betray Him; that was why He said, “Not all of you are clean.”

“When He had washed their feet and put on His outer garments and resumed His place, He said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?  You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.   If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.   Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.  John 13:3-17

Notice that Jesus washed all of their feet. Even Judas, His betrayer.