WHAT WAS ON THE HEART OF JESUS – 13:1-4:
The apostle John, as he begins writing about this action of Jesus, first sets it in the context of what is going on in the mind of Jesus, what was on His heart at this very hour. Let’s take a look inside the heart of Jesus…
First, Jesus knew His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father. When Jesus washes His disciples’ feet, He does so, knowing that His crucifixion is fast approaching. He washes His disciples’ feet, knowing that He’s not going to be around very much longer. What does this tell us? Maybe other lessons, but it tells us that Jesus wants to leave one, last, lasting message with His disciples and that is: serve one another!
Secondly, Jesus loved His disciples! That fact is emphasized twice in verse 1: “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” What Jesus does, now and all the time, He does out of love for His disciples. In fact, if you jump to the end of the chapter, you will see that “love” is again emphasized in 13:34-35. What does this tell us? It tells us that Jesus served His disciples because He loved them. Plus, He taught His disciples to serve one another out of love.
We skip verse 2 about Judas allowing himself to fall under the influence of Satan.
Thirdly, the text says Jesus knew that the Father had given all things into His hands. He knew that He had come forth from God. He knew that He was going back to God. In this one verse, we see: 1.) Jesus trusted the Father. How are we going to have the mind and the heart to serve others, to humble ourselves to serve others? By trusting that God is going to take care of us. One reason we are afraid to serve others is because we think we have to look out for ourselves. If we don’t look out for ourselves, who will? For that reason, we don’t serve others. But Jesus trusted the Father to take care of Him. He knew that the Father had given all things into His hands.
Then we see: 2.) Jesus was comfortable with Who He is. How can you have the strength to humble yourself to serve others? By being comfortable with who you are. That means our humility, our willingness to humble ourselves to others begins with a healthy self-image. I can clean a bathroom because I know that I am not defined as a person by cleaning a bathroom. I am “more than that,” so it doesn’t bother me if I clean a bathroom. When we are comfortable with who we are, then we’ll be more comfortable with serving others. When we have a healthy self-image, we are more comfortable serving others because we know that serving others enhances our value to God and to others; it doesn’t hurt our value to God or to others.
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So, before we get into the actual act of cleaning feet, we already have some insight into the heart and thinking of the Son of God:
He serves with the view of His death in mind. We will die one day too. What do we want to be said about us when we die? “That Paul Holland. All he really cared about was serving himself!” Or, “That Paul Holland. He never met a person he wasn’t willing to serve.” We serve in view of our own death.
Jesus served out of love for His disciples. Love, wanting the best for others, is what motivates us in our service. “Love” is one of the very, very few words that are found in every single book of the New Testament!
Jesus served, trusting the Father to take care of all things.
Jesus served, comfortable with Who He was, His origin, and where He was going. Jesus found it easy to serve because He had a healthy self-image.
Paul Holland
