Serve like Jesus (1)

Monday January 17, 2022

Serve like Jesus (1)

If therefore I have washed your feet, I, the Lord and the Master, you must also wash yourselves one another's feet, for I have given you an example so that you may do as I have done for you. John 13:14,15

In this part of the Gospel according to John (chapter 13-17), the Lord Jesus gathers his disciples around him to prepare them for his absence. Undoubtedly, Jesus had been for them the Lord whose authority is not disputed ; it was he who had chosen them, sent them, ordered them, sometimes reprimanded them. Like a master who trains his disciples, he had taught them by his example and his words. What would become of them, how should they behave after he left ?

The first lesson he gives them, let us notice, concerns their relations with each other. By washing the feet of his disciples, like a slave, he teaches them that neither authority nor theological or doctrinal knowledge gives them the right to believe themselves superior to others.

On the contrary, the true character of the disciple is the spirit of humility and service, which Jesus demonstrated. He, the Lord and Master, set the example by putting himself at the feet of his disciples. Paul takes up this teaching when he recommends to the Philippians that each one esteem the other superior to himself, and to have a mind of humility and obedience, this mind which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:1-9). The disciples had constantly before their eyes his humility in approaching rich and poor alike, children and old people, women and men. They had also seen with what patience, as Master, he taught the ignorant crowds as well as the scribes, or a repentant sinner at the well of Sichar as well as a Nicodemus, doctor of the Law.

But in this chapter 13, the Lord, in an attitude of service and love, speaks to them in a very personal way, so that the lesson is deeply engraved in them : this is the model, follow it. We did not witness this scene, but his story allows us to live it and also to hear Jesus, our Lord and Master, address us : As I did to you, so do you too.

Source (Pleasing the Lord)