Follow the Servant-King (John 13:1-20)
Some years ago, I served in a church’s nursery once a month. As nursery volunteers, we would help care for the 0–2-year-olds while their parents attended the Sunday service. Those of us who are, or have been, young parents know it’s hard to focus on the worship service while caring for an infant or toddler. The nursery helped parents to focus and join in the corporate worship. Knowing their children were cared for, they could sing, pray, and listen to God’s word without being distracted. The nursery was a good way of serving the parents in the church.
But I noticed this when I served in nursery. I tended to avoid having to do the diaper changes. Thankfully, we served in teams. So, I would always watch the other children while one of my teammates changed the diapers. I would be secretly relieved when someone else stepped up for diaper duty. I must confess that I managed to serve for two years without changing a single diaper. So, even though I was happy to help out in the nursery, there were still some things —such as changing diapers — that I was less keen to do. Yes, I was serving, but I wonder how much of my service was still on my terms. Was I really serving in the true sense of the word?
What are about the rest of us? In what ways might you be reluctant or even unwilling to serve others? Maybe because it involves doing something you don’t enjoy, or something troublesome or inconvenient, or something that pushes you out of your comfort zone, or something that goes unnoticed and unappreciated. For example, the First Impressions team began serving at our car park last week. We may not have noticed them. Worse, some of us may have gotten irritated with them when they told us the car park was full. What they do is helpful and needed, although it may seem like a thankless task. When situations are hard and people are difficult, will we still want to serve one another?
Last week, we heard about the kind of King Jesus is. He is humble and gentle. He will be lifted up to draw all people to himself. He suffers rejection, although he has been sent by God. To follow Jesus rightly, we must know him truly. This is John’s purpose in writing this Gospel: It is so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in his name (Jn 20:31). Jesus is the Servant-King. What does it mean to follow Him?
Jesus serves us, so we should serve one another.
John 13-17 are a key turning point in John’s Gospel. Having withdrawn from the crowds, Jesus focuses on instructing His disciples in these chapters. He prepares them for His departure and prays for them. Jesus teaches about discipleship —how we are to follow Him — not only as individual disciples, but also with one another. There is no such thing as a solo Christian. Doing life together in a local church is a vital part of discipleship. How, then, should we relate to one another? Here is the big idea: Jesus serves us, so we should serve one another. We will unpack this in two points: (1) Jesus serves us; (2) We serve one another.
Jesus serves us (Jn 13:1-11)
Jesus knows his hour has come (Jn 13:1). It is happening according to God’s plan. Just as how the Passover lambs will soon be slaughtered, so Jesus is about to die as a sacrificial offering in the place of sinners. His blood will save from God’s judgement. The death of the Son is the Father’s will. The time has come for the Son to be pierced for our transgressions, and to be crushed for our iniquities. The Father sent His Son into the world for this very purpose: to save sinners.
Jesus came to do His Father’s will. He obeys even unto death. Jesus will be glorified by being lifted up at the cross. The eternal Word, who was with God in the beginning, became flesh and lived among us. Now, the time has come for Jesus to depart out of this world to the Father. At this moment of intense crisis, Jesus’ soul is troubled (Jn 12:27). In His darkest hour, will Jesus abandon His disciples? No, not at all. Having loved His own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. He will keep loving them to the uttermost, to the fullest extent of His whole being. Jesus’ disciples belong to Him as His beloved. Just as a faithful husband will not leave His bride, so Jesus shows steadfast love to His own. If we belong to Jesus, we can be sure He will never leave us or forsake us. We are secure in His love. Nothing, not even death, can separate us from His love.
Jesus remains faithful to the very end, even in the face of sin and evil. Driven by greed, Judas has decided to sell out his Lord for silver (Jn 13:2). That it happens during supper makes his treachery worse. Sharing a meal signalled friendship and fellowship, but Judas takes advantage of his closeness to Jesus to plot his betrayal. This shows the sinfulness of sin. The devil did not make Judas do it; he simply tempted Judas to put into action what Judas already wanted to do. In contrast, Jesus loves His enemies by washing Judas’ feet. But in spite of such goodness, Judas refuses to repent and believe. Imagine being so near to Jesus and yet so far away. One can have amazing spiritual opportunities and still be lost in the end. It is possible to attend church and listen to God’s word regularly and still not be a Christian. Not all who claim to know Jesus actually belong to Him. Examine yourselves. Do not take God’s grace for granted. Do not assume you know Jesus just because you go to church. Have you repented and believed in Him?
But God is still in control. John 13:11 tells us Jesus knew who was to betray Him. The sovereign God is not surprised by sin. Judas’ betrayal is a part of God’s salvation plan, fulfilling His word. In John 13:18, Jesus quotes from Psalm 41, which foreshadows His suffering. And, in John 13:19. Jesus tells His disciples ahead of time what will happen to Him, so that they might believe He is the sovereign Lord who knows and controls all things. The devil meant to harm Jesus, but God will work all things together for good. Jesus’ death will turn out to be the very way the devil is defeated. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.
From John 13:3-5, we see that the Father has given all authority to His Son, whom He has sent into the world. How will Jesus use His power and status? In a fallen world where authority is often abused, those at the top tend to trample those below. Governments oppress their citizens. Bosses ill-treat their staff. Parents abuse their children. Husbands are harsh with their wives. But not Jesus. He does not use His authority for selfish gain. He did not come with worldly pomp and power, expecting to be served. How unlike His disciples! In this gathering of Jesus and His disciples, there was no servants present to wash the dirt from their tired feet. The disciples were too proud to do so for one another. To be fair, disciples were not expected to wash one another’s feet. A master, certainly, would never do so. In fact, foot washing was considered so demeaning that even Jewish servants refused to do it. It was a task reserved for Gentiles and the lowest of the low.
But Jesus is not afraid to lower Himself and get His hands dirty. This reveals the kind of king He is. Jesus does not merely love us from a distance. His incarnation shows He is willing to enter the mess of our lives. He does not stand aloof waiting for us to first clean up our own lives. No, He comes to seek and to save the lost. Jesus, knowing the Father had given Him all authority, demonstrates true greatness. The King uses His power to serve others. What wonderful humility! The Son of God, who rules over all, stoops to serve. Jesus does not greedily grab glory. Instead, He humbles Himself. He prepares to serve by tying a towel around His waist. The King of glory takes the form of a servant.
Jesus gives up His glory, that we might share in His glory.
We often judge others based on what they wear. We think less of the less well-dressed. I wonder what we would think of Jesus if we saw Him. But Jesus is not ashamed to look like a lowly servant. The details of Jesus’ actions show us how intentional He is in serving others. Jesus is not just trying to get it over and done. He shows care and consideration. Jesus laid aside His outer garments, pointing to how He will lay down His life for sinners. Jesus becomes as we are, that we might become as He is. “Though he was in the form of God, (he) did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant. (Phil 2:6-7)” Jesus gives up His glory, that we might share in His glory.
Peter is scandalised by what Jesus is doing (Jn 13:6-8). This is not how a respectable master should behave. Peter is probably less concerned about Jesus than He is about Himself. Peter’s pride is offended. How humiliating to follow a master who would abase himself like this! Which self-respecting teacher would do such a thing? Who would want to follow such a master? If the master humbled himself, surely his disciples will have to do likewise. Jesus serves us that we might follow in His footsteps. Will we? Do we refuse to serve in certain ways because we think it is beneath us, because we think our giftedness deserves bigger and better things? Do we refuse to serve certain people (like babies and toddlers in the nursery, or the weak and frail) because we think it is unbecoming of us? Do we show hospitality only to the prominent, but neglect the poor and needy?
Peter is so embarrassed that he refuses to let Jesus wash his feet. He fails to see the significance of what Jesus is doing. For now, Peter (and the other disciples) do not understand that Jesus is the Servant-King, and that the Christ must suffer and die. They fail to realise that Jesus conquers through the cross. They will only understand after Jesus’ death and resurrection. By washing His disciples’ feet, Jesus is showing them a sign of what he has come to do. He is the suffering servant, who will be crucified for sinners like us. Because we have all turned away from God, we rightly deserve His judgement against us. But Jesus bears our guilt and shame. He will die in our place, so that we can be forgiven and brought back to God if we repent and believe in Him. By not letting Jesus wash his feet, Peter is, in effect, rejecting Jesus’ work on the cross. Hence, Jesus says in John 13:8, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
To belong to Jesus, we must be cleansed by Him.
To belong to Jesus, we must be cleansed by Him. To come to a holy God, our sins must be washed away. This means humbly acknowledging that only Jesus can save us. Before we can serve Jesus, we must first trust Him to serve us. We serve only because He first served us. Biblical Christianity is not about what we can do for God, but about what God has graciously done for us through Jesus Christ. We cannot save ourselves from sin and judgement. Does pride prevent us from seeing this? We may be too proud to receive help. But only Jesus can save. Do not be too proud to receive His service. Pride rejects Jesus, thinking we can be good enough for God on our own. Pride refuses to believe salvation is free, because it insists there must be something we can contribute or do. But we bring nothing to Jesus except our guilt and shame. We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone, not by works. Jesus invites broken and bankrupt sinners to come to Him with empty hands. The way up is down. So, believe in Jesus, who can make us clean.
The washing Jesus speaks of here is not external. After all, Jesus washed Judas’ feet, but Judas still died in his sins. Jesus is referring to Judas when He says in John 13:11, “Not all of you are clean.” The washing Jesus is talking about is inner, spiritual washing. Only He can give us new hearts and cleanse us from the inside out. Jesus is talking about genuine conversion, which entails the cleansing God had promised through Ezekiel in the Old Testament: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” To be washed clean is to be born again. As Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Baptism is the outward sign of conversion. It points to the inward cleansing that only Jesus through the Spirit can do. Therefore, baptism is for believers only. It joins one to the church, which consists of other forgiven sinners who have been cleansed and gathered by Jesus. So, be holy because we have been washed clean by Jesus’ blood.
Jesus’ work on the cross and the cleansing it brings is once-for-all. It cannot be replicated. It does not need to be repeated. This is the truth Jesus wants Peter to understand. In his enthusiasm, Peter swings from one extreme to the other: from not wanting Jesus to wash his feet to wanting Jesus to give him a bath (Jn 13:9-10). Peter has more zeal than understanding. If we have believed in Jesus, we are already clean. In Christ, we are holy. Our status has changed from sinner to saint. This guarantees God’s acceptance of us, and anchors our assurance. Beloved, Jesus is enough. His cross is enough. Thanks to Jesus, we are fully and forever forgiven. This stanza from It is Well With My Soul says it best:
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought—
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to His Cross, and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
But because we will still struggle with sin, our feet will get dirty as we walk in a fallen world. So, while we do not need another complete cleansing, we need repeated foot washings. For example, Paul calls the Corinthian Christians “saints”. They have been washed and made holy in Christ. But Paul also urges them to “cleanse (themselves) from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1). So, the normal Christian life involves ongoing repentance and faith. In 1517, Protestant Reformer Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church. Theses #1 declared: “Jesus Christ… willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Our need for regular foot washing shows our continual need for Jesus. The prayer of confession during our corporate worship services is a regular reminder of how we should keep turning away from sin, keep looking to Jesus for grace, and keep pursuing holiness in Him. We do this by loving and serving one another.
We serve one another (Jn 13:12-20)
Jesus serves us to save us. Having been saved, we are to serve one another. We are saved by Jesus to serve as He has served us. Let us unpack this from John 13:12-17. Having washed His disciples’ feet, Jesus resumed His place (Jn 13:12). This points to how Jesus will return to His Heavenly Father in glory, having completed the work His Father had sent Him to do. The once-crucified, now-exalted King calls us to follow Him. This means knowing how the cross of Christ should change our lives. Jesus asks His disciples, “Do you understand what I have done to you?” Do we see the significance of Jesus’ service for us? Are we living out the implications of the cross? If Jesus has humbly, self-sacrificially served us to gather us as His people, this ought to transform how we relate to and treat one another.
If we have believed in Jesus, then He is our Teacher and Lord (Jn 13:13). We cannot receive Jesus as Saviour without also worshiping Him as Lord and listening to His word. Jesus calls us to trust and obey Him. We are saved by faith, not works. But true saving faith will produce the good fruit of works. Serving does not save us, but it is evidence that we have been saved by Jesus.
Our Lord does not just command us to serve one another, He shows us how by His own example (Jn 13:14-15). If Jesus humbled Himself to wash His disciples’ feet, we should do likewise. Since our Lord has done it Himself, we have no excuse for not serving one another. Because Jesus is our Saviour, He is also our example. We are to do for one another what He has done for us. The grace of Jesus Christ shapes and moves us. We serve one another not because we have to earn our salvation, not because the other person is deserving, not because we fear man and want to gain approval from others, not because we can boast of our gifts. We serve simply because Jesus has first served us. We are unworthy recipients of His generous grace.
What does it mean to wash one another’s feet? Jesus is not instituting a regular ritual of foot-washing. The focus is not on the form, but on the humility that foot washing reflects. Jesus is correcting His disciples’ understanding of what it means to follow Him. In Luke’s Gospel, after Jesus celebrates the Passover and predicts His sacrificial death, the disciples argue with one another about which of them is the greatest. How jarring! One person told me he did not become a Christian because of the hypocrisy he had encountered in the church. Once, after attending a Sunday service, he witnessed church-goers arguing over parking in the car park. That put him off Christianity.
Many of us can think of instances in the church when those who call themselves “Christian” have failed to love or serve others. Washing one another’s feet is not a nice-sounding, feel-good thing to do. It is a command that must be urgently obeyed. Our gospel witness depends on it. The health of the church depends on it. In John 13:34-35, Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
So, Jesus calls us to repent of our pride. He rebukes our self-centredness and individualism. He urges us to die to self and selfishness. Stop putting ourselves first. Instead, take the initiative to serve our brothers- and sisters-in-Christ. Put their interests ahead of our own. Listen to John 13:16. Remember that Jesus is our master; we are His servants. He has sent us to be His messengers, to proclaim Christ and to reflect Christ by how we serve one another. Consider how we can put these words from Philippians 2 into practice: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” Think “we”, not “me”. As followers of Jesus, we should live like God’s children, not consumers. Customers complain; family members shoulder burdens together so that the family gets stronger. Do not show up at church expecting to be served. Do we complain about how things are not to our liking or standard? Do we complain about others in the church? Or, do we get to work, seeing how we can do good to one another and strengthen the whole church?
Serve like Jesus — lovingly, humbly, compassionately, sacrificially, patiently. In serving, show the grace and mercy of Christ.
How, then, should we serve? Jesus tells us to “do just as I have done to you”. Serve like Jesus — lovingly, humbly, compassionately, sacrificially, patiently. In serving, show the grace and mercy of Christ. He served us not because we earned it. He graciously served us for our good, even when we were helpless sinners. So, seek to do good — especially, spiritual good — to one another. Help one another to follow Jesus and so build up the church. Lay aside our comfort, convenience, rights, preferences, or opinions. Be willing to leave our comfort zones. Be willing to be inconvenienced, to do troublesome things and to go out of our way. Be willing to risk embarrassment by speaking with someone you don’t know or who is unlike you in order to get to know them. Be willing to give up our treasure — our time, money, energy, leisure to serve others. Be willing to forsake our idols of success and significance to serve in lowly, unnoticed and unappreciated ways. I am so encouraged by how so many of us are serving one another in so many ways. For example:
Giving rides to church, to the airport, to medical appointments, etc.
Greeting visitors and newcomers to our services on Sunday
Connecting with new members and folding them into the life of the church
Encouraging one another through trials and suffering
Discipling one another, through reading the Bible and praying together
Providing meals for those in need
Visiting the elderly and the unwell
Opening up your lives and homes to one another
Comforting the bereaved
Praying for one another through the membership directory
Babysitting and childcare, so that parents can have a break
Making extra effort to connect with others who are different from us
Hosting the Weekenders when they were here last week
Cleaning and washing up after a church meal
Setting up chairs and tables for meetings
Getting to church earlier to prepare the bread and cup for the Lord’s Supper
Helping in Sunday School or the nursery (including changing diapers)
I could go on. Beloved, what we are doing, do so more and more. Get to know our deacons and serve alongside them. Be encouraged by John 13:17 to persevere and not grow weary of doing good. Continue to be hearers and doers of God’s word: If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. We are blessed when we love and serve one another. For example, when we seek others’ joy in the Lord, we will share in their joy.
This is what it means to follow Jesus, the Servant-King. Because He has served us through His life, death, and resurrection, we should serve one another. Jesus loves us lavishly. How do we love Him? It is by loving those who bear his name, whom he has sent. Listen to John 13:20 — “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” Jesus serves us, so we should serve one another. By serving like Jesus, we show we belong to Him and to God.