Learning to Serve II

Last week we began looking at this teaching time that Jesus had with his disciples on the night of his betrayal.  Ultimately Jesus loved them, but he did so by teaching them what they needed rather than what they wanted.  Jesus taught them to serve each other.  We left off last week talking about how our pride fights against God's will and plan precisely because it calls us to serve.  Today we will pick it up on John 13:9 and look at how pride can also rear its head in those who say they want to follow God's plan.

Taking Over God's Plan

Peter's first mistake is to let pride steer him away from the will of God.  However, to his credit, he accepts this plan when he is rebuked.  I won't take this away from Peter.  It demonstrates that his heart really does want Jesus, but he lacks understanding.  Thus his need for a teacher : )  Peter very quick drives into the opposite ditch.  If pride can't get us to reject God's plan then it will try to take over God's plan.

Now we can say that Peter's personality goes overboard and he is simply making the point that he really wants to have a part or portion with Jesus.  However it is glaringly obvious that Jesus corrects his 2 responses.  Thus no matter what Peter's heart is Jesus corrects these two responses.  The first is to not let yourself be served by Jesus, the greatest, and the second is to attempt to control how that service is done.  This will clearly put us on the wrong course.  Here is an example:

2 Timothy 4:3-4, "The time will come when they will not endure sound teaching, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn away from truth and be turned aside to fables."

Here is a group of people who are saying they want God's plan by being "Christians" and having "Preachers" but they have taken control of how these things are to serve them.  So much so that they are being deceived and headed in the wrong direction by those things which were supposed to help them.

Peter's attempt to use his logic and reasoning in order to fix or "make better" Jesus' plan is ill-advised.  Of course Jesus will not comply like the false teachers in 2 Timothy.  But the error is corrected nonetheless.

Humility does not begin with serving others.  It has be pointed out that their is much Pride and Condescension in serving others.  "I'm the great one stepping in to help you the weak one."  Thus Jesus doesn't start by having them wash his feet or even take turns washing each other's feet.  He teaches us that humility starts by letting yourself be served by another.  In fact, all of the gospel is designed to first humble a man so that he can walk the way of the Lord.  The way of the Lord is a way of the humble.  If you fall to pride you will not stay on that path no matter how spiritual and godly it looks.  When our self does not want to admit its need is precisely when we need to humble ourselves and be served.

When we are at a point of serving others our serving must not be directed by those we serve.  This runs contrary to contemporary American society.  Jesus didn't take a poll of how the disciples thought he could best serve them.  Talk about a disaster that would have been.  Instead Jesus comes to serve them as directed by his father.  Not all want to be served in the way that the Father sends you to serve.  This is difficult to accept and stay on course.  Parents, of course, should learn this lesson pretty quick.  If you let the kids tell you how to take care of them, it would lead to disaster.

Now when Jesus rebuked Peter's attempt to get Jesus to give him a bath, he talks about the principle of washing.  Once you have washed you only have to wash that part that has gotten dirty.  Then he mentions that one of them isn't clean.  It is here that we recognize that the washing of the feet is not about natural dirt and social customs.  Though Jesus uses these things it is in order to make a spiritual point.  The washing of the feet is a picture of our daily weakness and inattention to righteousness versus Christ's justification and new birth.  The disciples had been justified and reborn and thus were clean (all except Judas).  This demonstrates that salvation is never a matter of actions, words, and works alone.  Those very things must be coming from a heart of faith in Jesus.  Judas at some point did not believe or trust Jesus' leadership.  Thus he was never clean to begin with.  Notice Jesus wants them not to give each other a bath (which he says has spiritually been already done) but rather to help each other rid ourselves of that daily spiritual grime we so easily get on ourselves.  The believer needs to daily wash with looking into God's Word and letting it point out our dirt.  But we also need each other.  God uses fellow believers to keep us honest and dealing with our daily dirt.  How humbling and humiliating.  No wonder most people today don't like to go to church or be "real" with other believers.  They might actually try to "wash my feet."  We all need to daily repent and grow in righteousness and yes God does use his word, but he also uses fellow believers, pastors, teachers, etc...

To balance that last point, if we try to "wash each others feet," without an appropriate sense of our own need for cleansing then we will drive God's sheep into the wilderness.  This is precisely what was happening in Jesus' day when he rebuked the Pharisees and Scribes.  We are not called to meet in a particular building.  We are called to meet with each other weekly and be a help to each other in following Jesus.  Am I really a help or am I a hindrance?  Only a humble person will be able to get any good out of those questions.

Our Obligation to Serve

Jesus gives them the conditional statement in verse 14 that is more powerful precisely because they were all there when the condition was satisfied.  There is no doubt that the master has washed the feet of the disciples.  Therefore there should be no doubt in us that we are obligated to be a help to our brothers and sisters.    We are obligated to serve them in such a way that they are enabled to be clean.  How many times have things been said that stirred up bitterness in anothers heart.  We can justify it in many different ways, but we need to be careful that we are not in disobedience to our Lord's command.

Here is a crux to this issue.  If you declare yourself a disciple of Christ then you are obligating yourself to becoming like him.  If he being great humbled himself how much more should I being humble, humble myself?  The answer is completely, without reservation, joyfully, and purposefully.  You can think of others.  But we have no excuse to not be of God's service to one another.  In other places Jesus commands us to love one another and serve one another.  But here he obligates those who say they are following him to do so by his own actions.

This is the ultimate tool of a teacher: example.  If you are a parent you need to learn this before it is too late.  Your example is the most powerful thing you have with your children.  Yes, you need to tell them things and direct them.  But make sure you are first setting the example.

This picture of Jesus washing feet gives a powerful picture of how best we can serve our fellow man.  Do not pick up the sword and hammer by judging, condemning, and "writing off" others.  Rather pick up the basin and the towel by working to gently clean, improve, and restore each other.

Let me close by pointing out the clincher.  In verse 17 Jesus says that our blessing is tied to doing these things.  Just know that if you refuse to be of service to others you diminish not just your blessing, but how much of a blessing that you can be.  The blessing of God should not be look at like a personal experience of candy or ice cream.  It is rather an atmosphere that we walk in and affects all those who come into contact with us.  It is not a lucky rabbit's foot that keeps us from harm.  Rather, it is a powerful recognition on our part and those who see it that God has his hand on our lives.

Let's give ourselves to learning to serve each other because, if the truth be known, most of us are terrifically terrible at it.  Not because we can't but often because we won't.  God forgive us.