Love Them Like This
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Would you die for your best friend/spouse?
That’s a good thing to commit to
John 15:13 “No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.”
Which is why we rightly see Jesus’ death as the greatest sign of love
The great poet of our age, Bruno Mars, wrote a song called Grenade, and the chorus goes:
I'd catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya
I'd jump in front of a train for ya
You know I'd do anything for ya
And people hear that and go “Wow. He loves her so much he would catch a grenade.” I don’t know why jumping in front of a train would do anything, but it’s supposed to be sweet.
It’s kind of hard and easy to love people like that
It’s easy to tell Arianne I’d catch a grenade for her when nobody’s throwing any at her
Which makes it hard to feel like I’m showing the love of Christ in my life
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
In John 13 Jesus gives us an example of how he loved that isn’t the cross.
We’re to love just as he has loved
Jesus hasn’t been crucified yet. When the disciples are thinking of how Jesus loved them - they’re thinking of how he had just washed their feet.
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
Jesus washed feet
Feet are not looked at fondly here
It was reserved for the lowest slave in the household
Jews wouldn’t want other Jews to wash their feet, only Gentile slaves
In the cases where wo do read about footwashing it was always someone of low status washing someone who had higher status
It’s something so backwards that Peter tries to refuse!
You would die for the one you love, but would you wash their feet?
“If they were hurt!” Everybody is fine
“If they needed me too!” It’s just some dirt, nobody’s ‘needs’ this
“If they asked!” Nobody is asking
This morning:
We’re going to understand what Jesus is doing
We’re going to love people in the same way
Today, we’re going to learn how to wash feet
Love Doesn’t End
Love Doesn’t End
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
His hour has been hinted at throughout the gospel
Sort of like minutes to midnight
It’s the hour that he’s going to depart - to die on the cross
What would you be doing on your last day?
76% would want to be with family
54% would be going around trying to fix things and make amends
41% would be eating their favorite junk foods without a care in the world!
Would you let anyone tell you that you needed to mow the lawn or take out the trash?
You have better things to do!
Would you ask someone on their death bed to get up and find the remote?
Your last day should be all about you
Jesus wasn’t going to let his big act of love prevent him from loving in small ways.
Imagine just a common day at the Bradley household. Arianne is struggling with dinner, Claire is screaming like a banshee, we’re expecting company and so Arianne asks me, reclining on the couch after work, to help out.
And I tell her “Arianne, you know I’d catch a grenade for ya. Isn’t that enough?”
If we think our willingness to take a bullet for our loved ones excuses us from ever helping out in anything else, then we’ll catch bullet a lot sooner than we think.
However great and grand we are out in the world, none of us are above Jesus.
We’re not too great for any act of service for others
Love Humbles
Love Humbles
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,
Jesus knew that this act of service didn't earn him anything
He is God - he is the creator and owner of all
He could have commanded someone else do it and had the same result
It accomplished nothing more than clean feet for the sake of clean feet
Jesus loved for their sake, not his
More than that, this act of service cost Jesus everything
Notice how detailed John is in describing how Jesus got ready to wash feet
4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
Leaves his position at the head of the table - lays aside his outer garments- dresses like a servant - humbles himself
Plenty have seen a parallel to this in Philippians 2:6-8
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus didn’t just wash feet. He left heaven to come wash feet.
It is easy to love those who love us because we get something out of it
Would you love your spouse just as much if they never fulfilled their responsibilities?
Is it easier to be friends with those who invite you over, or who only wait for you to initiate?
We treat love like a currency - something to be exchanged. Jesus expects our love to be an act of grace
We are to love
When nobody notices
When nobody gives it back
When they offer hatred return
We are to love freely and overwhelmingly not for our sake, but for the sake of the other
If we only love others in hope of being rewarded, then we are not a people of love
He Knew Judas Would Betray Him
He Knew Judas Would Betray Him
2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
Jesus had known about Judas’ betrayal for a long time
He called it out in John 6
He says it’s a fulfillment of scripture - something seen by God centuries ago
And Jesus still washed his feet
Because Jesus loved his disciples to the end
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
Jesus never stopped loving Judas
All the way to the end, Jesus was serving him and showing him his love
This is seen in more than just the footwashing
right after he washes their feet, he’s troubled
21 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. 23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, 24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” 28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. 29 Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. 30 So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
Here’s the seating order
The disciple whom Jesus loved is reclining on Jesus
This is why he can have a private conversation with him
Apparently nobody else here’s that the one who betrays Jesus will be given the bread
Where’s Judas sitting?
Within reach of Jesus to give the bread
Most likely, on either side of Jesus is the disciple Jesus loved, and the disciple who betrayed him
Giving the bread is mark of honor and hospitality
Jesus was reaching out to Judas, loving him, until the end when Satan entered into his heart
Judas leaves the light of the world and goes out into the night
And still Jesus loved him and washed his feet
We are to be a people of unqualified love
We want to divide the world into "us" and "them"
We love everybody like us, but are suspicious and hateful of them
"They" are from somewhere else
"They" aren't in my political party
"They" hate everything I stand for
"They" love everything I abhor
Like the lawyer who asked Jesus "And who is my neighbor?", we want to divide people into those we are to love and those we are allowed to hate
But we are to love them all the same
It’s A Love We Still Experience
It’s A Love We Still Experience
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”
Jesus is doing more than washing feet to set an example
They won’t understand it until after
It’s only through washing that we have a share with Jesus
There’s something more significant going on here
It’s a explanation of the cross
His death washes us of our sins
Unless we’re washed, we have no share
Just like we cannot see the kingdom unless we’re born again
Or unless you eat and drink the body and blood of Christ, you have no life
Or unless you believe in Jesus, you will die in your sins
This really excites Peter
9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
If washing my feet gets me a share, then wash my hands and head too!
Jesus uses an analogy about the cleansing he gives
Once bathed, you only need to wash your feet after walking through town.
Jesus’ death is the bath. Our daily asking and receiving forgiveness is Jesus washing our feet
The love that he showed in John 13 is a love he continues to show us today
Every time we sin - Jesus forgives us
Every time we dirty ourselves with sin, he humbly gets down and washes our feet
It doesn’t matter what it costs him, or that he’s already done so much for us.
He will love you to the end
Conclusion and Application
Conclusion and Application
13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
Let’s not taint our love
With our own pride
With our hatred for the enemy
With thinking of a reward
Let’s love people, because we have been loved
And let’s love them in the same way
By forgiving them
By loving them to the end
