We are continuing our journey towards Easter with our next statement that Jesus said that changed the world.
Last week we heard how when Jesus said, come follow me, it started off a chain reaction which would eventually lead to their being 1 and a half billion followers of Jesus all around the word.
The challenge was given for us all to be a part of that, to hear those words follow me, and to follow him, and be a part of that movement.
This morning we are going to look at some words of Jesus which have had a huge impact on the world.
If you have your bibles please turn with me to the passage we have had read to us, John 13. As we are turning there do you realize that from here on in, in Johns gospel, from chapter 13 on, we are only about 12 hours or so till Jesus death and resurrection? There are 21 chapters in John, and 7 of them deal with that last day of Jesus life on earth. The 8th deals with His resurrection. 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 footy tips or would you focus on what’s important?
Jesus has the advantage that many people don’t have in that He knows he is about to leave these disciples. These men he has spent the last three years with, the men who when He said follow me, three years before, jumped up, left their nets and followed Him. He knows and understands that everything He says and does from here on in is really important.
This story takes place on the night before Jesus’ betrayal and crucifixion. It is an intense time in Jesus’ life. He is no longer concerned with the big crowds, now He wants to give His disciples his full attention. Because they are the ones who are going to keep this thing going once He has gone.
I want you to imagine with me for a moment that you are sitting on the sidelines of a construction site. I want you to imagine that 12 construction workers, who have been working all day, shoveling mud, making cement, kicking around in the dust and sand come over to you, take off their stinking work boots, and ask you to clean their feet, by hand, with a wash cloth and a bucket.
The situation we find ourselves in with Jesus is much worse that that.
In his culture the most demeaning task around was to wash the travellers feet. This was job done by lowest slaves.
There were no nice shoes with good socks. There were no foot spas, in fact there were no showers. Most everyone walked along the dusty roads. Those trails were covered with camel and donkey dung.
They arrived at their friends home with more than dust on their feet. Before you ate, you wanted them to have their feet cleaned.
Jesus had sent Peter & John to prepare this last supper for them, it was really important, and although the disciples did not fully understand, it is a really significant moment. The food had been cooked. The table had been set. As Jesus and the disciples enter the room they see a cloth and a bucket in the corner. There is no servant, these guys did not have servants.
They lay down on the seats, and realize that hey, this place stinks a bit, and we need our feet washed. Even Jesus has stinky feet, but who is going to do it? Someone has to. But—if I do that, not only am I going to get dirty, but how does that make me look? Maybe if I just wait—somebody else will do it.
I wonder if the disciples are looking at each other and hoping someone would volunteer.
But then after Jesus had washed their feet he says what we are interested in this morning, in fact it is something we have sung about this morning, he says,
“ 33 Dear children, how brief are these moments before I must go away and leave you! Then, though you search for me, you cannot come to me--just as I told the Jewish leaders. 34So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."
Another versions puts it this way, “they will know you are my disciples by the love you have for one another”.
In the early church we read in Acts 2 how they ate together, met together daily, shared everything they had in common. Cared for each other. Set up welfare for widows and disabled people, they cared for those who could not care for themselves.
We also have the testimony of a second century church historian Tertullian who wrote , look at how Christian love attracts pagan notice: "What marks them in the eyes of their enemies is their loving kindness. ’Only look’ they say, ’look how they love one another.”
The love and concern those early and later Christians had for each other was unusual, distinct, uncommon in that society and culture.
We tend to think that the 21st century has invented the phrase, everman for themselves, the strong survive, get what you can for yourself, your happiness and pleasure are the most important things. IN fact Greek philosophers were propagating these concepts centuries before Michael Douglas said, “greed is good”.
This is something Jesus said and demonstrated that changed the world forever. Love one another, just as I have loved you, as a servant, as a mate, as a true friend, as someone who is concerned about the other person just as much as the other. I Could have just as easily picked out the statement Jesus made when he said, “treat others just as you yourselves would like to be treated”
This idea has permeated society even if someone is a Christian or not. I was speaking to our chair wholesaler on Thursday and he was telling me about his trip to China last week. He went over there to visit some factories to check out chairs, and he described the condition of some of the workers. They are dealing with machinery spewing out metal and gas and fumes, and they don’t have exhaust fans. They are dealing with dangerous materials and awful pollution, all day. And he just wont deal with them. He goes over there partly to check out the factory because in his own words, he wants to be able to sleep at night. And some of the factory owners don’t understand it, and they get insulted, because he wont deal with them. They don’t understand why he cares about their workers, they think he should just care about himself and the price. I don’t think he is a Christian but he is displaying Christ like qualities. Something inside his conscience is reminding him of what Jesus said.
What Jesus is saying here is something very Australian actually, we are all equal, there may be differences in wealth and position in society, but we are all equal. I love the movie the Castle. In that movie the main character is an aussie battler called Darryl Kerrigan. He wants to keep hold of his house and through some circumstances a QC, a distinguished QC comes and helps him. It is a beautiful picture of our Australian society as this working class battler works alongside and forms a real relationship with a distinguished academic.
The distinguishing mark of Christian love is the equality linked to the fact that the command is directed to each one of us: You shall love your neighbor. The command is directed to rich and poor, educated and uneducated, powerful and insignificant. Each person has the capacity to love; each person has the need for love. God has put this “in the foundation” of every human being. We do not have to be extraordinary to love, nor do we need to seek what is extraordinary to have a worthy object of love.
Keikergard, a well known theologian said this, “Worldly love thrives on distinctions. Some want to love only the rich and powerful. Others, in the name of justice, scorn the rich and powerful, and say that only the poor and needy should be loved. The Christian does care about injustice and rejoices that such evils as slavery have been abolished. Nevertheless, the Christian does not expect that strict equality with respect to worldly distinctions can ever be achieved. The Christian is then required to have the ability to look beyond and around all such worldly differences, to refuse to allow them to distract from the task of loving the neighbor. The rich must love the poor and the poor the rich, though what is required by love may of course be different for each. Fundamentally, love is a capacity to care for the well-being of the other and to do what one can for the other’s good, whether that be much or little in an external sense”.
You see as Jesus watched those feet, it wasn’t about foot washing is was about serving others at personal sacrifice, humbling ourselves when we don’t have to--because we don’t have to. 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. It is showing others around us that there is something different about us.
It is about showing others around us that we belong to and follow Jesus.
What can you do this week?
