"Do You Understand?"

"Do You Understand?"(John 13:12-18)

“When he had washed their feet and put on his clothes again he went back to the table. 'Do you understand' he said 'what I have done to you?’” (Jn 13:12)

      Christ’s Chosen Ones were only beginning to understand. Having just been washed by the Tender Fingers of God, they were drawn onto the precipice of a New Horizon. How could they be expected to understand the Heart of God? Why did Jesus wash their filthy feet? Not because they were dirty, but because he wanted to rip them out of an unexamined reality. He wanted to open their eyes to his Father’s Mission to Love. So it was, that he took on the position of a slave, to give them a glimpse into a Kingdom not enslaved to Self, but enslaved to Love.

“You call me Master and Lord, and rightly; so I am.” (Jn 13:13)

      In order to grasp the magnitude of what had just taken place, the apostles needed to believe in the title with which they addressed Jesus. Jesus, Master of all Powers seen and unseen, Lord of all Creation, submitted to the humblest of actions to reveal his Love. The Greatest became the Smallest; the Creator kissed the feet of the creature. (Jn 13:13)


“If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other's feet.” (Jn 13:14)

      God is calling Man to become Godly. He is charging his disciples to a life of Love; to raise the lowly with the power of Lowliness; to see the Sinner as Beloved; to be an instrument for God.


“Now that you know this, happiness will be yours if you behave accordingly.” (Jn 13:17)

      This is an audacious promise, and a Vision Revealed. What is this secret knowledge; what is the “this” that is the key to happiness? It is behavior according to Jesus –to be a lover for the Source Of All Love. This is his Word of Truth waiting to be unwrapped in faith. It is our commission to act in his Name: our co-mission with Jesus.
“I am not speaking about all of you: I know the ones I have chosen; but what scripture says must be fulfilled: Someone who shares my table rebels against me.” (Jn 13:18)

      This verse is packed with meaning. If we read it with our eyes wide open our hearts will bleed, so let us pray not to close our mind to its Truth. Jesus is saying that not all of his Chosen Ones choose him in return. He is speaking of Judas, the Son of Perdition; and he portrays him as “Someone who shares my table [and] rebels against me.”

      Jesus knew Judas with all his flaws, but that did not stop him from choosing him. He still loved him, still trusted him with his confidence –in spite of knowing that he would rebel against him and hand him over to death. How easy it is to loath Judas, to be enraged by this one who exchanged his Master’s Love for selfish gain. But, Jesus washed his feet.

      And what about us? Do we not share his table? Do we not eat his Body and drink his Blood, yet rebel against him? Does not Jesus know us whom he has chosen? Yet, he washes us clean and entrusts us to love with his Love. Do we understand the immensity of is Love for us? Do we understand the stupidity and smallness of our rebellion; or the price of our sin? 

      “I know the ones I have chosen…” The power in this Word is not that Jesus knows the identity of who he has chosen, for, in Truth, he has chosen every one of us. The miracle in this Word is that he knows the smallness of our hearts and still continues to choose us to serve in his Name. He believes in us when we do not believe in him. He trusts us to love for him when we do not trust in his Love for us. How can I remain a chosen son of God while in my Shadow is a Son of Perdition?

      How did the Eleven become so different from the Judas they so resembled? Did they not argue among themselves for self gain? Doubt their Master? Abandon him? Deny him? What held off the fate they deserved? Surely it is because they found Forgiveness. They were so transformed by the Unchangeable Love of their Master that they became abhorrent to any thought or action that did not bring him pleasure. Being washed in his Love, they found the faith to behave according his Will.
 
     This Undeserving Love of Jesus is beyond my grasp. I cannot understand this Love; I can only Believe in it -because my Master has told me so. And I can Hope in it; that I will become what he sees in me -the son of his Father, his chosen brother. And if I too remain in his Love, then it will pour forth from me and wash the feet of his creation; and I may ever grow into a faithful servant, freed from the smallness of my heart.

What About Me?

What About Me?

“…there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.  But before all this happens, men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and bring you before kings and governors because of my name - and that will be your opportunity to bear witness.” (LK 21:11-3)

         Calvary is only days away.  Jesus already told his disciples he is about to die.  Now, instead of giving them a pep talk, he tells them about the fearful and terrible things to come, and how they will suffer for knowing him.   Not only that, but they are to see this as an opportunity to bear witness!  How could they have received his Word?

         There is a radio commercial that so irritates me I find myself turning the channel until it’s over.  This guy keeps repeating, that at his business, “It’s all about you.”  Who actually believes that?!  But the deeper question is how many of us want to believe that.  And the sobering answer is we all do.  

         Deep in our soul, at the core of our untamed flesh, lives the delusion that we are the center of the universe, and it will remain there -resisting Truth till we draw our last breath.  It is why foolish commercials work, why sin can rise from its ashes to humiliate our love for God, why we need a Savior.

         As a young child in religion class, I was challenged with the most fundamental question of life –Why did God make us?  It was well within the childish capacity of my mind to learn the simple answer –God made us to know, love and serve him.  Yet a half century later, my soul is still learning to unwrap this Defining Truth.

         To the soul deceived by the Father of Lies, this Other-Centered belief is foolish if not reviling.  To the soul penetrated by the Light of the Father of Love, this belief is the beginning and end of Life –that we exist to know, love and serve God is glorious privilege.

         It is only in possessing this Life Defining Truth that we can receive these Words of Jesus with joy –that we can embrace the suffering of knowing him and, in so doing, give witness to the God who gives us Life.  In being freed from the selfishness of our inner child, we are freed from the need to serve our Insatiable Self –we are freed to serve the God who created us.  In all ways, serving God is loving and Love is the Preeminent Witness -for God is Love.

         As a toddler wanders into the path of a car, the mother does not stop to consider ‘What about me?’ before scooping up her child.  Love does not count the cost to Self –‘What about me?’ is absent from the vocabulary of Love.  To lay down one’s life is to give Witness to our Savior’s Death.  Life is not at all “all about us” -it is all about his Sacrificial Love for us.

         Father, you gave your Son into suffering and death -that I might live.  Jesus, you did not count the cost to free me from Sin.  Holy Spirit, possess me -that I may give Witness to your Sacrificial Love.