One of the memories of this week that always strikes me anew every year is the act of Jesus, during the last supper, getting up from the table, wrapping a towel around His waist, filling a basin of water and working His way around the table to wash the feet of the disciples. Read John 13:1-17.
One by one, Jesus lovingly kneels to wash the feet of those who follow Him. We do not know the order, but we know their names, their stories, their failings and their futures. We know that within hours Judas will betray Him, Peter will deny Him and all of them will flee, leaving Jesus alone to face His darkest hours.
We can understand why Peter resists and yet we know the truth of which Christ speaks. If you are not humble enough to allow Christ to serve you, you cannot serve Him.
The servants of Christ must first be served by Christ. That was true at the foot washing and it is equally true today.
You must receive the humiliating act of the One who deserves all praise and glory in order that you can in turn serve Him. He cannot use a life that He has not bought and He cannot buy back or redeem a life that is not freely given to Him. These are Kingdom principles. They are counter-intuitive and they are anything but worldly wise.
Unless Christ washes me, I have no share in Him. I cannot become a redeemed child of God any other way. Unless I receive the atoning sacrifice of Christ on my behalf; unless I submit to the reality that I am a sinner and I cannot save myself; unless I allow the Lord of love to wash away my sin with His blood, I have no share in Him – no part in His inheritance, no engrafting into His Body, no hope in His resurrection.
This is serious business that the Savior of the world is transacting with disciples who are not so different from you and me.
He also sets for His followers an example: Do unto others as I have done unto you.
Fellow followers of Christ, we have been served in ways we cannot repay by a God whom alone is worthy of glory. Having been served, so let us serve.
Read and reflect today on Galatians 2:20 which reads, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
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Thank you, sister.
Gracias
What beautiful, humbling and tenderizing truth!
Thank you for this.
Christ came to do the Father’s will, and we must do the same, Matt. 28:18-20. Not what Christ can do for me, but the opposite, thus, this takes away, in my view, entitlements which is in the church of Christ. It is not about me, but Christ.