Ultimate humility

Two key verses for us tonight from our gospel passage, John 13 verses 8 & 14:

8. ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me’

14. ‘Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet’

We get a big clue to Jesus’ ultimate humility tonight as he washes his disciples’ feet during their meal together, this meal that would come to be known as ‘The Last Supper.’ Keep in mind Jesus knew all along this was the last meal he would share with his friends before his death – as we do a few thousand years later – but most of the disciples DID NOT know, they didn’t know what was coming. Judas knew what was coming didn’t he, he was a part of it, the betrayal that led to Jesus’ innocent suffering and death. We can only imagine what the rest of the disciples were experiencing on this night, there must have been a real sense of foreboding, something big and not good was about to happen… History was about to be written!

Our two key verses here have two key themes they speak to: what we receive in baptism, and what we are called to do as baptized people. What baptism does for us, and what baptism means for us as we live it out. 

We might not expect baptism to be key such a key theme on this night, after all this is the night of the Last Supper, we might expect to hear more about Holy Communion! But Jesus has clear words for us here on what our baptism is and what it means as we live it out.

So this our setting tonight, gathered around this table for this Passover meal together, we know this setting and this scene, before Jesus goes on to be arrested in the garden later that same night, when his hour comes.

So in these two key verses, these two lines, Jesus speaks one line to Peter and one line to everyone. He says to Peter, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me,’ and he says to everyone after he’s washed their feet, ‘Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.’  One line for Peter, one line for everyone, both lines speak to what our baptism is and what it means for us.

And we get a big clue as to how God works in the interaction between Jesus and Peter on this night, as Jesus washes his friends’ feet. We see how Jesus is the decision-maker, the one who makes it happen, not Peter!

What happens? At first Peter says ‘no way Jesus, you can’t wash my feet, that’s way beneath you!’ But then when Jesus says you must be washed by me, Peter goes the other way and says ‘wash the lot! My whole body!’ Always interesting the dramatic responses of Peter, how the way he responds to Jesus reveals a lot about us.

What does Jesus say next? ‘Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean.’ Meaning I am doing this washing, I know how this washing works, you don’t! Just receive this washing Jesus says to Peter. Jesus is always a calming, wise presence for Peter isn’t he > always giving Peter what he needs in each moment. 

I think the hint there is that Jesus is the one who does the work, who serves us, who serves us out of God’s great love – Peter can only respond to what Jesus says and does in a human way – just like us – but he doesn’t have the full picture, he doesn’t fully understand how Jesus works, it’s clearly not Peter’s knowledge or understanding that leads to him being washed clean by Jesus > that’s purely Jesus’ free gift.

This is Jesus saying trust me, things are about to get really heavy, but I am with you, I am doing this for you, this is not something you can do, I am doing it for you. And as we know from the rest of what the bible says, Jesus does this for all people, and he will always be there, he will continue to do things we cannot do!

When Jesus speaks to everyone after he finishes washing their feet, what does he tell them? He asks them if they understand – they most likely didn’t – then he tells them what has just happened. As I have washed your feet Jesus says, so you should wash one another’s. We know what this means, as I have done this for you, you should do it for others. As I have served you, loved you, been present with you, so you should serve, love, and be present with others. This is part of the call on our lives, the call on us as baptized, forgiven, restored children of God.

We might think of this as ‘our end of the bargain’ – Jesus does this for us, we do it for others, that’s how it works, a bit of give and take going on there! But really it’s not that, this is not a deal, a bargain or an agreement we would usually make with someone else. There’s something more going on here.

We are nowhere near Jesus’ level. We’re not even on the same playing field.

We have no right to expect anything from Jesus, we’ve given him no reason to look us in the eye and make a deal with us, as if it benefits him. Clearly what’s happening here doesn’t benefit him! He’s serving, teaching, loving, and then he’s dying for these guys, for the people God has made. Like we said on Palm Sunday, the human result of Jesus’ mindset – make himself nothing, make himself humble – is not good, in fact it’s terrible, horrible, hard to watch or hear about. But we know the heavenly result is very different, the heavenly result if we follow it down the line is that we get to be baptized people, baptized into God’s family as his own dearly loved children. 

So if this not a bargain, if we’re not on Jesus level, then why would he do this for us? 

Why would he go to these extreme lengths to show humility, compassion, care for the poor and the sick, why would he live as a normal, ordinary, human being and then surrender himself to be killed for who he was?

Not because we’re on his level, because we’re not. He reaches down to our level, to make a way for us to come to him. He reaches to the lowest of lows, as we confess in our creed Jesus descends into hell after he dies on the cross – that’s low. And that’s another way we can understand the washing of feet here, this is low. This is a servant’s job, not the job of a king. We should be washing his feet, but he is washing ours. What a striking image that is. He’s just come into Jerusalem as a king – hosanna to the king everyone was shouting – but as a king what does he do? He washes his friends’ feet. He shared food with them, he breaks bread with them. He meets them where they’re at, not where he is but where we are.

Our baptism – our washing clean in the waters of baptism and our receiving of the gift of the Holy Spirit – is what connects us to this humble king. It’s what makes us his, it’s what means we are no longer left in our lowly places, forgotten, alone, no hope of ever being loved or saved. It turns that all around – we go from guilty to innocent, from sinner to forgiven, from lowest of lows to highest of highs. Jesus does that work for us in his death, and in his rising again as we’re going to hear on Easter Sunday – good to have a baptism on that same day, I get to baptize my own son no less how special is that!

But it doesn’t end there, on the day we’re baptized – we are baptized, and then we live in our baptism. Our feet have been washed by our Lord and Teacher, so we can then wash the feet of others. ‘Washing feet’ as in making ourselves low, so others can be lifted up. Humility over pride. Loving and serving others as Jesus first loved and served us. And we have an incredible example to follow in the disciples, the people who personally knew Jesus, who wrote and preached the Gospel, who followed Jesus to the end, to the point of being killed for their faith in him. If you’re ever unsure what it looks like to love and serve as Jesus loved and served us, take a look into all those who’ve come before us in the past 2000 years, how many faithful people who have loved and served and even given their lives as followers of Jesus. No shortage of examples to follow there!

So as we consider the cross on this Maundy Thursday, as get closer to it, as we reflect on the lengths Jesus went for us to make sure we could be God’s people, we also remember our baptism. Our ‘washing of feet’ moment, where we were washed clean by the water and given new life in the Spirit. 

We remember it, we live it out. Our Lord and Teacher has already done this for us, and we are called to live it out in community, inside and outside church, on the weekend, during the week, wherever we find ourselves and whoever we find ourselves with! God bless you as you reflect and as we get mighty close now to the ultimate sacrifice of the cross, as we move from ultimate humility into ultimate sacrifice.

Lord we thank you for your ultimate humility. We thank you for washing us clean in the waters of baptism, for giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit to be with us and keep us connected to you. Be with us now as we move closer to the cross, remind us of you great love and your great sacrifice for us, that we may be people after your own heart in all we do. In your name we pray, Amen.