I’ll wash yours if you wash mine.
Thinking about last week and the verse John 13:34 and 35 where Jesus says “A new command I give you love one another as I have loved you. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”
We talked loving each other as Jesus loved us and how that was unheard of to love some one that does not love you to love someone that has rejected you time and time again to love some one with passionate sacrificial love.
What does a love like Jesus had look in our lives today?
1. John 13:1-20 Jesus Washes the Disciples feet.
A. It was the night before the death of Jesus and he and his disciples are gather and the meal was being served.
B. While they are all just sitting there Jesus get up from where he was sitting and takes off His outer probably cloak pours water into a small bowl and with the water begins to wash all of the disciples feet.
C. Foot washing was a thing that was common in that day when someone was a guest in your home that was a thing that was expected to be done to wash the dirt and the sand out from between the toes of the people who had been walking all day.
D. Not only was it a thing that was supposed to be done but it was supposed to be done by the servant who was the lowest among all of them. The on with the least seniority would get stuck with the foot washing.
E. Can you imagine what the disciples where thinking, they spent about 3 years just trying to figure out who Jesus was and now they have a pretty good idea the He is not only sent from God but that he is the Messiah that had been promised.
F. Now they see Jesus as He become something that is less that, who he is, something below His kingship. Playing the part as the lowest servant and cleaning dirt from between the toe of those were His servants.
G. He gets to Peter and Peter will have one part until Jesus says, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.
H. At the very end Jesus asks them a question “Do you understand what I have done for you?” Jesus says, “I am your Lord and Teacher and I have washed your feet you should also wash one another’s feet. He says I have given you the example that you should do as I have done to you. Now that you know things you will be blessed if you do them.”
The question for us is do we do it Jesus said that this is an example that we need to follow and do we? What does this kind of servant hood look like in our lives?
1. Matthew 25:35-40
A. This was just a few days before Jesus was going to be crucified and he was with his disciples and Jesus says, “When I was hungry you fed me and when I was thirsty you gave me something to drink, when I was a stranger you invited me in. I need clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me and I was in prison and you came to visit me.
B. Then the righteous will say “Lord when did we see you this way, we never saw you like this.” Then Jesus says what ever you for the least of one of these brother of mine, you did for me.
C. The list that Jesus gave could also have included when I was Lost you helped me find and way, when I was depressed you encouraged me, when I was worried you reassured me, when I was angry you helped me find peace of mind. The list could go on and on the question is, is this what we do for one another?
Isaiah 58:7
“Is it not to share food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer shelter-when you see the naked, to cloth him, and do not turn away from you own flesh and blood.”
As the body of Christ the Church we are flesh and blood if we are related or not we are an organism flesh and blood a body. We can’t turn away from our own flesh and blood; we can’t turn away from the needs of the body.
Where is the body in need we can’t ignore?
How can we wash someone’s feet?
We must supply and needs of our body.
2. Ephesians 5:1-2
Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly loved children and live a life of Love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice.
I like to watch people who imitations of people I like that that is pretty funny, I can’t do any imitations. Diane of Pastor Bakers wife
But the bible tells us to imitate the love that Jesus had for us the same sacrificial love that he had for us.
Are we imitating that love to our body the same sacrificial love that has I do not care if you do not know who I am or that you hate me I am going love you enough to give my self for you
Imitate His sacrificial love are we doing that?
We must imitate His love to one another.
3. Philippians 2:5-11
A. Again we see you attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.
B. Jesus even though He was God and possessed all of the power of His father in heaven Jesus emptied Himself of all of the Glory that He possessed to come to earth and become nothing before us, to become a servant, and become obedient even to the cross.
Have we emptied ourselves before one another?
We should be imitators of Christ.
Our attitudes should be the same of Christ Jesus.
Do we have the kind of love for one another that is willing to empty ourselves of all that we are so that we can imitate the love of Jesus and wash the feet of one another?
“Jesus was willing to play the role of household slave, whose task it was to wash the day’s grime from between the toes of a master’s guests, Jesus is the king who scepter is a towel and whose crown was a water basin”
Greg Ogden
Unfinished Business
As a church are we saying to one another “I’ll wash yours, if you wash mine?”
Jesus has set us an example of how we should live providing for the needs, loving as He loved and emptying our selves of all that we are.
