Good morning, my brothers! Why is it so hard to serve someone who's hurt us, overlooked us, or treated us unfairly? I think Jesus answers that question the night He washed His disciples' feet. Let’s go! 4-min, 58-sec read.

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In January 2004, my dad spent his last week in a hospice room at the hospital. I stayed almost every minute. I slept in that room, helped him to the bathroom, and cleaned him up when he couldn't do it himself.

For years before that, I'd fought him. Screaming matches in his office and the Wendell August conference room, loud enough for people in the hallway to hear, and I started nearly every one of them. I was desperate to be my own man and not just Bill's son, and I took it out on him.

In that hospice room, there was nothing left to prove. A day or two before he died, I asked him to forgive me for how I'd treated him. It took a hospice room for me to finally pick up the towel. Jesus picked it up on purpose, for men He knew would fail Him.

His Last Night With Them

When a man knows his time is short, he doesn't waste words on small things. John tells us Jesus knew exactly where the clock stood.

Three years with these men came down to one evening in a borrowed room. So what did He do? He got up from the table, wrapped a towel around His waist, and knelt on the floor with a basin of water.

No servant stood at the door that night, and not one of the twelve volunteered. Luke tells us they spent part of that meal arguing over who was the greatest.

He Knew Who He Was

I knew the story, but for the longest time, I'd missed the one concept that holds it together.

Jesus didn't serve to prove something or earn something, my brothers. He served because He already knew who He was and whose He was.

That's the root of so much of our trouble, and it was the root of mine with my dad. A man who isn't settled in his identity is always guarding it, and it's hard to kneel when you're busy protecting your position.

But we're sons of God, created in His image, His masterpiece, carrying gifts He gave us for purposes He planned before we were born.

A son who's secure in the Father's love doesn't need the head of the table. Insecure men grab titles. Secure men grab towels.

He Served Them Anyway

Now look at whose feet He washed. Judas was there, with the silver already promised. Peter was there, a few hours from swearing he'd never met Him, and the rest would scatter into the dark before sunrise.

Jesus knew all of it. Verse 11 says He knew exactly who would betray Him, and He washed Judas's feet with the same hands and the same towel He used on John. He even poured the water into the basin Himself (v. 5).

This is where the passage challenges me to my very core. I tend to decide how I'll treat people after I see how they're treating me. Jesus decided first, and He decided love.

Love Gets Up

Love and service are action verbs. Look at what Jesus does in verses 4 and 5. He gets up, takes off His outer clothing, wraps the towel, pours the water, washes, and dries.

He didn't think nice thoughts about their feet. He knelt down and washed them. Then He made sure they wouldn't miss the point.

Most of us already know these things. But the blessing isn't promised for knowing. It's promised for doing.

This is where the Holy Spirit leads us. When Peter pushed back, Jesus told him that a man who's had a bath only needs his feet washed (v. 10). We were made clean once and for all at the cross, but we walk through a dusty world, and we need to come back to Him every day, surrendered, in the Word and in prayer. That time alone with Him is where the Spirit shows us whose feet are in front of us today.

Where's Your Basin?

For most of us, the basin isn't hard to find. It's usually sitting right in front of us, and we've been stepping around it.

At home, it might mean going first. The first apology, the first to serve, the first to pray, without waiting to be asked or thanked. Paul tells us husbands to love our wives the way Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25), and that kind of love starts on the floor. Sacrificial. Without any expectation at all. Selflessly.

At work, it might be the coworker nobody notices or the boss who's hard to serve well, because whatever we do, we're working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23-24). At church, it might be the younger man who needs someone a little farther down the trail. He doesn't need our résumé. He needs our time.

Some of the feet in front of us belong to people who won't say thank you. Some of them may have hurt us. That's exactly the kind of room Jesus knelt in.

He's Still Kneeling

Here's the hope. Before Jesus ever asks us to wash anyone's feet, He washes ours. "Unless I wash you," He told Peter, "you have no part with Me" (v. 8-10).

That towel was pointing to the cross, where He'd do the dirtiest work of all in our place. He knew every time we'd deny Him with our silence or scatter when following Him got costly. He loves us to the end anyway, and that love is what frees us to get up from the table.

Reflection: Where am I keeping score on someone God has put in front of me to serve?

Action: Find one basin this week. Do one act of service for someone who can't or won't pay you back, and don't tell anyone about it.

Prayer: Father, thank You that I'm Your son. Settle who I am in You so I know that I don't have to keep proving it. Show me whose feet are in front of me today, and give me the courage to get up from the table. Fill me again, Lord, and make me more like Jesus. Amen.

-Will

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