(Slide 1) A widely circulated story over the Internet is one that is told a couple of different ways but with the same kind of an ending. One way that I have heard it (and perhaps have told it) is that a rushing businessman knocks over a child’s fruit stand in his hurry to catch a train.
He stops after several steps and looks back at the situation and makes a decision to help the child pick up his scattered stock even if it means missing his train. As he finishes helping, the young child turns to him and asks him, ‘Mister, are you Jesus?’
As we prepare for Communion this morning, I want to ask you, ‘Who has been Jesus to you?’ Who has lived the faith and not just talked about it? How have they lived the faith?
Conversely, I ask, ‘How have you been Jesus to others?’ How are you currently showing the love and grace of God to your family, friends, fellow employees, and schoolmates?
Our text for this morning is John 13 verses 1 through 17 which is John’s account of the final Passover meal that Jesus would eat with the disciples before His arrest, so called trial, death, and, thankfully, His resurrection.
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He now showed the disciples the full extent of his love. It was time for supper, and the Devil had already enticed Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to carry out his plan to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he had around him.
When he came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, why are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now why I am doing it; someday you will.” “No,” Peter protested, “you will never wash my feet!”
Jesus replied, “But if I don’t wash you, you won’t belong to me.”
Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”
Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet to be entirely clean. And you are clean, but that isn’t true of everyone here.” For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because it is true. And since I, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. How true it is that a servant is not greater than the master. Nor are messengers more important than the one who sends them. You know these things—now do them! That is the path of blessing.
I suggest this morning that those who were and are Jesus to each of us were so because they served us meaningfully in some way. Some served us as teachers, both in the church and in the schools we attended. Others have served us during times of crisis. Their caring and love kept us going.
Servanthood is word that is often used in conjunction with the Christian faith. It is an important word for us to have not just in our vocabulary but also our actions.
Our text for this morning is the context setting for chapters 14 through 17 that God has used down through the centuries to teach us about what it truly means to follow Jesus and what is required of us in a very tangible way. I would suggest that this segment of John is a preamble to understanding the Great Commission of going and making ‘disciples of all nations,’ because it lays out the dual links of love and obedience as key foundational attitudes and actions for helping others come to faith in Christ and then walking with Him.
Serving, as Jesus first demonstrates then speaks of, is on the front end of everything else that follows in this part of John and is therefore a very important way to do our part, individually and congregationally, in practicing the Great Commission.
But, serving others is a challenge. How many wives and mothers present this morning wishes their family would salute their dedication to cook as the families do in the Tyson Chicken commercials? In fact, we are going to practice that right now. Kids and dads, stand up and repeat after me these words, (Slide 2) Thanks mom/dear, for your wonderful cooking… it is appreciated!
(Maybe we should do this more often! Maybe it would help us to worship better! By the way, I have been trying to figure out ways to get the kinetic learners involved.)
If you have ever worked retail, you know what it is like to serve others that you wish you could tell, ‘please leave this store and take your ugly attitude with you!’ Serving others is not easy at times but when we serve others, in Jesus’ name, there are times when we gain peace and joy.
Here are some things to notice in our text for this morning:
(Slide 3) Jesus’ actions turn human assumptions about leaders and followers upside down…
Leaders don’t do such things as wash the feet of others. If anybody’s feet should get washed, it should be the leader’s feet, right? (At least, according to some people…)
Remember that the streets and roads of that day would be familiar to those of us here who worked or lived on a farm. City folks would have had a hard time walking down those streets!
A house servant or a slave would have done such a chore, not the dinner host or head of the house!
Jesus is demonstrating the value of servant hood in this menial act. ‘Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because it is true. And since I, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.’
It is not about who will be in charge or number 1. It is about humbling one self and serving no matter how menial the service is.
I think that Peter could not handle this act of humble service by Jesus. I think that he felt that it demeaned Jesus’ role as a teacher and leader who did not do such things as wash feet. But what did Jesus say? ‘For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”
If we are serious about demonstrating a credible faith in our homes, places of work, neighborhoods, school, and communities, we need to focus on simple acts of service as one way of sharing Jesus with others.
Leadership is really servant hood at its very best. How are you doing these days in your servant hood? How are we serving these days with our servant hood?
(Slide 4) Jesus’ action demonstrates a different kind of power
Think with me again about those that have been Jesus to you over the years. What did they do with the power they had? (And we all have power it is how we use it that matters.)
Their power was turned to making a difference as a Christian and not trying to make themselves look good. One of the people that was Jesus to me more than I have realized until recently was a key lay leader in the church I was saved in. He had a Ph.D in Physics but was a student of the Bible.
I remember many Wednesday nights sitting in prayer meeting and Bible Study and listening to Dr. Greene teach the Bible. He was a person with a great deal of intellectual and scientific power. But he used that power to serve the Lord and our church through his teaching ministry of many years. He did so humbly and in a very low-key way.
To the disciples who, as we read in the Gospel accounts, argued about who would be the greatest and who would sit at Jesus’ right hand, Jesus’ action showed a different use of power than what the twelve had experienced in his life.
How are you using the power you have been given by the Holy Spirit? How are we using the power we have been given by the Holy Spirit?
Much is being written today about the widening gap between the church in America and young adults who, as the title of one book says, ‘like Jesus but not the church.’ I think that one of the reasons this is true is that we have not learned how to use our power as Jesus would.
Much is also being written about how the church is not as influential as it once was. Again, I think it is how we have misused power.
This is where I think some well place repentance, and even some amends, needs to be done. We need to repent for our unholy self-righteousness and our failure to serve, instead of demanding to be served.
If then we take seriously what Jesus is doing in John 13, we need to learn how to serve as Jesus did. It does not mean we compromise Biblical truth and say, (in so many words) ‘what’s done in Vegas stays in Vegas.’
What it means is that we need to learn how to respect those who do not share our views and when the opportunity is right serve them. (Easier said than done.)
I believe that a church and a follower of Jesus who serves humbly and cares deeply for people will earn the right to be heard over the course of time. Service creates such an opening in ways that preaching and worship and teaching does not.
This morning as we prepare for communion, let us seek the Lord and confess what we need to confess and ask for His forgiveness and His help so that we are willing feet washers and that someone, who needs Jesus, will see Jesus in us by our service to them or someone else. Amen.
