The Serving King

We’re back in the book of John. Some of us have been going through John in Sunday school so this might be particularly familiar to us. Furthermore this is probably a familiar story - Jesus washes the disciples feet. But do you best to stick with me, theres a lot we can learn from this passage.

Lets review the context. Jesus is in the last week of his ministry. He is sitting down with his disciples for Passover and John gives us his final sermon to his disciples. He starts this out with a strange and beautiful act of feet-washing.

Read John 13:1-17.

Footwashing is gross. Imagine even in this room. There would be a lot of smell and sweat and grossness— not a pleasant experience. Now imagine that we all walked around on dirt roads with sandles on. Our feet would be gross - sweaty, muddy, maybe bloody, tough, not nice looking. In Jesus’ day this job was meant for the lowest of the slaves and often the non-Jewish slaves. This was not a desirable task in the slightest and yet Jesus did it for his disciples. The God and King of the universe humbled himself to the lowest position in the home at the time and washed some disgusting feet.

What can we learn from this story?

DISPLAY OF JESUS’ LOVE FOR THE DISCIPLES.

I want to point out on particular phrase in this chapter. Let’s reread verse 1. “having loved his own who were in the world he loved them to the very end.” There are two ideas presented here. (1) Jesus loved his disciples completely, fully, utterly, the best anyone could love them. (2) He loved them to the end of his life. Even though he would be betrayed (by Judas), denied (by Peter), and deserted (by ALL disciples), he still loved them. This is the Good Shepherd that we serve. He cares for his sheep. He “knows his own” and he “lays down his life” for them. Let me read a quote from Gentle and Lowly.

This is a little bit hard to understand but there are some key principles here that we can learn from. First of all, we should remember who we are before out God. Bunyan points this out - we are undeserving sinners. And yet Jesus loves us “to the end”.

You probably have heard the phrase “Love is a choice” Scripture doesn’t teach that its a feeling or emotion, rather its a choice and it involves action. This is what Jesus displayed for us when he loved us, because we are frankly unlovable, not beautiful, sinful. This is especially shown as we see Jesus was even Judas’ feet. Verse 11 says that he knew who would betray him and yet Jesus washed all of their feet.

This should cause us to worship and love our God all the more because he first loved us. It should also convict us as we consider how we love those around us, especially those who are harder to love.

2. SYMBOLIZES THE WASHING AWAY OF SINS BY HIS DEATH

Interaction with Peter

Confusing