One last Lenten Devotional. The previous one was from my devotional message at our Good Friday Service. This one comes from my devotion at our Easter Morning Breakfast Service.
John 13:12 -- When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and sat down again. He asked, “Do you understand what I have just done for you?
Jesus began to wash the disciples feet while knowing full-well that one of them would deny Him, one of them would betray Him, and all of them would run away from Him and hide behind locked doors. Yet, He did it anyway.
God knows the sins we have committed, and even those we will commit, but he loves us anyway.
Washing the feet of a guest to a dinner party was the chore of the lowliest servant in the household. It was necessary because people wore sandals as shoes, walked everywhere on mostly dirt roads, and would eat in a reclined position off a low table, so their feet would be quite close to the eating surface and the food.
Jesus wrapped a towel around His waist and began to wash their feet. In doing so, He set a standard that we are to serve the needs of those around us. Jesus goes so far as to suggest that there is a special blessing in store for those who serve others. John 13:17 -- If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Jesus doing this was not simply to get His disciples to be nice to each other. He knew He would soon be gone from them. He knew He was going to leave them with a seemingly impossible charge, to go into all the world…
If the disciples were to move into the work of being a witness of Jesus’ life and ministry to all the world, they would have to learn to serve God, serve each other, and serve the people to whom they would take the message of salvation.
Whom can you serve today? Many leaders reject serving those under them. How do you treat those who are under you (children, employees, volunteers, etc)?
Peter watched Jesus wash the other’s feet, and move closer to doing so with him. He didn’t understand it, and objected to it. But Jesus’ point was that true discipleship does what pride will not. True discipleship forgets my position, my reputation, my title, my family tradition, and my church tradition and remembers only Jesus’ example and other’s needs.
But foot-washing is not to be an ordinance of the church. It is not culturally relevant. We wear shoes, drive most places, and eat off raised tables. The washing of feet, then, carries no meaning to us, now.
However, service to others does carry a meaning and, I believe, is to be held in as high regard to our faith as the sacraments of Baptism and Communion. . Jesus used this humble act to declare God’s heart and mind concerning how people are to understand and interact with each other. He presents the principles of self-giving service and servant-leadership.
He did more than role-play service to others. He also showed how His leaders were to have the confidence and security as a leader to be able to serve. When we lead, and therefore serve others, we are to do so firmly aware of what God has called us to do. We are to stoop to help others, we are to count others better than ourselves, we are to lay down our lives for another, and we are to seek to serve rather than be served.
But there is another application here, too. Think back to the reason why they had to wash their feet anyway, and Jesus’ rebuke to Peter when he finally decided to not only let Jesus wash His feet, but the rest of his body as well.
John 13:9-10 -- Simon Peter answered, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but wash my hands and my head, too!” Jesus said, “After a person has had a bath, his whole body is clean. He needs only to wash his feet.
A person’s body was already cleaned, having been bathed in the morning before starting out on whatever trip they were on. By lunch or dinner time, it was not necessary to take another bath. But, because of the dusty nature of the roads, their feet needed cleaning. They had walked along the road and picked up a little dirt on their feet.
Similarly, when we start our life in Christ, we are cleaned from the “dirt” of sin. And as we continue to walk toward dinner (think “Marriage Supper of the Lamb”), we do not need another spiritual bath. However, as we do walk along the path God lays out before us, we may pick up a little “dirt” on our feet.
Jesus told Peter not to reject having his feet washed because (verse 8) If I don’t wash your feet, you are not one of my people. I think this can be seen as a warning about daily consecration of our lives to Jesus. If we reject getting our “feet washed” of the dirt they pick up along the way, we run the risk of “not being one of (His) people”.
So, as we finish our breakfast and get ready for the Easter Morning Service, consider these 2 things:
1. Are we willing to serve others, even if it means taking a subordinate position when we rightly should occupy a more pronounced status
2. Do we check our “feet” daily to be sure we haven’t picked up some “dirt” along our daily walk
John 13:12 -- When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and sat down again. He asked, “Do you understand what I have just done for you?
Jesus began to wash the disciples feet while knowing full-well that one of them would deny Him, one of them would betray Him, and all of them would run away from Him and hide behind locked doors. Yet, He did it anyway.
God knows the sins we have committed, and even those we will commit, but he loves us anyway.
Washing the feet of a guest to a dinner party was the chore of the lowliest servant in the household. It was necessary because people wore sandals as shoes, walked everywhere on mostly dirt roads, and would eat in a reclined position off a low table, so their feet would be quite close to the eating surface and the food.
Jesus wrapped a towel around His waist and began to wash their feet. In doing so, He set a standard that we are to serve the needs of those around us. Jesus goes so far as to suggest that there is a special blessing in store for those who serve others. John 13:17 -- If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Jesus doing this was not simply to get His disciples to be nice to each other. He knew He would soon be gone from them. He knew He was going to leave them with a seemingly impossible charge, to go into all the world…
If the disciples were to move into the work of being a witness of Jesus’ life and ministry to all the world, they would have to learn to serve God, serve each other, and serve the people to whom they would take the message of salvation.
Whom can you serve today? Many leaders reject serving those under them. How do you treat those who are under you (children, employees, volunteers, etc)?
Peter watched Jesus wash the other’s feet, and move closer to doing so with him. He didn’t understand it, and objected to it. But Jesus’ point was that true discipleship does what pride will not. True discipleship forgets my position, my reputation, my title, my family tradition, and my church tradition and remembers only Jesus’ example and other’s needs.
But foot-washing is not to be an ordinance of the church. It is not culturally relevant. We wear shoes, drive most places, and eat off raised tables. The washing of feet, then, carries no meaning to us, now.
However, service to others does carry a meaning and, I believe, is to be held in as high regard to our faith as the sacraments of Baptism and Communion. . Jesus used this humble act to declare God’s heart and mind concerning how people are to understand and interact with each other. He presents the principles of self-giving service and servant-leadership.
He did more than role-play service to others. He also showed how His leaders were to have the confidence and security as a leader to be able to serve. When we lead, and therefore serve others, we are to do so firmly aware of what God has called us to do. We are to stoop to help others, we are to count others better than ourselves, we are to lay down our lives for another, and we are to seek to serve rather than be served.
But there is another application here, too. Think back to the reason why they had to wash their feet anyway, and Jesus’ rebuke to Peter when he finally decided to not only let Jesus wash His feet, but the rest of his body as well.
John 13:9-10 -- Simon Peter answered, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but wash my hands and my head, too!” Jesus said, “After a person has had a bath, his whole body is clean. He needs only to wash his feet.
A person’s body was already cleaned, having been bathed in the morning before starting out on whatever trip they were on. By lunch or dinner time, it was not necessary to take another bath. But, because of the dusty nature of the roads, their feet needed cleaning. They had walked along the road and picked up a little dirt on their feet.
Similarly, when we start our life in Christ, we are cleaned from the “dirt” of sin. And as we continue to walk toward dinner (think “Marriage Supper of the Lamb”), we do not need another spiritual bath. However, as we do walk along the path God lays out before us, we may pick up a little “dirt” on our feet.
Jesus told Peter not to reject having his feet washed because (verse 8) If I don’t wash your feet, you are not one of my people. I think this can be seen as a warning about daily consecration of our lives to Jesus. If we reject getting our “feet washed” of the dirt they pick up along the way, we run the risk of “not being one of (His) people”.
So, as we finish our breakfast and get ready for the Easter Morning Service, consider these 2 things:
1. Are we willing to serve others, even if it means taking a subordinate position when we rightly should occupy a more pronounced status
2. Do we check our “feet” daily to be sure we haven’t picked up some “dirt” along our daily walk
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