Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life: John the disciple, writing his book about Jesus, remembers a
radical and revealing scene involving Jesus and the twelve disciples. In
Chapter 13 he describes it. The whole group has gathered together to celebrate
the Jewish Passover in an upstairs room. (This is the evening before the day
Jesus is executed.) The normal practice is for a servant to enter the room and
wash the guest’s dirty feet before the meal. No servant shows up. The disciples
look around the room uncomfortable, wondering what to do. None of them moves
toward the pitcher and basin. They each feel that is too demeaning.
John describes what happens next. “Then Jesus
got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and
poured water into a basin. Then be began to wash the disciples’ feet and to
wipe them with the towel he had around him.” (John 13:5, NLT) Imagine the shock
waves reverberating through the room. The master, the Rabbi doing the washing!
Unheard of. It’s a servant’s job, after all!
“After washing their feet, he put on his robe
again and sat down and asked, ‘Do you understand what I was doing? You call me
“Teacher” and “Lord”, and you are right, because it is true. And since I, the
Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I
have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you … You know these
things; now do them! That is the way of blessing.” (John 13:12-17, NLT) What is
the “way” Jesus is both referring to and demonstrating? The way of unselfish
service. The willingness to give yourself in meaningful ways to others. The
path of humility and selflessness. Significantly, Jesus gave His life to others
before He ever went to the cross. He lived a life of compassion and service to
everyone, no matter what the condition of their lives or the status of their
positions. Washing feet symbolized Jesus’ entire way of living.
And by doing life this way, He was making
powerful statements about what God was really like, the truth about God. He
once told the disciples: “You know that in this world kings are tyrants, and
officials lord it over the people beneath them. But among you it should be
quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant,
and whoever wants to be first must become your slave. For even I, the Son of
Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a
ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28, NLT)
Imagine how radical and revolutionary this view
of divine and human interaction was. The Greeks viewed humans as placed on this
earth to serve the gods. The Romans embraced a hierarchy of status in which the
lower strata of population existed solely to serve the higher ones. But Jesus
comes along and portrays the polar opposite. In God’s regime, God serves. God
washes people’s feet. God acts in humble caring and compassion. God’s way is
the path of selfless service. The truth about God is that God lives to love.
So in God’s world, real life, real living,
centers around giving and serving. Jesus once said, “The thief’s purpose is to
steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.”
(John 10:10, NLT)
And He went on to describe the kind of life He
gives. Using the metaphor of sheep and those who watch the sheep, He contrasted
the hired hand and the shepherd (John 10:11-15).
The hired hand, while watching the sheep and
suddenly faced with personal danger from an attacking wolf, runs away. He
quickly leaves the sheep in order to save himself. He’s only a hired hand with
no personal stake in the sheep.
The shepherd, on the other hand, reacts quite
differently. The shepherd has a personal stake in every sheep. Each one he
knows by name. Each one belongs to him. So when danger appears, he refuses to
run. He stands his ground and if need be lays down his life to protect them.
“I am the good shepherd,” Jesus commented. “I
know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the
Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:14-15, NLT).
So what kind of life does Jesus reveal? What is
God’s way of life? A life that gives and serves completely unselfishly, a life
that involves giving life extravagantly and even wastefully. God gives in order
for others to enjoy the abundant life. Antithetically, the thief takes life,
deprives others of life, destroys life. That’s why Dr. Scott Peck, the renown
psychiatrist, in his book People of the Life, notes that the word “evil” spelled backwards is “live.” Evil is
the diminishing of life. The thief’s way. But Jesus reveals that God’s way is
all about enhancing life, giving life, strengthening life and that unselfish
serving, self-sacrificing love is at the heart of true living.
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