Challenge Accepted: BibleSample

These three chapters of John relay a very long and profoundly meaningful conversation between Jesus and His Disciples. Jesus starts it off by performing one of the most memorable acts of service that any of them would ever experience. At this point, they were convinced He was the Messiah – the Son of God. Then to their shock, Jesus crouches down and washes their disgusting feet with His bare hands. I’m sure John was perplexed, and probably a bit embarrassed about the dirt and donkey dung between his toes. And then still reeling a bit from that moment, Jesus begins to outline everything that is about to happen. And as Jesus continues to describe it, it just keeps getting worse…He’s going to be arrested, He’ll be killed, the Disciples will scatter, they will deny Him…Jesus had never been wrong before, so I doubt John was actually questioning Him. But I imagine that hearing all these things was so surreal, so beyond what John thought was going to happen, that his brain simply couldn’t process it all in that moment. I mean, how confused would you be (not knowing the rest of the story like we do looking back from the future), and might it be hard to imagine your best friend and God going through any of what Jesus was describing, especially in light of all the power you had seen Him display so far?

As you read today, ask yourself these two questions:

• What verse or moment stood out to me the most?
• What can I do with that in my life today?