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HIS
MESSAGE: |
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Love your neighbor as yourself. All Power Is Mine. May I
Wash Your Feet, Please? Not what you'd expect
from the richest, most famous, most powerful person in existence. "All power is mine.
May I wash your feet, please?" That's servant work. We
expect the wealthy and influential to hire "little" people to wash
cars, mow lawns, scrub bathrooms. Yet the most powerful,
Jesus, offers to wash feet. We shake our heads in
confusion. What a waste! Unless, of course,
serving others is the ultimate honor. Our human nature would
disagree. We aim high, grasp for power, seek influence so that others can
serve us. How can I get ahead? How can you help me? Our eyes so naturally see
others as opportunities to exploit. Our human nature is
selfish. It thinks first about me. Though God says, "Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and soul and mind." Though God says, "Love
your neighbor as yourself." Selfish. God punishes
selfish people. Forever. We rightly are afraid. To the disobedient who
recognize the justice of divine punishment, the Lord invites, "Watch
Jesus washing the feet of his friends." Why did Jesus, most
powerful, so humble himself? He did this in our place. We do not perfectly
love our neighbor. We deserve eternal pain. God loved us and sent his son
Jesus to love perfectly in our place. To see Jesus washing the
feet of his friends is to know that he did this as our substitute. Jesus, the
Creator of heaven and earth, washes dirty toes and then tells us that as many
as are baptized in the name of Jesus have been clothed in the perfect life of
Jesus. You get credit for his perfect love. Jesus didn't stop with
foot washing. Later in the week, he gave up his own life for his friends, you
and me. He suffered the eternal hell we deserved. God put our sin on Jesus
and treated him like he should have treated us, so that in Jesus we are
washed clean of all disobedience and made perfect in God's eyes. What love! Why should a great God
love sinners like us? I don't know, but he did. The greatest served the
least. This is now your
privilege. Serving others is the greatest honor that exists. Let us love, as he loved
us. May I wash your feet,
please? |