1.5.25
Pastor Daniel Triller
Years ago there was a great show on the Discovery Channel called Dirty Jobs. The show was exactly as described, as the host, Mike Rowe, explored the country to find people working dirty jobs, interviewing and going on the job with, for example, a Roadkill Cleaner, Sewer Inspector, Chimney Sweeper, Termite Controller, Worm Farmer, and other jobs with titles that make me squirm and that I’d rather not say out loud, as Mike Rowe found hard working men and women
who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us. An entertaining show that was pretty eye-opening and educational for someone who grew up in the city like myself.
This morning our scripture zooms in on one dirty job in particular, and what makes this dirty job particularly eye-opening isn’t due to the fact that it’s a job that exists or that it has to be done, rather what makes it so significant is who happens to be doing the work itself. It’s the classic story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet.
Today marks the beginning of a new sermon series on John 13-17, it’s a section of scripture, and John’s gospel, that zooms in on Jesus’s final words with his disciples the night before his crucifixion. Sometimes called the “Farewell Discourse,” we might title these chapters, “Famous Last Words.” The disciples are gathered with Jesus for a final meal, they think it’s the Passover, instead they’ll forever remember it as the Lord’s Supper and Jesus has some famous last words for his closest friends. I’m going to get us started with this series for the next 5 weeks and then you all as a congregation will be invited to continue this series all the way to Easter Sunday.
Now, if you’re feeling a bit of liturgical whiplash this morning, that’s understandable. We just put a bow on Christmas, I’ve somewhat foolishly still got us singing Christmas carols, and yet, here we are making a sudden shift towards Easter. What’s interesting, though, and I did not plan it this way, is that all those Advent candle themes that we reflected on during Advent, themes of hope,
peace, joy, and love, are in so many ways running themes throughout Jesus’s Famous Last Words here.
And that’s especially true when it comes to love. Jesus’s words here are all about love, and what’s particularly noteworthy is how for a section of scripture that is all about what Jesus said, Jesus’s famous last words here begin what he did instead. In fact, like the Teacher that he is, Jesus is inviting us into his classroom if you will, for a little Show and Tell on Love.
So, for today, we’ll break this sermon into two parts, not in terms of Show and Tell, but rather, through the following:First, we’ll consider the call to love and serve like Jesus. And, then secondly, we’ll consider the call to be loved and served by Jesus.
To represent these two points, I’ve got this trusty arrow here to signal which direction we’re moving in. Let’s start with our arrow facing away from us, as we consider the call to love and serve like Jesus.
Let’s pick things up in verse 3 and read through verse 5, “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 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.”
For someone like Jesus to wash someone else’s feet was a stunning act of sacrificial love. In fact, as we’ll hear from Peter later on, it was more than stunning, it was unthinkable. It was something that only a servant would do. After all, it’s one thing for you and I to wash someone else’s feet today. Our feet often smell funny after a hard day’s work, and let’s be honest, feet are just kind of
weird in general.
But those feet that Jesus washed that night were a real piece of work, the disciples having walked around town, with open toed sandals, walking alongside the animals on dirt roads, stepping in mud and other fun surprises.
Washing someone else’s feet was a true dirty job that nobody wanted. But just as it is with a Roadkill Cleaner or Sewer Inspector, someone has to do it! And with Jesus and his disciples having a private dinner with no servants in sight, Jesus took it upon himself.
Picking things up in verse 12, it says that “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. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an
example that you should do as I have done for you.
So friends, let’s consider for ourselves for a moment what it looks like to answer the call to love and serve like Jesus. On one hand, Jesus’s example here reminds us that we love through acts of service that are simple and practical and messy. Pastor Brian Wilkerson makes this humorous observation that the way John sets up the story here is pretty anticlimactic ...
In verse 1, John says that Jesus, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end, (or in other translations), he showed them the full extent of his love.” And then he washes their feet ...
Brian says, this is like saying ... "On their 50th wedding anniversary, Bob showed his wife the full extent of his love ... by mopping the kitchen floor." Oh my, how romantic?! (Some of you wives are thinking, actually, I’d kill for my husband to mop the floor ...) But you get the point. How anticlimactic! But that’s kind of the point here.
We love like Jesus through acts of service that are simple and practical and messy. Visiting someone in the hospital. Doing the dishes for your roommate. Cleaning up after youth group. Driving someone to and from Butte. Shoveling snow for your next door neighbor. Tutoring at the elementary school. A handwritten encouragement card. Sharing communion with those at the Beehive. The possibilities are endless here. In so many ways, this is one of the great strengths of
this congregation. Serving one another through acts of sacrificial love is something this church does quite well.
Or consider the opportunities you have right in front of you. Author and Christian Timothy Carney, addressing young parents, once noted that the bible says feed the hungry and clothe the naked and how young parents wake up every day to find hungry and naked people in their own home. Parents, do you want to love and serve like Jesus? To some extent, you don’t even have to leave the house to do so.
Or maybe this same reality applies to those of you caring for an elderly parent, who depends upon you for many ordinary and mundane tasks each and every day.
Or consider what it looks like to love like Jesus here at church. It may look like parking further away on Sunday mornings so others can park closer. It may look like holding someone’s baby so they could worship. Or to say, I’ll sing this kind of music, even though I prefer to sing something else.
It might be as simple as asking, “What’s the job here at church that no one wants to do?” One answer to this question is the person who runs A/V on Sunday mornings, Facebook Live and Powerpoint each Sunday. Time and time again, it has been the hardest volunteer role to fill. And you may disagree that it’s a role that needs filling, and that’s okay. Nevertheless, it’s a way in which we serve a lot of people. Yet I should warn you, I need to be honest with you, the role is not glamorous. But you know what? Neither is washing people’s feet, and Jesus calls us to love like that.
We love like Jesus through acts of service that are simple and practical and messy. And for what it’s worth, you and I both know that what is simple is not always easy. Be careful not to confuse the two. Sometimes what is simple is actually very hard indeed.
In addition, as we looked at a couple weeks ago, love has a downward trajectory to it. It has a downward, rather than upward mobility to it. Which means that to love like Jesus is to serve no matter your title or status.
Take a look at verse 3 again, Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God. It feels like John is setting us up here, subverting our expectations. The Father had put all things under Jesus’s power ... he can do anything he wants! Take anything he wants! Go anywhere he wants! And yet, in midst of his power, he serves. Instead of grabbing a sword, he grabs a basin. Instead of sitting up high upon a throne, he stoops low with a towel instead.
Sam Chan, in his book, How to Talk About Jesus, which a number of us read last year, tells a story, about how he as a doctor, once got one of his nurses, who had recently become a father, what he calls a “Daddy Survival Pack” - a bottle of bourbon and two books on parenting. Pretty good, right? Remember friends, simple and practical. But Sam says he asked the nurse if he had enjoyed the bourbon yet, and the nurse said, “No! I’ve put the bottle on display. No doctor has ever given me a gift before!”
You see, for this nurse, a gift giving, caring, thoughtful superior absolutely subverted his expectations. He had no category for that kind of thing. And yet, Jesus does. Jesus invites us to do the same. Loving by serving no matter our title or status.
This, friends, is how we love and serve like Jesus. That’s part one. Let’s now shift gears to Part 2. Let’s flip this arrow the other way here as we consider the call to be loved and served by Jesus.
If you’ve ever literally washed someone else’s feet before, whether in a church setting or wherever else, then you’ve likely experienced the following: That you’d rather wash someone else’s feet than have someone wash your own. The experience of having your feet washed can be uncomfortable, even unsettling. And for many of you the same applies to serving and being served. Where if serving is your superpower, then being served or asking for help is your
kryptonite. (And I know who you are!)
You can imagine the “you” being capitalized here. The problem for Peter here is not that he’s embarrassed about his feet, or maybe he is, who knows, but rather because Jesus is doing the washing.
And so by the time we reach verse 8, Peter declares to Jesus, “You shall never wash my feet.” Peter has never been more relatable than he is at this moment. We too, struggle at the thought of being served by Jesus, and the thought of him being literally and figuratively under us. And so, we can understand his hesitation, his outright refusal, his strong stance.
And yet, Jesus’s stance is stronger still. For Jesus, whether or not we are willing to be served by him is where he draws the line. “Unless I wash you, Jesus says, you have no part with me.” Here we reach a rare non-negotiable when it comes to following Jesus. If we want to follow Jesus, we must allow him to serve us.
This is unbelievable. We likely would expect just the opposite to be the case, that if we want to follow Jesus, we must serve him. And I suppose that’s true. But for Jesus, order is everything here. This is not, “Give, and you shall receive.” This instead is, “Receive, so that you might give.”
This is not some kind of “I’ll serve you if you serve me.” This is, “I’m serving you. Now go and serve me.” If we want to follow Jesus, he must serve us. So as you begin the year that is 2025, don’t simply go into this year with big hopes for how you will serve Jesus, also be sure to consider how this year, you’re going to allow Jesus to serve you.
Last year, 20+ read through the entire New Testament, a bunch more will be reading the bible in 2025. Reading plans are in the entryway. Open up your bible, encounter the real Jesus as found in the scriptures and let Jesus serve you. You can read and pray your way through the Psalms, practicing for yourself what the Psalmists practiced. Prayers of praise and confession and petition. When Jesus asks to wash our feet of all things, it’s a reminder that he takes us as we are, even at our less presentable, less desirable selves. So come to Him as you are and let
him serve you.
As we share in this communion meal, we are letting Jesus serve us. He is the host, we are the guest. And to share in this meal, is not simply to acknowledge and give thanks for Jesus’s service, but even more, to say, “Thank you for serving me. Thank you for going to the cross for me.”
And finally, allow Jesus to serve you by allowing others to serve you. You and I serve on behalf of Jesus, and when you allow your brothers and sisters in Christ to serve you, you’re allowing Jesus to serve you through them.
In fact, consider this for a moment: The only way that you and I collectively can obey Jesus’s teaching here is by allowing others to serve you. In other words, the only way we can obey Jesus’s command to wash one another’s feet is if we allow one another to wash our feet too.
So, if letting other people serve you is your kryptonite, I suppose you could convince yourself that by allowing others to serve you, you’re helping them obey Jesus. Which means, they’re not so much doing you a favor, rather you by your willingness to be served are in fact doing a favor for them. How’s that for some upside down thinking? Whatever it takes, I suppose.
Friends, with Jesus comes a two part call. There’s the call to love and serve like Jesus. And yet, before that, there’s the call to be loved and served by Jesus. The arrow goes both ways.
And for today, I’ll finish with this ...
There's an author by the name of Brennan Manning who says this, nobody says it better than this, "Jesus came not only for those who skip morning meditations, but also for real sinners, thieves, adulterers, and terrorists, for those caught up in squalid choices and failed dreams." To the worst of the worst, to the one beyond hope, to you and to me, he says, "Give me those feet."
This, my friends, sums up the love of Jesus in four words or less. This is how Jesus, our Lord and our Teacher does a show and tell on love. He says to each and every one of us, “Give me those feet.”
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
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