Day 1 Being a Christ-Like Leader
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them John 13:12-17
Jesus’ washing His disciples’ feet spoke on a deeper level of the cleansing His self-humbling in going to the cross would offer. But Jesus had more to teach them. Apart from Peter trying to stop Jesus washing his feet, it seems the other eleven had their feet washed in embarrassed silence. ‘When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.”’ Again, complete silence.
“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.” For at least some of the disciples ‘Lord’ probably doesn’t mean more than ‘master.’ In just over another week the term will take on divine dimensions (20:28). The term ‘Teacher’ carried more weight. The disciples had come to recognise Jesus as at least equivalent to the other exalted teachers in Israel and almost certainly even greater. ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’ belong together. Whether we have made Jesus our Lord will be easily seen by whether we follow His teaching. If we don’t, then He isn’t our Lord. People obey their Lord and disobey someone who isn’t their Lord.
“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” Those who have been humbled at the cross, and come to Christ as helpless sinners seeking His cleansing, are the raw material of the community of humble servants who make up the church. So the cross is both the way to salvation and the key to community. The ‘greatest’ of Jesus’ disciples has to be willing to wash the feet of the ‘least’ of the disciples. In cultures where foot-washing never happens, there will still be countless opportunities to live out Jesus’ humility. Where the ‘world’s needs’ and ‘where we find ourselves’ meet, that’s where we need to be, ready to take on insignificant roles. And as with Jesus, the picture of foot-washing is meant to serve not only as a picture of taking on menial tasks but the bigger challenge of following Jesus all the way to the cross, to lay down our life in the service of God and the world He came to save.
“I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” Jesus saw His disciples as both ‘servants’ and ‘messengers,’ and as His ‘servants’ and ‘messengers,’ they were not greater than Him. So there would be no reason for them to think of themselves above carrying out menial service for one another, because that’s what Jesus had just done for them.
“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” God’s blessing is not on those who know His will but on those who do it.
A Christ-like leader today is known by the ease and spontaneity he or she does the little, annoying, messy things – the things which in the ancient world a slave would do – the things which in our world we always secretly hope someone else will do so we don’t have to waste our time and demean ourselves.
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