JESUS: THE SERVANT SAVIOR

Introduction

-The Christian faith is counter-cultural. It goes against are natural tendencies and inclinations. In our pure human thought things ought to go one way, but the ways of God, the ways of the Bible, go in a different direction.

~When you think it ought to go down, it goes up. When you think it ought to go left, it goes right.

~God’s ways truly are not our ways—and that’s a good thing. God’s wisdom is greater and God’s ways are higher. It is the battle of the Spirit against the flesh.

-For example, mankind’s inclination is to hate his or her enemies, but Jesus says to love our enemies. Our inclination is to wish evil on our persecutors, Jesus says to pray for our persecutors. Our inclination is that if you want to be first, then make yourself first. Jesus says that when you make yourself last you will then make yourself first, but if you make yourself first, then you will actually end up last.

-Human thinking is turned on its head. And humanity wants to oppose that. And if we are honest, most of modern-day Christians oppose this as well. How many Christians truly are making themselves last in the world rather than fighting to make themselves first

-In today’s passage Jesus is the exemplar of the counter-cultural ways of God. Jesus does an action and gives a theological teaching that in actuality was quite scandalous for that time, and it is looked at with disdain in our time.

-In today’s passage, Jesus washed the feet of the disciples both as an example to follow and as an explanation of what He would do for them on the cross. He gives to us an example of humble service to follow and a demonstration of His work on our souls.

-May we be open to Spirit-filled humble service of others in light of the great spiritual work that Jesus does in us and for us.

John 13:1–20 ESV

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.” 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.”

-To me, this passage is like an onion in that there are a lot of layers here. Yes, there is the obvious surface-level meaning behind His actions, but there is also included great theological depth that can only be gotten to through peeling back the top layers. Today I want to look at two layers to this passage.

1) Jesus the Servant: Putting others first

-It is Holy Week, the night of Jesus’ betrayal, and He is celebrating the Passover meal with His apostles in what we commonly call the Last Supper.

-In the top layer of looking at this passage, the most obvious thing going on here is that Jesus took on the role of a servant and humbly served His apostles. And even at this level it would be easy to just dismiss this as an ethical lesson of serve others like Jesus did.

~While that is most certainly there, it is not easy just to go do it without looking at some of the nuances of what is going on.

-Jesus is putting others first in this service. He is living out His maxim that whoever would be great among humanity would be a servant to all and whoever would be first would be a slave—the counter-cultural aspect of Christian service.

-We Christians are all about doing good deeds and being nice—but we fall far short of the sacrificial, put others first, “die to self” kind of service that Jesus demonstrates and calls upon us to do.

~We fall short of Paul’s call in Philippians to not do anything (even service) out of selfish ambition or conceit, but to humbly count others more significant and important than ourselves, which truly is taking on the mind of Christ.

-What is it that makes this service shown by Jesus, the true Christian service, different than others:

a) Our motivation for service is love

-In v. 1 it says that Jesus loved His own and that He loved them to the end—it is a love that would never falter or fail for all of eternity.

-The word for love there is agape love, a sacrificial love that is concentrated on the object of love rather than on the one with the love. Jesus loved His own, His people, His disciples, His chosen—and this love would go to the cross in just a few hours following all of this.

-This is a love that works on behalf of others. So much of what we talk about in our day and age when we talk about love is nothing but mere emotionalism and feeling and warm fuzzies. And the second the warm fuzzies are gone we say that we are no longer in love. It is a love of selfishness.

~And so, what happens is that we say that we do something out of love, when in reality we do it so that we can feel better about ourselves or check off some box in our ethical system, but we really had no care about the betterment of the other person.

-But this love of Christ is an action based on commitment—He sealed it through covenant. This is Jesus saying that because I want what is best for you and I want you to flourish and I want you to know the joy of your Lord, I am going to serve you.

-Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 13 that if we don’t do things out of pure agape love, what we do is nothing but a clanging cymbal and noisy gong. It’s a lot of noise without any substance. Our motivation to serve others is love.

b) Our sphere of service is everyone

-In v. 2 we are reminded of something very significant—among the 12 apostles was the one who would betray Jesus. It says that the devil put it into Judas’ willing heart to hand Jesus over.

-Jesus, being the Word, the incarnate Son of God, knew this. In our passage He talks about one who is unclean, one who ate His bread but still lifted his heel against the Messiah. There was a traitor in the midst, but Jesus didn’t reveal who it was.

-And so, Jesus went about taking the posture of a slave and began to wash everybody’s feet. And when I say everybody, I mean everybody that was there, including the one who would betray Him.

-I can’t even begin to imagine what was going through Jesus’ mind when He began to wash Judas’ feet. I can’t even imagine what was going through Judas’ mind when Jesus did this for Him.

~You would think that he would start having second thoughts, but more likely what happened was he looked at Jesus with even more disdain because Jesus humiliated Himself in such a way.

-But even knowing what was to come, Jesus did not refuse to serve. Knowing that this would be His bitterest human enemy, who would commit the ultimate act of betrayal, Jesus still washed His feet.

-Who are we to say that someone is not worthy of our service in Jesus’ name? Who are we to refuse serving anyone?

-Imagine if someone killed a close family member. In his attempt to flee the scene, this killer got into some kind of accident and his life was on the line. You come across him, and nobody else was there, and you had a choice: you could do nothing, walk away, and let him die; you could kill him on the spot; or you could act and save his life. No matter what you chose, nobody else would know what happened—you’d get away with anything. What would you do?

~Our flesh would say let him die or kill him, but Jesus would serve him even to preserve his life (yes, even for one who did such a heinous thing to us)

-That is the counter-cultural service of Jesus Christ. Our sphere of service is everyone, even our bitterest enemy

c) Our extent of service is limitless

-The whole washing of the feet thing might come across as strange to us. It is very 1st-century. I want you to understand why it was done and who it was normally done by.

-Obviously, in those days, they didn’t have cars or other vehicles, so for the most part the people walked wherever they would go. In those days the streets weren’t paved, they were dirt and rocks. And in those days, they didn’t have closed-toed shoes and socks, all they had were very open sandals.

-So, to say that people’s feet would get dirty would be an understatement. One of the greatest acts of hospitality would be to have your guests’ feet washed, but this was the most disgusting, menial task anyone would ever have to do. It would be even worse than cleaning a public restroom with a toothbrush.

~Rich Jews who had servants wouldn’t allow a Jewish servant to do this task but would reserve it for Gentile slaves. The one who would be given this task would be the lowest of the low on the totem pole. Washing feet was reserved for the most lowly, despised servant in the household.

-And here is Jesus, washing feet. Jesus didn’t say that He would serve people most any way, but here is a list of 10 things He wouldn’t do—Jesus served in even the most menial way posssible.

-If you lived in the ‘90’s you might remember the singer Meatloaf came out with a song called: I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE, BUT I WON’T DO THAT

~We Christians have a similar theme song: I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR CHRIST, BUT I WON’T DO THAT

…but I won’t serve in the nursery…but I won’t go share my faith…but I won’t help my elderly neighbor…

-But that’s not what Christ is giving us here—there is nothing we wouldn’t do for others because of the love of Christ that is in us toward others

d) Our example of service is humbling

-In vv. 12-16 Jesus reminds them that He is their Lord and Master—a servant isn’t greater than a master, a messenger isn’t greater than the one who sent Him with a message

~Jesus is not some mere nobody—He is the Messiah, the Son of God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords

-Just think, the very God of all took on the form of a slave and did the most menial task that was humanly possible at the time

~Think about this, John the Baptist said that this is the One who he was not worthy to untie His sandal—John recognized that he wasn’t even worthy to do this menial task on Jesus’ behalf—this is the worth of our Jesus

~And yet, Jesus humbled Himself to do it—and we think we’re too good to do something? We think we’re too good to serve someone or serve somewhere? We have an inflated view of our self-importance

-Jesus Himself didn’t come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many—and the thing is that washing feet isn’t even the most demeaning thing our God did, because maybe a half a day later He would be hanging on a cross like a common criminal.

2) Jesus the Savior: Cleansing our souls

-This is the inner layer—this is the theological significance of what it is Christ did—first, look at:

a) Our need for cleansing

-in v. 8 Peter refused to have His feet cleansed by Jesus, and Jesus replies that if Peter doesn’t let Him do this then Peter would have no part with Him

-This goes beyond the mere washing of feet—Jesus is using this occasion to demonstrate a deep theological truth of the need for everyone to be cleansed on the spiritual level

-Everyone needs to be spiritually cleansed because we are all spiritually dirty—sin dirties us, and we are all sinners

~Nothing impure can come into the presence of God—unless you are spiritually perfect, you cannot see God; every one of us is dirty and imperfect

-Can you imagine if you were invited to a dinner at Buckingham Palace. But let’s say you worked on a pig farm and you spent all day working with the pigs and you didn’t have time to go home so you went straight to the palace all dirty and messed up by the pigs and you tell the guy at the gate you are there to see the queen. Do you think that you’d get in to see the queen looking and smelling like that? No. They’d only let you in if you were clean.

~What makes you think that you can approach the God of the universe with the stench of sin still on you?

~But thankfully:

b) Our provision for cleansing

-When he heard Jesus’ reply, Peter goes to the other extreme and says that he wants Jesus to just give him an entire bath

-There is a recognition that Jesus is the one who cleans. Jesus is the only one who can make people spiritually clean enough to enter into God’s presence.

~Thankfully, all is not lost—we don’t have to be stuck in the stench and dirt and grime of sin. Jesus, by His death and resurrection, is able to spiritually clean you (and nothing else can)

~Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow; even though your sins are red like crimson, they will be become like wool

-Have you ever had a stain on your skin, and nothing seems to take it out? You try soap and water and that doesn’t work. You scrub with a brush with thick bristles, and that doesn’t work. Maybe eventually you try turpentine and then it finally works.

-You can try to scrub your sins by outweighing them with good deeds, but that doesn’t work. You can try all the religion and church-going and mystical experiences in the world that you want, but that’s not going to work.

~Only by trusting in Jesus will that work. That is the counter-cultural part of salvation—it’s not what we do, it is what He has done

c) Our scope of cleansing

-In v. 10-11 Jesus says that those who have bathed only need their feet washed

-Jesus is saying that once you have completely trusted in Jesus Christ by faith and repentance, you are completely and permanently clean. There is nothing else you need to do; nowhere else you need to go. Once you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ you are saved and forever clean in God’s sight

~Imagine having a machine that gives you a shower and it sticks to you permanently—you never have to shower again.

-Now, we still sin in this world. Those sins are completely forgiven but they cause some havoc in our walk with God. But when we confess and repent our walk with God gets back on track.

~I picture the washing of the feet as the washing of the sins we still pick up in our life on earth and they make the walk harder, but they don’t ever affect the relationship—once a clean child of God, always a clean child of God

d) Our appeal for cleansing

-In v. 11, though, we are reminded that not everyone is clean—there are people without Jesus Christ that still have the dirt of sin on them, and it is up to us who are clean to lead these people to the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus Christ

~We now know where to find the only thing that penetrates the dirt of sin—we need to share with the other dirty people where to find Him

Conclusion

-And maybe that’s you—maybe you are still dirty from your sin. Jesus Christ died so that the penalty, power, guilt, and shame of sin would be completely taken away. There’s nothing else you can do to take care of the problem. If you have never trusted in Jesus Christ, don’t go into eternity still carrying the dirt. Go clean in Christ—during the invitation, come forward and I will lead you to the cleansing power of Jesus

-Maybe as a Christian there’s some dirt on your spiritual feet that you’ve collected along the way and you want to come and confess and repent

~Or maybe there is someone you want to pray for, that they would come to Jesus to be clean

-Or maybe you’re looking for a church home who will help you on your journey…