Washed by the Highest Servant
I was just thinking about the Last Supper in John 13. Jesus getting up from His seat and getting the basin of water and towel and kneeling down to wash the disciples' feet. It was the norm, the everyday custom, for what servants were supposed to do when a guest entered another's home - wash the dust off the feet.
Can you imagine what the disciples must have been feeling in that moment? Imagine being Peter. Jesus comes to you to wash your feet. What?! Wash my feet?? This is Jesus! You have followed Him for three years. You have been soaked for three years in the most revolutionary teachings. You have witnessed Him heal blind, crippled, paralyzed, diseased people. You've seen broken people's lives changed. Demons cast out. 5000 men fed with a boy's lunch - two fish and five barley loaves. At the command, "Come," from Jesus, you walked on water...think about that.
Come on, Jesus! YOU? Wash my feet!??? You were there with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. You heard the actual voice of God, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Wash my feet! How crazy does that sound? Jesus assuming the role of a servant ... washing my nasty, sandal- wearing, dirt road-covered feet.
Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." John 13:8.
Wow! "No part with Me." That will stop you cold and make you think. We all need Jesus to clean us. Back up to verse 6. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, "Lord, are You washing my feet?" Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this."
How many times do we find ourselves in this very place. Things look wrong, out of place...this isn't the way it is supposed to be. It's out of the natural order. "Lord, are You washing my feet?"... Are You working in this area of my life? This trial, these circumstances...are You washing me? It's one thing to have Jesus come with a towel and a basin of water and wash me. But to mess with my life? I don't really want this. I just want to do my thing. It's not that big a deal...not really. I'm with You, Lord, but let me alone in this area or that. Not my feet, Lord.
It won't be a towel, nor a basin of water that He will use to cleanse your life. What is the Lord using to cleanse you? Take a deep look at the things in your life. Ask Jesus to show you the towel and basin He is using for you. It will be people, circumstances, issues...the things of life. Jesus' goal is not to take these things and use against you; but to release you from what you don't see as binding, into what He knows is for your best.
Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." John 13:8.
Wow! "No part with Me." That will stop you cold and make you think. We all need Jesus to clean us. Back up to verse 6. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, "Lord, are You washing my feet?" Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this."
How many times do we find ourselves in this very place. Things look wrong, out of place...this isn't the way it is supposed to be. It's out of the natural order. "Lord, are You washing my feet?"... Are You working in this area of my life? This trial, these circumstances...are You washing me? It's one thing to have Jesus come with a towel and a basin of water and wash me. But to mess with my life? I don't really want this. I just want to do my thing. It's not that big a deal...not really. I'm with You, Lord, but let me alone in this area or that. Not my feet, Lord.
It won't be a towel, nor a basin of water that He will use to cleanse your life. What is the Lord using to cleanse you? Take a deep look at the things in your life. Ask Jesus to show you the towel and basin He is using for you. It will be people, circumstances, issues...the things of life. Jesus' goal is not to take these things and use against you; but to release you from what you don't see as binding, into what He knows is for your best.
Psalm 138:8 puts it so wonderfully, "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; do not forsake the works of Your hands."
Sometimes things don't look right, they look crazy. But, trust the Lord. He knows the plans He has for you. "Plans of good and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Put your faith and trust in Jesus and follow His leading.
Sometimes things don't look right, they look crazy. But, trust the Lord. He knows the plans He has for you. "Plans of good and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Put your faith and trust in Jesus and follow His leading.
Open and closed doors. "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this."
After what?
After you stop surrendering to the circumstances and surrender to the Lord of them.
John 13:9 -- Peter said to Him, "Lord, not just my feet only, but also my hands
John 13:9 -- Peter said to Him, "Lord, not just my feet only, but also my hands
and my head!"
It's about total surrender. It's about wanting Jesus so much in every part of your life, every fiber of your being that you cry out to Him: "All of me! Lord, all of me, all that I am - make it yours!"
He wants to you know Him totally. That's why after He washed the disciples' feet (even Judas!), He offered the bread and wine that symbolized His own body and blood - the body nailed to the cross, the blood shed to cleanse all of us from sin.
He surrendered all for us...can we surrender all for Him?
It's our choice.
In Christ's Love,
Weylin
Keep your eye on the Eastern sky!
For as the lightning come out of the east, and shine even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matthew 24:27
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