Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
The Blessing of 13 in John 13 --- Purpose
Purpose --- “He now showed them the full extent of His love…”
Our third contextual consideration is purpose. He is going to show them how much He loves them. It must have been shocking to see the Lord remove His outer garments before them and then to gird Himself with a towel, kneel down and invite them to have their feet washed by them. Of all the disciples it is Peter who strongly objects. Why? He is responding by the world’s standards. While the other disciples calmly obey and participate, Peter holds out, No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet (vs.8).
Peter is revealing how much man is conditioned by his culture. People always defer to those the world considers above them. You bow and kneel before superiors. You play games of yielding to greater odds. Authority in the world is measured in terms of keeping the underdog down, enforcing laws and intimidating through fear. Peter recognizes in Jesus a superior authority and rightly so. But this is not an authority based on intimidation and fear. It is an authority that already has the ultimate power, the ultimate purity and is the ultimate law-giver. This is an authority that serves, loves, brings mercy not retribution. This power is so much stronger than any world power that it needs never to demonstrate through intimidation but through giving of self.
Worldly power operates through the fear of physical, emotional, social, economic and intellectual death. Worldly power is always presented in its external forms to secure entirely selfish goals of self-protection, physical power, wealth, security and control. It is ‘one-ups-manship’ to the extreme. Scripture is replete with the stories of power-hungry officials and those who sidle up to them for personal advantage. The problem with it is that the higher you go in the world the less you can trust those who surround you since they are looking for an opening to take your place. That is why they are there. Cynical perhaps, but certainly verifiable.
It is this set of power dynamics that Jesus confronts in Peter in order that Peter sees in himself the need for heart conversion at the deepest level, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me (vs.8). Suddenly Peter recognizes his error, his reliance on world standards, his having been so conditioned by the world, he could not see what Jesus was doing and revealing about the nature of God the Father. He recognizes he has been totally blind and asks Jesus to wash not only his feet but his head and hands as well(vs.9).
The purpose therefore is to see that the true God standing before us in Jesus Christ is not only a true king, a true God and a true man but also a true servant. God makes Himself available to us in His Son. This is not a world standard where leaders isolate themselves, have spokesmen and diplomats speaking for them, hiding in the confines of upper-class clubs and neighborhoods, always seeking out the ‘right’ and acceptable social atmosphere.
God’s standard is to be everywhere among all kinds of people saving and serving, serving and saving. He comes in the midst of a mighty storm but many times speaks in a still small voice. He is always where there is suffering, sorrowing, sighing and dying. He is where the young seek to grow and the old seek to live. He is where the heart yearns for something better than the world has to offer. He is always where any heart is anytime anywhere. He is where decisions are being made, where fear is rampant, where futures are being planned, where casual meetings are opportunities waiting to happen. He is in the gloss and glow of daily encounters with the unexpected and the expected. He is where we sleep and rise to meet the day. There is no time or place where He is not.
Every moment is an occasion in which God is present. This is what Jesus brings to us as the revelation of the nature of God. Jesus’ purpose is to demonstrate the fully present loving God who cares for the most minute and maintains the most immense environment that each heart, no matter how unknown, or seemingly insignificant, has a personal part in God’s plan and destiny for His universe.
It is this same God whose power created the universe, time and consciousness, who makes Himself available in Jesus Christ that all who receive Him might be filled with the same power that fills His Son. It is this same God who said, “This is my Son whom I love, with whom I am well pleased, listen to Him.” It is this same God the Father who gave His only Son to die that we might have eternal life, become His children forever. It is this same God who rose again that we might rise to bring glory to Him. Our purpose, then, is to glorify God as the Son glorified the Father and in the process to be glorified that as we reflect His glory so others may come to Him and be the glory of God serving as He served by living as He lived, dying as He died and rising as He rose.
May the Lord Jesus be seen in each of us as we consciously serve Him who dwells in us so that they may be drawn, not to us but to Him.
Purpose? There it is.
Our third contextual consideration is purpose. He is going to show them how much He loves them. It must have been shocking to see the Lord remove His outer garments before them and then to gird Himself with a towel, kneel down and invite them to have their feet washed by them. Of all the disciples it is Peter who strongly objects. Why? He is responding by the world’s standards. While the other disciples calmly obey and participate, Peter holds out, No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet (vs.8).
Peter is revealing how much man is conditioned by his culture. People always defer to those the world considers above them. You bow and kneel before superiors. You play games of yielding to greater odds. Authority in the world is measured in terms of keeping the underdog down, enforcing laws and intimidating through fear. Peter recognizes in Jesus a superior authority and rightly so. But this is not an authority based on intimidation and fear. It is an authority that already has the ultimate power, the ultimate purity and is the ultimate law-giver. This is an authority that serves, loves, brings mercy not retribution. This power is so much stronger than any world power that it needs never to demonstrate through intimidation but through giving of self.
Worldly power operates through the fear of physical, emotional, social, economic and intellectual death. Worldly power is always presented in its external forms to secure entirely selfish goals of self-protection, physical power, wealth, security and control. It is ‘one-ups-manship’ to the extreme. Scripture is replete with the stories of power-hungry officials and those who sidle up to them for personal advantage. The problem with it is that the higher you go in the world the less you can trust those who surround you since they are looking for an opening to take your place. That is why they are there. Cynical perhaps, but certainly verifiable.
It is this set of power dynamics that Jesus confronts in Peter in order that Peter sees in himself the need for heart conversion at the deepest level, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me (vs.8). Suddenly Peter recognizes his error, his reliance on world standards, his having been so conditioned by the world, he could not see what Jesus was doing and revealing about the nature of God the Father. He recognizes he has been totally blind and asks Jesus to wash not only his feet but his head and hands as well(vs.9).
The purpose therefore is to see that the true God standing before us in Jesus Christ is not only a true king, a true God and a true man but also a true servant. God makes Himself available to us in His Son. This is not a world standard where leaders isolate themselves, have spokesmen and diplomats speaking for them, hiding in the confines of upper-class clubs and neighborhoods, always seeking out the ‘right’ and acceptable social atmosphere.
God’s standard is to be everywhere among all kinds of people saving and serving, serving and saving. He comes in the midst of a mighty storm but many times speaks in a still small voice. He is always where there is suffering, sorrowing, sighing and dying. He is where the young seek to grow and the old seek to live. He is where the heart yearns for something better than the world has to offer. He is always where any heart is anytime anywhere. He is where decisions are being made, where fear is rampant, where futures are being planned, where casual meetings are opportunities waiting to happen. He is in the gloss and glow of daily encounters with the unexpected and the expected. He is where we sleep and rise to meet the day. There is no time or place where He is not.
Every moment is an occasion in which God is present. This is what Jesus brings to us as the revelation of the nature of God. Jesus’ purpose is to demonstrate the fully present loving God who cares for the most minute and maintains the most immense environment that each heart, no matter how unknown, or seemingly insignificant, has a personal part in God’s plan and destiny for His universe.
It is this same God whose power created the universe, time and consciousness, who makes Himself available in Jesus Christ that all who receive Him might be filled with the same power that fills His Son. It is this same God who said, “This is my Son whom I love, with whom I am well pleased, listen to Him.” It is this same God the Father who gave His only Son to die that we might have eternal life, become His children forever. It is this same God who rose again that we might rise to bring glory to Him. Our purpose, then, is to glorify God as the Son glorified the Father and in the process to be glorified that as we reflect His glory so others may come to Him and be the glory of God serving as He served by living as He lived, dying as He died and rising as He rose.
May the Lord Jesus be seen in each of us as we consciously serve Him who dwells in us so that they may be drawn, not to us but to Him.
Purpose? There it is.
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