Jesus’ Example

Listen to the Gospel of John 13:1-17 and verses 31-35

John 13:1–17 NRSV

1 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 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.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” 12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16 Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

John 13:31–35 NRSV

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Introduction

Maundy Thursday is a solemn service where we prepare ourselves for that event that changes the world. We prepare our hearts and minds for what does it look like entering into Good Friday without Jesus in the sanctuary. We remove those objects which remind us of Jesus just like Jesus was removed from his followers and they were left without hope. Tonight I want to visit that last time these disciples shared a meal with Jesus before the arrest. Jesus did something for these disciples before sharing the passover meal with them. Jesus did something shocking to them that they would not understand till later. Jesus served them as a servant and washed their feet.

A Servants Job

It was shocking for Peter and the other disciples to have Jesus wash their feet. Their master, their teacher, the one they had ushered into Jerusalem as king, was now trying to do the lowliest of a servant’s tasks to each of them.

Peter objected and fussed while others may have been uncomfortable with this but relented because Jesus was their master. In our passage we only hear Peter objecting but I don’t think it would be a stretch that others were not comfortable with Jesus performing this lowly servant’s job.

Yet, this task was customary. Upon entering the home of a host, they would take care of this task to clean your feet or at least provide the supplies you need to wash your own feet. It may be rude to walk around with unwashed feet bringing in dirt or worse to the table where you would sit and eat. It is not unusual that this reclining at the table and eating meant you were not sitting in a chair with your feet below everyone but your feet would be exposed to the person next to you. If you are like me, dirty feet are something that will ruin my appetite. Feet needed to be cleaned in order to sit down to eat.

Yet up to this point, we don’t see anything available for the disciples to do this. Was it because the disciples who arranged this place forgot to arrange it? Was it because the owner of this place neglected to provide a servant for this tasks? At any rate, perhaps it was beneath these disciples to perform this task on others. After all, we read in a few instances where there was bickering between who was going to be at Jesus’ side or who was the most important next to Jesus in this group. Scripture does not tell us why this was custom not taken care of until Jesus himself took the water basin and towel and performed this servant’s work on each of the disciples. Jesus became a servant to each of them. The master needed to wash them and give them the example to treat each other by. Maybe some of what Jesus is getting at here is that they needed to understand they should be servants to one another. They should be taking care of the needs of one another and that nothing is beneath the servant to take care of.

If we are honest with ourselves, we pay good lip service to this but in practice don’t do so great. How many of us get trapped in the line of thinking that such and such takes care of that so I don’t need to. Has Jesus called you to serve but you thought it was beneath you? Has Jesus told you to wash the feet of your enemy yet you refuse? Jesus washed all of the disciples feet here, including Judas that he knew would betray him. What is our excuse for not serving? How are we more important than the work God has called you to do?

The truth is none of us take on the role of servant well because we still treat a servant as the world does. We still look at a servant role as something that people look down upon or take advantage of. So what. When do we stop taking the world’s view as what we live by and take Jesus’ command here seriously to be a servant to one another? To be frank, perhaps it is because we lack love for one another.

A Servant Guided by Love

In some ways, we can take on a task, perform that task and are relieved it is behind us so we checked it off the list to hopefully never have to do that again. In other ways, maybe we begrudgingly did this task and grumbled and complained doing it but wondering why we were the one getting stuck doing this. How in the world do we change the way we think and act when serving others? How do we move away from this attitude of simply doing it to get it behind us and grumbling and complaining? We have a heart condition that needs to be fixed.

Think back on something you did for someone else that you felt good about. Perhaps you opened a door for someone or you helped someone to merge into traffic. Maybe you did something more significant than those examples. Perhaps you did some mission work and it warmed your heart that you were doing something good for someone else. What if I told you, in those moments, you were following what Jesus is telling us here. Why did you feel differently then about doing the work than you do now? What is different between whoever you were helping them and the people you are surrounded with today?

What I believe happens is something like a mission trip takes you out of your normal surroundings and gives you an environment where you not only have examples but it is normal to do this things. On a mission trip, you are expecting to gladly serve others and your heart is filled by doing this work. So how do we adapt our current surroundings to be more like a mission field? Quite easily to be honest. What was the mission Jesus sent is disciples on? In Matthew 28:19 Jesus tells them to go and make disciples of all nations.

So if we remember our mission is this, and we also follow Jesus command to love one another and to serve each other as Jesus served these disciples. This bears repeating and breaking down. First, Jesus told his disciples to be servants for one another as he demonstrated by washing their feet. If you serve other disciples then you are showing acts of love towards them. If you are showing acts of love towards them then you are loving them as Jesus also commanded them to love one another. These two commands are tied together. How does that apply to the rest of the world? Simple. If we are commissioned to go and make disciples of all the nations then the mission field is everyone. This means our acts of love in serving disciples applies to the world of people.

Folks we are in trouble today. We live in a world that has forgotten how to love. We see more acts of selfishness than we do love. We see more acts of anger and hatred than we do love. We see more people looking down on other people than we do of people lifting up others. If Christians are to take serious Jesus’ commands then we need to start by asking God to help us fix our hearts and help us to love and serve. While it is perfectly fine to go on a mission trip and serve, you also do not need to neglect your own community.

Tonight I want you to think of what work or task you had to do recently that helped someone else. Did you do it out of love or because you had to? Ask God tonight for an opportunity serve out of love rather than obligation. Ask God to help you love your neighbor and be filled with the Holy Spirit so you might see clearly how to serve one another in acts of love. By the power of the Holy Spirit, each of us can be transformed by God’s grace into servants motivated by serving out of love. May this be our prayer tonight.