“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45
Jesus washed feet. Not just the feet of His friends, but also of His enemies. In the literal sense, He washed the feet of Judas before Judas was to betray Him. In the figurative sense, He dined with Pharisees and Sadducees, He healed the ungrateful, He preached to (figuratively) deaf ears, and did miracles before (figuratively) blind eyes. He preached the Word and healed His people who, by and large, rejected Him. He loved, served and sacrificed Himself for them, as John states, “knowing what was in the heart of Man.” And this is the command He gives us. To serve one another, to wash feet, to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This is who we’re supposed to become: the True Man, human as human should be, Jesus Christ. Our designer and author did not merely come to give a good example, but to be the model of what we, led by the Holy spirit, should also strive to become.
To live as Jesus did is the opposite of what our flesh calls us to. Our flesh calls us to preserve ourselves, to do for ourselves, to gain for ourselves. Even our relationships are about selfishness. Yet, if we’re to be followers of Jesus, we need to cast off self and, as Jesus did, offer our time, treasures, talents, and even our dignity (if our position demands it) to serve those who may not even deserve it (as Judas most certainly did not!). Jesus Himself said “for even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”” (Mark 10:45).” Live by this every day as you walk by His word! John 13:1-20 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. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 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, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 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. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 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.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 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.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
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? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 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. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. 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.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”
