Jesus Empowers the Willingness to Serve and to be Served

John 13:35 “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

In John 13, Jesus puts an amazing example of love on display. As a humble servant, Jesus takes a basin of water and washes the feet of each disciple. When Jesus gets to Peter, he communicates an unwillingness to allow the Lord to perform such a lowly form of service on his behalf. Jesus shares with Peter the importance of another form of humility – not resisting the Master’s desire to express a lowly form of service for him. Followers of Jesus must be willing to be served. Through the act of washing the feet of His disciples, Jesus gives them an example of serving as well as being served.

Human pride has a powerful presence in human hearts. This is evident in this story because not one of the disciples considered serving Jesus or the others disciples by washing their feet. But Jesus, as the greatest among them, puts a selfless servant’s heart on display for all of them to see and experience. He also informs Peter of the importance of being humble enough to receive service from someone greater.

So, when Jesus says, “For I have given you an example, that you should do just as I have done to you.” (John 13:15), He indicates that His followers should be willing, both to serve one another and to be served by one another. When they see the grace of God flowing among them in acts of selfless service, being given and being received, they show they have been blessed by God. Truth must be known and truth must be put into practice for the blessing of God to be realized.

The truth is, we are enslaved to our pride much more than we realize. The prideful insensitivity of our flesh keeps us oblivious to selflessly serving others in humble and helpful ways. The prideful status consciousness of our flesh keeps us from being open to being served by others in humble and helpful ways. We know we wouldn’t think about serving them if we were in their shoes.

Consequently, when Jesus summarizes the events of this day with His disciples He says in verse 35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” They will know we are disciples of Jesus because we are transformed by the power of His grace. We are transformed from being pridefully insensitivity into being lovingly and humbly attentive to meeting the needs of others. We are transformed from resisting the loving service offered by those who are in elevated positions above us. The evident transformations of pride into humility show we are vitally connected with Jesus. Such humble and loving behaviors are not natural.

This is the beautiful dynamic of love in the body of Christ. Jesus empowers the willingness to serve and the willingness to be served. May the love of Christ demonstratively live in our hearts and lives as followers of Jesus!