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Jan 29, 2023

John - The Servant (click for resources)

Passage: John 13:1-20

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: John: Come and See

Keywords: love, humility, serve, humble, wash feet

We live in a vertical world where culture has trained us to see things and people as better or worse, higher or lower. Jesus once again utterly inverts the system as he stoops down to wash the disciples' feet, an act reserved for the lowest of slaves. In doing so he reveals that his whole life has been about coming down off his heavenly throne to serve the least of these, culminating in the greatest act of servitude: the crucifixion; an act that lifts us up from the muddy pit and sets us up as royal and fully cleansed brothers and sisters of The Servant.

We live in a vertical world where culture has trained us to see things and people as better or worse, higher or lower. Jesus once again utterly inverts the system as he stoops down to wash the disciples' feet, an act reserved for the lowest of slaves. In doing so he reveals that his whole life has been about coming down off his heavenly throne to serve the least of these, culminating in the greatest act of servitude: the crucifixion; an act that lifts us up from the muddy pit and sets us up as royal and fully cleansed brothers and sisters of The Servant.

MAIN PASSAGE:

John 13:1-20
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. 18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ 19 I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

 

SERMON DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

We live in a “Vertical Culture” where we are trained to see things and people as either better or worse; as above or below.
How do you see that in your world?
Why do we do this?

Read through this passage together, each person interacting with the text. What words pop out to you? What is this passage all about?

This passage begins by revealing the very nature and purpose of Jesus: He was from God and going back to God, and he came to Love.

Unpack “He loved them to the end”
“End” = “end of his life” as well as “to the full extent / perfectly”

Explain Peter’s refusal to being washed?
(It may have been his job to do the foot-washing, but he didn’t)

Jesus washing our feet is a symbolism of a full “cleansing” (i.e. Psalm 51 “white as snow”) from sin. This reveals two big things about us:
1) We are valuable and loved.
2) We are dirty beyond our own ability to cleanse ourselves.

What impact should these 2 facts have on us?

Talk about the mental-health monkey experiment:
1) When isolated they showed disturbed behavior, staring blankly, circling their cages, and engaging in self-mutilation. When re-introduced to the group many stayed separated, and some even died after refusing to eat.”

2) When separated from their mothers and given the choice between a wire/wood “mother” with food and a soft/cloth monkey without food, they chose the cloth “mother”.

How does this experiment tie into Jesus being “Relational” (came to be with us) as well as “Missional” (came to heal us)?

How are we then called/equipped/sent to be Relational and Missional?