John 13:1-15 [NLTse]
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to His Father. He had loved His disciples during His ministry on Earth, and now He loved them to the very end. 2 It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given Him authority over everything and that He had come from God and would return to God. 4 So He got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel He had around Him.
6 When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”
8 “No,” Peter protested, “You will never ever wash my feet!”
Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to Me.”
9 Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”
10 Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For Jesus knew who would betray Him. That is what He meant when He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 After washing their feet, He put on His robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? 13 You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.
The Book of Acts shows us the earliest days, months, and years of the Christian church. Fifty days following the Lord Jesus’ resurrections, 120 disciples gathered to pray together in an upper room. By the end of that first Christian Pentecost the Holy Spirit had called out 3,000 others to join them in living by our faith. And within several months the Holy Spirit had added more than 5,000 more!
If you’d open your Bibles or a pew Bible to Acts 6… We read, “But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.”
Here we see the Twelve – who were the elders of that large, growing congregation – continuing in our Savior’s pattern of service: And we read specifically of the ways they were caring for that first church’s many widows.
Notice with me the difference between the focus of the leaders and the focus of those others who made up the church: We see the Twelve concerned with serving those needy women, as well as, a little farther along, their desire to serve the many across Jerusalem who had not yet received the gospel; at the same time we see the widows and other members of the church complaining that they weren’t being served in the ways they wanted to be and thought they should be.
There may be many characteristics that set apart true Christian leaders from other Christians around Christ’s church, but one of those characteristics surely must be having a servant’s heart: Seeking to serve others rather than to be served; concerned about other’s welfare even at the expense of our own; no matter how demeaning or demanding that service might be.
In the spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I want to call us all to nurture in ourselves the Lord Jesus’ holy spirit of servitude in our lives.
Perhaps you’re a leader; maybe you’re not; but, whatever we are, we know, according to our faith, that the Lord lives in us and is calling us to follow Him, even in serving.
Maybe for different ones of us that means we’ll start cleaning our rooms without being asked or making sure we’re home when we say we’ll be. Or perhaps we’ll start getting our reports handed in on-time like our boss is always asking or begin changing our habits to get more work done and be spending less time chatting or around the water cooler.
Around here we could serve the Worship Hosts by cleaning out our pews when we leave, and serve our Sextons and one another by throwing away our trash and straightening up rooms as we’re leaving. Letting other cars cut in front of us when we see them signaling is another way to serve, as is staying off their tails as we follow them along…
And yet, truly serving others is a lot more than simply doing this or not doing that. It’s an attitude: Considering others as being more important than ourselves – other’s time more important than our time, other’s reputations as more important than our reputations, other’s property more important than what we want to do or what may be convenient for us at the time.
Serving is a mindset. It’s thinking, “I’ll do that so so-an-so won’t have to.” “I’ll suffer so the other person won’t need to.” Even disciplining our thinking towards: “What can I be doing to serve others and those in need, even in the midst of my busy schedule, today?”
We live in a day where airplane pilots are reportedly acting dangerously; and postal workers and students are threatening and taking out their rage on those around them; where racial fears and hatreds are being nurtured and allowed to blow following sad and heart-breaking deaths; where me-me-me is encouraged focus, and we’re told to do this and do that because we deserve it and because we’re worth it…
[Invite the Elders forward…]
You call me “Shepherd” and “Teacher” and you are right because that’s what I am. And since I, your shepherd and teacher have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s and other’s feet. Christ has given us an example to follow. Let us do as He has done to us.