A thought from Jason
May 11, 2000
The garment Jesus laid aside….
Jesus laid aside his garments and went to work to wash the disciple's feet. He didn't look for soap to wash up after he had finished. He didn't grimace when he took each of His disciple's feet, in hand. Those feet probably had been dirty for quite sometime. Those feet probably didn't have the potpourri smell of Mother's home. But Jesus desired to wash those feet and teach His followers something very important.
First of all, Jesus loves you and will do anything He can to get you back to Him. He was even willing to leave His heavenly glory to be in an earthly body to serve...
Guess who?... You!
He took off His heavenly garment for you!
He came to this world to wash your feet and to wash away your sins, your transgressions, and your hopelessness. He came to take your feet that have been on the dirty pathways of life, and wash them clean!
Can you remember the last time you bathed? Remember that fresh feeling?
Well, God wants to do the same for you! He wants to wash you clean today! He loves you so much that He is willing to step into a servant's role and take a hold of your sin-ridden life and wipe it clean with His creative hands! The same hands that shaped the mountains want to shape your life today.
Secondly, God wants us to do the same for others....
John 13:15 " For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you".
Jesus desires for us to lift people up to Him, who are hurting around us!
My close friend, Shannon, in college told a recent event here to me. She had told me that her Resident Assistant, Debby, invited the girls of the 5th floor to the last meeting of the year. These were the same girls that she had looked over during this past year. The girls did not know what "their Debby" was going to do for them. And what she did, they will never forget.
Debby took each one of those girl's feet and washed them. She took great care in washing each one. She spared no detail in rubbing the soap and warm water over the girl's feet. The whole room was in tears by the time she was done and Debby herself was in tears.
Why all the trouble of washing someone else's feet?
Because Jesus did it!
Shannon told me that she could actually see Jesus in Debby that night! And, what a blessing! To have someone say that they see Jesus in you!
So go look in the mirror. Can others see you serving the people who need God the most? Are you willing to set aside your image to help others? Are you willing to love, like Jesus loved His disciples that night?
Right now, in your mind, list the people you love. And then, list the ones you don't like at all. Go and serve the people that you don't admire too much because that's what Jesus would do.
Because what Jesus did, we are also to do.
Jesus is shining… Are you ready to be a mirror for Him? Or are you a dark window for the lost see nothing through?
Remember that Jesus said, "For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you…"
John 13:1-17
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
2 And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God,
4 rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about.
5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
6 And so He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?"
7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter."
8 Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."
10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you."
11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean."
12 And so when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments, and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?
13 "You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.
14 "If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
15 "For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.
16 "Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master; neither is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
17 "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
Have a blessed day.... Jason