It may be inconceivable that Jesus is not just Lord of Lords, but also Servant of Servants. But think about it: God made everything for us and to share it with us. Unlike in old pagan religions God was not part of the universe so he didn't need it to live, He made it for us to live with Him. Yet He served His disciples and then died for humanity as a lowly suffering slave.
Today is Passover and take a look at the reading for today from the Gospels. It's not the part people like, it's the part they skim past. But don't skim past this as there is an important message that Jesus is teaching us about the true nature of being his disciple and about life.
John 13:1-18 New King James Version (NKJV)
Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet
13 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?”
7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”
8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”
Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”
12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 If I then,your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Jesus Identifies His Betrayer
18 “I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with Me Has lifted up his heel against me'
I put the quotes from Jesus in red because I wanted you to all take this seriously and see what Jesus is saying, but it does need a little explaining.
Washing someones feet was a very menial task that was done by women, and if they were rich then slaves or the lowly for the most part. It's like being a busboy at a restaurant, but it was also an act of hospitality.
People would walk everywhere and wear sandals. They would go someplace for dinner and their feet would be all dusty and stinky. Plus they would walk over everything so the feet tracking in the world and the dust of the world was the lowest part and symbolizes a kind of ritual and spiritual uncleanness. To accentuate this point outside of the temple and tabernacle was a special basin specifically for washing feet. So you can imagine how the dinner party would smell like an old barn if they didn't get their feet washed. And Jesus must have purposely arranged for them not to get their feet washed to make this point as they certainly had dinner made for them.
Then He talks about Judas raising his heel against Jesus. This was considered a grave insult for the very reasons I gave. Here Jesus is quoting Psalm 41:9 when he says this. So you can imagine the image of Jesus washing everyone's feet, making himself lower than them and giving his speech and Judas the snake just sitting there enjoying it all and then Jesus talks about the betrayal like Davids followers and closest friends betraying him and raising the heel. In other words, "I served you in love, but you just kicked me instead". It's like biting the hand that feeds you and then stabbing him in the back.
Why would Judas do these things? Libraries and countless church fathers have written on Judas, but one thing is clear: Judas thought he was better than Jesus. It's the only thing I can conclude. Jesus wasn't being the Messiah that Judas wanted him to be, so it was time to destroy this Messiah until a real one showed up.
When you are as big as God you can be concerned with the smallest things and when you love someone even the smallest things about them matter to you. Think of parents and children and you can really see that. And when you have spiritual power and wealth beyond the horizons of the imagination, then you can lower yourself to be a servant and to lead by example without losing anything.
When you are eternal no one can take advantage of you because your resources are so enormous anything taken is microscopic by comparison. With one exception: When things are personal.
But then things got personal
When things are personal and its heart to heart then that is the level playing field. And here we have Jesus as a person instructing, correcting, empowering, and illuminating those men he loved and gave his life for and here we have Judas as both Satan and Adam kicking Jesus, the very Messiah who loved Judas back.
There is a lesson here for all of us to keep close to our hearts to learn. Adam betrayed God's love in Eden because he thought he was better than God and he worshiped the Devil by turning his heart away from God to worship himself, becoming the first idolater and apostate.
The first command was "I am the Lord God and you will not have other gods along side of me". And here is Judas deciding what is a god and what is a good Messiah. It's as if Judas was begging Jesus to be a king like Solomon or the Roman Cesar and put him in his place. Judas was even embezzling Jesus' donations and Jesus knew it and let it go. The contempt must have been staggering.
But why be surprised? We have churches filled with Judases. They betray Christ every day and minute of their lives. Even Spirit filled, bible quoting, sacramentalized, and water baptized Christians. They sit in pews and on church boards and have the contempt of Balaam the false prophet. They live as functional atheists with no fear of judgement or of God's feelings.
They live their lives with some aspects of morality, but there is no real connection and for a lot that I meet they don't even want a connection with God. They like the idea that God is Heaven far away and over there not meddling in things. not embarrassing them with miracles and signs of divine life.
This is a harsh word from me, but its a harsh lesson if you don't learn it. In the old tradition the church fasts from meat (a type living by the flesh) every Wednesday and Friday. Why? Because Wednesday was the day of creation that God said, "let there be light" and instead Judas, as a kind of humanity, tried to kill the light and insulted and betrayed the personal love of God instead. It's a reminder to us to subdue that impulse of self destruction to kick God out of our lives.
Friday was the day that God made the first Human to live and have a very close relationship with Him of real connection. The first Adam committed a kind of suicide by denying life but the Love of God is not like our love. God loves us more than we can ever love ourselves, so God gave us a new Adam in order to save us.
God the Father understood that we were helpless int eh grip of the fear of death and of judgement so it was time for Jesus to conquer the cosmos and to give life to our fallen humanity by descending into hell and conquering the Devil there and with his Resurrection freeing Adam from hell so he could return to Paradise. the importance and lesson of this is why we quote it in the Nicean creed every week.
It is time for all of us to take this holy week and ask ourselves a very serious question: Am I the kicker or am I the washer? If you are the "washer" don't feel so bad if you get a few kicks. Even Jesus got that so you are in good company.
Christ is risen for us!
Today is Passover and take a look at the reading for today from the Gospels. It's not the part people like, it's the part they skim past. But don't skim past this as there is an important message that Jesus is teaching us about the true nature of being his disciple and about life.
John 13:1-18 New King James Version (NKJV)
Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet
13 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?”
7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”
8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”
Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”
12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 If I then,your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Jesus Identifies His Betrayer
18 “I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with Me Has lifted up his heel against me'
I put the quotes from Jesus in red because I wanted you to all take this seriously and see what Jesus is saying, but it does need a little explaining.
Washing someones feet was a very menial task that was done by women, and if they were rich then slaves or the lowly for the most part. It's like being a busboy at a restaurant, but it was also an act of hospitality.
People would walk everywhere and wear sandals. They would go someplace for dinner and their feet would be all dusty and stinky. Plus they would walk over everything so the feet tracking in the world and the dust of the world was the lowest part and symbolizes a kind of ritual and spiritual uncleanness. To accentuate this point outside of the temple and tabernacle was a special basin specifically for washing feet. So you can imagine how the dinner party would smell like an old barn if they didn't get their feet washed. And Jesus must have purposely arranged for them not to get their feet washed to make this point as they certainly had dinner made for them.
Then He talks about Judas raising his heel against Jesus. This was considered a grave insult for the very reasons I gave. Here Jesus is quoting Psalm 41:9 when he says this. So you can imagine the image of Jesus washing everyone's feet, making himself lower than them and giving his speech and Judas the snake just sitting there enjoying it all and then Jesus talks about the betrayal like Davids followers and closest friends betraying him and raising the heel. In other words, "I served you in love, but you just kicked me instead". It's like biting the hand that feeds you and then stabbing him in the back.
Why would Judas do these things? Libraries and countless church fathers have written on Judas, but one thing is clear: Judas thought he was better than Jesus. It's the only thing I can conclude. Jesus wasn't being the Messiah that Judas wanted him to be, so it was time to destroy this Messiah until a real one showed up.
When you are as big as God you can be concerned with the smallest things and when you love someone even the smallest things about them matter to you. Think of parents and children and you can really see that. And when you have spiritual power and wealth beyond the horizons of the imagination, then you can lower yourself to be a servant and to lead by example without losing anything.
When you are eternal no one can take advantage of you because your resources are so enormous anything taken is microscopic by comparison. With one exception: When things are personal.
But then things got personal
When things are personal and its heart to heart then that is the level playing field. And here we have Jesus as a person instructing, correcting, empowering, and illuminating those men he loved and gave his life for and here we have Judas as both Satan and Adam kicking Jesus, the very Messiah who loved Judas back.
There is a lesson here for all of us to keep close to our hearts to learn. Adam betrayed God's love in Eden because he thought he was better than God and he worshiped the Devil by turning his heart away from God to worship himself, becoming the first idolater and apostate.
The first command was "I am the Lord God and you will not have other gods along side of me". And here is Judas deciding what is a god and what is a good Messiah. It's as if Judas was begging Jesus to be a king like Solomon or the Roman Cesar and put him in his place. Judas was even embezzling Jesus' donations and Jesus knew it and let it go. The contempt must have been staggering.
But why be surprised? We have churches filled with Judases. They betray Christ every day and minute of their lives. Even Spirit filled, bible quoting, sacramentalized, and water baptized Christians. They sit in pews and on church boards and have the contempt of Balaam the false prophet. They live as functional atheists with no fear of judgement or of God's feelings.
They live their lives with some aspects of morality, but there is no real connection and for a lot that I meet they don't even want a connection with God. They like the idea that God is Heaven far away and over there not meddling in things. not embarrassing them with miracles and signs of divine life.
This is a harsh word from me, but its a harsh lesson if you don't learn it. In the old tradition the church fasts from meat (a type living by the flesh) every Wednesday and Friday. Why? Because Wednesday was the day of creation that God said, "let there be light" and instead Judas, as a kind of humanity, tried to kill the light and insulted and betrayed the personal love of God instead. It's a reminder to us to subdue that impulse of self destruction to kick God out of our lives.
Friday was the day that God made the first Human to live and have a very close relationship with Him of real connection. The first Adam committed a kind of suicide by denying life but the Love of God is not like our love. God loves us more than we can ever love ourselves, so God gave us a new Adam in order to save us.
God the Father understood that we were helpless int eh grip of the fear of death and of judgement so it was time for Jesus to conquer the cosmos and to give life to our fallen humanity by descending into hell and conquering the Devil there and with his Resurrection freeing Adam from hell so he could return to Paradise. the importance and lesson of this is why we quote it in the Nicean creed every week.
It is time for all of us to take this holy week and ask ourselves a very serious question: Am I the kicker or am I the washer? If you are the "washer" don't feel so bad if you get a few kicks. Even Jesus got that so you are in good company.
Christ is risen for us!