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? “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” (John 13:12-17, NASB95)

This passage is one of my favorites in all the gospel accounts. John, who was intent on portraying Jesus as God in the flesh, captures this moment of extreme humiliation of the Christ. Yes, further degradation was very soon to come, but the followers of Jesus had only this present experience to ponder and were unaware of the impending tumult. The Teacher performed the service none of them would stoop to do. Stripped to his “underwear” Jesus cleaned the feet of the fishermen, of the tax collector, of the betrayer.

God’s commitment to service of the unworthy cannot and should not ever be ignored, indeed this is the picture painted of the Sovereign of Israel in the Jewish Testament as well (see especially Ezekiel 16).

As much as the humility of the Savior enthralls my heart, it is what Jesus does after the feet of the disciples have been attended to that is unbelievable. Jesus puts his clothes back on and teaches the twelve as their Master. The dichotomy of experience surely must have caused the ones who experienced this first hand to suffer some sort of mental whiplash: Master of slave; servant to slaves; Teacher of slaves (and now of friends, see John 15.15).

Main Street is considering our fourth purpose for existence this upcoming Sunday: to serve our community and world in Jesus’ name. In our service-driven culture, the idea of being a servant rather than the one served is nearly foreign to us. In our homes we expect someone else to clean up after us, to feed us, to take care of the yard. At our workplaces we walk by full trash cans and dirty coffee pots because that is “someone else’s job.” At our churches we silently thank the faithful few for doing enough so that we don’t have to do anything at all except show up and enjoy the show.

Jesus says to all his disciples, “Be like me!” It is not an option, it is not nice idea like “pay it forward.” It is an obligation, the one duty of the follower of Jesus, no exceptions.