John 13:12-20

John 13:12-20

Therefore when he washed their feet and took His outer garments and reclined again at the table to eat, He said to them, “Do you all know what I have done to you?  You all call me, ‘The Teacher,’ and ‘The Lord;’ and you all speak correctly.  For I am.  Therefore if I – the Lord and the Teacher – washed your feet, you all are also under an obligation to wash the feet of one another.  For I gave an example to you all in order that just as I did to you all also you all should do.  Amen, amen I say to you all.  A servant is not greater than His lord, neither is an apostle greater than the one who sent him out.  If you all have understood these things, you all are blessed if you all should do them.  I do not speak regarding you all.  I have known whom I chose.  But in order that the scriptures should be fulfilled, the one who eats my bread lifted his heel upon me.  From now I speak to you all before it takes place, in order that you all should believe that I am when it should become.  Amen, amen, I say to you all.  The one who should receive anyone I sent receives me.  And the one who receives me receives the one who sent me.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Jesus asks a really interesting question at the beginning of this passage – especially in light of what we discussed yesterday.  Jesus asks the disciples if they know what Jesus has done.  Of course they don’t, Jesus told Peter yesterday that he wouldn’t!  So what is Jesus doing here?  Jesus is asking them a question in which the negative answer is the appropriate response.  It’s okay for the disciples to hear and confess in their mind that they don’t understand.  The first step in becoming a disciple isn’t a time for impressing the master with what you know but rather coming to a conscious understanding about what you don’t know.  Jesus is pointing the disciples to this very truth by asking them a question where the appropriate answer is a negative confession.

Why is it hard for human beings to acknowledge what they do not know?  How does the understanding that discipleship begins with what we don’t know also speak to the concept of submission?

Second Thought:

 In the middle of this passage Jesus really gets to His point.  Jesus did come to save the world from its state of natural sin.  But within that salvation, Jesus gives us an example to follow.  Jesus tells us that He has come to serve His disciples so that His disciples might serve one another.  Discipleship isn’t about getting people to elevate you into authority.  Rather, discipleship is about teaching others to live like Christ.  It is about reproducing Christ into each other.  It is about reaching into the lives of others in order to teach them how to give up their own human agenda and invite people into a greater agenda than they could imagine: God’s agenda.

How does Christ reproduce Himself in the disciples?  What are the means in which He accomplishes this?  How are you reproducing Christ in others?

Third Thought:

Jesus knows his time has come.  He’s about to be arrested and removed from the midst of the disciples.  Soon the disciples will not be able to learn from Him.  They need to hear Jesus explain the next stage.  So Jesus tells them plainly.  Whoever receives someone that Jesus sends into their midst receives Jesus.  Whoever receives Jesus receives the Father.  Want to know the Father and the Son more deeply?  Know the people that God sends into your midst to reveal Him more plainly to you.

I like to think about this concept like a galaxy.  Our solar system – our star – is orbiting the center of our galaxy.  The earth orbits the sun.  The moon orbits the earth.  Therefore, by default, the moon is orbiting the center of the galaxy.  But it is doing it indirectly by orbiting things that are orbiting things that are orbiting the center of the galaxy.  So it is between us and the Father.  We might not be able to orbit God directly like Moses did when speaking with God face to face.  But we absolutely can orbit God by orbiting those who are orbiting others who are orbiting Christ who is orbiting God.

Do you receive those whom God sends into your life?  How do you do this?  How will doing this help prepare you to be received by others?

Passage for Tomorrow: John 13:21-30