He came to serve.

Read John 13.1-17

Notice in vs. 1 how it says,

“he now showed them the full extent of his love.” (niv)

All other translations say,

“And he loved them to the end.”....I like them both.

Because in one hand we have a phrase I can’t comprehend.

"He now showed them the FULL EXTENT of his love."

This is God were talking

about here. What is the full extent of

Gods love? This verse is saying

the full extent of Jesus’ love comes to life

when He...

vs. 4 he got up from the meal,

took off his outer clothing, and wrapped

a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured

water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet.

He now showed them the full extent of his love, by serving them.

And on the other hand, the text also reads

“and he loved them to the end”

That is also hard from me to understand…

Mostly because of what Jesus was going through at that moment.

Look back to the beginning of verse 1,

“Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and return to the Father..”

Jesus knew life was about to become harder then any other

moment in his life on earth. Not to mention the horror of anticipating

full separation from the Father.These next moments alter the history

of mankind forever. These moments being the pinnacle

of why he came to earth... Just try to imagine the weight he must have felt

that night. Just one chapter earlier Jesus says in 12:27

"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father

save me from this hour? NO, it was for this reason I came

to this hour. Father glorify your name!”

To add to pain, he also predicts later in chapter 13 that one

of his best friends was about to betray him.

Yet we still have this statement

“he loved them to the end”

Even when it got hard to get up in the morning.

Even when they disagreed.

Even during betrayal..

“he loved them until the end”

That is amazing.

And how I so easily forget what the Master did next.

He washed JUDAS’ feet!

I don’t know if I would even consider washing Judas' feet.

Could you? Who is Judas to you?

Maybe someone has betrayed you

Maybe someone has “stabbed you in the back”

Maybe Judas is constantly fighting with you and hurting you.

Maybe He has stolen from you.

The Word is teaching us to serve, and to be servants.

Not just to serve our enemies, but to serve our brothers.

And how often are we turning our relationships with our

brothers and sisters, that are meant to bring living water, and

shade to our lives and the people around us, into

broken bad memories of relationships that truly had promise,

relationships that could have been so powerful. All because

we won't tie that towel around our waist, get on our knees, and

wash the feet of our brothers.

This isn’t just some new concept.

Jesus says,

“For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and

to give his life as a ransom for many!” (mark 10:45)

Acts 4: The first church, the first Christians, the first people

in Ministry, were selling all they had so that there were

no needy persons among them. They were constantly serving each other!

There was a time when going into the Ministry

was for the purpose of serving.

There was a time when becoming a Christian

required great sacrifice in order to serve others.

Eph. 4:11-16 “It was he who gave some to be apostles, prophets,

evangelists, pastors, and teachers, to prepare God’s people

for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built

up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge

of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole

measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Don’t you see? The whole measure of the fullness of Christ

is attained by serving vs.12 “works of service.”, and Jesus is showing us

how to have his fullness, by washing his disciples feet.

“ Who being in very nature GOD, did not consider equality with God something to

be grasped, but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a

servant,..” Ph. 2

To be like Christ means to be servant leaders.

Be an example to the world of the life changing power that is

in the humble servant. The freedom that is in the servants heart.

We are called to love, and serving is loving, and loving is serving.

"how do we know what love is? Through Christ laying down his life

on our behalf, and we should do the same for our brothers.." 1 John 3:16

And to finish the story, Jesus says, “I have set you an example

that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth no servant

is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one

who sent him.” vs 15-16 Meaning if we are Jesus’ followers no one

is greater then his master, and if my master did something I am not

so great that I don’t have to do the same.

Be a servant.

vs. 17 “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

-D.Thompson