David Bahn – Reflections

John 13:1-5

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.

² The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

If ever there was One who did not embody such a childish and self-centered attitude it would be Jesus. That makes this small section from the Gospel of John, and especially verse 3 even more profoundly impactful to me. Jesus was the greatest man ever to live. He was God in the flesh. All things were put under his power. So what does he do? He washes the disciples’ feet. That’s simply amazing.

If all things were under my power what would I do? Figure out how to add 200 square feet to my house and move it a bit more into the country. I’d get that annoying and impossible to identify “click” in my car fixed. I’d do something about the traffic on 290 – at least when I needed to get anywhere…and maybe on Beltway 8, or maybe fix that traffic signal on Spring Cypress and Skinner to behave in the way I know it should behave.

What folly! We all know better than to think that if we “fixed” things according to our sense of the way things ought to be, we would only make matters worse. And worse yet, we too easily fall into the trap of thinking and acting like, “It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true.”

But not Jesus. Jesus used his greatness to serve. He ultimately sacrificed himself for the sins of the world – the greatest expression of love possible. So next time you are inclined to brag about how important, great, or how things ought to go the way you believe they should go: be it traffic on 290, the weather, or even the current state of the economy, remember that God grants greatness to those who understand how to use it properly. And whoever would be great among us must be servant of all. That would preclude bragging, or any kind of social engineering we might be tempted to pursue.