Gentle & Lowly - To the End| John 13:1–11

Introduction

To say that we have loved each other as Christ loved us is to deceive ourselves. Ron Prosise shares a story from Holland, also known as the Netherlands, in 1569. Dirk Willemzoon was condemned to death because of his Christian beliefs. He escaped and was closely pursued by an officer of justice across a frozen lake. It was late in the winter, and the ice had become unsound. It trembled and cracked beneath his footsteps, but he reached the shore in safety. The officer was not so fortunate. The ice gave way beneath him. He sank into the lake crying for help. There was no one around to hear him, except the fugitive he was hunting. Hearing the man’s cries, Willemzoon turned back. He carefully crossed the ice at the peril of his life. As he approached the man who was there to capture him, he extended his hand. In desperation, the officer grabbed the hand tightly, and the fugitive saved him from certain death. What do you think the officer did in response? Does he let him go and let him live a long and happy life? Or, does he successfully do his duty and take the man to be executed? Which would you do? On May 16th, 1569, the officer returns Willemzoon to the prison where he is tortured and burned to death. Willemzoon saved the life of the officer, only to get the reward of being captured and executed. Not a great deal for Willemzoon, but the officer got a good deal out of it. His life was saved, and his mission was accomplished.

When Christ went to the Cross, he did it out of a deep love for those who would follow him. He died in their place so that we could have life. The officer chasing Willemzoon appreciated saving his life, no doubt, but he also simply finished the job that he was there to do. Christ laid down his life out of love, and the entire world benefitted from it. Willemzoon risked his life for a fellow man and ultimately would lose his life. The love that Christ showed is a love that is hard for us to ever achieve. And quite frankly, I might offend some people when I say this. To say that we have loved each other as Christ loved us is to deceive ourselves of the purely altruistic and perfect love that we’ve convinced ourselves we show. Today we're looking at a passage generally read around Easter time, on Maundy Thursday. Christ humbled himself, served his disciples, despite knowing that he would soon be going to the Cross for them.

We are finishing up our series today on Gentle & Lowly, inspired by the book by Dane Ortland. We’ve spent two months now learning about the heart of Christ. After all, how will we ever reflect Christ to others if we have not personally drank from the well of Jesus’ kindness and nourishment. We’ve learned that today, this morning, he is sitting next to the father praying for us. He serves as an advocate for the us. God the Father in heaven loves to say yes to Jesus as he prays for what we need. The Father pours out grace and mercy to nourish our weary and worn out souls. Christ loved his disciples to the end. In so doing, he shows a pattern of first internally humbling himself before outwardly reflecting this love and humility. Christ deeply loved his disciples to the point of death, and we should love Christ and others the same way. How does Christ show his love to us to the end? He exemplifies love in three different actions.

Christ humbled himself

Paul writes in Philippians 2:5-7 that we should “have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Jesus, who was with the Father, left heaven to come to earth to die on the Cross and to rescue us from our sins. When Christ emptied himself, he humbled himself. This occurred before he entered the world through Mary, but it is reflected throughout his earthly ministry.

In bringing this back to our section in John 13, James Montgomery Boice writes: “Nowhere in the entire Bible does the child of God feel that he is walking on more holy ground. For here, more than in many other portions of Scripture, he hears the voice of Jesus leading him into a greater understanding of his new place before the Father and consequently also of his new position in the world.” Verses 3-5 say, “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, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 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.” This wasn’t something that the leader of the group would do. It’s reserved for a servant. But Jesus humbles himself and serves the disciples. Meanwhile, the disciples were more concerned with where they were in the pecking order.

An illustration that preacher, Charles Spurgeon, used is if a child has quick growth in their arms but not their legs, or if their legs get long but not their arms, they’re soon out of proportion and you’re heading to a doctor to see what is going on. After all, it is the growth of each limb in proportion that causes someone to look the way a normal human should look. Similarly, when our heads grow faster than our hearts, it’s sign that something is wrong. But how many people a far more than they feel, and criticize much more than they humble themselves. Similarly, when someone’s tongue grows bigger than their ability to hold their tongue; when he has more to say than he knows or does; when, like Mr. Talkative [of Pilgrim’s Progress], he can talk about the road to heaven but makes no progress in it. Instead, Paul teaches us in Philippians 4:8, “Whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are pleasing, whatever things are commendable, if there is any excellence of character and if anything praiseworthy, think about these things.” The first action Christ takes is to humble himself.

Foot washing symbolizing Christ’s atoning work on the Cross.

When Jesus picked up that towel and wash basin, he was using them to clean the feet of the disciples. The dirt from the day needed to be taken care of. But while Christ cleansed the disciples that night of dirt and dust from the road, he cleanses us at a much deeper level. He cleanses us by the Cross and through our lifelong growing in the his grace. The water of the footwashing removed dirt and dust from the feet of the disciples. The water of baptism symbolizes washing away of sin and entrance into the community of faith. However, it is even more than this. In verses 6-9, “He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 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.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Peter initially cannot believe that Jesus wants to wash his feet. It feels like it should be the other way around. The student should serve and wash the feet of the teacher. The act of washing a person’s feet is an intimate act. It takes a level of trust to allow this to happen. In order to wash one’s feet, you have to get very close to them. You either sit or knee in front of them, and they have to accept you so close. Some draw close to Christ as we are forgiven by them, but then the relational intimacy between us grows stale. We get busy. Soon, Christ invites us into the intimacy of relationship with him, but we’re too busy. Or, we’ve messed up too may times to believe he can forgive us again. Either way. He is there waiting for us. Waiting to receive us, to spend time with us, to care for us.

J. Allan Peterson tells the story of a small boy who was consistently late coming home from school. His parents warned him one day that he must be home on time that afternoon, but nevertheless he arrived later than ever. His mother met him at the door and said nothing. At dinner that night, the boy looked at his plate. There was a slice of bread and a glass of water. He looked at his father's full plate and then at his father, but his father remained silent. The boy was crushed. The father waited for the full impact to sink in, then quietly took the boy's plate and placed it in front of himself. He took his own plate of meat and potatoes, put it in front of the boy, and smiled at his son. When that boy grew to be a man, he said, "All my life I've known what God is like by what my father did that night." The second action Christ takes is to wash our feet. we did physically with the disciples, but spiritually we are clean because of his washing away of our sin. Today, he is inviting us back into intimacy with us because were united with him at our baptism.

Christ’s love endures “to the end.”

Verse 1 says, “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.” The end of what though? The end of the last supper? The end of his life on earth? The end of all time? The answer might simply be, yes. He loved them to the point of dying for us on the Cross. Dane Ortland writes, this “means, second, that he will love you to the end. Not only is your future secure, on the basis of his death; your present is secure, proven in his heart. He will love you to the end because he cannot bear to do otherwise. No exit strategy. No prenup. He’ll love to the end—“to the end of their lives, to the end of their sins, to the end of their temptations, to the end of their fears.” We can probably simply say, to the end. Period.

In his book, Pastoral Grit: the Strength to Stand and to Stay (Bethany), Craig Brian Larson writes: "In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite's primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter's magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. “But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. "And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. 'Perhaps most remarkable,' writes Jaroff, 'those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.' “The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible.” The end means the end, Christ has persevered in his love to the end since we can barely persevere until tomorrow. Similar to Pioneer 10, the love of Christ goes on and on for more than anyone can fathom. When we feel that we’ve excluded ourselves, we’ve messed up too badly, said too many things we shouldn’t have said. When we feel we haven’t loved as should, Christ’s love goes on and his grace is poured out even more. The final action Christ takes is that his love does not end when our willpower ends. Rather, it endures to the end.

Conclusion

So, here are three actions Christ takes for those who follow him. First, Christ humbled himself. Second, Christ washed the feet of his disciples and his death on the Christ washes away our sins. Finally, Christ's love endures "to the end."

Writing for USA Today, Tom Krattenmaker shared a story about volunteers from Bridgetown Ministries who used their Friday nights to help the homeless people gathered under the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon. In addition to providing hot meals, shaves, and haircuts, some of the volunteers wash the homeless people’s feet. Tom was stunned when he saw that, calling it “one of the most audacious acts of compassion and humility I have ever witnessed.” This group of society’s outcasts had their bare feet immersed in warm water, scrubbed, dried, powdered, and placed in clean socks. One man reported with a smile, “I can’t find the words to describe how good that felt.” Krattenmaker later wrote, “Washing someone’s feet is an act best performed while kneeling. Given the washer’s position, and the unpleasant appearance and odor of a homeless person’s feet, it’s hard to imagine an act more humbling.” The leader of Bridgetown Ministries prepares volunteers for this ministry by saying, “When you go out there tonight, I want you to look for Jesus. You might see him in the eyes of a drunk person, a homeless person … we’re just out there to love on people.”

And who’s love were they there to show? The love of Christ. After all, gentleness and lowliness of heart is who Christ is. It’s a steady, consistent, and everlasting love that remain when all loveliness within us has withered.