“A Servants Heart”

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

A Servants Heart - John 13

Chapter 13 begins Jesus’s final 24 hours before his death. He has gathered his closest disciples and sat them down together to partake of one final Passover feast. He then begins the meal by doing something very strange according to the Jewish customs.

At this time, it was the responsibility of the host of a feast to wash the feet of his guests, but it was never directly the master who would have done so. That task was delegated to a servant. This was not an easy or desired job. As the footwear of the day would have been open-toed, lace-on sandals, people’s feet quickly became dirty, grimy, stinky, and just overall unpleasant to touch. But for our Lord, it was an opportunity to teach a valuable lesson to his most trusted disciples.

He stoops down and proceeds to clean their feet; it is not until he gets to Peter that any resistance is shown. Peter refuses to allow Jesus to clean his feet. “How could the man who has performed such powerful and mighty miracles stoop himself so low as to clean my feet? It shall not be!"

Jesus’ reply is rather straightforward, “if you do not allow for me to do this you will have no part in me!” He says you will have missed the whole point of what I am trying to teach you, how you will need to act towards one another and the world after I am gone.

"¹³You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. ¹⁴ If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.

He is trying to teach them and us that in the Kingdom we will need to serve each other. These men who were chosen by Jesus would be given a great honor, to teach the gospel story to the world. But there would be a temptation to rise above the rest, to allow for pride to swallow them up and make them desire to place themselves in high places above others.

Instead of rising up to power, these men needed to stoop low and become servants to the world and the Kingdom.

It is easy in a world full of sin to see ourselves as holier and more righteous than the people around us. We can begin to see ourselves as better because of that. But the example that Jesus shows His disciples in all centuries is that we are called to be servants to all of our fellow man. Jesus was the most righteous man ever to live and yet He spent His life being a servant and sacrificing all for those who are without a doubt His servants. Because we are servants of Jesus Christ, we are to be servants to each other.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for being both Master and Servant, for showing us what it means to truly love our fellow man and how we can better our walk in You.

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