The Pattern is Christ (John 13:12-17)

Today I got to give the second talk in a Just for Starters series. Below is more or less what I said. I do think it could have perhaps ended stronger, but it was already long enough.

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Did you like those Undercover Boss TV shows? Where the CEO of some large company, like Dominos, works on the floor of one of their shops. They get to sees what working at their company is really like. There is something great about those who seem high and lofty, who come down to get their hands dirty with some real work. It is great is when you hear that Keanu Reeves catches public transport, and gives up his seat for others. We like the idea of those with status doing the same common things as us all.

Today we are talking about footwashing. Although, really it is more than. We kinda don’t do footwashing as a household thing. Last month my family went to the beach, and before we got back in the car, we would wash the sand from our feet. Even then, everyone is old enough to wash their own feet, so everyone did their own feet.

Back in Jesus day, before Nike and heavy road work machinery, shoes weren’t as covered or durable and their roads weren’t as sealed as ours. Their roads would be dusty when dry or muddy when wet, so either way, your feet, the part closest to the ground, would easily get dirty as you travelled.

Ancient houses would have a pot of water at the front for you to wash your feet with before you came in. Sometimes there may have be a servant who would wash your feet for you. And this footwashing servant, they would be at the bottom of the food chain. In Jewish households, a Jewish servant wasn’t even to do this task.

[ Cut this bit, but I thought it was interesting:

There is one story, when a Rabbi returned home from the synagogue and his mother wanted to wash his feet. He refused on the grounds that it was too demeaning. She ended up taking the matter to the rabbinic court, saying that she viewed the task for her son as an honour (The Gospel according to John 1. Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet (13:1–17)) ]

Footwashing was a task done by the lesser for the greater. Peers didn’t wash each other feet. And yet, Jesus flipped this practice on it’s head. Jesus who was considered the disciples' teacher and master, went low, and He did this at His last meal before He would be crucified.

Today we are to see that we don’t move away from Christ in content and in action. Jesus is the foundation of our faith and He is the example of our faith. Christ purchased us and He sets the pattern for us.

Our structure, which you might see in the Start Up booklets, is that we are going to Understand Christ’s Pattern, Do Chris’s Pattern and then we will think about how we can know and do both.

Understand Christ’s Pattern

Our passage starts off, just after Jesus had gotten up from the meal, and taken off his outer clothes, and used a basin and towel to wash His disciples' feet. We picked it up form verse 12:

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. (John 13:12 NIV)

This act that Jesus did was to teach the disciples something. Rather than just telling the disciples something about serving, Jesus wants them to witness it. His wants them to see that His words match His actions, for them to know and see Jesus as a humble servant.

So, Jesus presses the question for them to know what just happened. “Do you understand what I have done for you?”

He Has All Things Under His Feet

In verses 3 and 4, John sort of adds his own editorial comment as to why Jesus did this. He says

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. (John 13:3–4 NIV)

Notice the “so” in the passage. Jesus knew He has all things under His power, that all things were under His feet, so He stripped off and washed their feet.

Jesus knows who He is, so He served.

He was the great undercover boss who owns the whole company, so He came down to do the customer service.

Jesus knew His time had come, so He acted. Jesus is the creator and sustainer of all things, and yet He didn’t use His status for His own glory or gain, and instead He gave Himself in service to others. He is exaulted and so He humbled Himself and became a servant. Jesus knew He has all things under his feet, so He got low and washed the others' feet.

Jesus didn’t just sit back from afar and say, “You should love one another”. Or “you should be kind to others”. He came and did it Himself. He modelled how to live. He is the pattern we are to follow.

Despite His status to the disciples as their teacher and lord, He stooped down, with a basin and towel to wash their feet.

He Washes Others’ Feet

Jesus humbled Himself to serve the disciples, and He did this for you too. He came down from God, became a Man and humbled Himself to die on a cross (Phil 2 ish). This was a painful and humiliating experience, and Jesus did that for you.

Do you understand what Jesus has done for you? He came to scrafice Himself for you. He willingly came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mat 20:28). He didn’t come for His own gain; He came so that we might gain from His giving.

Jesus knew the path to our salvation wouldn’t be pleasant or glorious, but would be painful and gory. And He did it to save you. He humbly put Himself in your place. Do you understand what Jesus has done for you?

Jesus went low for His disciples by washing their feet. He went low for us by dying on a cross for us.

If you were to ask what God looks like, here in this meal, the answer would be “a servant”. God is the guy with the basin and towel wrapped around Himself, serving others.

Do Christ’s Pattern

Jesus was humble, and we are to follow this pattern of our Teacher and Lord.

Jesus gave this teaching:

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John 13:14–15 NIV)

Jesus sets the example. We are to do what He has done.

Some take this very literally and say that footwashing should be a sacrament, as it is something Jesus commanded His people to do.

Jesus told us to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of Him, Jesus told us to baptise people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so why don’t we formalise footwashing like we do with Communion and Baptism? Jesus told us to right?

In church history, most haven’t taken it this literally. Most see that this footwashing was an example for us to follow, not a specific action to copy. This wasn’t simply about cleaning dirty feet, but about taking on the form of a servant for others. By showing love for one another. Jesus’ tangible example of footwashing was just one example to show that we are not to laud our status over someone, but are instead bow down low for others.

Jesus’s example was to be a servant and to have humility towards others, and we are to do the same.

Servant

If we are to follow our master who becomes a servant by footwashing, we too are to become a servant, but not directly to Jesus. Jesus doesn’t say “now that I have washed your feet, you are to wash mine”. Instead He says “you are to wash one another’s”. And so, in washing others' feet, we are obeying our master who is the ultimate footwasher.

In our passage, Jesus said

Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. (John 13:16 NIV)

If we are to follow Jesus as our Lord and master, we need to recognise that we are not greater than Him. We are under Him, and He sets us an example of being a servant. Our pride might get in the way, so we might not like the idea of being a servant or being a slave to someone, but Jesus did it.

In the ancient Roman world, Aristotle said that some people by nature are slaves. They are simply living tools, and some people by nature are to rule over them. But Jesus smashes this idea. If anything, He models that rulers are the ones who are to serve.

Our pride makes us think we are somehow too important for some tasks or some people. That those little tedious dirty jobs are not for me. Jesus, of all the people on Earth, had the power not to do any demeeing task, and yet He served. He washed people’s feet. He died a humulitating criminials death for others.

And so, as we follow our master who was a servant, we are to be servants too. We are not above our master, so we are to get low like He did.

Humility

And in serving others we, will need a mindset change. We will need humility to consider others better than ourselves.

The Roman world did not consider humility a strength, instead they saw a task like footwashing as a sign of weakness or even a character flaw (Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible Humility)

And yet, it was in that world that Christians said humility was a positive trait to put on (Col 3:12, 1 Peter 5:5). Like getting dressed every day, we are to put on humility, for that is at the heart of Christ’s character.

Paul tells the church in Philippi

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:3–4 NIV)

Paul goes on to say we are to have this same mindset of Christ who humbled Himself like a servant, to even death on a cross.

Our mindset is to have this same pattern of Christ, which will overflow into serving. We need the right thinking to do the right serving. We need to know who Jesus is, so we can act more like Him. He is God and the humble servant. He is who we worship as Lord and Saviour, and He is who we model our behaviour on. The pattern is Christ.

For All

And so, a sort of pointy technical question is: “Who are we to serve”?

Jesus said we are to wash one another’s feet. Who are the "one another"? Is that for those who are followers of Jesus, like the disciples or the people in the church or is it for all?

I think it means, wherever we find ourselves, at home or work or in the shopping centre, we are to be servants of everyone in the room. Jesus bent down in front of everyone in that room, including Judas. In this chapter of John, we learn that Judas was already planning on betraying Jesus, and Jesus said Judas wasn’t really clean, and yet, Jesus went low for Him. Jesus also washed Peter’s feet, who said He would never fall away, and later that same night Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. And all the other disciples, in a few hours, would distance themselves from Jesus.

But still, Jesus washes everyone’s feet; not based on their heart, not based on merit or their intentions. If this passage tells us anything, no one is above serving and no one is below being served (Exalting Jesus in John Jesus Gives Us an Example of Humble Service (John 13:1–5))

Martin Luther opens up a famous essay (“The Freedom of a Christian”) with these two points:

A Christian is a free lord of all things and is subject to no one.
A Christian is a dutiful servant in all things and is subject to everyone.

And Luther is sort of stealing this from two bits that Paul said:

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. (1 Corinthians 9:19 NIV)

and

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. (Galatians 6:10 NIV)

Paul wants Christians to use their freedom to serve others and do good to everyone, to win them to Christ and to help believers. We should be on the lookout for how we can serve everyone. Ask yourself, “How can I be willingly inconvenienced for someone else's sake?”

Knowing and Doing Christ’s Pattern

At the end of our passage, Jesus gives this line

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:17 NIV)

Knowing and doing are sides of the same coin. If in some way, on a coin, you could separate the head from the tail, the coin would be worthless. Likewise, if you separate your knowing from your doing, both become worthless.

Knowing without doing doesn’t help anyone and may puff up your pridful intelligence. Doing without knowing can lead to lots of activities, but also puff up your pride as you think about all the good things you are doing when compared to others. Both lead to pride, the opposite of humility.

We need to join the two together. In knowing the humility of Christ, we then do the serving of Christ. Without this grouding we might be building on ourselves and not on the foundation of Jesus.

Blessed

And Jesus says we will be blessed if we know and then we do. That sounds nice, but what does that mean? Being blessed comes with the sense of being favoured or praised.

If you were to ever to give your blessing to someone, you are saying that you are positive toward them, and you want it to go well in what they are doing, that you support them in their activity. When God blesses you, He isn’t just hoping it will go well with you; He will be with you, and He approves of what you are doing. He favours you.

This doesn’t necessarily mean it will always be rainbows and unicorns.

Richared Weymouth said ‘People who are blessed may outwardly be much to be pitied, but from the higher and therefore truer standpoint they are to be envied, congratulated, and imitated.’ (cite in The New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition Blessed)

If you know and do what Jesus says, even if your circumstances are not comfortable or glamorous, God will be pleased with you. A blessed life comes from knowing Jesus and then serving others, because of Jesus.

We are not to merely listen to God’s word, but we are do what it says (Jame 1:22). For this is how God wants us to live. This is His good design, and it pleases Him for us to do what He says.

This Year?

And so as this year sort of winds up, we come to these two questions

How might you know Jesus more this year?
How might you humbly serve others this year?

Reflect on your life and various roles, regardless of your work title, if you are a public servant or not, how might you be blessed? How might you know Jesus and serve others, following Jesus' example? There is something godlike in serving, because that is what our God is like.

Our government, at least in titles, wants to be an organisation filled with servants, with people working for the good of others. And our church is the same, full of people who are willing to serve others, full of people willing to go low for others, to grab their own types of basions and towels for other people.

Every week I see people who welcome us, who make the tea and coffee, who set up the room and sound gear. Every week there are those who serve us in prayer, Bible reading, kids and youth leading, Bible study leading. Our church is full of people who serve, and I love that we have this culture. Let's ensure our activism is based on Jesus.

Jesus knew who He was, so He got up and served.
Because of Christ, know who you are, so that you can serve others.

In knowing more about Jesus this year, if you haven’t already, you might want to join a Bible Study. We have a new one starting up on Tuesday nights. Or you might want to find someone to read the Bible together with. If you haven’t already, you could start a daily Bible reading plan. There are many apps to help with this. Have a think, and make a plan on how you could know Jesus more this year.

And how might you want to serve others this year? This doesn’t have to be in some formal sense of being on a roster or anything like that. You could aim to have someone over for a meal once a month, you could consider how you act in the workplace and do the coffee run for others, or to really listen to people’s lives when they are sharing something significant with you. You could consider how you might serve your boss and workmates in the tasks you have set before you, without grumbling and complaining.

You could help out at the Gordon Community Centre. There is a playgroup on Wednesdays that needs people to help with, and there is the pantry that provides relief to those in need.

And yes, you could serve people here on a Sunday, with welcoming, morning tea, sound and projector, set up, music, praying, Bible reading, and hosting. Or visiting people throughout the week. There are opportunities here, and if you want to know more about anything I have mentioned, please talk to me afterwards. I would love to support you in this.


So let's remember, the pattern is Christ. We are to understand what Christ has done for us, and we are to copy His example of humble service to others. May we be a community full of servants who follow Christ’s pattern.


Let pray:

Lord,

We thankyou for sending your son,

who rules over everything to show us your way of humility.

Help us to be humble servants for others, going low for them,

as your Son did for the disciples.

Help us to find ways we can know more about Jesus and

how we can serve others here and beyond,

through your power, modelled on Christ.

In Jesus name. Amen