Pondering His Holy Word

When you were a child, you were utterly helpless and reliant on your parents. You look to them for sustenance. As a toddler, you were not able to cook or prepare your meals. You were neither able to work nor pay bills. Yet, when something went wrong, you looked to your parents as the authority, and you trusted their word without question.

Most parents demonstrate their authority to their children by they working every day to earn money income, going to the grocery store to buy food. Many parents plan dinners with their children’s allergies and even their preferences in mind. Then, the parents prepare and cook the family meals; next, they put the food on the plate for their kids to eat. Finally, they clean the dishes. As an adult, you would expect service from cooks and waiters in restaurants. Yet as a child, your parent’s service to you was a display of their leadership and an example for you to follow. 

Jesus washed the feet of his disciples as an example of how they should behave towards each other. Jesus, the Son of the Living God and Lord of the universe, washed His disciples’ feet and led them by servitude. Through all of the Gospels, Jesus provided for those who followed him. He fed 5000 people with five loaves of bread and three fish (Matthew 14:13-21). Jesus led by serving as an example for us even unto death. 

Even your parents lead you by serving you. As you grew older and matured, you took your parent’s examples and began cooking and serving meals even with the food supplied by your parents. The Lord expects us to lead not by claiming authority over them but by service. Jesus tells his disciple that the gentiles lord their authority over their subjects, but “it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first must be your slaves. Even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28). 

After he died on the cross, arose on the third day, and ascended to heaven after 40 days, his disciples led in much the same way as he did even unto death. As Christians, the Lord sends His Spirit to live in us, but we don’t use it as a tool to lord over people, but as a way to serve others in the name of Jesus Christ. 

In the name of Jesus, we are leading as the Lord encouraged us to by serving others. It is easy to focus on titles and positions. As children of God, we should have the heart of a servant much like our Lord Jesus Christ, who washed the feet of His disciples. 

To live is to serve and suffer like Christ served and suffered. We know that only Jesus, the Son of the Living God, was the perfect sacrifice. We know that only Jesus died on the cross for the Sins of many. We know that Jesus arose on the third day and is now sitting at the Father’s right hand. We know that Jesus poured out His Spirit so that we can bring people to Christ. Now, through the Spirit, we must bring people to Christ by serving them. We help those who are new to the faith by serving them. The Lord lives in us so that we can serve in his name. 

Prayer 

Dear Heavenly Father, 

Give us a servant’s heart like your Son Jesus Christ. Allow the Holy Spirit to mold our hearts into that of a servant. Take away any ambitions that cause us to exalt ourselves and replace them with the desire of servitude only for the purpose of glorifying your name. Please keep us in your Spirit to be a servant of Jesus Christ. In his name, I pray, 

Amen. 

Bible Verse: John 13-1-17 – ESV
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. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 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, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 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. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”  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.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet,[a] but is completely clean. And you[b] are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
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? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant[c] is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.