John 13 | Servant Leadership
The passage from John 13:1–17 has always captivated me from even my earliest days as a young Christian. Why was washing someone else’s feet important enough that the son of God took it upon himself to set the example to his twelve disciples before he went to the cross?
Drama in the upper room |
In paraphrasing the story, Jesus invites his disciples to the upper room. Passover Festival is almost upon the city. The collective anticipation of the celebration must have made the atmosphere electric with preparation.
As the men are seated around the table eating and discussing the coming events, Judas is nervous, covert in his attempt to conceal that he is a mole within the group. He is wary, his eyes scanning the room as he attempts to listen in on all the conversations around the table.
Suddenly, Jesus stands up, removes his outer garments and wraps a towel around his waist. He picks up the pitcher of water from the table and begins to slowly pour it into a basin then sets the basin on the floor. One by one, with no explanation, the master begins to wash the disciples feet. The room falls silent as each man nervously awaits his turn in line. James…John…Andrew…Philip… Thaddeus…Matthew…Bartholomew…Thomas…Judas…Simon the Zealot…James the less…and finally, Simon Peter.
But Peter, unable to contain his emotion begins to protest. Whether it was pride or embarrassment, Peter attempts to dissuade Jesus from touching his feet. The feeling so overwhelmed the disciple that he barks out a stern warning, “You shall never wash my feet.” The others, wide-eyed and shocked at Peter’s intrepidness, were too stunned to speak.
Then Jesus, calmly kneeling down on one knee on the floor at Peter’s feet, casually speaks, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me…..” Silence….
Panic ensues. Peter, once again, facing rejection, spins off into a frenzy of mania as he begins to hijack the affection and asks Jesus to wash him from head to toe, all of me, leave nothing undone.
With a slight chuckle in his voice, Jesus responds to Peter’s hypersensitivity with a calm and collected reply, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean.” Slowly, Jesus begins pouring the water over Peter’s feet, gently washing the soil from his soles.
Then Jesus, in a mysterious tone of sovereignty, “But not all of you are clean.” Once again, eerie silence encapsulates the room as each man looks at one another around the table, shaking their head, attempting to figure out which one has been missed in the cleansing ceremony.
Speaking with his back turned to the twelve, “You do understand what I have done for you?” Inquisitive looks shift from man to man in the hopes that someone has come up with the answer.
Jesus turns and meets every single one of their gaze with piercing stares into their soul and replies, “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 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 that you should do as I have done for you. Please, hear me, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
BIBLICAL REVEAL |
Jesus was was not figuratively the leader of this group of twelve men, he defined it. He constructed this network of leaders with intentionality and he backboned it with authority. It was by design that he revealed the inscrutable, displayed the corruptible, capitalized on the impossible, so that he could unveil the eternal.
But this night in the upper room was not a showcase of the divine in a miraculous intervention. This was a practical lesson in connecting the head to the heart, a dismantling of artificiality. Master, kneeling down to take the role of a servant, was connecting through emotion. It was this simple, hallowed, genuine act of tender mercy and meekness that Jesus was uncovering the core of true leadership. It was a rendering of a heart filled to overflowing with sincere love for one another. And as you have witnessed the master, so go and do likewise.
PRACTICAL REVEAL |
The practical reveal of this act of Jesus is the priority of servant leadership. Jesus uses this opportunity to deflate the egos of his men and realign them with the truth of the father’s heart. Not only that God’s affection for each of them was a priority but they were to love each other with the same act of devotion, “I have set for you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John 13:15) But why? It seems almost puerile–juvenile. How is this act of touching each others toes going to bring about the kingdom of God? I believe it was Jesus showing them how to have a contrite heart—a malleable, moldable, breakable human heart. When they eventually learned to have this kind of love for one another then it began to carry over into ministry and they would have that same deep, desperate longing for God’s people, just like Jesus himself. By connecting with one another through this simple act of servitude they would endure the pains and hardships as brothers and see themselves in a battle not against one another, but waging war against the adversary. This was warfare for the souls of men and women, for the kingdom of God.
PHILOSOPHICAL REVEAL |
What was so significant about this teaching moment that Jesus goes from miracle working master communicator to thousands, to a factotum of twelve? This message was not a lesson in personal hygiene. This is the battle strategy against the enemy. Attrition through servitude.
The first thing Jesus does is remove his outer garments. If you think about the austerity of a king and the regal splendor of his outer garments you see the connection that there is no distinction in the buff. In essence, Jesus once again becomes like one of us, common and undecorated, able to make us feel that we belong. With no outer garment he takes the role of the lesser. Jesus is defraying entitlement. Removing any fringe of prerogative that might give any one of them the impression that they are somehow more important because they were chosen by Jesus. He is proving a paradox. To become strong, you become weak. To become most, you become least. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Jesus was using the leverage of inclusion. As a servant leader Jesus modeled the role of a good leader not merely with words or intent, but with action and emotion. This was no textbook assignment in practicum theory, it was a covert operation in spiritual warfare. Jesus was declaring war on the enemy by removing any appearance of pride or arrogance. It was the same tactic Jesus used following a forty day fast in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11). The adversary attempted to capitalize on Jesus’ weak condition by tempting him to use his power to make bread from stones, by tempting him to use his power of authority over the angels, and by tempting his ego by showing him all he had to gain by serving him. But the devil underestimated Jesus’ resiliency. Jesus employed the paradox. It was through that weakness that he became the most powerful. By not surrendering to temptation or succumbing to the shadow power of the adversary, he robbed the grave and redeemed mankind through grace and mercy.
The second act of Jesus was to change the experience of discipleship from intellectual to visceral. Jesus had already identified Judas’ malignancy and knew the time was close. Jesus hand picked these men for a reason. They were not each of the same caliber, in other words, they were not all a group of salty, sea faring fishermen nor were they an elitist group of intellectuals. Each spoke in their unique vernacular to the society that surrounded them. His choice was based on practical application and experiential diversity. This was the attraction to get them to apply for the job. Imagine if Jesus had tried to wash the feet of these men at the very beginning of his ministry? It was the intellectual that attracted them and it would be the visceral that would complete the process.
It is through this act of lovingkindness that we learn to swallow our pride, put away our differences, reveal our insecurities and allow transparency to bind us together. Our human frailty runs like a fault line through the core of our center. It is the conflict between the spirit and the flesh, as that which I want to do, I don’t, and that which I don’t want to do, I do. This is the conundrum that Paul faces in Romans 7:15–20. This is the core of our conflict. However, we don’t need to control the narrative. The Holy Spirit will have greater control when we relinquish our grip on the reigns and allow Him the freedom to change people’s lives from the inside out. What we see in this ablution is that it cleanses our hearts as much as it wipes the soil from the soul.
CONCLUSION |
Jesus’ greatest examples to us were the way he loved doing the will of his father, the way he interacted with people, the way he loved even the unlovable and the way he pursued the impossible. He opened the doors for us to have eternal life and ours is nothing less than the deepest gratitude and the dedication of our lives to tell the good news of the great gospel of Jesus Christ, even through washing one another’s feet.
