After a minister had preached a searching sermon on pride, a woman who had heard the sermon waited upon him and told him that she was in much distress of mind, and that she would like to confess to a great sin. The minister asked her what the sin was.
She answered, “The sin of pride, for I sat for an hour before my mirror some days ago admiring my beauty.”
“Oh,” responded the minister, “that was not a sin of pride-that was a sin of imagination!” —C.E. Macartney
Our passage begins with a description of what was on Christ’s mind just before He washed the disciple’s feet. It says, “. . . when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world. . . .” While going to the cross was foremost in His mind he took the time to serve others. Our tendency is when we have troubles to dwell upon them. We become so preoccupied with them we forget there is a world full of problems and others need our help.
John 13:1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
Serving takes Our Minds Off Ourselves
Years ago, Dr. Karl Menninger of the Menninger Clinic was asked, “If someone felt a nervous breakdown coming on, what would you suggest that he do?”
“If you feel a nervous breakdown coming on, I would urge you to find somebody else with a problem—a serious one—and get involved with that individual, helping him solve his problem.” In helping him to solve his problem, then in reality your own problem is going to disappear. You’re no longer thinking internally. You’re no longer letting things gnaw at your stomach. You’re no longer getting disturbed about yourself because you’re not thinking about yourself.
You’re thinking about others. I don’t know what your objective in life might be, but there is something each one of us can do.
We must make up our minds by the grace of God that we are going to live for others.
Innsbruck—In 1964, Italy’s Eugenio Monti and Sergio Siorpaes were heavily favored in the two-man bobsled event. But as they awaited their second run, the lightly regarded British team of Tony Nash and Robin Dixon was in a state of despair. After a sensational first run, their sled had broken an axle bolt, and it seemed certain they would have to drop out.
Monti, his second run already completed, acted swiftly. He stripped the bolt from his own sled and offered it to Nash. In one of the greatest upsets in the history of the Olympics, the British team went on to win the gold medal, while the sportsmanlike Monti finished third.
Four years later, Monti drove both his two-and four-man sleds to Olympic victory.
—Bud Greenspan in Parade
Seoul—Sailing competitions were under way at Pusan on September 24, 1988, with winds raging at 35 knots and playing havoc with the boats. Two sailors of the Singapore team, Joseph Chan and Shaw Her, were thrown overboard when their boat capsized.
Canada’s Lawrence Lemieux was sailing alone nearby in a separate event when he saw the sailors in distress. He rescued Chan, who was exhausted from struggling against the strong currents in his weighted sailing jacket. By the time Lemieux finished helping the Singapore team, he had fallen well behind in his race.
Judges awarded Lemieux second place—the position he was in when he went to the sailors’ aid—and the International Olympic Committee gave him a special award for his gallantry.
“It’s the first rule of sailing to help people in distress,” said Lemieux, downplaying the incident.
—Bud Greenspan in Parade
Berlin—Jesse Owens seemed sure to win the long jump at the 1938 games. The year before he had jumped 26 feet, 8¼ inches—a record that would stand for 25 years. As he walked to the long-jump pit, however, Owens saw a tall, blue-eyed, blond German taking practice jumps in the 26-foot range. Owens felt nervous. He was acutely aware of the Nazis’ desire to prove “Aryan superiority,” especially over blacks.
On his first jump Owens inadvertently leaped from several inches beyond the takeoff board. Rattled, he fouled in his second attempt too. He was one foul away from being eliminated.
At this point, the tall German introduced himself as Luz Long. “You should be able to qualify with your eyes closed!’ he said to Owens, referring to his two jumps.
For the next few moments the black son of a sharecropper and the white model of Nazi manhood chatted. Then Long made a suggestion. Since the qualifying distance was only 23 feet, 5½ inches, why not make a mark several inches before the takeoff board and jump from there, just to play it safe? Owens did and qualified easily.
In the finals Owens set an Olympic record and earned the second of four golds. The first person to congratulate him was Luz Long—in full view of Adolf Hitler.
Owens never again saw Long who was killed in World War II. “You could melt down all the medals and cups I have,” Owens later wrote, “and they wouldn’t be a plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz Long.”
—David Wallechinsky in The Complete Book of the Olympics
John 13:2 And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him;
Serving Keeps Us Humble
A greater demonstration of what it means to be humble does not exist than the one given to us here.
John 13:3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;
John 13:4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.
Verse three tells us that He knew who He was! Yet he voluntarily took the place of a slave, washing the feet of His disciples. His action contrasts sharply with their self-seeking (cf. Matt. 20:20-24; Mark 9:33, 34; Luke 22:24-30) and pictures His whole ministry on earth (cf. Phil. 2:5-8).
Luke 22:24, “And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.”
Proverbs 13:10 “Only by pride cometh contention. . . .”
He “laid aside His garments!” He set aside His authority, His majesty, and His dominion that were His to exercise over all creation, to be a servant. What an example! Is He asking too much when he asks us to serve.
Abraham Lincoln was walking down the street with his two sons, who were crying and fighting. “What’s the matter with the boys?” a friend asked.
The same thing that’s wrong with the whole world,” Lincoln replied, “I have three walnuts and each of the boys wants two!”
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” (Phil 2:3)
“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” (Phil 2:4)
Maybe our problem is that our egos have been inflated by the position that we hold that we have become not servants but members of a serve-me-please pharisaical class of clergy.
∙ Could it be that the man of God and the church do not receive a place of respect in the community because God resists our arrogance? (James 4:6)
∙ Christ laid aside his outer garment
Consequently he arose from His reclining position at the table and took off His outer garment. Which was probably a valuable coat which may have been a love gift from a grateful donor. We also notice that when Christ during His ministry went into a strange synagogue He was greeted as a rabbi and welcomed in that assembly. A rabbi was normally designated by the color of the tassels or ribbons sewn onto his robe. It may be that Christ wore the robe of a rabbi. Such a robe would have entitled Him to respect and honor. In Israel only the priest was held in higher esteem than the rabbi. All that the Jews knew of the Old Testament was taught by the rabbis.
∙ Christ picked up a towel
It was such a garment as this that Christ laid aside in order to wrap a towel around His waist. A towel was the sign of a servant. A servant had no position and no honor.
The Greek word for “the towel,” with which our Lord girded Himself, occurs also in Rabbinic writings, to denote the towel used in washing and at baths (Luntith and Aluntith). Such girding was the common mark of a slave, by whom the service of footwashing was ordinarily performed. And, in a very interesting passage, the Midrash contrasts what, in this respect, is the way of man with what God had done for Israel. For, He had been described by the prophet as performing for them the service of washing, and others usually rendered by slaves.
∙ How fitting that Christ should have laid aside the robe of honor and put Himself in a Servant’s place!
“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
He now took a Servant’s place and did a Servant’s work. This was “the full extent of his love” (John 13:1). He loved them enough to become their Servant and to minister to them.
A rider on horseback, many years ago, came across a squad of soldiers who were trying to move a heavy piece of timber. A corporal stood by, giving lordly orders to “heave.” but the piece of timber was a trifle too heavy for the squad.
“Why don’t you help them?” asked the quiet man on the horse, addressing the important corporal.
“Me? Why, I’m a corporal, sir!” Dismounting, the stranger carefully took his place with the soldiers.
“Now, all together, boys—heave!” he said. And the big piece of timber slid into place. The stranger mounted his horse and addressed the corporal.
“The next time you have a piece of timber for your men to handle, corporal, send for the commander-in-chief.”
The horseman was George Washington.
John Brodie, former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, was once asked why a million-dollar player like him should have to hold the ball for field goals and points after touchdown. “Well,” said Brodie, “if I didn’t, it would fall over.”
John 13:5 After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
We are to serve regardless of the attitude of those we serve
Verses 6-8
John 13:6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
John 13:7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
John 13:8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Jesus is making His way around the room and He comes to Peter and Peter says, “Thou shalt never wash my feet. . . .” People are often misunderstood when they are seeking to serve.
Peter often spoke before thinking. His mouth was in overdrive before his brain had shifted out of first gear. But, he finally caught on, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”
No one who came for the express purpose of serving was more misunderstood than the Lord Jesus Christ. He cast out devils and they accused Him of being in league with Satan.
He told them about His crucifixion and they accused Him of wanting to tear down the Temple. He loved them with unbridled passion and they put Him to death with an unholy passion. Yet even in His death His concern was for others like the believing thief, His mother and a world who needed forgiveness.
Many have lost their desire to serve because in serving they suffered reversals in their ministry. You must be careful not to let those who have withstood your best efforts to be a servant cause you to give up and lose your servant’s heart. You and I have never faced the kind of obstacles in serving that some of the great pioneer missionaries faced.
In 1839, John Williams, dubbed “The Apostle of the South Seas” and a missionary named Harris, sailed to the New Hebrides isles and were clubbed to death by savages after a period of service for Christ.
Eighteen years later, G.N. Gordon and his wife took up the work on these islands and were killed in 1861.
Mr. Gordon’s brother went to the same place and was killed in 1872.
A couple of missionaries named Turner and Nisbet later disembarked on the island of Tanna, stayed seven months then fled for their lives by night in an open boat.
John G. Paton also heard the call of God to the New Hebrides. When he confided to a friend these plans he was warned: “You will be eaten by cannibals!”
Paton replied, “Mr. Dickson, you are old . . . soon you will be put into the grave and eaten by worms. But if I can live and die serving the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn’t make any difference to me whether I’m eaten by cannibals or worms.”
So Paton shoved off on his dangerous but God-appointed mission.
A British vessel landed Mr. and Mrs. Paton on the island under armed guard and stood by while the crew built the missionaries a house in which to dwell. Then they sailed away, convinced that they would never see the courageous couple again.
Within a short time Mrs. Paton died of tropical disease that was swift an deadly. Her husband buried her, and so low were the standards of the natives that they demanded her body for their feast. John Paton had to lie upon her grave, musket in hand, ten days and nights, aided only by his dog. This was the only way he could preserve his wife’s body.
He went on to learn the language, translated the Bible into their native tongue, and won for Christ many brute savages and held his first communion service in 1869 with 12 Christian natives partaking.
“I shall never taste a deeper bliss,” he said, “until I gaze in the glorified face of Jesus Himself!”
Paton lived to see 16,000 South Sea islanders sing of God’s love. And on the plains where savages once killed and ate each other, now stand churches, schools and printing presses. A Commission of the British Government visited the Islands and published an official document of congratulation, saying that the “cannibals” of the New Hebrides had now become the most advanced and cultured of all the native tribes who lived under the British flag.
One particular time Paton incurred the wrath of three witch doctors who declared they would see him dead before next Sunday by the power of their sorcery. The story goes that to carry out their task they had to get hold of something that Paton had partially eaten. Paton publicly obliged the witch doctors by taking a bite out of three pieces of fruit and giving one to each of them. To the amazement of the natives, the next Sunday Paton strolled into the village heathy and spry as ever. Their incantations had failed. The only explanation the witch doctors had was that he was a “holy man” like they were but that his God was stronger than theirs. I t is said that from then on Paton was able to win more natives to Christ than ever before. He was misunderstood but God stood by him and blessed his efforts.
John 13:9 Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
John 13:10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
We Are to Serve Even When Despised by Those We Serve
John 13:11 For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.
Imagine washing the feet of the one who was conspiring to take your life away. Judas despised Jesus. His one desire was to see Jesus put to death.
Jesus never shows any indication that He gave up on Judas. It appears that He made every effort to win Judas over till the very end. Yet Judas would have none of it.
We are often tempted to serve only when we are appreciated. Many pastors flee from one church to the next, seeking for appreciation. The minute one member or more gets upset they are off and running with the excuse, “I guess my ministry is through here.” Often the minister is through—not the ministry, because he has lost his servants heart and expects instead to be catered to. Isaiah 53 makes it clear that the greatest servant of all was not well received.
Isaiah 53:3 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
To despise someone is to look down on them as worthless and contemptible. If that is the way they viewed the Lord, how do you suppose they will view your ministry? We must not expect to be understood, appreciated and generally well though of by everyone.
John 13:12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
John 13:13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
John 13:14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
Serving is our Duty
“do as I have done to you” (13).
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
The time was the 19th of May, 1780. The place was Hartford, Connecticut. The day has gone down in New England history as a terrible foretaste of Judgment Day. For at noon the skies turned from blue to gray and by mid-afternoon had blackened over so densely that, in that religious age, men fell on their knees and begged a final blessing before the end came. The Connecticut House of Representatives was in session. And as some men fell down and others clamored for an immediate adjournment, the Speaker of the House, one Colonel Davenport, came to his feet. He silenced them and said these words: “The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish, therefore, that candles may be brought.”
Winning the New Civil War, Robert P. Dugan, Jr., p. 183
Arabian horses go through rigorous training in the deserts of the Middle East. The trainers require absolute obedience from the horses, and test them to see if they are completely trained. The final test is almost beyond the endurance of any living thing. The trainers force the horses to do without water for many days. Then he turns them loose and of course they start running toward the water, but just as they get to the edge, ready to plunge in and drink, the trainer blows his whistle. The horses who have been completely trained and who have learned perfect obedience, stop. They turn around and come pacing back to the trainer. They stand there quivering, wanting water, but they wait in perfect obedience. When the trainer is sure that he has their obedience he gives them a signal to go back to drink.
Now this may be severe but when you are on the trackless desert of Arabia and your life is entrusted to a horse, you had better have a trained obedient horse. We must accept God’s training and obey Him.
A friend often told me about the problems he had getting his son to clean his room. The son would always agree to tidy up, but then wouldn’t follow through. After high school the young man joined the Marine Corps. When he came home for leave after basic training, his father asked him what he had learned in the service.
“Dad,” he said. “I learned what ‘now’ means.”
Contributed by Jan King, Humor in Uniform, Readers Digest, May, 1996, p. 174.
When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished.
As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line.
“Excuse me,” Governor Herter said, “do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?”
“Sorry,” the woman told him. “I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.”
“But I’m starved,” the governor said.
“Sorry,” the woman said again. “Only one to a customer.”
Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around. “Do you know who I am?” he said. “I am the governor of this state.”
“Do you know who I am?” the woman said. “I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister.”
Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, pp. 5-6
Serving Makes us Christ-Like
“If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John:13:14).
John 13:15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
On a wall near the main entrance to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, is a portrait with the following inscription:
“James Butler Bonham—no picture of him exists. This portrait is of his nephew, Major James Bonham, deceased, who greatly resembled his uncle. It is placed here by the family that people may know the appearance of the man who died for freedom.”
No literal portrait of Jesus exists either. But the likeness of the Son who makes us free can be seen in the lives of His true followers. —Bill Morgan
