I. Introduction
a. Any identity thieves?
i. Jon Mark Lipka
ii. Born XXXX
iii. Moved to xxxx
iv. Moved to xxxx.
v. Ordained deacon September 20, 2003, and priest June 2, 2007
vi. Married…oh, wait, not yet!
vii. That’s where I’ve come from.
b. Where I’m going, who knows?
i. Every time I think that I have a handle on the direction of my life, it seems that somebody
ii. You know, if Jesus is indeed “the Lover of my soul,” he certainly makes sure that I to His bosom fly, and frequently at that.
iii. Ultimately I am “looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10).
c. Well that’s where I come from and where I’m going.
i. What’s my place? Where do I belong? Somewhere in between.
ii. All of this, we see in tonight’s Gospel.
iii. And there’s a caution sign for us.
d. We can miss out on—or outright refuse—God’s grace due to our insecurity about our place in His kingdom.
i. Insecurity over where we’re from, where we’re going, when we get there, how we can accomplish it.
II. Jesus wasn’t insecure about His place in the Kingdom, and He accepted the entirety of the Father’s will.
a. “Jesus knew that the time had come for him to…go to the Father” (Jn. 13:1b).
i. Jesus knew what was His destination. The Father was Jesus’ goal.
ii. Jesus knew the time for His departure. The time was now come.
b. “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power…” (Jn. 13:3a).
i. Jesus knew His place and status with the Father (and all creation).
c. “…and that he had come from the God and was returning to God…” (Jn.13:3b).
i. Jesus knew what was His origin and destination.
d. “Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world…” (Jn. 13:1a).
i. The world was not Jesus’ destination.
ii. The world was the place where His work would be carried out.
iii. His work would take Him back to the Father.
iv. Jesus’ return to the Father reopened the path for us to God.
e. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love” (Jn. 13:1c).
i. Jesus didn’t merely stop in for a cup of tea.
ii. Jesus came out of love.
1. Jn. 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
2. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (Jn. 13:34).
f. Jesus didn’t allow His relationship with the Father to interfere with His service to others—a service of love—because He knew where He came from and where He was headed.
III. We, like Peter, sometimes aren’t so sure about our place in the Kingdom, about our relationship to God.
a. The eleven (including Judas) allowed Jesus to wash their feet silently.
i. Perhaps Jesus’ action left them speechless. Shame certainly would have been in order.
ii. Would I feel okay if President Obama came down to Hall Drive and fixed a pot hole simply because everyone else was too proud to get a little dirty?
b. Peter alone had the gumption to speak up, and to voice what they all felt. “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” (Jn. 13:6).
i. It wasn’t that he felt that his feet were too good for Jesus to wash.
ii. Peter saw a reversal, the Messiah misplaced. Peter couldn’t allow this indignity to continue.
iii. “No, you shall never wash my feet” (Jn. 13:8).
iv. Peter had had enough. If this is how Messiah acted, what then of His disciples?
1. If Jesus didn’t hesitate to perform the lowliest of tasks, what wouldn’t He do?
2. If the Teacher and Lord could stoop to do this humble—humiliating—duty, would Peter—I—have to do the same?
v. Peter was insecure about his own place in the Kingdom. Perhaps Peter was even insecure about Jesus’ place.
1. How could he be expected to carryout such lowly service?
2. What kind of Kingdom has its King to serve the servants?
c. Peter questioned the Master, and then, in response to the need for cleansing, overreacted.
i. Peter wrongly thought that he was entirely defiled. But Jesus declared that Peter was clean.
ii. Peter rightly felt unworthy before Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus said, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so for that is what I am” (Jn. 13:13).
iii. Peter didn’t understand that Jesus’ washing was enough—the water that Jesus had given them was “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn. 4:14).
d. Jesus asked the disciples, and He asks us tonight, “Do you understand what I have done for you?” (Jn. 13:12).
i. Am I willing to follow a Savior who stoops down and scrubs the soil and scum from my feet?
1. This Savior is the man of whom John the Baptist said, “The thongs of [his] sandals I am not worthy to untie” (Jn. 1:27).
2. Can I stomach a Lord who takes off His outer clothing and wrapped a towel around His waist, like a servant?
ii. Do you understand what Jesus has done for you?
1. Jesus “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” (Php. 2:7).
2. Unless Jesus humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to death, we would still be dirty, still need cleansing.
3. Unless Jesus had taken off His outer garments, symbolic of the laying aside of the privileges of His Divinity, the disciples’ feet would have remained dirty.
4. “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” Not only must we be cleansed, but in wiping the disciple’s feet with the towel, Jesus took up our dirt and grime.
a. Jesus took all of our dirt, all of our stain, all of our sin, and placed it on Himself. And we are made pure.
b. Jesus gave us Himself, poured out Himself, and we are made clean.
iii. “No servant is great than his master” (Jn. 13:16).
1. That which saved us, how can we refuse this from those for whom our Lord also died?
2. Are we secure enough to accept this?
3. If my Mom said to me, “Jon, somebody threw up in the bathroom before the service, please go and clean it up?” would I? Would you?
4. But that’s kind of like what we’re called to as Christians. (Explain that one to us Fr. Jon, you say?)
a. The world revels in its own pollution and uncleanness—like a dog returning to its own vomit (Prov. 26:11).
b. “They think it strange that you don’t plunge with them in to the same flood of dissipation” (1 Pe. 4:4).
c. Yes, we are called to show the world the mess. Yet not in condemnation.
d. See, the greater part is that we’re called to show the world what cleanliness looks like, what holiness looks like—to display godliness to those who may not know anything better than stale puke.
e. And that’s what Jesus did for me and for you.
IV. Conclusion
a. Is this too low of a calling?
b. Are we ready to accept it? Are we secure enough in our status as God’s children (cf. Jn. 13:33) that we will willingly accept humiliation?
c. Don’t miss out on God’s grace, don’t miss out on the lowly places in the Kingdom. Even the lowest seat in Heaven is greater than all the titles, power, wealth, honor, dignity, all the splendor that the world can bestow throughout all of time upon all men.
d. Remember where you’re from and where you’re going.
e. Back to Hebrews. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (Heb 11:13–16).
