The Making of a Servant

All authority has been given him, yet his knees touched the cold hard floor once again. Reaching, he takes the cloth from the basin beside him and wrings out the water. Like he had done to the several men before, he picks up the left foot of the man in front of which he kneels. As he begins to gently wash the top and then the sole of his foot, he notices that though it is not as calloused as the others, it is still very dirty, dry, and cracking. He rinses the rags often as he carefully washes ever inch of rough appendage. He then sets down the left foot, and prepares to lift the man’s right one. As he does, he looks up and lovingly locks eyes with the man, named Judas, one of his disciples. As Judas looks into Jesus’ eyes, his nervous conviction runs deep and he quickly diverts his eyes, for six days earlier; he had accepted the plot to betray him.

Silence fills the room except for the occasional rinsing of the cloth echoing in the cool dark room; the uncomfortable tension was palpable. After finishing Judas’ right foot, Jesus stands to move the basin to the next disciple. As Jesus kneels once again, Peter cries out, “What are you doing?” “You may not understand now, but later you will,” was Jesus’ answer. “You are not going to wash my feet, Jesus!” “Oh, but Peter, unless I wash you, you’ll have no part in me,” Jesus answered in that firm but calming tone. “If you have bathed, then you only need wash your feet to be clean. All of you are clean; except one.”

Jesus rises to walk back to his place at the table and reclines. “Do you know what I have done for you,” he asks? Their deafening silence communicates their ignorance. “I, your teacher and Lord, have washed your feet. You, therefore, ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, A servant is not greater than his master, neither is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” The Twelve continue to listen pondering these things in their hearts, but the conviction of one cause his heart to harden.

Where are you around the Lord’s Table? Do you have a servant’s heart? Are you like Peter, wanting to assert your will over Christ’s? Are you like Judas, in that God’s cleansing becomes a judgment and only hardens you? Jesus made it clear by a demonstration that if he be not above lovingkindness in serving the saints, neither can we.

One might learn by simply reading it, but notice Jesus said, “Blessed are you if you do them.” It is a theme made real in experience alone, by doing it: unprejudiced, humble, selfless service. To feel so small is to feel somehow failing, weak, unable. But there, right there, begins true servanthood, the disciple who has, despite himself, denied himself. And then, for perhaps the first time, one is loving not out of his own strength, merit, ability, superiority, but out of Christ; for he has discovered himself to be nothing and Christ everything. It is in this doing of ministry the minister is born.

Ask yourself, “Where is my ministry? Where is my love for the lost, the last, the least, and the lonely?” Have we truly explored our heart for service, to see if it one born of God? On your way to the Lord’s Table to meet Him this Sunday, won’t you consider this example? A phone call, a card of encouragement, stopping to help someone distressed on the side of the road, sparing a shoulder for someone to cry upon, visiting a shut-in, or a simple kind word to the grocery store clerk. In our rush about in this life, are we leaving behind those who need us the most? Jesus knew that Judas was conspiring to betray Him; He washed his feet. He knew Peter had a hard time conforming to God’s will; He washed his feet.

Your service and blessings start today.