LENT MIDWEEK 1 - 2004
“Do You Understand What I Have Done for You?”
Text: John 13:12
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.
Dear Christian Friends,
Today we enter the season of Lent. Historically it has been a time in the church year set aside for God’s people to prepare themselves to celebrate the suffering and death of our Savior, and to look forward to his resurrection. In this way, the season of Lent is much like the season of Advent. That too is a time of preparation - preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas.
One of the best ways to prepare for something is by asking questions. Perhaps you can think back to your school days when you would prepare for tests by asking questions with a classmate. Pastors prepare students for confirmation by asking them questions. Communicants are directed to a series of questions and answers in the front of the hymnal to help them prepare for Holy Communion. Questions are often used to prepare people.
This year during Lent, we will use a series of questions taken from the Passion History of our Lord Jesus to prepare ourselves for the celebration of his suffering, death, and resurrection. The first question is one that we heard in our reading today: “Do you understand what I have done for you?” And as we consider this question, let us remember that Jesus asks this question after he has shown us his love and after he has seen how we live.
1. Jesus asks this after showing us his love.
“Do you understand what I have done for you?” Jesus asked this question after washing the feet of his disciples in the upper room. Remember that St. John began that account with the words: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.” (John 13:1) And the way Jesus showed his love for his own was by willingly condescending to do a job that was usually done by a household slave. He got up from his spot at the table, took off his outer robe, wrapped a towel around himself, and, after pouring water into a basin, began washing the feet of his disciples. This was a remarkable act of humility, even if we only look at it from the point of view that Jesus was the acknowledged teacher and master of his disciples. And yet the depth of Jesus’ condescension becomes all the more remarkable when we consider that Jesus was not just any teacher, but the teacher sent from heaven. He is truly the Son of God. Again go back to the words with which John introduced this account. There he writes: “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God.” (13:3) No wonder then that Simon Peter was appalled and ashamed when Jesus came to wash his feet. He protested quite vehemently, “No, not my feet!”
And yet, the full extent of the Lord’s love for his own is not seen in this humble act of washing his disciples’ feet. For with this act of washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus was symbolizing another kind of cleansing, the kind he would use to wash them from their sins. That is clear from the way the Savior answered Simon Peter’s objection to having his feet washed, saying: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” (13:8) With those words, Jesus indicated that his disciples needed to be washed clean, not only of dirt from their feet, but from the sin and guilt that stained their souls.
This second kind of washing Jesus would also perform for his disciples, but it would require a far greater humiliation than that which was needed to stoop down to wash dirty, dusty feet. For, in order to wash the sin from the souls of his disciples, Jesus had to bleed and die on the altar of the cross as the sacrifice to atone for their sins. But Jesus, in love, humbled himself to carry out that work. As St. Paul says of Jesus in Philippians 2:6-8: “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 and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!” That is what Jesus wanted his disciples to understand about his act of washing their feet. What he had just done for their feet with water and a towel, he would soon do for their souls, with his blood on a cross.
Now Jesus also asks us, “Do you understand what I have done for you?” Unless we understand the deeper spiritual meaning of Jesus’ actions, we might be inclined to think that Jesus really didn’t do anything for us. But as we have seen, the Son of God who laid aside his clothes and grabbed a towel and a basin of water to wash his disciples’ feet is the same Son of God who left his throne in glory to live as one of us on earth. He laid aside the full use of the glory that was his as the God-man, took up a cross, and offered his blood to cleanse and purify us from every sin. Possessing a Spirit-worked faith in that sacrifice, we now stand blameless and pure before the all-seeing eye of a holy and just judge. Do we really understand that kind of condescending love?
Perhaps it would make a deeper impression on us if we had been there in that upper room that night and had watched the Savior stoop low to wash our dusty feet. We probably would have pulled our feet back and rebuked him with Peter, saying: “Never, Lord.” And yet the reality is that Jesus stooped much lower in his love for us. For us, he humbled himself to be nailed to a shameful tree and to be laid in a dark, cold grave. He did that to show his love for us, not when we were his good and loyal friends, but when we were his enemies. He did that when we were blinded by unbelief and wanted nothing to do with him. Yet, he loved us. Do we understand that love? When we do, we will never doubt God’s love when hardships enter our lives. We will have the confidence that we can do all things with his help and strength. We will never hesitate to take our cares and troubles to our Lord in prayer. How important it is to understand what our Savior has done for us! But our Savior asks, “Do you understand what I have done for you?” not only after he has shown us his love, but also after he has seen how we live.
2. Jesus asks this after seeing how we live.
If you listened carefully to the reading of the Passion History tonight, you heard how this whole incident with foot washing came about. As the disciples were sitting down to eat the Passover with Jesus, we were told that they disputed among themselves who was the greatest. What caused that argument is not really made clear. It could have had something to do with the seating order at the table, and they were quarreling over the best and most prestigious seats. Or, it could have had to do with the task of washing the feet. Since there was no slave to do it, and all realized that it needed to be done, the disciples may have argued over who should do the humble task. In any case, it was a petty argument about who was to be considered the greatest that moved Jesus to lay aside his outer clothes and pick up the towel and basin and begin washing his disciples’ feet. It was after seeing how his disciples lived that he asked them, “Do you understand what I have done for you?” If the disciples did not understand what Jesus had done, he now explained it for them clearly. He said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (13:15) He had seen the pride and selfishness in his disciples and set them an example to follow of humble and self-sacrificing service.
Now the Savior looks at our lives, and he asks, “Do you understand what I have done for you?” Do you understand the way I loved you and humbled myself for you? For, we are so often arrogant instead of humble, wanting to be served rather than being willing to serve. We often forget that true greatness in God’s sight comes from humble service, not from having others serve us.
So the Savior looks at how we live. He sees children who sit around wondering why their parents don’t do more things for them and don’t buy them more things instead of children who get up and help with chores and cleaning. And he asks, “Do you understand what I have done for you?”
Jesus sees moms and dads who are so interested in their own lives and their own goals that they have little or no time for the humble, unglamorous, but all-important job of being parents who love and train and discipline their children, and he asks, “Do you understand what I have done for you?”
Jesus looks at our lives and sees husbands who wish their wives would do more for them and wives who wish their husbands would do more for them and who quarrel about whose goals and ambitions are more important, and he asks, “Do you understand what I have done for you?”
Jesus sees congregation members who wonder why their church doesn’t do more for them but who are unwilling to offer themselves in service so that more can be done, and he asks, “Do you understand what I have done for you?”
Often our lives seem to indicate that we have no idea of how our Savior humbled himself to serve us with his life and death, and that’s why we need to go again and again to the upper room and see our Savior’s love for us - love that moved him not only to wash his disciples’ feet but moved him to carry a cross and endure its shame. There we find comfort for hearts that are broken by the knowledge of how petty and selfish and proud we can be, for there we see the forgiving love of our Savior in action. With that love in our hearts, we will find the strength to do as our Savior says and do to others as he has done for us. With his example before our eyes, we will look out not only for our own interests but also for the interests of others. With his example before our eyes, we will put others’ needs even ahead of our own.
Yes, questions are a good way to prepare. As we prepare to celebrate our Savior’s great suffering, we hear him ask, “Do you understand what I have done for you?” May our lives supply the answer as we show the same humble, helpful love for others that moved our Savior to suffer and die for us. Amen.
