We ask you now as we come to scripture, send your Holy Spirit speak to us, bold us work in us, in the name of your son. It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world. And go to the father having loved his own, who were in the world. He loved them. To the end.
When I was reflecting on this passage, I remember how I, how when I was ordained, deacon, the arch deacon guy called John Hall, who’s preaching at the cathedral service, and he asked each of us to look underneath our, our chairs where we’re sitting as he had a gift for us. And underneath the gift, uh, was a towel.
And the TA was a reminder of the servant role of, of ordained ministry. And one of the reasons with all the titles people use for clergy, and people like me, I’ve always preferred the word minister, a word which has its heart, a meaning of service, and that is a word, which of course follows our Lord, our Lord’s example, and our Lord’s command.
He said, now that I, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example you should do as I have done for you. Uh, this is a passage, John 13, which has got three. There are many others with three great teaching themes for us. The first, the foot washing is like symbolic of a spiritual cleansing that that Christ offers.
And we’ll do. The second is it gives us a standard for human and, uh, for humble service. As Jesus said, each of us are to wash one another’s feet to serve one another. But the one I wanna focus most upon tonight is love. He said, beginning of John 13, as you see on the screen, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them.
To the end, he loved his own. It says he loved them even when he knew they would soon leave him, abandon him when he was arrested, that he would love them even though they knew one of them would deny him and another would betray him and loved his own until the end. And despite their approaching times which would show weakness, infirmity struggle, our master did not stop loving them.
He was not tired of him. He loved him to last. And love, love is the essence of the gospel. Love, atonement, and victory are the three words associated with the coming three days. But think about that. Love that Jesus should love us at all. And care for our souls that he should love us before we loved him or even knew anything about him.
Like a parent who who loves the unborn child in the womb before the child knows it is loved. We were loved by our creator, God, before we even knew he existed or paid any attention to him. He loved us so much that he came into this world to save us. To take our human nature upon himself. He bore our sins and he died on a cross.
Yeah, we heard that word, Passover. Feast in the passage. You know, think about what that is. Jews were slaves in Egypt. There was evil dominating them, but God took the initiative to act, to bring freedom. He showed his power to Egyptians, and in the final act, Passover, with every home that the blood of a lamb was spread on the doorposts, the angel Passover shed, blood protected, and the Jews were freed from slavery, redeemed.
They were freed to worship, free to live, change lives, and we be brought to a land of their own. And Jesus was called the Lamb of God. Jesus said instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave. Just as a son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
We were in slavery, yet God acted. Took the initiative, he defeated the powers that that held us through the blood of Jesus, God’s son, so we could be free.
No wonder Isaac Watts and his incredible hymn when I surveyed the Wondrous Cross as he wrote about what is a final verse that he would finish that hymn with. He said, we’re the whole realm of nature mine that we’re an offering far too small love. So amazing. So divine demands, my soul, my life, my all.
So it’s a love. We read about a love that’s like nothing like it, but brothers and sisters here tonight, fellow sins, the love of Christ, 2 cents is no less. Wonderful. He loves his saints too. It’s no less amazing. He bears with our weaknesses, our struggles, our failures, from grace to glory. He’s never tired of our endless inconsistency and our failings.
He forgives and he forgets, as Corey Timone reminded us from Micah, Micah seven, where God said, you will again. Have compassion on us. You’ll tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into depths of the sea. And Corey says, and beside that, sea is a sign that says, no fishing allowed. He forgives, he forgets he’s never provoked.
To get rid of us, to get rid, uh, to give up on us. That’s amazing love. He loves. To the end, his patient is infinite with us. His compassions are from a well that can never run dry. As Paul points us to you in one Corinthians 13, love never fails or in his famous words. I’m convinced that neither death nor life.
Neither angels nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation. We’ll be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our word. And that’s usually what you wanna say. And all God’s people said, oh, that’s very quiet.
And all God’s people said, that’s better. So let no one under those promises be afraid to begin to follow Jesus. If you wanna be saved, don’t be afraid to follow Jesus. The greatest of sinners can come to him with boldness and repentance and trust. For pardon? With confidence, you are loving saviors. One who delights that sinners come to him on the cross, which we hear about tomorrow.
On Good Friday and the last ours of his death, a repentant criminal crucified beside him was welcomed. There was no recriminations. He was not reproached that he’d only repented at the 11th hour. No doubt was cast on the genuineness of his repentance. Jesus simply gave this repentant believer the assurance he longed for and welcomed him, and someday you’ll meet that man he hung on the cross beside Jesus who’s welcomed by him.
So let no one be afraid of continuing on to follow Jesus once you’ve come to him. Believed and trusted in him. Let us not believe that Christ will get rid of us, reject us because of our failures, or dismiss us from being a child of God because we’re ongoing struggles to follow and believe. Just read the rest of John and see how Jesus restores Peter after his failings, boasting and denials, and then how on a day of resurrection, Jesus was not resting, sitting on a stone, waiting for people to find him.
He was seeking lost on that day. He was visiting the broken heart at Mary. He was talking to the confused and despairing on the Emmaus road. He visits and speaks with a fearful in the upper room saying, peace be with you.
Scriptures cries out. Jesus will never reject one of us because of weak service or per performance. Those he receives, he keeps. Jesus said in John six, all those the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I’ll never drive away. So he loved at the first when we were sinners, had no interest, no awareness.
When loves us to the end, to the day, he returns to the day we we die and go to him having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end. He loves you and he will love you to the end.
But knowing that love seconds, smaller points, shapes how we live towards others. Jesus said a new command I give you love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another. By this. Everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. So as we enjoy the love of Jesus shown to us, how he’s shown his love to us, he says, you must let that love be the standard of your love for one another.
He says, how do you know if you’re maturing as a Christian? What is your measuring stick? What is your thermometer? Ask yourself, am I loving other believers as Jesus has loved and loves me?
They say, you can identify various practices in Jesus’ life. That’s what our series, practicing the Way Explorers, and one of them is service. And Jesus modeled service. He was a servant. A scripture says, do nothing outta selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others in your relationships with one another.
Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. And then Paul goes on to talk about how Christ became a servant among us, and then on the cross. So when we serve, we’re not only doing what Jesus would do. We are becoming like him. He’s already modeled for the disciples and for us. What service can be the service.
Other P person centered, you may get nothing out of it. Costly service can be time consuming, inconvenient, maybe even embarrassing in the eyes of someone else. But in that night of service, Jesus calls the people who are around him. To serve, not just to be blessed, and you start where you are day by day choices.
Samuel and Pearl, er, er are were Holocaust survivors. Uh, they died in 2021, and along with a handful of other scholars, they pioneered research on the psychosocial factors. That motivated a minority of European Gentiles to rescue Jews during Holocaust. They interviewed over 700 rescuers and non rescuers living in Poland, France, Germany, here in the Netherlands and Italy during Nazi occupation.
The conclusion of their research was that the distinguishing characteristic of rescuers compared to non rescuers was the individual’s practice. Of loving service to others in the ordinary environments and everyday relationships prior to the war. The researcher Samuel and Pearl wrote respective wartime behaviors grew out of their general patterns of relating to others, those most likely to serve in extraordinary ways when the pressure is on.
Are those who practice service in ordinary ways. When the pressure is off, those most likely to serve in extraordinary ways. When the pressure is off, are those who practice service in ordinary ways when the pressure is off. Jesus does not say when those guys in that room were to serve each other. I said Jesus words must have been start now. Today. Love one another’s. I have loved you.
Serve one another’s. I in love have served you. So for our us, our approach of service can be start small. Start today and start where you are. Start small serving someone. Maybe it’s clean dishes. You don’t need to. Collecting someone by a car when a lift is needed. Maybe getting a cup of coffee for a colleague or offer to get groceries for an elderly neighbor.
Start where you are. Maybe it’s with someone outside the church. Maybe it’s about someone in the church. Where does your imagination go? When you consider whom you can serve? Maybe it leads, leads you to a church, maybe to a nearby care home. Or another project working with low income in a church to serve, to consider maybe where there is hidden need.
Not an upfront rule, but a place which is often from the public eye, but is important working among our kids and teens. Greeting or welcoming people as a steward, serving as a techie, serving hospitality, cleaning up during the week after our gathering.
Start small, but also start now.
So Jesus loves us to the end and he showed the extent of His love. He will love us to the end. He showed the extent of his love on the cross, which the foot washing points to, and he called us to imitate him to serve others. Loving him as he has.
So on this night of love and service, shall we bow our heads? We pray.
Lord Jesus, we thank you that you loved this world and you hung in the cross. We thank you that you love us until the end and you came not to be served, but to serve.
Help us to soak daily in your love and to follow you in the way of love to be led to people and places where we can serve as you have served.
And your name. Amen.
