Serve one another

Some churches have regular feet washing ceremony. It is a useful reminder to serve each other in love and humility. It is a most humbling process to be washing and drying someone else’s feet. Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM, said his mother always advise him that God cannot use him unless he is humble.

John 3:3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 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.

Notice that the verses mentioned that Jesus know who he is and where is going before it mentioned that he took off his outer clothing and prepared to wash his disciples’ feet. Jesus knows his identity and his purpose. He knows the authority the Father had given him, and he knows where he is going. Jesus is secure in who he is. There is nothing that threatens his identity. His self esteem is based on the Father who never changes and remains the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Therefore, Jesus’s self-esteem does not waver and is secure no matter what capacity he is serving in.

What is your self-esteem based on? Is it based on the rock of the ages that is immovable and who does not change like shifting shadows, or is it based on the standards of this world where age, sickness, and economic uncertainties can undermine your self-worth and confidence? If you know who you are and where you are going, you can serve in lowly tasks without your confidence being threatened and feeling that others are taking advantage of you or treating you like a doormat, or it is more fitting for someone else to do the lowly job.

John 3:12 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. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Jesus set an example for us. If he can do it, so can we. If the Son of God can wash the feet of the disciples, so can we. Jesus is the master. If the master can do it, the servants can do it too. Note that Jesus washes the disciples’ feet the night of the last supper, and not at the beginning of his ministry. By then, the disciples had already seen the miracles he did and know him as Rabbi and Master and Son of God. And now their master and teacher willingly serve them by washing their feet, including the feet of Judas Iscariot, though Jesus knew at that time that Judas was going to betray him.

John13: 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

As you serve one another, you will be blessed. Jesus said so. And it will be so.

Blessings Xandria