After Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, He again took His place at the table and asked a question. Now, I love questions. As a teacher myself, both in the church and school settings, I’ve found that asking questions is important. And Jesus’ question to His disciples is one I often ask – “Do you understand?”
In John’s Gospel, we read, “After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.” (John 13:12–17, NLT)
Jesus’ primary message in this teachable moment is for the Disciples to do as Jesus had done. To take the role of a servant and wash one another’s feet. In this, Jesus wasn’t setting up a new rite, although some churches do practice foot-washing during Holy Week. His point was simple – serve one another. And the wonderful part is that there are plentiful opportunities to do exactly that.
Now, this wasn’t the first or only time that Jesus addressed this issue with the disciples. Matthew records a time when the mother of James and John asked for them to occupy positions of power and authority, which upset the other disciples. “But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25–28, NLT)
Back in the upper room, Jesus punctuates his teaching by declaring, “Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.” I’m often cautious about drawing cause-and-effect relationships from the Bible. Meaning that I avoid having the mentality that if I do or say certain things, then God will do something specific that I want. But in this case, I’m making an exception – If you want to be blessed by God, then serve one another like a servant washing the feet of others. But a warning – don’t do something to get something, just do it for its own good and rightness.
Judas was also in the room as Jesus taught. “I am not saying these things to all of you; I know the ones I have chosen. But this fulfills the Scripture that says, ‘The one who eats my food has turned against me.’ I tell you this beforehand, so that when it happens you will believe that I Am the Messiah. “I tell you the truth, anyone who welcomes my messenger is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me.” (John 13:18–20, NLT) One not-so-obvious point is that Jesus also washed Judas’s feet even though Jesus knew what was in His heart. But we’ll spend more time on Judas in the next step of our journey through John’s Gospel.
So let’s return to our key point. What does God bless? As we said above, one thing God blesses is serving one another in the same way as Jesus’ powerful demonstration. Those blessings and those acts of service have many, many forms. To serve others means observing their real need and hearing their felt needs. It could be helping to fix a roof, providing a meal, doing someone’s laundry, simply listening for a while, and so many more things. And God’s blessings are equally varied.
My encouragement for you is simply this. Look outside of your own struggles and see how you could possibly serve someone else today by doing what you can with what you have. God will bless you.
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Thank you for teaching me to be of service to others in need.