You are not off.
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(Jesus) came to Simon Peter. “Lord,” Peter said to Him, “Are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus replied, “You don’t realize now what I am doing. But later you will understand.”
“No,” said Peter. “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you can’t share life with Me.”
“Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet! Wash my hands and my head too!”
Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs to wash only his feet. The rest of his body is clean. And you are clean. But not all of you are.” - John 13:6-10
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I’m not sure where it says Jesus kissed their feet, either.
Our preacher spoke on this on Maundy Thursday. The foot washing was usually done by the slave servants. It was also done sometimes as a sign of love and devotion. I always viewed it more as “service to others”, but it sounds like it was so much more than that - devotion. Which of course if you love others as God does, the reason why you are doing service is because you love them and God.
I can see where muslims might see the pope as weak and stupid in this. I suppose many gestures of Christian charity can be seen as weak and stupid.
We went to a church where lots of homeless came through and the pastor was very willing with the handouts. His thought was better to err on being taken than to turn away an angel. We finally did have to put a system in place of gift cards to local fast food places, bus passes, etc. Even created a multi-church list to weed out the chronic scammers that would go from church to church. (With over 12 churches nearby, one could get their gas bill paid every month if they did it right!)
One needs to be both loving and wise. (”But - if you buy this guy his special $140 Nike shoes for his “foot problem”, you can’t help two families buy food for a week!”)