From: HOMILIES BY EMAIL

Holy Thursday
Meditation: Stooping to Serve
John 13:1-17, 31b-35

    Something was not right that night in the
Upper Room. There was a coldness, a tension
in the air. Something was wrong, very wrong.

 Part of it was the strange and even
objectionable things Jesus had been saying
lately - that he was going to Jerusalem to be
arrested, turned over to the authorities,
killed on a cross. That's hardly the kind of
talk that makes for a joyous Passover meal.

    And surely part of what was wrong that
night was the traitorous thoughts of Judas,as
he sat there, eating with Jesus, going over
in his mind his plans for later that night.

 Can you not feel the chill deepen as the
words of Jesus fill the room: "One of you
will betray me..."?

 Why did Jesus say that?

 Was it just to let Judas know that he
knew what was in his heart?

 Or was it one last act of compassion,
one final attempt to turn Judas from the
destructive path he had chosen for himself?

 But there was something else wrong that
night. Here in John 13 it is only implied,
but it is stated in Luke:

     An argument broke out among the
disciples as to      which one of them should
be thought of as the greatest (Luke 22:24
TEV).

     On the way to the Upper Room that night,
as they walked ahead of Jesus, thinking he
could not hear them, they got into an
argument about who among them would be the
greatest in the new administration the
Messiah would establish. It was not the first
time they had such a discussion, for we know
that James and John may have started the
whole thing when they asked Jesus if they
could have the highest positions on his
cabinet - to sit on his left and right side.
And when the other ten disciples heard about
this request, they were extremely angry,
probably because they hadn't thought of it
first.

     Get this picture in your minds.

 It is the last night of Jesus's earthly
life. He's on his way to give his life. He is
centered on stooping to serve. And what's on
the minds of his disciples? Standing to be
served! Their honor, their position, their
reward. He is thinking about giving, they are
thinking about getting.

 So, they came into the Upper Room that
night full of jealousy and rivalry. They
didn't like each other very much that night.
In fact, they were so angry with each other
that they refused to wash one another's feet,
a common Jewish custom in those days.

 You see, if you were invited to dinner
in a Jewish home in those days, especially to
a meal as important as Passover, you would
have reclined on a pillow around a low table
and a servant would come around and wash your
feet. You probably would have worn sandals or
no shoes at all and your feet would have
gotten dirty on the way over to their house.

 Now footwashing was strictly the job of
a servant or slave. The master of the house
would never do this, for it was beneath him.
If he didn't have a servant, his wife would
probably wash the feet of his guests (a wife
being the next best thing to a servant). I am
told by some wives today that things haven't
changed much.

 Some scholars make the interesting
suggestion that, since the disciples did not
have servants, they probably took turns
washing one another's feet. But not this
night. They were too upset and angry with
each other.

 Jesus finally decided to put an end to
their petty pouting. When the meal was over,
he stood up and took off his outer robe,
poured water in a basin, wrapped a towel
around his waist and stooped down to begin
washing the callused, dirty feet of his
disciples.

 Can you imagine how the disciples must
have felt while he did this?

 Here they had been wrapped up in
self-interest and arguing about who would be
the greatest among them, while Jesus, their
Lord and Master, was stooping to serve them
like a common slave!

 "If I, your Lord and Master, have washed
your feet, then you should wash one another's
feet," he told them when he finished.

 "If lowly servanthood is not too
demeaning for me," he was saying, "then it
isn't for you either."

 It was one more act, one more way to try
to show them who he was and who he was
calling them to be. And after this, he would
go out to the ultimate act of servanthood - a
cross.

 Personal glory doesn't matter!

 Being praised doesn't matter!

 Who gets credit, doesn't matter!

 All that matters is that we faithfully,
humbly stoop to serve the Lord and one
another

 ...whenever...

 ...wherever...

 ...however...

 we can!

     Hear this prayer from Leslie
Weatherhead:

     "When a foul egotism arises up within
me, bidding me assert myself, serve my own
interest, and look out for number one - then,
O ... Lord as I listen down the corridors of
the years....may I hear the gentle slashing
of water in a basin and see the SON OF GOD
washing his disciples feet.  Amen."


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Bass Mitchell, Hot Springs, VA
HOMILIES & BIBLE STUDIES BY E-MAIL
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