The Power of Serving: John 13:1-17 - Second Sunday in Lent

Brian was the man that every man wanted to be. 

He was the father of four great boys and a loving wife.  He was a very successful architectural engineer.  He coached his boys’ soccer team. 

He could build anything or fix anything. At fix-foot four, he was a tower of strength, wisdom, and knowledge to everyone who knew him.

On top of it all, he was a man of God. 

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But everything changed on a cold winter’s evening, when his car hit a patch of black ice and rolled over an embankment. 

Everybody prayed as word of his accident quickly spread.

Thankfully, Brian survived. Sadly, he was paralyzed from the waist down, and would require round-the-clock care for the rest of his life. 

A nursing home was out of the question, not only due to cost, but also because he didn’t want to live apart from his family. But he needed far more care than his wife and sons could provide, especially with Pam working full time, and the boys going to school. 

But everyone kept on praying. Soon, their friends, neighbors, and church members brought meals. They helped get the boys off to school. They fed Brian. They bathed and dressed him. They even changed him. 

One of his friends said, “God never answered my prayers quite like when he sent me to change a man’s diapers.”

Nobody ever called Brian a burden. Why? Because they were living the truth Jesus taught his disciples in today’s Gospel.

Jesus is eating his last supper with his disciples. During the supper, he got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet.

Typically, this mundane task was performed by household slaves. And those slaves would not have been rewarded with tips or even a thank you. They would not have been addressed by name. Their job was to do as they were told and stay out of the way.

But here was Jesus—the good teacher, the miracle worker, the Son of God—becoming a slave. By washing their feet, Jesus is showing them what kind of Messiah he will be: a Messiah who serves. A messiah who saves the world not through brute force and conquest, but by emptying himself of all power, all dignity, all humanity. A messiah who dies for the sins of the world. 

Trouble was, Jesus’s disciples, together with all the Jews, were waiting eagerly for a warrior messiah who would take up arms, crush Rome into submission, and usher in a new age of peace, security, and prosperity for Israel as a new David. 

You’re not going to take down an evil empire by washing feet. And you certainly cannot conquer the evil powers that nail you to a cross. 

But Jesus sets the record straight about real power in the Kingdom of God. Man builds its kingdoms through war and conquest; Jesus builds his kingdom through humble service. Man uses violence; Jesus uses peace. Man uses the sword and the rifle; Jesus uses the basin and the towel. Man wants power, riches, and strength; Jesus says, “blessed are you if you follow my example.”

That was a hard truth for the disciples to swallow, because the world they inhabited was about to become even more threatening, especially after Jesus rises from the dead. But soon, they will see how Jesus transforms the world not by changing the political environment and vanquishing their foes, but by transforming the hearts of those who call him Lord. 

Brian was not a burden to all those people who cared for him, even though they didn’t receive so much as a dime in payment. Their service put them right beside Jesus as he washed his disciples’ feet. 

For as costly and time-consuming as it was for those people to serve, think of how difficult it must have been for Brian to receive that service, and be dependent on people he could not pay to do for him what he could not do for himself. 

That level of helplessness is unimaginable, especially to those of us who boast in our strength and self-sufficiency. I know many people who love serving others but loathe to be a burden to anyone else.

The foot-washing won’t make much sense to the disciples until after the crucifixion, and even after the resurrection, when the magnitude of their sins against Jesus hit home. I don’t think they even began to understand until after Jesus restores them to their discipleship. Just the same, you can’t know what Jesus’s sacrifice means for you unless you’re trapped in the wreckage of your sin; you find yourself so overwhelmed and broken that you cannot help yourself; or you’re face-to-face with your own mortality. This is why the people who inspire me the most are those who left everything behind to follow Jesus; those whose lives were ruled by addiction and Jesus set them free; and those who laid beside death’s door fully unafraid, with peace and confident hope. 

The best servants are those who know what it means to be served, and to receive at no cost what you cannot procure for yourself.

You are about to live this truth as you come to the table, hearing the words “this is my body, this is my blood, given for you.” Holy Communion isn’t just ritual. It isn’t just a re-enactment of something that happened long ago. This is reality. Only Jesus can give you the bread of life and the cup of salvation. For everyone else, it’s just bread and wine. But this is Jesus for you. 

And this is your call when you leave the table and go out of this place: Christ has set for you an example, that you also should do as he done to you. Blessed you will be if you follow his example. 

John 13:1-17 (NRSVue)

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ² The devil had already decided that Judas son of Simon Iscariot would betray Jesus. And during supper ³ Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴ got up from supper, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵ Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸ Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I 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, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

¹² After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had reclined again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶ Very truly, I tell you, slaves are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷ If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.