This week we have been considering the idea that God is powerful—and realizing how little we understand or can imagine what that means. God is the source of life and existence, the foundation of reality…and the one who binds up the brokenhearted, provides bread for the hungry and a caring hand for the suffering, who would rather be killed unjustly than to kill justly.

There’s not one word of this we can readily grasp.

Yet part of discipleship is spending our lives contemplating this definition of power, and practicing it. Trying, and failing, and trying again.

Jesus, God made flesh, taught and showed us this vividly in one of His last interactions with His friends. Knowing He was about to suffer and die—knowing even that one of these very friends would be the one to hand Him over to death—He got on the ground and washed their feet. In their culture, this was such a humiliating and disgusting task that even a slave could legally refuse to do it.

Let’s spend the rest of our time today listening to John tell the story.

“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.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

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. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
John 13:1-17

Questions for reflection and discussion:

  • What do you notice in this story?
  • What does Jesus (God!) do with His power?
  • Why do you think Jesus taught this lesson, like this, at this moment?
  • Jesus ends with a clear directive: His followers must live like this. What does that mean for you?
  • What does that mean for our church?
  • Is this how you see the Church acting in the world?

Church Reading Plan: Isaiah 45; Revelation 15