December 13 - Servant

December 13 – Servant (John 13:1-17)

Oh, I’ve been to numerous foot-washings and I have to tell you – I’m not a fan.  Getting up close and personal with a person’s dirty foot is not really the spiritual experience they might have you believe.  Yes, there’s a sense of humility about the whole thing, but sometimes those tears are more about the smell … and the embarrassment, than about finding Jesus in the activity of learning to be a servant.

Sometimes we pick up on a first-century tradition and try to make it our own without understanding the context of the moment.

What Jesus did for His disciples that evening was something that servants would do for them.  He lowered Himself to the place of a servant as an example to His disciples so that when He left them and they went out into the world, they would serve those they encountered.

We would see this type of service when a boss brings coffee to her secretary or a spouse takes care of something that they never do in the relationship.  A manager might step into the role of an employee to give them a break, a parent takes the punishment for a child. 

The idea of learning servanthood is to do those things that allow another person to be greater than us, to be more important, to find themselves blessed by our actions.

One of the other things that I never liked about ceremonial foot-washings was that the moment we could run out of the room and back to our lives, we did.  You see, those don’t teach us common, every day ways to be a servant to each other.  In Jesus’ day, foot-washing actually did.  This was an actual, regular occurrence in the lives of the disciples.

In our day, there are many, many ways we can offer ourselves.  We just have to care enough to look beyond our own problems and our own issues to see those needs of people around us.

And the next time you decide to have a foot-washing … announce it, giving plenty of time for everyone to at least wear their nice shoes and socks and take a bath … maybe the tears will be real tears of love.