Deo Gloria
Sermon for Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2021
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: John 13:1-5,12-17
Theme: Hands of Humility (Jesus)
It was a celebration. The two of them were seated at a restaurant with white linen tablecloths, fine china, and champagne flutes. They began to peruse the menu and waited for their server. Ten minutes passed, then 20. Nobody came to offer them even a glass of water. Each of them was waiting impatiently. After all, they were hungry. But the couple was celebrating their wedding anniversary and since they were happily reminiscing, they opted to avoid any public confrontation. When the wait stretched past 30 minutes, the husband pretended to go to the restroom so he could find a waiter and give him a little piece of his mind. Seeing a man who looked like he worked for the restaurant, he began to explain his displeasure. Just as he started, though, he was interrupted: “I’m sorry, sir, but my attention is needed at another table. I’ll be with you in a moment.” That was it! He had been put off for the last time. He returned to the table, gathered up his wife, and left in a huff.
Have you ever had a similar experience? Whether you’ve been to a retail store where the clerk paid you no attention, or you’ve been to a hospital where you felt the nursing staff neglected you, or you’ve tried to negotiate a reasonable window of time for the cable guy to show up at your house, you know that good service is hard to find. The internet has spawned rating systems, presumably so you can find merchants who do a good job, but most of them are filled with upset customers who just want to tell their horror stories.
God created people to depend on each other and their acts of service. Many of us have an expertise in one field or another, but the time will come when we need someone else’s expertise to help us: taxes, health care, home or car repair just to mention a few. The world doesn’t work without people serving one another. Serving one another is so crucial to our existence, and good service is so rare that we’re often willing to honor those who do their jobs especially well with generous tips and enthusiastic referrals.
If that’s the case, then you will certainly be ready to refer your friends and family to Jesus when you learn about the kind of service he provides. In tonight’s lesson, Jesus not only provides incomparable service to his disciples, but he does so for free. With no demands of payment, without pulling rank, without making excuses or being condescending, Jesus serves his disciples with his hands of humility.
Jesus had a lot on his mind that night. John repeatedly records the interplay between Jesus’ divine and human nature, especially how Jesus knew ahead of time what was about to happen. In verse 1 John tells us, “Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” Yes, Jesus knew! He knew ahead of time that within 24 hours he would lay down his life on the cross for the sins of the world. He knew ahead of time that Satan had prompted Judas to betray him (v. 2). He knew ahead of time that the Father had put all things under his power (v. 3). So he entered the evening with complete omnipotence and control. Yet rather than leveraging his full authority in some dazzling display of divine power, Jesus exercised abject humility.
While Jesus’ mind raced with anticipation of his impending suffering and death, his disciples were engaged in a petty argument over which of them was the greatest! Can you imagine anyone being more oblivious or more insensitive to the needs of Jesus? Their quibbling carried over into the upper room where they realized that there was no servant on duty to wash their stinky feet before the Passover meal. So who was going to do it? Peter? Andrew? James? Matthew? Which one of them would step up and volunteer, or should I say, stoop down and serve? None of them. No one even reached for the bucket.
Jesus once fed 5,000 people, but most of them never believed. Jesus patiently shared God’s Word with the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, but now they were busy plotting his death. And his own disciples–they were arrogantly arguing over who was the greatest. Who would blame Jesus if his frustration boiled over and he just walked away? “Forget it. I’m done. These people don’t deserve me. I’ve done enough for them already. It’s time for me to start thinking about myself!” And it’s not like Jesus hadn’t settled this argument before. When James and John sent their mother to advocate for them, to allow one of them to sit at Jesus’ right and the other to sit at his left in his kingdom, Jesus taught his disciples what it means to be great: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave”(Mt 20:26,27).
On this occasion, Jesus didn’t opt for another lecture but chose instead to model for them what humble service looks like: “So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him”(Jn 13:4,5). It would have been completely understandable if Jesus had blown a gasket, but his love never wavered. Without even a hint of frustration or exasperation, Jesus handled their pride with perfect patience. He overcame their arrogance with humble service. The King of creation, the One who had all authority in heaven and earth, bent down to serve his disciples with a task so menial that even servants tried their best to avoid it. Christ came from heaven on a mission from his Father to redeem the world, and he wasn’t about to quit in the 11th hour. As John tells us, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love”(v. 1).
Most of our Christian service falls short because we base it on the behavior of others. We shun people who don’t agree with us. Doctors are slow to follow up on patients who are annoying or belligerent. And when we order off the menu, make a scene, or ask for the avocado on the side, we’re labeled as difficult and treated differently. Even in our own families, we tiptoe around the hothead and walk on eggshells around the opinionated mother-in-law. Worse yet, we sinfully justify our poor Christian service by suggesting that they had it coming because they were being obnoxious. The irony, of course, is that while we justify our poor behavior and blame others, the one who is really being obnoxious is us!
If Jesus based his service on the disciples’ behavior, no one would have had their feet washed. If Jesus based his service on our behavior, no one would have had their sins forgiven because Jesus never would have made it to the cross! Jesus’ humility shines so much brighter than ours because it’s not based on human behavior. Jesus’ humility is based on God’s love and mercy. He serves us because he loves us. He serves us because his love is unconditional. He serves us because his love is perfect. Though he had plenty of reason to do so, he didn’t walk out on his disciples in the Upper Room, and he didn’t walk out on you either. He came to serve you: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”(Mt 20:28). Christ’s obedient death served you and me well; it paid the ransom for our sinful pride and our entitled attitude, for our pulling rank and making demands of others, for our making others feel smaller and making ourselves more important, and for every other shallow and insecure excuse we’ve ever offered God for failing to serve. “The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin”(1 Jn 1:7).
The disciples had a history of missing the point. After Jesus washed their feet, it would be very natural for them to feel ashamed, to feel embarrassed about their disgraceful bickering and their pompous pride; but Jesus wanted to do more than shame their pride. He wanted to change their hearts and their attitudes and invite them to use their hands in humble service. “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”(verses 14-15).
Jesus was their Lord and Teacher, and by virtue of his office he was their superior. But he didn’t rub his title in their faces. He didn’t shove his superiority down their throats or use it to avoid humble service to them or to anyone. “Washing one another’s feet” means to show Jesus’ kind of love toward others. It’s the kind of love that forgets about feeling superior, the kind of love that stoops to the lowliest form of service, the kind of love that is blind to what it is doing or whom it is serving. It is a love that serves so freely that it pays no attention to what it costs; a love so humble that it voluntarily serves, regardless of human behavior; a love so pure it seeks no recognition from others but only the approval of God.
Jesus came to serve. And the service he provides is both incomparable and free. Jesus’ humble death purifies us of our poor service. His perfectly humble, hands satisfy God’s holiness in place of our less than humble hands. And they provide us with motivation as well, motivation to serve others as he has served us. So let’s follow our Savior’s example and heed his loving call. Let his humble, servant attitude be your humble, servant attitude. And instead of thinking about yourself and what others can do for you, ask yourself “Whom can I serve today?” and “How can I serve them with the love Jesus has shown me?” “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them”(v. 17). Amen.