Do you have a chore that you just loathe doing? I bet most of us do. It's 100% doing the dishes for me. Hate it. Gross. My hands get raisiny. Little pieces of soggy food. There's just nothing fun about it. But alas, I don't have a dishwasher (I know, what year is this?!), and the truth of life is just that the dishes have to get done. Someone has to do it. In John 13, we read about Jesus serving his friends. This was one of Jesus’ last times with his disciples and they were having a special supper when he decided to get up and wash everyone’s feet. He told them he was setting an example for them to follow. This wasn't new- Jesus had spent the last few years teaching them a new way of living and being alive, so that when He was gone, they too could pass this life onto others (which is how we know about it today).
I realize that washing feet is a not a normal thing to do in American society, but in Jesus' time it was normal to wash your feet off every time you entered a home. It's not hard to understand why: everyone wore sandals (or went barefoot) walking the sandy streets. If you were lucky enough to have a horse or donkey, that's another thing (but if you use your imagination, you can see why this would make the roads even more nasty...). If you were rich, you definitely had a servant who washed the feet of everyone who entered the home. I mean, it was a nasty job - I'm picturing my feet after a week of camping - not lovely.
Jesus, King and Savior of the world as these disciples rightly understood him, stoops down to do the dirtiest job in the room - simply to serve his friends. 2000 years later, we get the foreshadowing and the metaphor that Jesus was alluding to here (his sacrificial death), but his friends didn't. They were confused. Peter objected. All they knew was that their King was serving them. Seemed a little backwards.
But that's what leaders do. I think Jesus was the greatest example of who a leader should be, and I think we can learn so much from the leadership of his life.
Specifically in John 13, I think we can learn from Jesus that leaders:
know who they are. In John 13:3, it says that 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 and washed their feet. When you're confident in who you are, serving doesn't bother you. St. Augustine was an early church leader who famously prayed, "God help know myself to know You." It’s important to know who we are so we can lead and serve others effectively. When we have the confidence that God has created us as his royal priesthood of sons and daughters and there's nothing that can change that, the status of a job - 'lowly' or 'important' - doesn't matter. As they say, if serving is beneath you, leadership is beyond you. love and serve all. Because we know who we are, God’s beloved kids, that enables us to love and serve everyone. And the hard part is, that does mean everyone. You know who was at the table? Judas, who Jesus knew was going to betray him. Peter, who was outspoken and likely annoyed everyone. Simon the zealot, who was probably ready to fight at the drop of a hat. James and John, the 'sons of thunder,' who were probably a bit insensitive and rough. Jesus knew them, and He went out of his way to serve them anyway. This a great reminder that Christians don’t only get to serve the people that are nice. In Luke 6, Jesus says it's not a great accomplishment to love the people who love you back - everyone does that. It's not hard. Christians are called to love and serve the people who hate us and persecute us. The mean ones, the annoying ones, the ones have different political views than us – our job is to serve everyone. choose first to go last. Does this make any sense? Probably not. But that's the way Jesus describes His kingdom: it's a upside-down. Jesus said "the least among you is the greatest" (Luke 9:48). He also said, “whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else" (Mark 9:33). Practically, leaders do the stuff that no one else wants to do. That’s what Jesus did in John 13 and ultimately, what he did with his life. He took His place on a cross, dying a humiliating death, so that humanity could live and be set free from ourselves. Jesus laid down his life for the world to have a way to come to know God and be made right with God. And along the way, He washed feet and he set an example for his friends to follow. To be clear, I don’t think he literally meant that we are to wash everyone’s feet with soap and water, but meant instead that God's Kingdom is about laying down your life for others. In the same way, leadership is not about having power, or being in charge, or being important - it's actually all about serving others and doing the things that no one else wants to do.
I've realized that everyone wants to be a leader, but no wants to clean the toilet or do the dishes. Everyone wants to be a leader, but one wants to do the hard, long work that the leader has to stay afterward to do. Everyone wants to be a leader, but they don’t realize that being a leader is about laying down your life for other people.
That’s what Jesus did, and that’s what Jesus calls us to do. The little things are actually the big things, and the way up is to go down.
Awhile ago, I let God change my attitude about doing dishes (well, we're still working on it). I still don't love doing them, but the more I grow with Jesus, the more I find I desire to serve people. I've started to remind myself how much I love the people who are going to eat off of those clean dishes next. After all, they are my favorite people in the world! So you know what? I don't mind serving them - even if it means doing dishes.
The good news is, anyone can serve, so anyone can lead. Don't wait. Serving others can change everything.
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