JOHN 13:12-17 – When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE HARDEST LESSON WE WILL LEARN. The occasion of today’s scripture is Jesus washing the feet of His disciples. Imagine what it would have been like sitting there on the floor, watching the Lord get up, not say a word, grab a towel and basin of water, then methodically go from one disciple to another washing their dirty feet. But imagine it even further if we were one of the disciples and Jesus got closer and closer to us. We watched Him intently, then, it was our turn. As His eyes met ours, we may have wanted to turn away. Blushing even. The level of humility rising in us would have overflowed when Jesus smiled and washed our dirty feet. Yes, I believe He would have smiled. It was His way. Serving people especially His own people was a delight, not a duty, a pleasure, not a burden. And then our Lord returned to His place around the table and gave the disciples, and today us, the hardest lesson we will ever learn as followers of Him. He said, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

Now before we quickly say, “Yes, I know this lesson. I am to ‘wash feet’ in sacrificial service to the Lord’s people”, there is more to this than meets the eye. Jesus doesn’t say, “Serve my people by giving them isolated acts of service.” This was one act of serving by Jesus, but it was illustrative of His life – a life of service. And here is the lesson. We are not saved and called of God to perform isolated acts of sacrificial service but to a life of sacrificial service – just like our Lord Jesus. Friends, it isn’t too difficult to give a little bit of time to serving the Lord. I mean every Christian should be serving in this fashion. We should find ourselves serving the Lord in some fashion, and especially through our local churches. Yet, don’t misunderstand what defines a servant of the Lord. It isn’t carving out an hour or two a week in some ministry or activity. Jesus is telling us, “As I lived, so you live” and He lived every day in submission to His Father’s will denying Himself for the sake of others.

Is this not the most difficult lesson to learn? We don’t live for ourselves – ever. We are bought by Christ for Christ and others (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:14; Philippians 2:4). In a culture of “me-centeredness” and a Christian culture of man-centeredness, not God-centeredness, we are challenged daily to die to self to live for Christ and others. That means a service-oriented life, not isolated acts of service in life. But here is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian life – our joy comes from selfless living not selfish. Remember this as we follow our Master in a life modeling His; a life of daily service for the spreading of His Name, Gospel, and our joy.

PRAYER: “Father, help me to see my walk with You is to be like Your Son – total submission, all the time.”

QUOTE: “Being a servant of the Lord Jesus is not a part-time role or defined by our own understanding.”