Discipled- Serving Like Jesus
CCCAG 2-25-2024
Scripture- John 13:3-17
Introduction:
How many people watched the Superbowl this year?
How many people saw the ad of people washing the feet of others, and it ends with the statement, “He (meaning Jesus) gets us”
Looks very Christian, but on closer inspection it was sending a very specific message.
I remember watching the video live, and not feeling good about it. Since I’m not a guy that bases opinions on feelings, I went to their website and watched the ads again several times, and then examined the pictures in the ads closely.
Most people didn’t notice that someone was washing the feet of someone outside an abortion clinic.
Some people didn’t notice someone washing the feet of a person representing an illegal immigrant
There were also a straight person washing the feet of a gay person.
A person washing the feet of a drug addict
A person washing the feet of a violent protestor.
Again looks Christian, but really what they were saying is, and if you look at their website it would also say-
Jesus gets you and why you do the things you do, and loves you anyway.
True or not?
True, but that true has a condition to it as well- a very important condition- that HE loves you enough to not keep you in that sin, but to lift you out of it and save you.
That’s the central premise of the most important verse in the bible-
Reading from the CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Joh 3:16-17 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Jesus indeed gets us, but He really wants to get us out of sin because the consequence of unrepentant sin is eternal damnation.
I wanted to address this ad today because it has a lot to do with what we will be talking about this morning.
In John 13, we have the biblical reference of Jesus being a servant to his disciples by washing their feet.
The background to this is they have just completed the last supper. Jesus has given them the observance of what we today call Holy Communion. He is about to lead the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane to begin what will be known as HIS passion- the beginning of his journey to the cross and HIM dying for our sins.
Even though Jesus does a great amount of teaching on the way to the garden, as HIS last act to HIS closest followers, HE shows them a picture of what HE is about to become for them:
So that is the background, let’s read the scripture, and again reading from the CSB-
Joh 13:3-15 Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. (4) So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. (5) Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him. (6) He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” (7) Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.”
(8) “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.” (9) Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
(10) “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.” (11) For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” (12) When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? (13) You call me Teacher and Lord?—?and you are speaking rightly, since that is what I am. (14) So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. (15) For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.
Prayer- teach us to serve like Jesus
To properly understand these passages, bear with me for a moment and Allow me to give a quick history lesson regarding the times and culture that Jesus was speaking to here in the Gospel of John
The first one is-
I. The Time they lived in
The entirety of the New Testament was written in the 1st Century, and with the exception of Revelation, dealt mostly with the nations and cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
This is a world dominated and controlled by the Roman Empire.
Most notably for us this morning-
Slavery was allowed in the Roman Empire, but there were some limited legal rules protections regarding slaves and how they could be treated, although not well enforced- it was more socially regulated than anything- a well kept slave spoke well of you so you wanted your slaves to be happy in their service to you.
Jewish culture and religious law also permitted slavery- and it was prescribed in the Old Testament. This is a huge sticking point for a lot of people that don’t understand the entirety of the bible and they will point to this as God condoning slavery. What they don’t understand is that the slavery prescribed in the bible for the Hebrew people was much different than was is practiced elsewhere.
Slavery in the Old Testament in Ancient Israel was their social welfare safety net. If a person fell on very hard times, lost their property, business, and was about to become homeless and destitute, that person could sell themselves into slavery for not more than 7 years. The master of the house would pay them a small stipend as well as provide for their needs, while withholding part of what their fair wage would be for the labor they had done. At the end of the 7 years, when they would be freed with a lump sum payment earned over the last 7 years to help them purchase land, or a business to re-establish themselves.
This was not so much slavery as indentured servitude. It’s important to understand that when people say that the bible condones and prescribes slavery. That’s incorrect.
Saying that, there were slaves in most wealthy person’s homes.
The second part about this culture is most footwear was sandal based. Open toed shoes, and most roads were pressed dirt. In the cities, you shared these roads with various animals that pretty much would use the road to relieve themselves as they walked. Couple that with people throwing the contents of their chamber pots out the windows and you can see what people were walking through to get anywhere.
Imagine the smells in a city? It’s no wonder diseases killed more people than any wars.
So, keep those two things in mind as we go back to the incident with Jesus washing feet.
You were having a dinner party. The invited guests would stop either right outside the house, or in a porch area and the lowest ranking slave in the house would remove your sandals and wash the junk off of your feet so you didn’t track all of that in the house.
Also, remember they often reclined at the dinner tables, so the feet wouldn’t be hidden under a table but stuck out for everyone to see, and no one wanted to see that.
I had to tell you all of that so you could see the symbolism described here in the Gospel of John-
Jesus is taking the role of the lowest slave in a household. He is washing the grossness off of his disciples feet.
It’s a foreshadowing of how Jesus is going to spend the last 12 hrs or so hours of His life.
It’s the time of HIS passion- his arrest, beating, scourging, and crucifixion. All of that to wash the grossness of sin off of anyone who would believe in HIM.
This is where that Superbowl ad fell short.
It used this example from John’s Gospel as a prescription for all of humanity regardless of their willingness to repent.
I don’t know if the creators of this ad realized this, but they actually did more damage then good.
They actually reinforced satan’s lie to Jesus. Remember the temptation of Jesus? The 3rd temptation of Jesus- satan told Jesus I will give you all the kingdoms of this world, if you will bow down and worship me.
In other words, satan told Jesus- I’ll give you what you came here for- all the world, and all of these meat sacks you call humans. NO cross required- you just need to bow down and worship me instead.
For you and I, satan would simply say- keep your sin, enjoy. Just worship me instead.
Think about the subtle nature of this lie.
It would be like finding meth addict who is selling their body to support their drug habit, and wash their feet and send them on their way-
Did you do them any good? You might feel good about yourself, but all you have done is give them a clean set of feet to walk into hell with.
That’s the where that Superbowl ad left people who are ignorant of what the bible says about their sin.
Let’s look at two of the reactions to Jesus washing his disciple’s feet-
II. Peter- the proud religious person
Peter objects to Jesus washing HIS feet. On the surface, it looks like Peter is not wanting Jesus to wash his feet because he doesn’t want his LORD to humble Himself in that way.
But what I think Peter was objecting to is needing Jesus to wash him. He didn’t want to appear weak in front of the other people in the room, so he told Jesus, “Nah, I’m good. You’ll never need to wash me Jesus. I’m your most loyal follower and I got this whole Kingdom thing down. If you wash me, then I’m like the rest of the people here and not the leader.”
Peter didn’t understand that beneath his bravado and self-righteousness was a man desperately in need of a spiritual heart transplant. This blind spot he had regarding his own soul became manifest a few hours later, when he denied even knowing Jesus, and in Luke’s Gospel, it records that Peter denied Jesus to his face.
But that is what pride does- blocks you from seeing yourself for who you really are.
And there is no greater pride, or greater self-deception that those who exhibit religious pride.
Religious pride is one of the most powerful tools of the enemy.
How powerful?
19 men, filled with religious pride and armed only with box cutters costing under $10 a piece caused the deaths of over 3000 people on Sept 11th 2001.
And we, as a nation and most importantly a church totally missed the message that God was sending us.
Senator Tom Daschle stood in the capital steps a few days later and quoted from Isaiah 9:10 “The Bricks have fallen down, but will will rebuild them with dressed stone. The fig trees have fallen, but we will replace them with cedars.”
I guess his speech write forget to include the predicate to that verse-
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart: The Bricks have fallen down, but will will rebuild them with dressed stone. The fig trees have fallen, but we will replace them with cedars
I’m not saying we shouldn’t have gone after the terrorists- of course we need to vigorously defend ourselves and bring those who planned and orchestrated this attack to justice.
But we went way beyond that, and as a result of our pride- plainly spoke by our political leaders, We spent almost 10 Trillion dollars, and the Global War on Terror killed over 900,000 people.
And now look what our country has become. 19 men, filled with their religious pride and armed only with box cutters may have irreparably damaged the greatest nation this world has ever known.
This is why Jesus’ reaction to Peter’s religious pride is so strong- “If I don’t wash you, you will have no part in me.”
The second reaction is that of Judas-
III. Judas
I can’t imagine what was going through the heart and mind of Jesus as He came to Judas. This is a man who had followed HIM for 3 years. He had, along with the other disciples, gone on missionary journeys to heal the sick, cast out demons, and spread the good new of the Gospel.
There was no evidence that the disciples ever suspected Judas of being anything other than a loyal follower. In fact, he was among the most trusted as he carried the money purse for their ministry.
Now Jesus is on his knees before the man who while shortly leave the gathering, and will go find the chief priests and lead a party to arrest Jesus, which will lead to His eventual crucifixion.
Jesus begins to wash the feet that will carry Judas back to him, to betray him with a kiss.
And now, Judas’ name will be synonymous with the word traitor or betrayal.
The bible doesn’t say if Jesus wept during this time, but I have to imagine his heart was breaking as his hands rubbed the dirt and grime from Judas’ feet.
It would be the last time Jesus would see him as a friend. After Judas betrays him, the next time Jesus will see him will be as his judge, and he will condemn him to the lake of fire for all eternity.
Of that time, Jesus himself said, “He will wish he had never been born.”
Within the church, betrayal and backsliding are the hardest things about being a member of a church family.
Watching a person be set free from the sin that was destroying them, seeing them experience of the joy of salvation, then only to watch them eventually turn around and go back to it is heartbreaking.
That’s why these passages in the bible are so powerful to us.
But we have to remember- Jesus washed Judas’ feet. If Jesus can do that, then we can’t turn our backs on people because they fail to meet our expectations.
Or my favorite saying of last year- “Don’t judge others because they sin differently than you do.”
That’s the take away from today’s teaching.
Have the heart of Jesus
Serve like Jesus.
Even if they are prideful
Even if they betray you
Serve like Jesus.
Altar Call/prayer for meal.
