John 5-13:1 NIVUK
[1] It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. [2] The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. [3] Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; [4] so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist. [5] After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him.
Entitlement is nothing but a plague. And there are people in this generation who are more entitled, yet have less reason to be, than at any time in history.
I even heard recently of a man who had bought tickets for a flight for his wife and son. However, he could only afford two tickets in first class. When he boarded the plane, he actually argued with the staff on the plane that, since he had two first class tickets, they should give him the third for free.
These days people seem to think the entire world revolves around them. They demand the right to free hotel rooms, free meals and even to bend the rules of gender and grammar at will.
And then we come to this passage. Here we have One who had every right to demand to be treated to the utmost luxury and privilege. Yet He kneels. He kneels to wash the grime off the feet of men who were anything but worthy of it.
Look at this Man, and then try to repeat your entitled claims. Look at this Man and then pretend to be someone you are absolutely clearly not.
Look at this Man and then try to act like the world revolves around you.
Because then it will be impossible.
A few years ago, we took the opportunity to visit Switzerland – without doubt one of the most beautiful countries in the world. We were based halfway up a mountain, in the gloriously picturesque village of Wengen. We wanted to visit a nearby mountain that had some incredible views. The best route there took three cable cars.
Unusually, it took us up to the top of one mountain, down into a valley, and then up again.
For us, the way up involved going down.
That is a grossly over-simplistic description of what happened to Jesus, as His journey down took Him lower than of us will ever go – and then some more.
But on that journey to the utter extremities of human experience, Jesus taught us more about the nature of humility that any other human being ever could in any classroom or theology textbook. And, unlike many lessons in the ivory towers of our higher institutions, it is immensely practical.
Here, in these verses, the Lord of all the earth, the Creator of everything, stoops so utterly low that it stuns even His disciples. Don’t think only Peter is taken aback – He is merely the mouthpiece for the deep shock the others would also have felt.
But the issue here us not just what Jesus did. We understand that: He took the place of the most lowly of household servants and washed the foul smelling grime from His disciples’ feet. That alone is shocking enough.
No, it’s more why He did it: what it is that allowed someone so high to stoop so low. If we can understand that, then perhaps we will better able to serve others in the Body of Christ.
We see five aspects of Christ’s startling service here: five things that Jesus knew that permitted Him to humble Himself so utterly drastically; five aspects of His mindset that would have led Him to the ultimate in shame and debasement by dying on the cross.
The first of these is that Jesus knew What Time It Was.
Maybe you’re a little baffled by that. Maybe you can’t see what on earth I could be talking about. Well, read this verse:
John 13:1 NIVUK
[1] It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
My father worked on the railways twice in his lifetime, and so we all grew up on the trains. We are all so used to there being a time when things have to happen. More than once, I have been standing right in front of a departures board or a timetable and been asked to tell someone when the next train is coming.
But now we have apps for that. We have websites. There are even GPS trackers in many of our public transport vehicles that tell us precisely where we are.
Yet we still miss the train. Or the bus. Or even the plane.
We should be well familiar, with a sense of timing: with a sense of things needing to occur at a set time.
That was absolutely true of Jesus. Look at His discussion with His mother before His first miracle:
John 5-2:3 NIVUK
[3] When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’ [4] ‘Woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. ‘My hour has not yet come.’ [5] His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’
And again when His brothers wanted Him to go to the Passover and make Himself known in public:
John 7:6 NIVUK
[6] Therefore Jesus told them, ‘My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.7.6.NIVUK
But later, after some Greek-speaking Jews sought Him out:
John 12:23 NIVUK
[23] Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.12.23.NIVUK
The reason why we never see Jesus in a rush or stressed or acting in haste is because He has an acute sense of the Father’s timing in everything. He knew when was the time to do a thing, and when it was not. He knew that there is a time for everything and a season for every activity (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). He was wonderfully patient, spending thirty years in obscurity for three years in the limelight, and knowing precisely when to do or say what He needed.
We, however, do not have this sense of timing. We enjoy the attention of the public eye. We enjoy the accolades and the praise.
So when we have to step behind the scenes and serve in quiet, unobtrusive ways, where our contribution will likely be overlooked, and where we truly do things for the glory of God and not for our own, we struggle.
I know. I have faced this battle. After seven years of missionary involvement and three years of full time up-front ministry in Romania, I struggled badly when I came home. I struggled even more when the limelight shifted away from me. I felt like I had something to say, but no-one was interested anymore.
This is the struggle anyone will feel in the same position. I am sure I was not alone.
But eventually I realised that there are seasons in life. God’s timing is always best. He knows when to put us in the limelight. He knows when to put us in the shadows. All we have to do is trust Him and follow His leading, and serve wherever He sends us.
As well as Jesus knowing what time it was, we also see that He was able to serve in this incredibly menial, lowly way because He knew whom He loved:
John 13:1 NIVUK
[1] It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
This is a very interesting turn of phrase from the Gospel writer known as the Apostle of Love.
The phrase means that Jesus loved then to the uttermost. In other words, in a sense, He loved to its fullest extent, almost as if (and this is not literally true, of course) His heart would burst if He loved them one iota more.
Anyone who has been in romantic love with someone, or who has had a child, will have an idea of how this feels: to love someone so much you feel like you might burst.
But this... this is quite something.
Jesus loved His disciples – who were in the world and had to interact with the world on a daily basis. Their feet touched the grime and the mire of every day life. They were filthy. They were smelly. They were almost an unwanted presence at the Passover table because of the stench they bring with them. It would have been quite overpowering.
So what does Jesus do?
He cleanses their feet. He solves the problem.
And why?
Because He loves them. And He could not love them any more than He did in that moment.
That, right there, is a perfect picture of the Gospel. And what a picture!
There is an old saying that ‘love is a verb’. In other words, love does not just say, love does.
Love absolutely does in this passage.
There is a vitally important lesson here, that we also see shades of in Jesus’ teaching elsewhere in John:
John 13-10:11 NIVUK
[11] ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. [12] The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. [13] The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.10.12.NIVUK
Our motivation for any kind of Christian service, and especially menial service, must be love.
Why?
If our motivation is for financial gain, sooner or later our service will no longer be worth it. So we will stop.
If our motivation is fame or recognition or a sense of significance, sooner or later someone will come along who is more famous or more recognised or more significant. So we will stop.
If it is because we are good at something, sooner or later someone will come along who is better. So we will stop.
If is a grudging sense of duty, we will not serve well. We will be bad-tempered, surly and a poor servant. So others will want us to stop.
Our motivation must be love. It can only be love. If it is anything else, everything we do will be hollow and lifeless (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
If is not love, then we will have limits on how far we are willing to stoop, how low we are willing to go, how menial our service will be.
Who we are willing to serve.
Love knows no such limits.
Jesus loved. He loved to the uttermost. And so He served to the lowliest.
Tell me, Christian: do you serve out of love?
So we see that Jesus’ service was prompted by His knowledge of what time it was and whom He loved. The third cause might seem really surprising: He Knew Who He Was.
John 13:3 NIVUK
[3] Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.
My father spent time as a ticket collector and guard on the railway. He was collecting tickets in the first class carriage of a Glasgow to Edinburgh train when he saw a well-known local actor. He approached the man to ask for his ticket so he could punch a hole in it with his clipper to show it had been checked and so it could not be re-used.
‘Can I see your ticket, please, sir?’ my Dad asked politely.
‘Don’t you know who I am, dear boy? My face is my ticket.’ The actor replied.
‘In that case, can you bring your face here, please, sir? I need to punch it.” My Dad replied.
There are so many people who throw their weight around with that time-honoured question: ‘Don’t you know who I am?’
Let me give you a controversial response. Do you know why they are asking?
Because they don’t know themselves!
Human beings spend an inordinate amount of time defining ourselves by our relative position on the ladder of human souls. ‘I might be worse off than her, but at least I'm better off then him’ they say.
Do you want to hear what the Bible says about that?
2 Corinthians 10:12 NIVUK
[12] We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.
Let me say that again, this time with added emphasis: when you live your life constantly comparing yourself with other people you are not wise!
What’s more, you rob yourself of the opportunity to truly serve. Why would you? You would only be lowered in the opinions and estimations of other people!
Foolishness!
People who live their lives like this define themselves by where they stand relative to other people, and so never truly know where they are or even who they are. That is why they behave so snootily towards other people.
So maybe the next time someone asks the question, ‘Don’t you know who I am?’, maybe you should reply, ‘Well, I know who I am, but if you need me to tell you, then maybe you don’t really know who you are.’
If you’re brave enough, that is.
Jesus was fundamentally different. This verse teaches us that He knew the Father had put everything under His power, or, more literally, in His hand. ‘Had put’. Past tense. It had already happened. Before the cross. Before the resurrection. Jesus had, right then, already, all things in His hands.
And so, from that position of absolute power and absolute authority, what does He do?
He serves.
And He teaches His followers to do the same:
Luke 27-22:24 NIVUK
[24] A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. [25] Jesus said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. [26] But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. [27] For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. https://bible.com/bible/113/luk.22.25.NIVUK
So here is an interesting question for you:
Is a cruel dictator strong or weak?
Our world says they are strong. They hold them up as an example of good, effective leadership.
The Bible disagrees.
They are weak. They are fundamentally weak. They are like a brittle empire of clay and iron (Daniel 2:41-43). They are weak because they view themselves as being at the top
of the ladder of souls and are terrified that some unseen enemy will one day depose them – hence their brutality.
But what about a leader who serves their people? Are they weak or strong?
Our world says they are weak. They are looked down upon. Even despised.
Yet they are strong. They can sleep soundly at night without any fear or being deposed because they do not define themselves by who they are – they simply serve as long as they have the opportunity.
Let me give you an example why.
I have a friend who works for Mountain Rescue. They are often called out in extreme weather conditions to rescue people who are in trouble and use their mountaineering skills to rescue them.
Let’s imagine that they have to rescue someone who has fallen down a cliff and is injured, lying on a ledge. They do this by attaching themselves to the top of the cliff and abseiling down. Without that attachment to something firm, they would not have the strength to help the injured person.
That is how service works. To serve in a Christ-like manner, we must be willing to stoop down to lift others up (see Philippians 2:5-11). But to do that, we must be attached to something firm that will not give way when we need it the most.
If we are attached to the vagaries of our own feelings of superiority or inferiority, we might as well be anchored to a plate of jelly. That just will not do.
But if we are anchored to our sense of who we are in Christ, to His love for us and what He has done for us, the opinions of frail humans count for nothing (Isaiah 40:7-8) and we will be able to truly serve, without any thought to our own dignity, reputation or position in society.
Like Jesus did.
Allow me to make one further point. If we get our sense of dignity and self-worth frm our position in relation to other people, we will quickly stray into two deadly sins: self-righteous pride (Luke 16:9-14) or self-debasing covetousness (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21).
Why?
Because that’s how the ladder of human souls works: discontent with our lot in relation to what other people have keeps us looking upward; feeling proud of our achievements in relation to others keeps us looking downward.
Do you see it now?
The most peace I ever experienced was when I decided to step off that ladder and live my life in the light of Psalm 23:1:
Psalms 23:1 NIVUK
[1] The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
Jesus knew that God had placed everything in His hands, and so He used those hands to gently wash His disciples’ feet.
Read the Word of God. See what it says about who you are to Jesus Christ.
How low will you be willing to stoop to serve?
But Jesus wasn’t just aware of what time it was, whom He loved and who He was, He was also aware of Where He Came From:
John 13:3 NIVUK
[3] Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God...
Where Jesus came from is pretty obvious: He came from Heaven where He was equal to God (Philippians 2:6), because He is God (John 1:1). Jesus surrendered all the trappings of Divinity to come to earth as baby – which is what we celebrate as Christmas.
We all know that. But what relevance does it have to His decision to wash His disciples’ feet?
Our past is a key part of our identity. In the first-century, Jews were born into different tribes, different strata of society, different trades. Social mobility wasn’t really a ‘thing’: if you were from the tribe of Levi, you would be a priest or a Levite; if you were from Judah, you’d be from the royal family; if you were born from a fisherman’s or a carpenter’s or a shepherd’s family, you would likely have that job for life.
That kind of ‘locked-in’ society still exists in some Eastern cultures: in the Hindu caste system, for example.
And it all stems from your past – Where you came from, who your parents were, where you were born.
We might feel smug about it and boast that nothing like that exists in the West, but it isn’t true. We have our own caste system. We have the class system. We have private schools. We have exclusive universities. We have opportunities that are open to people from a certain group but not open to another. We even have secret societies.
But real Biblical Christianity rips up all of that. Do you want to know where you came from? That’s easy:
Ephesians 5-2:1 NIVUK
[1] As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, [2] in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. [3] All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. [4] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, [5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.
Romans 24-3:22 NIVUK
[22] This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Where we came from – all of us, without exception – is far from God. That is our past. And only one thing brought us near:
Ephesians 13-2:11 NIVUK
[11] Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (which is done in the body by human hands) – [12] remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. [13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross.
Nothing else.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
The difference this makes to the way we serve others is extraordinary. How can we claim to be superior to anyone, when we are as guilty of sin as the people we serve? How can we claim to be inferior to anyone when the same price was paid to save both of us?
And that is just it. I lived through decades when the great enemy was Communism. Many nowadays are still touting it as a solution to the world’s problems. But that is an idealism that was rendered bankrupt in the late ‘80’s for all to see.
The reality is that Communism is a pipe dream: it has never and will never produce equality. It simply creates a different ruling class.
There is one philosophy – and only one philosophy – that puts every human being on a level footing. That philosophy is Biblical Christianity. The only differentiator between human beings that really counts is not their breeding, their neighbourhood, their class, their education or their life chances. It is one thing and one thing alone:
Whether they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour or not.
And since all are sinners, and that salvation can never be deserved, then all are equal.
So where we come from matters.
But apart from that and the time, whom we love and who we are, the last thing that mattered for Jesus was Where He Was Going:
John 13:3 NIVUK
[3] Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.
Jesus served because He knew He was returning to the Father in Heaven.
Now, again, this is quite different to what we expect.
Muslims and Hindus often are known for their good deeds, often towards those on the edge of society. They do so both because they care and also because they are aiming to improve their chances of getting into their religion’s version of Heaven.
They do it because they don’t know where they are going.
But Jesus’ service was different. He served because He knew where He was going.
So what was happening there?
Jesus served not to achieve His salvation, but to bring salvation to others.
He served not because He had something to gain, but because He had to lose everything so that others could gain.
Jesus’ service was one hundred percent love, because He did it without any agenda, except to love.
That is what makes this utterly unique.
I have no doubt that our Muslim and Hindu friends do a lot for their communities. As Christians, we must be honest and recognise it. Of course we should.
But nothing a Christian ever does for anyone is to achieve salvation. Christ has already achieved it. Everything we do should be out of love. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Why?
Because we know where we are going, and we want others to go there with us.
For this world, if we see a highly qualified person in a service industry, we always consider it to be a loss. Think of it for a second: how do you react if you see graduates flipping burgers or serving tables or washing cars or cleaning floors? We shake our head and tut, don’t we? We wonder if that expensive education they received was nothing more than a waste of time or money.
Well, here we see something so jarring, so utterly shocking, that even Peter was taken aback.
If you read Genesis 1, you see there an amazing example of the power of God. The whole universe came into being, yet God did not even lift a finger: He simply spoke and it happened.
Yet in John 13, we see the stunning picture of God Incarnate, Jesus Christ, washing the dirt and the grime off the feet of His own disciples, including – and this really is stunning – the disciple who was in the process of betraying Him to the Jewish authorities.
That is love. That is service.
I have to admit, this is an area I didn't always get right. For years, I thought I was ‘on the climb’, and so menial labour was not my ‘thing’.
I look on those days with shame. What a foolish thing to think!
Jesus served. He served in a more menial task than any of us will ever do. He did so because of five factors: He knew what time it was, whom He loved, who He was, where He had come from and where He was going. He modelled the teaching He had given so many times that the one who wanted to be great in the Kingdom of God should serve (Mark 9:35 is an example).
So do you see those shysters with the fancy cars and suits and shoes who try to lord it up over other people?
Fakes. Fools. Every last one of them.
If a Christian leader is real, they will be willing to serve.
What about you?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, these words are strong and hard to take. I confess that my ambition often diverts me from being willing to serve. I ask You to forgive me. Help me to serve like You. Amen.
Questions
1. Why did Jesus clean the disciples’ feet, despite the dirt and likely pungent smell?
2. How was Jesus able to do it? What five things did He know that made this service possible?
3. What about you? Are you able to serve when you have nothing to gain? Why / why not?
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