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Devotional
“I am among you as one who serves.” ~ Luke 22:27 (NIV)
It was a meal like no other. This Passover feast. Not because of an elaborate setting or fine food. But because it was here that Jesus showed us so beautifully who we are to be. And, of course, He chose to do it in the most unexpected of ways.
The Offering
Jesus and His disciples gathered together around the table to celebrate the Passover feast, to remember that long ago flight from Egypt to freedom.
Jesus thanked His Father for the bread. Then He broke it and gave it to the disciples, knowing it would soon be His body that would be broken beneath the lashes. Next, He poured out the wine and thanked God for it, knowing it would soon be His own blood that would be poured out over the rocks and stone and dirt, beneath the cross.
The disciples didn’t know. They didn’t understand this breaking of bread and body, this pouring out of wine and blood. But we know. And we understand. And I, for one, marvel at how Jesus was able to break bread with His own betrayer.
And I marvel at how Judas was able to be in that room, to look into the Savior’s eyes and lie.
A Servant Like No Other
Knowing this would be His last supper before the cross, Jesus could have spent the evening in so many different ways. But He chose to spend it with His disciples—with those He loved—teaching them one more time what it truly meant to follow Him.
So, Jesus stood up from the meal and did what should have been done before the meal began. He wrapped a towel around His waist, filled a basin with water, and began to wash the disciples’ feet. Feet caked with the dust of the road and travels.
It was the job of the lowliest servant, but it seems they had none that night. Nor were any of the disciples willing to stoop so low and humble themselves to wash feet, perhaps especially the feet of their peers.
No one, that is, except Jesus.
He dipped the cloth in the water, washed away the filth of the world, and dried them with the towel tied around His waist. These feet that would all too soon run all too fast away from Him. And even the feet that run to betray Him.
What No One Else Wanted to Do
This isn’t the first time we see our Savior doing what no one else wanted to do, is it?
He is the One who spared the woman and scattered her accusers with a few scratched out words in the dirt, reminders of their own sins and failings and shortcomings (John 8:1–11).
He’s the One who touched the leper and made him clean (Matthew 8:1–4).
He’s the One who offered grace to the Samaritan woman (John 4:1–26) and healing to the madman (Mark 5:1–20).
Because . . .
“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10 NIV)
Because . . .
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18–19 NIV)
Because even though He was . . .
. . . in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant. (Philippians 2:6–7 NIV)
And so . . .
With a towel and a basin and His servant’s heart, Jesus gave us an example to follow.
“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. (John 13:12 NIV)
Yes, Lord. Help us to go and do the same.
Holy God, selfishness and pride rear their heads in so many ways in my life. Forgive me. And help me to be a little more and more and still more like you each day. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Reflection Questions:
It would difficult—or at least less than pleasant—to wash anyone’s feet. But what does it say about Jesus that He washed the feet of Judas? Of all the disciples, the one who would desert Him in the Garden of Gethsemane?
Knowing that Jesus did this as an example for us, how could you—figuratively, or perhaps even literally—wash someone’s feet today?
