Holy Week DevotionalSýnishorn

I don’t consider myself a “procrastinator,” but whenever I have a deadline of any kind, I’m always more productive the closer I get to the due date. If you’ve ever been a student, you know what I’m talking about. The “time crunch” causes us to devote more effort and energy to accomplishing the task at hand.  I’ve never met anyone in school that starts their final paper on the first week of classes.    

Our passage for today tells us that Jesus was facing the “time crunch.” In this passage it says, “Jesus knew that his hour had come [and] having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1 ESV). It’s difficult to imagine a more beautiful line, but Jesus extends to us a love that stops at nothing. In his waning hours, Jesus continues to show himself to be a different kind of King than any of us could have imagined. Taking off his own garment and kneeling down, Jesus began to wash his disciples’ feet.

Peter expresses his outrage, recognizing that Jesus was about to do an unbelievable and dishonorable thing. Culturally speaking, the person of honor would have had their feet washed by the lowliest servant. Here Jesus stoops down to clean the dirty feet of his followers in order to demonstrate all the more clearly that unless we are washed by Jesus, we have no hope to be cleansed at all. 

What a humbling picture of the King we serve! But as F.F. Bruce says, “The form of God was not exchanged for the form of a servant; it was revealed in the form of a servant.”  Jesus is not acting like a servant, as if it were a temporary role to play- this is the very character and nature of God on display! As we have seen this week, Jesus is not like the rulers of this world, nor is his kingdom anything like the kingdoms that they have built. 

Jesus calls his disciples to faith asking, “Do you understand what I have done to you?” (John 13:12 ESV). The physical washing that takes place for Jesus’ disciples ultimately points to a more significant cleansing of their very hearts by the Holy Spirit.  Through the powerful illustration of feet washing, Jesus faithfully and mercifully demonstrates that God’s Kingdom differs greatly from that of this world.  In Jesus, we see that the way to this Kingdom is through the cross.  Ultimately, pure and right standing before God is only possible because our King and Savior laid aside his heavenly glory, in order that he might make a way for us to follow by pouring out his blood in place of ours.  

But what can all this mean for us now? The answer is simple: “do just as I have done to you.” The One who knelt to wash his creation’s feet calls you to do the same as a participant in the work of God’s Kingdom. Each one of us has been united to Christ our Savior and he has sent each one of us into the world, just as he was sent by his Father, in order that we might demonstrate the nature of God’s kingdom in our daily life as well. 

As you approach Good Friday and Easter this year, remember that Jesus himself was rejected for your acceptance.  Believe that by looking to Jesus, you can experience God’s unconditional love and mercy.  Take hold of the eternal promise of grace, which is in Christ, who by his finished work freely offers forgiveness for sin and adoption into the family of God.  Those who do will “never be put to shame” (Romans 10:11 ESV).