John 13
Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet
10 Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
12 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. 13 "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.
Jonah 1
Jonah Flees From the LORD
1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."
3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.
Luke 5:30-32
30But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
31Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Each one of these passages from the Bible refers to a very different situation, yet each passage has one thing in common. In John 13 we read about the night of Jesus' last meal. Jesus gets up from his place of honor at the table, disrobes, and begins to do the work of the most lowly servant, wash his Disciples feet. Why was this considered such a lowly job? Think about the standard modes of transportation in Jesus' day, there was mule, horse, the occasional camel and there was foot.
Most of the times I can remember the Bible referring to Jesus traveling, it was on foot. Now when you traveled on foot you walked the same roads as the donkeys, horses and camels. You think the emissions from an SUV are nasty, it doesn't hold a candle to the pollutants a mule leaves on the road. Factor in the popular footwear of the day, sandal like footwear, that equation adds up to something you wouldn't want to smell during dinner. So typically the lowliest of servants would wash the feet of his master's guest when they arrived to keep the house clean. By washing his Disciples' feet, Jesus humbled himself from God, Lord, Master, Teacher, to the level of a lowly servant. No wonder Peter reacted in such a shocked way when Jesus came to him.
All of this sounds bad enough, now take a closer look at what John 13 tells us. Jesus while washing the disciples feet knows full well that Judas is going to hand him over to the Pharisees and Saduciees. He still washes Judas' feet. What you say, why, how? Like Jesus said, he was setting an example. You don't just serve those that will respect and deserve it, you serve even those that do not deserve it.
If you need a farther illustration that God desires us to extend a hand of service to those that are least deserveing look at the story of Jonah. Have you ever wondered why exactally Jonah did not want to go to Ninevah? These people were really the worst of the worst. These people were the ones that found it pleasing to run their enemies through on a stake and then leave their bodies hanging around the walls of their city as a warning. Vlad Dracula had nothing on the Ninevites.
So does God say give up on them? Does he send thunderbolts and brimstone to fry these devils in human clothes from the face of the earth? Nope. He picks up the God phone and calls his prophet Jonah.
'Ring, Ring'
"Hello, Jonah prophet of the Lord Most High"
"Jonah, hey it's God. Got a message I need you to deliver."
"No problem, where are we going? Jerusalem, Bethel, you name it."
"Ninevah."
"Come Again. I thought you said Ninevah."
"That's what I said, Ninevah."
"The line is breaking...can't .....buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."
I know, the God line is not exactally biblical but I think it pretty well sums up how Jonah felt when he got the message from on high. I'm to young to be shish-kabob especially for a no good dirty rotten people like those Ninevites. God obviously had different ideas though and he didn't give up until Jonah delivered his
message, even though it took the belly of a fish to get him there.
Tax collectors were considered the worst of the worst in Roman occupied Isreal. There is no doubt why. Tax collectors often used their position to blackmail those they were sent to collect from in order to line their own pockets. This earned the tax collectors of the day a reputation that makes the IRS look like Gabriel and his holy host. When Jesus was questioned about why he hung out with these tax collectors and other sorted sinners, his reply was I have come to call the unrighteous to repent, not the righteous. Jesus came to minister to the unworthy, the unrighteous not only the unloved but the flat out hated.
What do these three passages tell us in our daily lives? If we are to walk like Christ and follow the lead that God has set before us, then we must not only serve those that make us feel warm and fuzzy but those we really can't stand. I know it doesn't exactally paint a smile on my face either, but it being obedient in this way does paint a smile on God's face.
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