The Pride of Servanthood

We are entering a new section in the Gospel of John.

Parts of chapter 13, all the way through chapter 17 we call the Upper Room Discourse, even though at the end of chapter 14, they are apparently making their way to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus says, “Rise, let us go from here”.

Jesus has gone from days before His death, down to hours left. Less than a day until he is nailed to the cross.

And we are granted a peak into His last moments.

If you knew that you were on your last day of the earth, what would be important to you? What would you do?

We see in these chapters what is important to Jesus and what He wants to leave his disciples with.

John 13:1–20 (ESV)

Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet

13 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.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 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.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 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. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. 18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ 19 I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

Can you imagine the scene is the Upper Room? Can you imagine?

It’s a Passover meal. The disciples are reclining together around the table, enjoying the meal together.

it’s just another Passover Meal, right?

And suddenly Jesus rises from the table.

At first, nothing unusual. Maybe He’s going to walk around the table and talk to someone. Who knows?

But then Jesus starts to take off his outer garment.

And the conversation around the table starts to die down.

And by the time that Jesus wraps a towel around himself, the room is completely silent. All eyes on Jesus.

And Jesus begins to do something that is unthinkable for these disciples. He begins to serve them.

And this isn’t just any old service. This is the most thankless, low, humble task that anybody could have been given.

He begins to serve them by washing their feet.

And it causes a reaction among the disciples.

I would say that all of them probably had the same reaction. Inwardly at least.

Peter is the only one who is honest enough to voice what they are all thinking.

And we think, “Peter, how can you be so rude? This is Jesus you are talking to! If Jesus wants to do something, who are you to say that He can’t, or shouldn’t do it?”

But let me just say, I get Peter!

And I suspect that you do too.

You remember Peter’s great confession “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”

Absolutely He is! And now here He is washing Peter’s feet.

And Peter reacts. Maybe it’s the same kind of reaction that many of us have had when someone does something nice for us

“You don’t have to do that!”

What is it inside of us that makes us resist being served?

Well, quite frankly, pride. We resist being served because we are proud.

And maybe we don’t often think about it this way.

But, you know, we see someone who is really good at serving. We have people like that here this morning.

And we say, “What humility they have to serve us like that!”

Many times, service does take great sacrifice. Time, money, position (we do thing that we don’t think we should have to do).

Serving well does take humility.

But as I was studying for this sermon, I came across this quote by a guy named William Temple.

“Man's humility does not begin with the giving of service; it begins with the readiness to receive it. For there can be much pride and condescension in our giving of service.”

--William Temple, Bishop of Manchester

Here’s what this guy is saying:

Many times we measure how humble someone is by how well they serve people.

Which actually isn’t bad, is it? I mean, who is it that is our great example? Who was it that showed us what humility looks like?

Jesus.

He, being in the form of God, didn’t think of equality of God something to be grasped or held on to. But instead, he took on the form of a servant and came and served.

“Even the Son of Man didn’t come to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many”.

Yes, serving does take humility.

But look at what this guy is saying really measures how humble we are:

…it begins in the readiness to receive it (service); for there can be much pride and condescension in our giving of service.

Here is the ugly truth about our fallen hearts.

We can really pull the wool over people’s eyes when it comes to serving them.

We can serve out of all kinds of ugly motives. Doesn’t mean that we always do, but it’s certainly possible.

Pride: I have to confess to this one. “Yep, we went to Africa to serve. Yeah, we sure gave up a lot to go there and live. Yeah, it was a sacrifice, but someone had to do it. Yeah, I’m a really humble guy.”

Ugly, ugly pride

Selfishness: What I mean by this, we can serve someone in a way that holds them in debt to us.

We do something for them, we give something to them and then we stand back and watch.

“You know, they never thanked me, and they never returned the favor

I trained for 12 years and lived in Africa for 6 years and…for what? What I did I get out of it?

This is the crazy part of serving. We can do it with so many BAD motives. That’s not humility at all

But think about someone serving YOU.

Someone gives you a gift of money when things are tight

A group of guys shows up at your house and helps you put on a roof

a group shows up at your house in Cedar Rapids and helps clear branches and debris.

And you know deep down that you will never be able to repay that...”debt”.

What does that do to you? It kind of causes this inward reaction, doesn’t it

Why?

Because in accepting the service of someone else, you have to admit that you need help.

You have to admit that you are not able to help yourself, and being the self-sufficient people that we are, that’s hard!

Makes you say, “Maybe I’m not that great after all. Maybe I can’t pick myself up by my own bootstraps!”

Maybe I really do need other people!

And you know, when we are dealing with gifts like money or help with daily tasks, we see this as maybe a character flaw or “You know, maybe I should be more grateful.”

But the seriousness of this sort of attitude kicks in when we are talking about what Jesus did for us. Or what He wants to do for us.

Many times our self-sufficiency says to Jesus, “Oh, you didn’t have to do that”.

Which is really serious. I want us to look at what Jesus did in this passage.

Because His actions here are such a clear depiction of His mission.

He rose from the table

He also rose from His seat at the right hand of the Father

That was His place of position and authority

He took off his outer garment

He laid aside His glory

He wrapped a towel around Him

He took on himself the form of a servant

He began to wash his disciples’ feet

He served those He created.

His service was a cleansing and washing to make us presentable before the Father

In the same way, Jesus in obeying His Father,

Rose from His Father’s side

This was the place of His authority and power

It was the place that He rightfully deserves

And when He stood up, it was to start His work of reconciling us back to The Father

And He took off His glory. He laid it aside

He did not consider equality with God something to be held on to and grasped…held on to tightly

His focus was not on Himself and trying to hang on to his position

And he took on the form of a servant.

After removing His heavenly glory, he put on the form of a servant.

He took on flesh. He became like those whom He had come to serve

And then He began to serve

And what He came to do was to perform a work the cleansing of the heart

Just like He washed His disciple’s feet, He wants to perform a work of cleansing on our hearts.

What a servant! What a Savior!

But here’s what’s sad. The thing inside of us that makes us often react when someone goes out of their way to serve us

Pride

That same pride often causes folks to react the same way to what Jesus did for us.