Our church is reading through the Bible over the course of two years. I’ve just finished the book of John. Have you ever read something in the Bible that you’d read many, many times before and it hits you fresh—you see it in a new way? That happened to me while I was reading John 13, the well-known chapter in which Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. Here are verses 1-5:
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
Honestly, I’d read that story a hundred times and just glossed over it. But that day it struck me like lightning. I had a flash of a video in my mind of a super-hero villain who had just been empowered with all power. I saw him stand up and grow maybe 100 feet tall with his arms reaching for the sky, laughing a diabolical laugh with an evil gleam in his eye. He could do anything he wanted, and no one would be able to stop him.
But not Jesus. That was not how he responded when he knew he had all power. Not at all. “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.” He could have done anything at all. He could have displayed his power in an impressive way for all the disciples to see; for instance, he could have replayed the transfiguration, and shown them all Moses and Elijah and his glory. But no. It wasn’t the time for glory. It was a time for humility, for suffering, for making himself nothing. He was headed to the cross where he would give his blood as the perfect sacrifice for all sin for all time. Instead of using his power, he lowered himself. He trusted his Father to glorify him later. He wrapped a towel around his waist and did what servants do: he washed his disciples’ feet.
They were seriously uncomfortable with him doing this, as Peter expressed. But Jesus wanted to set this one last example for them. We see this in verses 12-15: “When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.’”
He wants each of us to serve one another in humility. To care for each other. To honor one another. To regard our brothers and sisters as more important that we, ourselves are. Philippians 2:3 says: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
This was God in Jesus. This is God in us. This is the fruit of the Spirit, the Trinity at work. What a wonder! What a tremendous thought to consider as we approach Easter week.