If You Know It, You'd Better Do It

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John 13:12-20

12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. 18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ 19 I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

 
 

Jesus’s point is simple:

If He, the leader, served His followers in such a humble way, then they, the followers, should expect to serve other people in humble ways:

16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him [John 13:16].

What Jesus says next is important:

17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them [John 13:17].

P.S. The reason Jesus foretells of Judas’s betrayal is so, among other reasons, the other disciples won’t think He made a mistake. After all, Jesus “chose” Judas along with the others (see 6:70). But this wasn’t a mistake—Jesus knew He was choosing one who would betray Him, but this is how it needed to happen: Jesus came to die for the world, and Judas’s betrayal is the means by which that could take place.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
How can you humbly be of service to someone—especially someone undeserving—today?

 

Jesus Washes The Desciples' Feet

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John 13:1-11

13 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

 
 

I think v.3 is the interpretative key to this episode:

3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God...[John 13:3].

It is not just Jesus as the rabbi and leader of the twelve who gets down in a humble position and washes His disciples’ feet, it is the Word Himself!

P.S. In v. 7, yet again, we get an example of how the disciples cannot truly understand Jesus until after the resurrection.

QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY
What does it say about the nature of God that Jesus washes His disciples feet? What does it say about the nature of reality that this is what God is like? Would more unbelievers come to faith if they understood that this is what God is like?