During the American Revolution a man in civilian clothes rode past a group of soldiers repairing a small defensive barrier. their leader was shouting instructions, but making no attempt to help them. Asked why by the rider, he retorted with great dignity, "Sir, I am a corporal!" The stranger apologized, dismounted, and proceeded to help the exhausted soldiers. The job done, he turned to the corporal and said, "Mr. Corporal, next time you have a job like this and not enough men to do it, go to your commander-in-chief, and I will come and help you again." It was none other than George Washington. (Today in the Word, March 6, 1991.)
Today’s conversation with Jesus is about more than words. You’ve seen the Bracelets that say WWJD? Well today we’re going to talk about WDJD? What DID Jesus do. Jesus example and His words in this passage give us a standard to live by.
Transition: .When Jesus stooped to wash His disciples’ feet he showed us several important truths about serving others. The first thing that caught my attention is in the first verse, Jesus shows...
The Priority of Serving
v. 1 It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
What would you do if you knew you would die a violent death in about 12 hours? Would you want to be alone in prayer? Record some final thoughts? Would you spend time with those you loved? What would you want to emphasize? Would you share recipes or gardening tips or would you focus on what’s important?
Jesus, the Bible says knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and so he took off his cloak put a towel around His waist and washed the dirty feet of His disciples. Who’s going to waste time on that when the end is so near? Jesus. Why? Because He wanted to show them how important it is to humbly serve one another.
Philippians 2:3-8 tells us that we should "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself..."
He humbled himself why? In order to demonstrate His love as verse 1 says He now showed them the full extent of His love. Jesus by His actions showed us that nothing indicates love more clearly than humble service to others.
And note with me that the Scripture notes both before and after the description of Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet that of all people Judas was there. Judas, having decided already that He would betray the Lord, was among them and received the humble demonstration of Christ’s love.
Lest we think that somehow our love and service to others should end at the chapel door, or that we have no responsibility to love and serve those who don’t reciprocate our efforts, Jesus washed the feet of Judas too.
ILLUSTRATION: Mother Teresa visited Phoenix in 1989 to open a home for the poor. During that brief visit, she was interviewed by KTAR, the largest radio station in town. In a private moment, the announcer asked Mother Teresa if there was anything he could do for her. He was expecting her to request a contribution or media attention to help to raise money for the new home for the needy in Phoenix. Instead, she replied, "Yes, there is. Find somebody nobody else loves, and love them."
Serving others, demonstrating our love in tangible ways is of first importance. Jesus considered it a priority. The second thing Jesus showed us by washing his disciples feet is His...
Confidence in His Identity
vv. 3-5 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
The Scripture says that not just in spite of but because He understood who He was, that Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.
It takes an understanding of our identity to be able to humble ourselves. The world tells us that we need to make ourselves look good in front of others, that we need to exalt ourselves, but Jesus said that "whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12)."
Like the corporal who couldn’t humble himself and was humbled by the commander in chief. If we don’t understand who we are in Jesus we will be unwilling to humble ourselves until the Lord Himself humbles us.
The late Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s hamburger chain was known for his humble service within the multi-billion dollar empire he founded. When asked what made him so successful; he replied, "my MBA." But he didn’t mean a graduate degree in business education, he meant "a mop- and-bucket attitude." In other words, no work task was too insignificant for him to tackle; he simply jumped in and got the job done.
Dave Thomas, was a high-school dropout, he was always ashamed of that and it would have been easy for him as he tasted success to demand every perk and privilege as a way of covering for his own inadequacies, but instead He lived by the creed of the Mop Bucket Attitude.
Jesus, was the Lord of the Universe. If anyone didn’t have to humble himself to wash the feet of farmers and fishermen, He didn’t. But because he knew he was Lord of the Universe, Because He knew He was not diminished by showing his love in humble service, he took up the towel and basin and stooped to serve.
The third thing Jesus showed us by washing feet is found in today’s conversation with Jesus, the exchange with Peter in which Jesus makes clear our...
Our Need to Be Served by Him
vv. 6-9 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"
Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."
Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."
"Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"
Peter demonstrates a little false humility here. I don’t think it’s true humility but embarassment that He hadn’t thought of it first that causes him to reject Jesus’ offer to serve Him. But when Jesus makes it clear that being served by Him is one of the conditions of having a relationship with Him then Peter has a change of heart.
I think there is clearly some symbolism here. Jesus is saying not just that Peter must let Him wash his feet but the reference is to the more thorough washing that Jesus will perform the next day when His blood is shed for Peter’s sin and for ours.
Just like Peter it is pride that often keeps us from letting Jesus cleanse us. We want to be self sufficient. It shames us that the Son of God should have had to die for our sins. We want so badly to be considered good people in our own right, by our own effort. But by our own effort we each are woefully dirty and unfit to enter God’s heavenly kingdom. Truly unless we let Him cleanse us, we have no part with Him.
ILLUSTRATION: A young woman asked for an appointment with her pastor to talk with him about a besetting sin about which she was worried. When she saw him, she said, "Pastor, I have become aware of a sin in my life which I cannot control. Every time I am at church I begin to look around at the other women, and I realize that I am the prettiest one in the whole congregation. None of the others can compare with my beauty. What can I do about this sin?" The pastor replied, "Mary, that’s not a sin, why that’s just a mistake!"
Unless we recognize the mistake of our pride--the mistake that says, "I’m good enough on my own" then we make no room for Jesus. Unless we confess our need, confess our sin and humbly ask his forgiveness, trusting that His death on the cross paid the price for our sins, we are doomed to an eternity without him.
Just a moment’s thought about that prospect should be enough to make us like Peter to drop the false humility routine, to say, "then Lord, please clean me, make me acceptable to you"
There’s one final thing that we can see in Jesus’ foot washing object lesson...
Our Need to be Servants
vv. 12-17 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me ’Teacher’ and ’Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Jesus says, If I your teacher, your Lord, your Master, found it necessary to serve you, then you should serve others. In fact, to serve is what it means to lead. We cannot call ourselves followers of Christ and be unwilling to serve in humble ways. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have individual gifts and places of service, sometimes very public ones, roles of leadership, but each of us should be willing to humble ourselves, to demonstrate our love for those we serve.
As I’ve been thinking about this message I was thinking of ways to drive the point home. I even asked others to help me brainstorm ideas. One suggested that I should arm the youth with towels and basins and send them out to wash feet. But the problem with that is first that the only thing anyone would remember was that we washed feet, and second that the youth are really not those in this group who need to demonstrate that humility. It might have been some better If we had washed the youth’s feet, but even then the foot washing looses it’s significance because, they don’t really need it done, they have running water and showers at their homes.
What I wanted was an illustration of a truly meaningful means of humble service from those in positions of prestige to those of more humble circumstance. And then it hit me that we had all witnessed exactly that at the holidays, when we drove on post and filling in for those privates and specialists and sergeants, checking ID’s and inspecting cars were majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels.
You see foot washing isn’t about foot washing, it’s about serving others at personal sacrifice, humbling ourselves when we don’t have to--because we don’t have to. It’s somebody watching my children on Tuesday night so that Kathleen and I can lead Evangelism Explosion teams and share the good news about Jesus. It’s people showing up early when they see there’s been snowfall so they can clear the sidewalks at the chapel. It’s listening to a neighbor who needs to talk when you don’t have time to listen. It’s giving ourselves when we don’t have to.
