March 3
“If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them,” John 13:17.
Jesus had sent the two disciples, Peter and John, to Jerusalem to prepare the place where they would celebrate the Passover Festival. He told them that they would meet a certain man carrying a pitcher of water, and that they should ask him where the guest room was where they could prepare to celebrate the Passover with Jesus. The man took the disciples to an Upper Room. The disciples found everything just as Jesus had told them.
In the evening, Jesus sat down with His twelve disciples in that Upper Room somewhere in Jerusalem. The evangelist John does not report the details of the Passover supper and the details of the institution of the Lord’s Supper. He simply reports that the supper ended. Then the evangelist John alone reports an incident that took place after the supper.
He reports, “(Jesus) rose from the supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded,” John 13:4-5. Preceding the washing of the disciples’ feet, the disciples had argued among themselves while sitting at the table about which one of them was the greatest.
The disciples were common, ordinary, sinful people with sinful human pride. To this very day, people are arguing among themselves, “Who is the greatest?” This argument is often carried on among little boys and girls at an early age. And we do not shake off that sinful human pride with the passing of the years.
It was after the disciples had argued among themselves that Jesus rose from the table and prepared to give them, and us, a magnificent example of true humility. It was as if He were saying to the disciples, “Quit your arrogant arguing and love and serve one another!” Washing the feet of guests and visitors was the responsibility of servants. Jesus played the role of a servant to give the disciples, and us, an example of humility to follow, as He Himself said: “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you,” John 13:15. The example is not that we should wash one another’s feet, but that we should resist the temptations of pride and show true humility. We have the Christian admonition, “Through love serve one another,” Galatians 5:13.
We should love and forgive one another, even as God, for Jesus’ sake, has forgiven us. Our Christian love for one another should not be only a matter of the mouth. Jesus said, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” In his First Epistle, the apostle John wrote, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth . . . And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment,” 1 John 3:18, 23. Our love for our Lord is briefly stated: “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” 1 John 3:1. Behold Jesus’ love for us as He paid the price for our redemption on Calvary’s cross. Now, “We love Him because He first loved us,” 1 John 4:19.
Jesus, Thy boundless love to me, No thought can reach, no tongue declare;
Unite my thankful heart with Thee, And reign without a rival there.
To Thee alone, dear Lord, I live; Myself to Thee, dear Lord, I give. Amen.