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.
John 13:12-17
A person that was at our house recently said that she was reading a book that talked about how the evangelical church has hurt society so much . The premise was that the focus of the Christian faith has centered around individual and in turn people have now turned their backs on what his happening around them (although I would argue that you could easily make this same statement for non Christians). Sad but true statement for a lot of Christians, but certainly not all of us. In support of that statement I do believe that we don't talk about and stress the community aspect enough when it comes to Christianity. When the movement first happened it was all about the transformation of community. Somehow along the way things have gotten a little off track.
I will say that there is a lot of hope out there. There is a renewed focus on the community and cultural transformation running throughout Christianity and I do believe it's going to change. I believe it because of passages like this in John. Jesus is giving us an amazing model of how we should live. Think about what is happening here. Jesus, who is entitled to everything and anything (verse 3 says 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;) serves his disciples first by washing their feet. Why? To set the example of what it means to live a fulfilled and satisfied life. That's what a life of following Jesus is supposed to be about. Serving. The verse that stuck out to me as I read it today is verse 17 when he says if we obey (he says, "if you do them"), we will be blessed.
This word blessed is used 50 times in the New Testament and means happy, fulfilled, satisfied.
Isn't that what we all want?
Jesus says that the way to get there is through serving others. Think about it. How often when something comes our way that we didn't expect do we react in a selfish way? It reveals something that is in our heart that needs to be changed.
What if in our marriages, friendships, jobs, families, finances, and time we thought of other people first?
Jesus said we would find true happiness.
Sounds good to me.
Peace,
Wags
0 comments:
Post a Comment