Wednesday, July
12, 2017
Before
the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world
and return to his Father. He had loved
his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very
end. It was time for supper, and the
devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him
authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to
God. So he got up from the table, took
off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured
water into a basin. Then he began to
wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. John 13:1-5(NLT)
If you’re
hard-wired like me you almost can’t stop reading this account until you get to
Peter refusing to have his feet washed.
After all, that’s the main point, isn’t it? Isn’t it always all about us, and how we
react to God? Well, in a way…but not so
much that our actions
become the focus. That is why I stopped crossing
this street in the middle.
Much of the
Gospel story is cast in cause and
effect; the washing of the disciples’ feet is no exception. Notice that John records the effects in this “So”
and “Then” mode of the storyteller:
So he got up from the
table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and
poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them
with the towel he had around him. John
13:4-5(NLT)
Those are
effects…what’s the cause? Back up to
verse 2:
…the devil had
already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.
John 13:2b(NLT)
The Gospel
writer explained what happened at the table as one who was an insider. Jesus knew the enemy’s ways and recognized
what was happening in Judas. He reacted
by an act of service that helped the disciples know how to respond to the evil
that was coming.
And isn’t
that what it means to follow
Jesus? Isn’t it our task to respond to
the culture in which we find ourselves in the same manner and spirit of the One
who is our Master?
For You Today
This is our
lesson for today… (and forever):
For those
who would genuinely follow Jesus, the response to evil is to serve others…even
in the face of betrayal
NOTES
![Rembrandt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Le_lavement_des_pieds%2C_Rembrandt%2C_Rijksmuseum%2C_Amsterdam.jpg){kind=link}
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