Daily Journal: 26 March

Jesus Would Have Washed Your Feet Too

Do you feel like so often you just give-give-give and others are more than happy to take-take-take?

Jesus gave of Himself constantly, even when He was beyond tired, even when He was about to be crucified. Jesus was clothed in the frailty of the human mind and body, constantly overcoming the demands and the emotional haggling and the pull of everyone around Him.

What do you contemplate about when you read this story?

John 13:1, 3-5, 12-16 (NIV)

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

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. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

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. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 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. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

I imagine being in that room with Him, stripped to just a towel, and letting Him kneel in front of me to wash my feet. I should have been the one washing His feet, except I couldn’t. I still had to understand His majesty even while I received His love. I had to understand my own pride and weaknesses. I had to receive His understanding of me and know that if I received Him in this way, I would gain everything.

I can only truly receive Jesus in the humility with which He gave Himself.

Jesus knew He was King, yet because of His love, He became a servant to His disciples. He had been serving them every day He was with them. He was showing them how to do that themselves.

Jesus would have washed your feet, and mine, too. He calls us into His heart of love, and then He calls us to be carriers of His love.

When I have received from His love personally, I can give from His love personally and be thankful for the opportunity. I become His hands and feet, even when it hurts.

Operating in Jesus’ love allows me the triumph that only a servant heart of love carries. It’s not about how much I can give because I know He wants me to, it’s about the way I’m able to give because I’ve received from Him first.

Consider ways you can give out of His hands today, and consider ways you might be best not to, doing everything from the position of His love.