Tag: humility

Suffering Servant: MT episode 30

John 13:1-20 is a passage upon which I encourage you to read and meditate this week.  This will be a passage we will observe today and this coming Thursday. 

We find Jesus on the night that he was betrayed and abandoned sharing a meal with the disciples who were the very people that would betray and abandon him.  Ordinarily there was a designated servant who would wash the feet.

They did not sit at tables in chairs as we do in our culture, they reclined at table.  In this position, someone’s feet would inevitably be in the face of someone else.

Very common was open toe sandal type shoes combined with dirt streets the feet would get filthy.  With that explanation, maybe you can understand better why the washing of feet at mealtimes was so important.

Yet, there was no one to wash feet.  There was no servant. . . until Jesus became one.

He rose from the table, removed his outer garment, wrapped a towel around his waist and began washing the disciples’ feet. 

No outer garment and a towel wrapped around the waist was identifying act of a servant.  If you were to walk into a room the servant would be easily identified for, he would not have an outer garment and have a towel wrapped around his waist.

Jesus knows what is coming in the next few hours.  He knows He will be abandoned by all, even, ultimately, by the Father. 

He knows the scourging that will take place. He knows the betrayal and the denials.  Of all the people in that room, he should have been at the top of the list of being served, not doing the serving.

But Jesus came into this world and Isaiah described him as the suffering servant.  He came to serve.  Dressed in human likeness he became obedient, to death, even death on a cross.  Serving those who believe.

We will return to this passage Thursday and see yet one other significant thing that happened in this setting. 

Until then, S.D.G.

Addition by Subtraction: MT episode 8

I have a question for you.  What does success look like?  Does it look like better cars, better house or better clothes?  Better friends?

There was a television comedy in the 1980’s about a hard-working middle class family in NYC that had made it.  Through their hard work, they had become wealthy and, in this wealth, moved to a better part of town and in a much better home.  The theme song, as the show opened went, “we are moving on up, to the east side, in a deluxe apartment in the sky” and concluded with, “we finally got a piece of the pie”

There is nothing wrong with improving your station in life.  A better place to live or even being able to hire people to clean your house is a blessing from God and not morally wrong in anyway. It can even be argued this would fall under common grace in that God provides this blessing to all regardless if they believe or not.

But rarely do we see success as “emptying”, going backwards or DEMOTING.  But this is what the believer is called to do because it is what Jesus did.

Philippians 2, “Have this mind,” means think like this.  View life this way.  “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ. That although he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to hold on to but made himself nothing.” (GR: Kenosis – to empty)

This passage is on the incarnation of Christ and it is a very rich section of Scripture.  Too much for just 2 to 3 minutes.  Maybe we will revisit this in December during Advent.

Today, the focus is on serving.  The writer of Philippians here is not ONLY documenting that God became man but is giving us an example of how we are to replicate it.  Simply stated, being humble.  Serving.  Have this MIND in you.  Think this way. 

While it is not wrong for a believer to improve their lot and enjoy blessings God gives, it is worth noting that we should always serve and have the heart of serving.  Because Jesus did.

SDG