BE AN EXAMPLE

READ: John 13:1-17

ANSWER THIS: Who’s someone you have a hard time being around because they’ve hurt you?

THE BREAKDOWN

Jesus is sitting down with his disciples over a traditional Jewish meal to celebrate the Passover. The Bible refers to this particular evening as the Last Supper, as it was the last meal he shares with his disciples before his arrest and execution.

As Jesus is contemplating what’s going to happen over the next few days, he’s full of love for his closest friends, the disciples. A love that includes Judas, the one who betrays him.

The disciples must be curious why he suddenly gets up from the table, takes off his robe, wraps a towel around his waist, and starts pouring water into a basin. His intentions are soon made clear when he starts kneeling down to wash their feet and then dry them with the towel around his waist.

Washing the feet of guests before a meal was a common practice back then, the job of the lowliest of servants. So, when Jesus gets to Simon Peter, Peter tells him no way. He’d rather have him wash his head, hands, AND feet, simply because it wouldn’t be as humiliating of an act for Jesus to perform.

But, the example Jesus is setting for them is too important, so Jesus won’t have it any other way. Unless Peter allows him to wash his feet, Jesus tells him he can’t truly claim to be his disciple. If Jesus, as their teacher and Lord, is willing to humble himself to this degree, then the disciples should be willing to do the same for others.

Even if “others” includes someone who betrays them.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

Imagine how dirty people’s feet got back in Jesus’ time. They didn’t have shoes and socks like we do, now. They wore sandals. So, their feet were pretty disgusting by the end of the day. Especially, if they’d been traveling from town to town on dirt roads. So, stooping, both figuratively and literally, to wash someone else’s feet was about as humiliating as it could get.

Yet, that’s what Jesus did, and asked the disciples to do likewise—serve in ways they considered “beneath” them. Their willingness to do as Jesus did would demonstrate their love for him, and show people what it means to be a follower of Christ.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR ME?

Who is it that needs you to serve them in a way that doesn’t come naturally to you, or in a way that you consider “beneath” you? Be they a friend, or the last person on earth you’d want to befriend, Jesus provided the example of the kind of service we, as his followers, should extend to others.

PRAYER

“Dear Lord. I can’t believe the way Jesus served the disciples in such a humble way—including Judas, the one who betrays him. I need Your help to do something that’s not easy for me. Help me to be a good example of how Jesus served others, even if it means serving someone who hurt me.”