John 13

Somehow, it is fitting that we should be discussing this passage on the eve of Christmas, our celebration of God coming to us in the flesh.

The story of the washing of feet reminds me of our Passover experience together.
The part that strikes me as I read it today is verse 12: "Do you understand what I have done for you?" Here Jesus is, the Lord of everything, the one who spoke and galaxies came into being and He came to serve. He makes it clear that the path of the Kingdom of God is lined with service, and no matter how "important" I become, I will never be able to make a galaxy, so I had better remember that my life should be lined with service, too. Have you ever gone on a service or mission trip and found yourself blessed because of that? Have you even (like me) felt guilty afterwards thinking, "Here we are to serve you guys," only to wonder if you gave as much of a blessing as you received? I think we can be assured that God does use us and work through us in those circumstances, but look at what Jesus says in verse 17: "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them." Sometimes we get so caught up with thinking that Jesus is talking about when we get to heaven that we ignore the possibility that He might be talking about here and now also. I believe there is the promise of the blessing of heaven, but I think Jesus may also have realized that the servants receive blessing in the moment of service, too.

We tend to remember the story of Jesus identifying his betrayer by passing him the bread, but did you realize that this was also a reference to Psalm 41:9? That's remarkable!

The last part of this chapter should be read together with the first part of the next chapter, so we'll pick up there next time.