John 13:12-20

Hey folks have glad to have you with us.

We continue through the Gospel of John.

We are making our way through the 13th chapter.

We have gotten to verse 12.

Jesus has washed the disciples feet.

Now we continue with that story.

So just pick up here in verse 12 and read for a few verses.

Come back and talk it through.

After he washed their feet, Jesus put on his robe and returned to the table

and said to them, do you know what I have done to you?

You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that's what I am.

So if I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet,

you also ought to wash one another's feet.

For I have set you an example that you should also do as I have done to you.

I tell you the truth, servants are not greater than their master,

nor are messengers greater than the ones who send them.

If you know these things, you are blessed.

If you do them.

I'm not speaking of all of you.

I know whom I've chosen, but it is to fulfill the Scripture.

The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.

I tell you this now before it occurs, so that

when it does occur, you may believe that I am he.

Very truly I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me,

and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

So in the follow up of Jesus washing the disciples feet,

and if you missed that discussion yesterday,

it may be helpful to go back and pick it up.

But a very, humbling, some would argue,

humiliating act that Jesus subjects himself to.

And now we begin to unpack what it means.

And so Jesus asked this question, do you know what I've done?

You call me teacher.

If I've done this for you, you ought to do this for one another.

And I think, Michael, this is one of the great gospel calls to humility.

Obviously service is important in all of the gospels,

and Jesus says things that we would resonate with the least

will be the greatest, and the last will be first.

Here, Jesus lives that out, this kind of visual,

visual lesson that he set before the disciples,

if I've done this for you, then you want to follow my example,

and you ought to do this for one another. And,

while we

every week in worship talk about what it means to follow Jesus,

I think this is such a visible example of it and such a

a clear takeaway that I think this is one of the great passages

that kind of sets a compass point for Christians to live up to.

Maybe, you know, may be tongue in cheek.

You could even say live down to a humility

and a service exemplified by Jesus acts here. And,

it's pretty clear takeaway.

It is clear.

And I think that in a way, Clint, that this text actually provides

a really important sort of voice inside the faith,

because we are always tempted,

I think, to invert the order of the kingdom as Jesus teaches it.

We're always tempted to find ourselves lifted up, and maybe we don't even do that

in a self-referential way.

But there are some traditions, even in Christianity, where the idea

of pursuing a sinless life or suing greater human,

humility, pursuing greater, honesty and transparency, these kinds of things

that that sometimes it has the temptation for Christians of building them up

to make them haughty or prideful about something

that they imagine they've achieved.

And I think what Jesus does in a text like this is demonstrate the

the different value system

of the kingdom that Christians are called to live within,

and how our ordering and structure and meeting

is actually different than the world in which we live.

And I want to just point out, note the way that Jesus teaches

this is with a spiritual practice.

This Jesus uses it as a spiritual lesson, but in a in a physical practice

that would have had just common meaning for everyone in the room that day.

I think that's what would make this so embarrassing.

And in some ways, humiliating, is the fact that Jesus is he.

He is humbling himself by taking on this dirty task

that a servant would have even a slave

in some cases, would have the lowest person in the house.

And Jesus takes that task and Jesus

up and performs this for all of the people there, including.

And we must not forget his betrayer who who's there at table as well.

And Jesus shows us in that physical action the extent to which he truly means

that he's come to be the servant, that he's come

to give up everything for the sake of others and for Christians.

Then I think that this then becomes the linchpin, because in verse 14,

if I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet,

you also ought to wash one another's feet.

There's the command, the imperative.

This is what Jesus is now going to turn back to the disciples to say,

hey, look, if in the kingdom of God that I am presenting

to you and proclaiming through my life, if that kingdom is real,

then look at how you should behave in that kingdom.

And Christians to this day struggle with the temptation to mis order it to

to to put ourselves or allow ourselves to be put higher than others.

And we're always called back down to the ground level

that Jesus descends to the dirt with the woman caught in acts of adultery.

Jesus descends to foot level with his disciples to show them

what it looks like to be a servant leader.

Jesus expects explicitly in red text

Jesus, expect us to do the same

in service for one another and for the world.

And the reality is that we need to keep coming back to the heart of this teaching,

because Jesus is not making a suggestion here.

Jesus is telling his disciples that this is how you participate

in Jesus's kingdom, and it should be all of our life goals

to pursue this kind of servanthood.

Yeah, I don't always find the Gospel of John

as tangible as I do here, and therefore I'm a big fan of

this passage, these kind of verses, you know,

the the challenge to believers

to do what Jesus did, to humble himself,

to not think of who

could serve him, but to literally kneel

and to be the one who took upon the task that nobody wanted to do.

And then to say to the disciples, did you see me do that?

You wouldn't have done it.

I did it, and because I did it, if you're going to follow me,

that's the kind of life I expect you to lead.

That's the kind of service I expect you to give to others.

That's the way I expect you to treat others.

And and clearly, Christians who have struggled

to live up to these callings, none of us get them all right.

But it.

But it is such a clarion call here that Jesus gives the disciples,

and I think, you know, again, if you weren't with us yesterday,

the cultural piece of this in which this task

that Jesus performs is considered despicable.

It's it's lowly.

It is for the people at the bottom.

And Jesus voluntarily takes that role.

He puts himself not above or in front of,

but behind and underneath. And

that is that is so countercultural.

It is so difficult to do.

And I love that John follows this up with verse 17,

which again, I just find a powerful call for Christians.

If you know these things, you're blessed.

If you do them right.

The the difference in the faith between knowing

what we should do and actually doing.

And and that's not to talk about sin and grace, etc.

this is a discipleship moment.

Too often I think Christians don't struggle with discernment.

You know,

more often than not, in my experience,

the faith isn't puzzling about what I should do.

It's difficult to do what I should do.

And I think, you know, again, this is such

just a wonderful challenge and a terrific encouragement.

If you know these things, that's great, but you're blessed if you do them.

And notice Jesus doesn't say, you bless others.

You are blessed. Why are we blessed?

Because it is always a blessing to do Christlike things.

It is always a blessing to enact an action

and a life style that Jesus would himself embody.

I, I just, I find that one verse really

kind of the mountaintop here of the whole passage, to be honest.

The fact that it continues to go on, I think, in

John is such a stereotype, typical Johannine storytelling to,

if it's, verse 18, I'm not speaking of all of you.

I know who I've chosen to fulfill the Scripture.

The one who ate my bread is lifted his heel against me.

We never are far from John,

to the omniscience is the big word.

The fact that Jesus knows everything, right?

That Jesus is always aware.

And I think that it's texts like this that remind us

that Jesus in John is always in control.

Jesus is always aware of what's happening.

He's always aware of what who's in the room and and the multi layered

level of teachings that he's giving in and who's misunderstanding it.

And I think what's striking about this comparison that's being made

is when Jesus here in verse

17 says, if you know these things, you are blessed.

If you do them, that lands very differently.

In verse 18, once we realize that he knows

of the person who knows these things and is not going to do them right,

he knows in the room there's a person who's heard all of the teachings,

and that person is even then decided that they are going to betray Jesus

and that Jesus has eaten bread with him, that Jesus has washed his feet.

I think there's a kind of poignant lesson for Christians of all time in this

that the fact that you're in the circle and heard the proclamation,

you might be a person who's been in church every day of your life.

That is a gift because it invites us into this kingdom.

It invites us to have our imaginations and our hearts and our discipleship shaped

in such a way that we can serve and live and love as Jesus did.

But friends, if we choose to not do it,

then at that point it almost as if we're reading the book of James here.

Clint, there's just a very practical emphasis in the fact that faith

that doesn't make its way from its head to our heart is faith

that has not fully taken root and does not demonstrate the unity

and conformity to the will of Christ that God has called us into,

that we, the servant,

cannot be greater than the master, and the master has chosen service.

And that is no matter how much we might fight against it or find it uncomfortable,

that is a irreconcilable reality of what it means to be a follower of Jesus,

that he's the one willing to get down and wash the feet,

and that is in some seasons of life, I think, challenging.

And others it might be encouraging,

but whatever it is, it has something to say for us today.

Yeah.

And of course you you'd have to pass all these things out

and there'd be nuances on the conversation.

But I think it's also a good reminder to many of us who are trying

to follow Jesus that.

A good

number of the things that are going to be important to our faith

and our discipleship may, in fact,

be things that we don't initially want to do.

We don't want to forgive the person who hurt us.

We don't want to apologize when we got something wrong.

We don't want to admit that we were wrong.

We don't want to confess that we dropped the ball.

We don't want to give generously, whatever it is.

Those moments of struggle where we're reluctant

are exactly where we were tested in our discipleship.

And those are the opportunities.

Those become the very opportunities to humble ourselves and follow Jesus.

And yeah, it's interesting you say this is James likes probably why I like it.

Let's say it resonates with practical challenge

and gives us something to kind of hang our hats on.

And what do we do?

How do we act out?

How will then will we live? And

John doesn't always do that for us.

So when he does I think is particularly telling particularly important.

And, this is a really good passage.

Just really briefly here.

I do have another thing to add, and I just want to point out that

John turns the betrayal of Jesus itself

into an opportunity to reveal the divine sonship of Jesus.

And this is really it should surprise us.

I don't think it does always, Clint, that,

it doesn't surprise us as much as it should, but Judas is a scandal, right?

The fact that one of the entrusted in our circle

would give up the teacher is it is unfathomable, right?

And is the the worst outcome that you can imagine.

And yet, John, as as John

tells the story, verse 19, I tell you this

now before the curse, so that when it does occur you may believe that I am he.

In other words, John is saying, When Judas betrays me, I'm telling you right now

that it's going to happen, so that when it happens, it's another sign.

It's another thing that gives witness to the reality of who Jesus is.

Even the betrayal itself is in the book of John, evidence of the truth of who

Jesus is because of Jesus's ability to understand and to teach.

And the final word I have for you is this this last verse.

Whoever receives one whom I send receives me, and whoever receives me

receives him who sent me. That.

This is an unbelievably powerful statement in the Gospel of John,

because this book is intended from start to finish, to be the travel manual

that those who are sent to witness to Jesus will give to other people.

It's an amazing promise to every generation of the church

that though we don't have Jesus sitting at the room,

with us at this moment in the physical flesh,

we because we continue to pass the faith from one generation to the next, that

that the tone of of faith and worship and service,

because we continue to do that we are receiving Christ

because spiritually and mysteriously, by the power of the spirit,

he's alive and at work in us.

And this is a view of the full image in the gospel, John,

because I think it help gives voice and breadth

and additional color to the expansiveness of the revelation of Christ.

In other words, it's not just that you needed to be there to see Jesus.

How sad would it be for every generation that followed? No.

As long as we continue

to pass on the faith and receive it from those who received it from someone else,

we are taking part in a form of revelation of Jesus Christ, even to this day.

That's an amazing gift

that John sort of gives to us is that the witness is always ongoing.

And so this book doesn't have an ending period.

In the classic sort of sense of the story

of John Ends, but it's intended to to lead us to that reality.

That's a story that's still being written as time goes on.

I think this last verse, this

idea of being interconnected, that is going to get fleshed out in

in deep, rich ways

in the end, about two chapters from now there,

this is a theme that Jesus in John is going to return to really powerfully.

And so here we're seeing some seeing some introduction to it.

That brings us to the end of our conversation here today.

Just a word of note for all of you who've made it thus far.

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because we are going to be off tomorrow and Monday.

So if you're following along live on this study, we will be back next Tuesday

and we will look forward to going through the Gospel of John with you then.

Until then, be blessed. Thanks, everybody.