Wash one another’s feet

John 13:12-17

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.

Jesus here drops the hammer on the disciples. The argument goes like this. Jesus says that he is their teacher and their Lord. He is the most important person in the room, he has taught them (the teacher is greater than the student) and he is their leader/boss (the leader leads others, the boss tells others what to do). The boss has washed everyone’s feet – so they should wash each other’s feet. The boss has set the example to follow, the boss became a servant of others; therefore the students, the followers, are called to follow the lead of the Teacher and Lord.

To serve the other person. Not asking: how can I get served by them in return. Not condemning people who do not serve us when we think they should. No, this is the opposite of that, this is serving the other person, this is what we are called to, this is to be our way of life, serving others.

This starts inside the church community. There are people in the church who we can serve, that we can show kindness and care to. But it flows from there to be a call to serve the community around us.

These are not grand actions. Service is not made up of grand actions, rather it is serving in human sized ways in the context we find ourselves in. Serving in the flow of everyday life, seeing the opportunity to serve and taking it.

Vs. 17 says, “if you know these things” – this is knowing not has an intellectual idea, this is knowing as in a habit, a pattern of life, a way of being. To know means to act on what we know, to have our actions shaped by what we know.

PRAYER:

Lord God, we know we are to serve other people, but we don’t like doing that. We don’t like taking up the lowly position, we fear that we will be taken advantage of. Give us hearts of service, that willingly take up the towel to serve others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.