Sermon Transcript
Well, we’re in this series on the last week in the life of Christ, and we’re in John. We’re in John chapter 13 today. And so if you want to take your Bible out and turn there with me, we’re going to jump right into the text in just a second. But we’ve enjoyed this study so far as we lead up to Easter. So actually what we’re doing is looking at the last week in the life of Christ in the book of John.
As we lead up to Easter and even the Sunday after Easter. So we thought this would be most appropriate since we had come to John chapter 12. And David and Steve had taken us through John chapter 12. I think David had the tougher task in that we gave him 30 verses or whatever it was. Was it 30 or was it 50?
30 was plenty. Yeah, 30 verses last week. And today we’re only going to look at 17, but I think it’ll actually be a little bit easier to handle. I appreciate David and what he did last week, and Steve, what he did the week before, and Rob today. Hey, Rob, the music has been outstanding.
Can we just thank Rob for what he’s been doing? This has been great. Yeah. You know, that song right there, Rob, you were kind of pushing into country. That’s cool.
I love that. You know, man, we’re almost like all the way over there to the countryside of things. How fun. Well, the last week in the life of Christ. We’re on Thursday now, John chapter 13.
So, the We’re in the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life. So I wanna ask you a question. I want you to talk to your neighbor about this. Hopefully there’s somebody next to you you can talk to just for a moment. But I want you to share just in a second, if it was the last 24 hours of your life, you knew it was the last 24 hours of life, what would you be doing?
What would be on your bucket list? And of course you’re familiar with a bucket list. A bucket list are things that you wanna do before you kick the bucket, right? So if you knew that you had less than 24 hours to live, How would you spend your time? Just turn to your neighbor and tell them what you would be doing.
Like now, you could tell them right now. Go ahead. What’s on yours?
What would you do?
I know it. Me too.
All right, did you think of something? Something that you would do? How many said they would go be with family? You’d spend time with family. How about time with friends?
All right, if you didn’t raise your hand, you’re sitting next to family or friend, they’re kind of wondering what is up with you, you know? Maybe we should have a serious talk about this. Family, friends, some of you— how many of you said, I’m going to have some food? Food I’ve always wanted. Yeah.
Oh man, I’m going to load up on ice cream. Oh yeah, good. Or, I’m going to eat some dark chocolate because I heard that it might extend my life. So, I’m gonna take in a lot of dark chocolate. Who knows what it is that you’re going to do?
All right, the other side of the question. What would you not be doing if you knew that you had 24 hours, less than 24 hours to live? What would you not do with your time? Tell your friend next to you.
Yeah, I heard a few of those. All right, no doubt. How many of you said I would not be doing any work? Yeah. How many of you said I would not be doing any school?
I would not be doing any schoolwork put together. No, I wouldn’t do that. Uh, how many said I would not, uh, clean anything? Yes, absolutely. You know, I think we’ll go clean our car here.
I got 24 hours or less to live, so we’ll just— no, we’re not going to clean anything, nothing at all. I— you probably would not be eating cauliflower either, but you know, that’s a whole nother story. But you know, there are things that we would not do, which is fascinating because when you look at this last 24 hours of Jesus’ life, he washes the disciples’ feet knowing that he has less than 24 hours to live. He washes the disciples’ feet, which seems rather absurd in some ways because you’re thinking, you know, why would you use any of your precious time? I mean, would you go clean the toilet or whatever it is during the last 24 hours?
No. You’re going to do something, in our minds, something more worthy of my time, and yet Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, which begs the question to be asked, why? Why was that so important? What was it about washing the disciples’ feet at that moment in time? What was it for?
What lessons needed to be taught? What was it that they needed to hear? What do we need to hear? It’s interesting because in John 13, it’s not just a lesson, but also it’s a benefit. And if you look on down to verse 13, or excuse me, chapter 13, verse 17, At the end of this text, Jesus says this: Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
And of course, the them is what happens here in this text when he washes the disciples’ feet. So it’s the last week in the life of Christ. On Sunday, Jesus has come into town. We call it the triumphal entry. The people are worshiping him either as a fan or a follower.
On Monday, he cleansed the temple, not something that we are able to look at in the book of John. There was a second temple cleansing. We looked at one early on in John. But we didn’t get to one here in the latter part. It’s contained in other passages in the gospel accounts.
On, let’s see, on Tuesday and Wednesday, he has many different teachings, and some of those teachings David went over with us last Sunday. So now we’re on Thursday. It’s Thursday evening. The disciples have gathered in an upper room. They’ve had a last meal together, or they’re having a last meal together.
It was that meal where Jesus instituted the Last Supper, the Lord’s Supper, where he took some bread And he took some wine and gave it new meaning. But then in that context, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. We’re asking the question this morning, why? What was so important about washing the disciples’ feet that ultimately would lead to a blessing? So, look at the text with me.
Let’s jump into it and let’s see what it was that was going on here that made this so important at that point in time, which obviously we can benefit from as well. Verse 1, it was just before the Passover feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. So he knew his time was short. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them— and you might want to circle the word showed or underline— he’s now going to show them the full extent of his love.
So he’s going to do something hopefully they will never forget, and they’ll get the message. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. So that was already going on when this was happening here in the room. There was an agreement that was entered into before Judas came into this room. So John is marking that out.
And then it says, and Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So in other words, Jesus knew exactly where he was in terms of God’s plan. He was living at the very center of God’s plan, and what He was doing in this room at this point in time was absolutely intentional. I want you to hear that. Jesus’ actions at this point are intentionally guided.
And if you ask the question, so, what was it that motivated Him to do what He’s about to do? What is it? Do you see it there in the text? What was it that motivated Him to get up and to wash the disciples’ feet? Do you see it?
What is it? Love. Yeah, love. Do you see it back up there in verse 1? It says that having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love.
And the word love that’s used there is not the word phileo, the word for friendship love. It’s not the word eros for a physical romantic kind of love. It’s the word agape, which is the love of sacrifice. And that’s very important to note. Because what Jesus is about ready to do is wash these guys’ feet, but he knew who was sitting in the room with him.
He knew that Judas was there, and Judas was already into an arrangement that he was going to betray Jesus. So he knew going into what he was going to do that there was an individual sitting in the room who was going to stab him in the back. There was an individual sitting in the room, Peter, who was ultimately going to deny Jesus. There was an individual sitting in the room, Thomas, who ultimately would not believe the resurrection of Jesus, and there were some others that had big egos that were sitting in the room. So all of that was going on.
Now the reason I bring this up is because this— what he’s going to do is the love of selfless sacrifice for some individuals who don’t deserve to be loved. And I’d like you just to keep that in mind because the perspective that Jesus wants us to grab onto has to do with selfless sacrifice, with loving people who don’t deserve to be loved. There are people in your life right now that have wounded you, they’ve hurt you. People in your life that you’d like to take their photo and you’d like to put it up on the wall and you’d like to throw darts at it. In fact, maybe you’re already doing that sort of thing, I have no idea.
But they’re individuals that you want nothing to do with. Maybe you’ve turned bitter toward them, maybe you avoid them. Usually, if we know somebody’s going to stab us in the back, something in the future doesn’t look good, we’re going to avoid them. We’re not going to do what it was that Jesus did here. And yet Jesus moves to these individuals and he’s going to do something sacrificial.
Several years ago, I heard a definition of love I never forgot. I was at the time a counselor at a junior high camp, Camp Sugar Pine, and Stu Weber was speaking and he said that love is sacrificial action. He said, love is self-sacrificing action that meets one another’s needs. I never forgot that. It’s always connected to sacrifice.
I’ve been teaching Walk Through the Bible seminars now for several years, and one of the seminars we teach is Love, Sex, and Lasting Relationships. And we use a definition in the seminar, simply this, to describe love. Love is giving the other person what they need the most when they deserve it the least. A great personal sacrifice.
And there’s always sacrifice involved in this. And so what we’re going to look at right now involves sacrifice. It’s the same kind of sacrifice that a wife had toward her husband when she put a card on his pillow. It was a card that had these words on it: I’d rather do nothing with you than something without you. You say, well, that’s really nice to get a card like that from your wife on your pillow.
I’d rather do nothing with you than something without you.
And beneath those words though, she wrote the words, I forgive you, I love you, let’s move on. You see, what was behind putting that card on the pillow was the fact that he had been unfaithful to her sexually. And she, with self-sacrificing action, said, I want this relationship to continue. Let’s move on. And so what I want you to hear as we look at this, as I examine this and think about my heart, Jesus knew exactly what he was getting into.
It’d be like you serving somebody who stole your virginity. It would be like you serving somebody who took away your job, somebody who wounded you, somebody who took away your children, your retirement, your investments, and yet you turn around and you love them sacrificially knowing what they have done or what they potentially could do. So Jesus was motivated by love. But go on. What did he do?
So he got up from the meal, verse 4. He took off his outer clothing and he wrapped a towel around his waist. Commentators say at this point he stripped down to a loincloth. A loincloth was the attire of a servant. So Jesus assumed the attire of a servant at this point.
And after that, he poured water into a basin and he began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. And this is kind of hard to understand because most of us, you know, when we have a family dinner or whatever, it is around a table, our feet are under the table, but their feet weren’t under the table. It was a low table. It was real common to have low tables at that time, and their feet would be extended away from the table. So kind of in a— I can’t really do this or I’ll get in trouble and hurt my back, but the idea is they’re in kind of this lounge position where they’re facing the table but their feet are away from the table.
Okay, you get the picture? And Jesus has assumed the position of a servant. He’s walking now around the table and he’s washing. The feet of his disciples. And it says that he got to Peter, verse 6, and it says he came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?
Because in Peter’s mind, the Lord and washing feet, that didn’t compute. Those 2 did not go together. In fact, what I found out is that this task— of course, we all know that washing somebody’s feet would be a very humbling, menial task, and it was the task of a servant Listen, not even a Jewish servant would do this. This was the task of a Gentile servant. So Jesus assumes the posture of a Gentile servant.
He is wearing the attire of a servant. He begins to wash the disciples’ feet. And so it is no wonder Peter asked the question, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus replied, you do not realize now what I am doing, But later you will understand. No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet.
And in the Greek language, it’s as strong of a negative as you could possibly have. This is never going to happen. And Jesus answered, it says, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Which tells us right away that Jesus has more than just washing their feet in mind. He wants them to teach— he wants to teach them something theologically.
He wants to teach them something about God and a relationship with God. So he says, unless I wash you, you have no part with me? Then, Lord, Simon Peter replied, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well. In other words, he doesn’t really understand what Jesus is trying to teach at this point. All he knows is whatever Jesus is offering, he wants it.
He says— so he says, I’m in. Jesus answered, verse 10, a person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet. His whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you. Now, what’s he talking about at this point?
Well, what Jesus is talking about is salvation. And Jesus is saying that there’s one individual who is sitting there who had not yet been washed. He had not yet taken a bath in the Lord, you might want to say. His whole body is clean if he has come to Christ, if in Christ he has taken a bath. So, what is this a picture of?
Well, those who come to a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, their sins— you’ve heard this before— their sins are washed away. They are completely forgiven. We become new creations in Christ. In fact, in Titus chapter 3 and verse 5, it talks about the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Well, that happens at the moment that a person is saved.
And once we are saved, our sins are completely forgiven, so we don’t need to be re-saved. The washing has already been done. But he is also saying at this point, but there is this continual cleansing that is done, and that would be descriptive of 1 John 1:9 where it tells us that when we sin, we want to confess our sins to God because he is faithful and just to continue to forgive us of our sins and to continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, I think what Jesus has in mind here is to teach them something about salvation and how if a person is in Christ, that person has had their sins washed away, but He is telling them at the same time that not everybody that was sitting there at that moment whose feet were being washed was clean, had been completely forgiven in Christ, had their sins washed away. Because it says He knew who was going to betray Him, and that was why He said not everyone was clean.
And, of course, He is talking about Judas who next week Steve is going to focus on as we talk about the betrayal, which is the continuation of this passage. And so in verse 12, it says that when Jesus had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and he returned to his place. So what’s happened here? Well, motivated by love, Jesus moved to the need. And what was the need?
The need in the room was these guys had stinky, smelly, dirty feet. And of course, back then they walked on dusty roads with sandals, and so it was commonplace when they got to a place where they would eat some food that a servant would come out and wash their feet. But in this case, at this meal, there was no servant present to wash their feet. So with no servant present, the Lord stands up and he meets this need. Don’t miss it.
The Lord stands up intentionally and he meets this need. He stoops to meet this need. And as he’s meeting the need, he reveals the truth about salvation, how salvation washes a person’s sins away. He reveals the fact that there’s one person sitting there who’s not saved, and he revealed and demonstrated his selfless servant’s heart. You can pretty much get an idea of whether or not a person is living with a foot-washing mindset by what they do in a room where there’s a need.
Isn’t that true?
After dinner, You can get a pretty good idea whether or not a person has a foot-washing mindset, unless they’re living under threat, if they get up and they pick up their plate and they take their plate over to the sink and they then at least rinse the plate off and then put it in the dishwasher, because that’s, you know, like a huge task to put it all the way in the dishwasher too. You, you can begin to get kind of a sense of whether or not a person has a foot-washing mindset if they’re moved toward need, if they’re thinking about serving instead of being the one who is served. And what you see here is a demonstration of the fact that Jesus is perfect servant. He moves toward the need. Recently, a couple months ago, we had the opportunity to meet our daughter’s new significant other.
She has a guy in her life and they’re really building this significant relationship and they seem like they may be going somewhere. But anyway, so we were together for dinner. It was the first time that we met him. And we really had a nice time together, and then we sat down and we had dinner. And after dinner, he was the first one to stand up, and he took his plate, he went over to the sink, and he started cleaning off his plate.
And I’m watching this, and then some other plates came over and he started cleaning off those plates too. And I thought, now, Katie, this is a guy you want to hang on to.
I mean, it doesn’t take long, right? I mean, you could see it. It’s It’s obvious. It’s obvious where a person’s coming from. I mean, it’s pretty obvious by what happens in shopping malls and, you know, like Safeway or Costco.
You ever go to Costco and you’re trying to pull into a parking place and right in front of you there’s a shopping cart? Like somebody parked their shopping cart in the parking place that you’re trying to get into? I promise you that person does not have a foot washing mindset. They’re not thinking about that. Have you guys ever seen this, how people walk across the street?
You know, you’re at a corner and they’re just like dragging across the street, and maybe you’re there in your car and you’re next to the curb and you just want to make a right turn and you’re waiting for them to go. And what are they doing? They’re just dragging across the street. I mean, there’s no foot washing mindset there at all. They’re not thinking about the other cars that are going to turn.
All they’re thinking about is We’re just going to lollygag and we’re going to go across this street. You people are just going to have to sit there and wait. No foot-washing mindset. Does that bother you? I just had to get that off my chest.
In fact, it’s not only that, but sometimes you pull up to the signal and you want to turn right and you know there’s the car in front of you and he’s not going to turn right, or she, or whoever it is. I’m going to get on the sexist thing here. But anyway, so this person’s in the lane, but they’re not really in their lane. They’re in your lane too. Have you seen this before?
They’re sitting at the signal and they’re up there and they’ve got to wait for the signal to change, but they somehow decided that they were the only person in the whole world that wanted to use that lane and the next lane too. They have no idea that there might be somebody who might come along to the right side of them and turn right before the signal turns green. You know what I’m talking about? Yes.
I just want to know if there’s anybody here that empathizes with the situation with me. This is not a foot-washing mindset, right? I mean, you can pretty much get a read on where people are coming from by what’s happening in the room. Several years ago, I was pastoring down in Southern California, and we had a— for a few weeks at least— a star actor who came to our church. He was on the show Starsky and Hutch.
Some of you remember Starsky and Hutch? Yes, a few of you remember this, right? You people are really old that remember Starsky and Hutch. But anyway, so he was like one of the lead actors on the show, and, and one particular Sunday morning came to the church, and, and he came up to me afterwards. He said, Dave, I really need to talk to you.
I said, great, well, let’s set up an appointment. He said, no, I need to talk to this afternoon. I need to talk to you right now. I’ve got some things going on. I really need to talk to you.
I said, okay, well, why don’t you come over to our house? Because, you know, we had young children. You know how the young children thing goes. Some of you are thinking about it right now. We’ve got to get home.
We’ve got to get them to bed, and we can’t do all this stuff. And so you immediately get your kids home because they’re tired after being at church and all the rest of it, right? So we went home, and we got the kids down, and he came, and we weren’t prepared for this. I mean, usually, you know, you’ve got somebody nice. Actor or somebody like that coming into your house, you’re going to get prepared for it, right?
You’re going to clean the house, make the thing look good. And so, we weren’t ready for that. There were kids’ stuff everywhere, which means the carpet looked like crud. You know what I’m talking about? I mean, in the family room, at least, this one particular area, it just looked like they were having a heyday down there or something.
I have no idea what was going on there. But anyway, so we went, we sat in this room, we sat on the couch together, and I remember As I’m sitting on this couch, I’m looking down at this floor as he’s talking to me about these problems, and I’m seeing all this crud. So I’m thinking, this is not good. We got a star in our home and there’s crud on the floor. And so I got up and I bent down and I started picking up the crud and putting it into my palm of my hand.
And I’ll never forget it because we’re still carrying on this conversation, and the next thing I know, he’s getting up and he’s now down on the floor picking up the crud with me. And I remember thinking— this is why I remember this— this is a guy who’s a star on Starsky and Hutch, and he’s in my home right now picking crud out of the carpet. This is unbelievable. And of course, you know, it’s not so unbelievable because we had shag rugs back then. Do you remember the shag rugs?
You’d rake them and all the rest of it. And this was a gold shag rug. It was so beautiful. But when he did that, what was he demonstrating? He was demonstrating the kind of mindset that Jesus had, a foot-washing mindset.
I mean, why did Jesus do this within the last 24 hours of His life? Well, He tells them. He tells them specifically why He did it. Verse 12, do you understand what I’ve done for you? He asked them.
I mean, what I just did wasn’t happenstance. It wasn’t, you know, oh, just do something. I don’t have anything else to do with my time here. It was intentional. He wanted them to get something they had not yet— listen— gotten.
You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should— and you might want to circle the word should— should wash one another’s feet. I want you to follow my example. I’ve set you an example that you should, and circle again the word should, you should do as I have done for you. And of course, the question comes up at this point, well, did he mean literally?
Does he want me like literally washing everybody’s feet like he was washing the disciples’ feet? Was he instituting a new practice here? Was he intending that they do what it was when he said that you need to remember my death by taking bread and a cup, and in the same way that you practice communion and in the same way that you practice baptism, is he saying now that you also need to practice foot washing? Is that what he’s saying? Well, if it was what it was that he was saying, then they didn’t understand it that way because the foot washing practice actually doesn’t begin until the 4th century after Christ.
The 4th century. It doesn’t come along till then. And in fact, the text itself would suggest that’s not what he has in mind. I mean, it’s not that what he’s saying to them is that you should do as I’ve done for you, so, you know, listen, I didn’t really get everybody’s feet all that clean, and so I want you to turn around right now and I want you just to wash each other’s feet. No, that’s not what he is saying.
It’s not a practice that he’s establishing. It is a pursuit. Perspective or it is a pattern. And the perspective or pattern that he is establishing here is to live with a foot washing mindset so that when you see a need and there’s something that you can do about that need, you don’t wait for somebody else to meet the need. You meet it.
Is that you? I ask myself, is that me? How many times do I walk over to the sink and there are dishes sitting in there, and I could do something about the dishes, but I don’t because I don’t have a footwashing mindset? Have you ever been on an airplane, maybe Southwest Airlines especially, because, you know, everybody’s, like, randomly getting their seats? But have you ever been on an airplane and all of a sudden right before the plane takes off there’s that one family that comes in with 9 children or whatever it is, And they board the plane like last, and then the flight attendant gets on the PA system and says, listen, we got a family here that would really like to sit together, but they’re not going to be able to sit together because there’s just a bunch of individual seats, and there are a couple of seats, and if you would be willing to give up your seat so that this family could sit together, it would be great.
Just let us know. Ring your call button.
And when I thought of that, I thought of the last time I was on a Southwest flight and Bernice and I were sitting together, and we could have But we didn’t.
I mean, do I live with a foot-washing mindset so that if there’s a need, I’m going to move to the need? I’m going to do what I can to meet that need. Jesus goes on to say, I tell you the truth— this is that verily, verily clause— no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. What’s He saying? Listen.
If I, your Master, am willing to serve, then you need to be willing to serve.
If I serve you, you need to serve each other. And then He says, and now that you know these things, you will be blessed. And the word blessed is that word that comes from the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Those Beatitudes.
Well, the words blessed that are used there could actually be translated happy. So Jesus is saying, now that you know I want you to live with a foot washing mindset, you want to experience happiness, you want to experience blessings, start living that way. In fact, he says you will be blessed if you do them, if you continue, because it’s in the present tense. It’s still— it’s not just go wash the dishes once and you’re done with it. You’ll always be able to say, do you remember that time that I washed the dishes?
Wasn’t I cool? No. If you continue to do this, if you continue to live with a foot-washing mindset, you will be blessed. You will experience happiness. Now, here’s a question.
Why in the world, within the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life, would he be talking about this? You think that these guys would have got this by now. Did they? Just a few days before this, there was a conversation that they had with Jesus in Mark chapter 10, verses 35 to 37. It records it this way.
It says, then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. Teacher, they said, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. Do you guys ever ask your parents something like that? Hey, we got something in mind, but we just want to make sure that before we ask you this, that you’re going to do whatever we ask you to do. Would that Do you guys ever use this approach?
It’s really not the best approach, is it? Jesus says, well, what do you want me to do for you? He asked. They replied, let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in glory. That’s what we want to do.
We don’t want the big throne. We just want the next 2 biggest in glory. And by the way, if you go into the Luke account, you find out that the they replied, the they there that’s found there, that they included their mom. So their mom came with them and asked the Lord, would you let my boys have the big thrones in heaven next to yours? It says in verse 41, when the 10 heard about this, they became indignant.
And the idea here is probably indignant because that was what was in their mind, but these guys beat them to the punch. So that was bothersome with James and John. And Jesus called them together and said, you know that those regarded as rulers Get it? Rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials— I mean, they’re on the top of the org chart telling everybody else what to do— and their high officials exercise authority over them. And so Jesus says, not so with you.
I don’t want you living that way. I don’t want you living with that mindset. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. In other words, a few days before the upper room, Jesus had already taught them about the importance of living with a foot-washing mindset.
Did they get it? If you look at the parallel account, Luke chapter 22, that focuses on the same thing, that we’re focused on in John chapter 13. You get this. Luke 22:14, when the hour came, Jesus and His apostles reclined at the table. Verse 17, and after taking the cup, He gave thanks.
And then you have this communion scene, which is not found— it’s interesting— in John. We don’t get the communion passage like we do here. He gave thanks and He said, take this and divide it among you. And He took the bread and He gave thanks and broke it, and He gave it to them saying, this is My body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
In the same way, after the supper, he took the cup also, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. So all that was going on. The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to the man, that man who betrays him. So it’s like a warning to Judas who’s sitting there.
They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. And then this, also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be the greatest.
Can you imagine this? Jesus just picked up the bread and the cup and talked about his ultimate death, and they’re fighting about who’s going to be the greatest. In other words, the lesson that Jesus went over a few days before, it still had not sunk in.
Jesus went on to say, the kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors. In other words, they think like they are good, benefactors being people helpers. But you are not to be like that. Like what? Like those people who exercise authority over others.
Instead, the greatest among you shall be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who is ruled. Serves. What is Jesus doing here? Jesus is mandating by example the importance of servanthood, of living with a foot-washing mindset, and they haven’t yet got that. So in the last 24 hours of his life, he gets up from a table and he gives them an object lesson that hopefully they will never Forget.
Did they remember it?
Peter, we’re told in his book, said several times this: live as servants of God, 1 Peter 2:16. 1 Peter 4:10, each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others. Be shepherds, 1 Peter 5:2, be shepherds of God’s flock. That is under your care, serving as overseers, not because you must, but because you’re willing, as God wants you to be, not greedy for money, but eager to serve. Eager to serve.
Is that you? Is that me? When there’s a need, am I a person who’s on the eager-to-serve side? Am I a server? Or am I a you-serve-me kind of person?
Am I a giver or am I a taker?
You know, you think about a modem. What’s a modem? A modem is this wonderful contraption that receives and it gives. And if it only receives and it doesn’t give, we hate our modems.
We say, why don’t you go buy a new modem? Because it’s not serving the purpose for which it was created.
And Jesus is saying that my followers, my children, those who’ve been washed, those whose sins have been forgiven, I want them to live different in this world. I want people to see in them selfless serving. You familiar with Ritz-Carlton? Probably Most of us here have never been to a Ritz-Carlton. I’ve been one time.
Ritz-Carlton has a motto, and the motto is simply this: We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. And they talk about anticipatory service, how they want their employees living and working with anticipatory service. So they want them to anticipate what the guest needs. And to be willing with that servant mindset to meet that need. And what you see Jesus doing in this room at this point in time is selflessly sacrificing intentionally to meet the needs of the disciples that are present so that they would begin to live differently.
Listen, they only walked with Jesus for 3, 3 and a half years, and yet they didn’t get it. And some of us have been walking with Jesus for years. I don’t know how long you’ve been walking with the Lord, but you kind of got to ask yourself, after all these years that I’m walking with the Lord, am I actually now living with a foot washing mindset? Is there intentionality in my life that would suggest that? So in the home, am I lazy?
Do I ever take the initiative just to empty the trash just because the trash is full? I’m speaking to myself here, okay? Is that me? Is our house a wreck and the reason why our house is a wreck is because we keep on waiting on each other to get up and actually do something about the house that’s a wreck? Or is there just a spirit of foot washing that’s present in our house?
And you know what I love about this? What I love about this is that Jesus got up And he met the need that was not expected for him to meet. And if you want to really get a picture of where a person is in terms of their maturity and their servanthood and their desire to serve others and whether or not they have a foot-washing mindset is to go down that road. Are you a person who’s doing things that other people are not asking you to do, but you are going the second mile? You are showing to them the love of Jesus Christ through your life, through your unexpected acts of sacrifice.
Hey guys, you want to blow your parents’ minds?
Do something they haven’t asked you to do. Clean your room, empty the trash, pick up your plate after dinner. In fact, there are a number of wives here that would love for their husbands to hear this this morning.
They are praying extra hard for you right now, men. My wife is praying extra hard for me right now. I mean, do we get this?
Do we really get it?
There was a study that was done by New York— it was actually reported in New York Magazine. It was back in 2007. And the study asked the question, What is it that produces happiness in a person’s life? And you think about this in light of what Jesus says at the end of this passage, if you do these things, if you do these things, if, if, if you do these things, you’ll be blessed. If you do these things, you’ll be happy.
Well, this study was interesting because it was based upon a branch of psychology that looked at scientific empirical— an empirical approach to what makes a person happy. And what they thought was that if you just do a lot of good things for yourself, it would give you pleasure. And that was the perspective that many people had in the study. They believed that if they just did things for themselves, it would give them pleasure, but ultimately it didn’t produce happiness. They said that it produced a hedonic treadmill where they got addicted to the need to do more and more for themselves, kind of like a fix, in order to feel happy, but they were never really happy or satisfied.
But what they found in the study instead is that the best way to increase happiness is through acts of selfless kindness where you pour yourself out for the good of other people. And what Jesus is saying here in this path that he wants his disciples on, that there is happiness at the end of this path. There is an impact on the lives of others, but there’s also going to be an impact on you. And we have to ask ourselves the question, so have I got that? See, the summary of all that Jesus is saying here is that we need to be people who are selflessly serving intentionally and unexpectedly.
Do we get that? Earlier this year, actually it was in 2012, we were in Southern California visiting some friends, and these are friends that we’ve known now for 25 or so years. Our children grew up together in the church that we were in there. And so I’m having a conversation with my friend about the ministry and what’s happened in his life, and at one point he said, Dave, you know what I remember about your ministry? He said, there’s one thing that stands out about all the things that you did.
And, you know, he knew us for 20-some years or so in the ministry there and since. But anyway, he said, you know what I remember most about your ministry? And I’m thinking, well, he probably remembers the more than 1,000 sermons that I preached and the prayers that I prayed or something like that. He said, no, you know what I remember the most? I remember the time that we were away and I had a back injury and we asked if you would just kind of watch over our house.
And so you watched over the house, but also you mowed my lawn. And when I came back, the lawn had been mowed. And he said, that’s the one thing I remember most about you. I remembered you mowed my lawn.
And I’ve since thought about that. I thought, wait a minute, like 1,000+ sermons and all the prayer groups that we were in together, and we served on the elder board together, and the one thing you remember is that I mowed your lawn? And it’s kind of like, yeah.
And if anybody looks at my life right now, is that what they’re going to see? Are they going to see a foot-washing mindset? So why did Jesus in the last 24 hours of his life take time to wash the disciples’ feet? Because these guys who have been with Jesus now for 3 and a half years had still not got it. It’s possible that we’ve still not got it either.
We’ve been hanging around the Lord for a long time. We’re still asking people to serve us instead of serving him. We’re still on the side of taking instead of giving. And the Lord would say to us, you know what? It needs to be different with you.
You need to be a person who lives with a foot washing mindset for your good, for my glory, and for others’ good as well. Let’s pray. Thanks, Lord, for helping us understand this passage this morning and its relevance in our lives. It would be really easy to walk out of here and just live like we always live, totally centered on ourselves, unaware of anything else that’s really going on in the world or in other people’s lives. And we know that this is here because you want to change us.
You want to change us into people that are living other-centered with sacrificial love, doing things that are unexpected and intentional, serving.
And so we pray that even as we continue to worship you this morning, you would cause these truths to be embedded in our hearts, commitments would be made, and we would walk out of here changed. Each one of us. It would result in more loving relationships.
It would result in the love of Christ being seen in and through our lives among even those who are outside your family. It would result in changes in homes and workplaces places in this church.
God, in a myriad of ways, plant this truth in our hearts so that you would be pleased and lives would be changed for it. For we ask this in Jesus’ name. And everybody said amen. Well, let’s continue our worship. We’re going to sing some songs.
