John - Day 28: The Cleansing Servant

The next picture of Jesus is that He is the King who serves. Mark 10:45 says that Jesus came not to be served but to serve. He is the King who serves. In John 13 we see an interesting snapshot of Jesus. In this passage Jesus and the disciples prepare for the Passover Feast. Jesus knows that shortly He will undergo the agony of the garden and the torture of the cross. As the meal is being served, Jesus is ready to show the full extent of His love to these men He had lived life with for the last couple of years. As the meal is being served something interesting, something odd, something even confusing happens. Jesus stands up and wraps a towel around Himself and begins to wash the disciples feet one by one, drying them with the towel. I imagine this scene would have caught the disciples off guard. This task was for the servants. As they walked the dirty roads their feet would have gotten dirty. A servant would have offered to wash the feet of the guests, but on this night the King of Kings, the Son of God takes the posture of the servant and washed His disciples’ feet.

Read John 13:1-17

Q: Think about what it might have been like to be one of the disciples that night.

Q: Why is significant that Jesus chose to wash His disciples’ feet?

Q: Why is significant that Jesus chose to wash Judas Iscariot’s feet?

Q: Why is significant that Jesus chose to wash Peter’s feet?

Q: What are the things that keep me from regularly placing my life in Je- sus’ basin of grace? (Pride, Lazy, Apathy, Comparing to others not so bad, keep my image up?)

Q: Why is it important to be aware of my sin and to look for the cleansing that Jesus offers?

For Further Study: 1 John 1:7-9