7. A Call to be Involved with Others

John 13:12 – 18

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “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. Very truly I tell you, 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.

I think we Christians spend far too much time dictating moral codes to other people.  We are content to stand at a distance, removed from the lives of others, and tell them that what they are doing is wrong.  The entire story of Christ is the story of God’s involvement in the lives of his creation.

What did Christ do as he walked the earth?  Yell at people that we are sinful, evil and wicked and that the very sight of us makes God want to puke?  No.  He healed people, fed them, loved them, wept with them, and in the end told them that God loved them and wanted them – just the way they are.  He did have some rather pointed things to say to the religious leaders of the time, those who seemed inclined to tell other people how to behave in order to come close to God.  Nowhere do I see this example of Jesus as clearly than in the washing the feet of his disciples. 

I am told, and have no reason to disagree, that as Jesus stripped down to his undershirt that he was now dressed as a slave.  The removal over his outer clothes was an acceptance of his stature of servitude, not the pragmatic taking his good clothes off so they did not get wet and dirty.  Jesus, prior to the last supper, knelt as a servant and washed the feet of those that would carry his message.

In this message by example, I believe, that Jesus is not diminishing who he is, but rather is showing how we are to involve ourselves in each other’s lives.  We are to be involved with each other without pretense, without moral superiority, not glorifying how much closer to God we are than the other.  We are to get on our knees, and involved in the lives of those around us.

It is easy for me to stand at a distance.  It is safe.  I will not get splattered by the ill effects of the other person’s life.  It is easy for me to stand at a distance and point out that the other person’s sin is much more vile than my own.  It is easy for me to stand at distance and create a service board or a committee to look into helping the other person. 

But that is not what I am called to do.  “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” I am called to kneel at the other person’s feet and be of service to them. 

I also find it interesting that in this example that Jesus did not leave the upper room and go out into the streets of Jerusalem to the red light district, or to Skid Row, or to the derelict section.  No, he knelt at the feet of those who were with him. 

I am called to have this kind of service not to those in some other community.  I want to comment that there is a time and place for that as well.  But I am called to have that kind of interaction in those who are in my life, my family, my neighbours, those I work with, those who I shoot with paint balls, and those I worship with on Sunday.