His Final FootstepsShembull

Teacher and Lord

Unpretentious. Accessible. Real. People found Yeshua’s blend of authority, authenticity, and compassion irresistible. Yes, He communicated truth powerfully through sermons and parables. But He also delivered truth through His example. He modeled it.

This is precisely what we see Him doing near the beginning of His final Passover. Recognizing that His time for teaching and training His handpicked followers was rapidly running out, Yeshua knew He had to do more than tell them that servanthood was the key to advancing in His kingdom. He had to show them.

In washing His disciples’ feet as the lowest servant in a household would do, Yeshua modeled for them the kind of life He wanted them to live after He was gone. He said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (verse 15).

As His disciples jockeyed for position and argued about which of them was the greatest, Yeshua showed them the paradox of greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven—even as He stood on the threshold of the greatest ordeal any person ever faced.

Food For Thought and Prayer

The apostle Paul said, “Have this attitude in yourselves, which also was in Messiah Yeshua, Who, though existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to be grasped. But He emptied Himself—taking on the form of a slave . . .” (Philippians 2:5–7 TLV)