Transforming LonelinessSample

Section Three: Jesus Demonstrates Intimacy in Service

You and I have the opportunity now to wrap our hearts and minds around this process of being transformed in the midst of our loneliness, for our hearts, too, when surrendered to our Father, are deeply touched and transformed like Zacchaeus’s. And to help us do that, we have the words and actions of Jesus on his final night on earth before He was crucified.

After Jesus and the disciples had finished the Last Supper, just before going to the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus taught His disciples one last time. John captures it all in John 13 through 17. If ever, during a time of solitude, you want to better know the heart of Jesus toward you, I encourage you to read those five chapters in one sitting. He had so much He wanted them to know and remember. Every word is precious.

I’m always moved by how John begins Jesus’s farewell discourse.

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. (John 13:1, NASB)

Yes. He loved them to the end. He loves us just as much. And among His words and actions of love are verses that I believe have a special meaning to the lonely. They certainly minister to me in my loneliness. They also have a profound effect on how you and I relate to Jesus and on how you and I befriend others.

Questions:

1. Peter was at first reluctant to allow Jesus to wash his feet. Why? In what ways are you reluctant to allow Jesus to serve you in such intimate ways?

2. Will you allow Jesus to create a new intimacy between Him and you? How and in what way?

3. Jesus tells us in verse 14 that we are to wash one another’s feet. How might that be translated into practical ways in our culture today?