Tuesday, May 7 - John 13

LOWER AND LOWER

   The feet are the lowest part of our body.  You can't go any further down, and he who washes feet finds himself prostrate before another.  This is a prone position -- a lower position.  It connotes the idea of being lesser, weaker, poorer, meeker.

   Most of us don't like this position.  We prefer stronger, smarter, respected, and powerful. 

   In this chapter of John we see the utter irony of The Greatest taking the position of The Lowest -- The King becoming The Slave.  And we shudder a little as we think of Lord Jesus soaping up the dirty, dusty, smelly toes of the disciples who are just hours away from denying Him.

   But Jesus knows that it is His job to carry out this humble servant work which will require not only His prone position before His disciples, but also His scorned and humiliated position on the cross.

   All this He did for us -- so that we could be saved and so that we could know the kind of attitude He wants to build in us.

   He says, "Do you understand what I have done for you?  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."  (v. 12-15)

   And all of a sudden we realize that Jesus is calling US to forgive, to reach out, to be willing to lower ourselves, humble ourselves, to let go of our rights and our freedoms so that we display His gentle, humble love to all who see us.

   In truth, most of us do not want to prostrate ourselves before anyone or eat crow or let go of our claims.  But God says to us: 

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  (Philippians 2)

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PS.  Sorry no blog yesterday.  Youth retreat and visit from brother kept me off the computer.