Well, on that night when Jesus shared what was to be his final meal with his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion, he looked around the table at his friends who were reclining there with him, and he said to them, love one another. Love one another. just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. And that, Jesus said, was the new commandment that he was giving them as part of his final words of instruction before his death. And while it certainly was not the only thing that Jesus wanted to communicate to his disciples that night, it was not the only lesson that he wanted to impress upon them or leave them with, I do believe that of everything that Jesus said that evening to his disciples, he emphasized nothing more emphatically or clearly than that one great command, love one another. At the very least, I think we can say at least that, for the Apostle John anyway, those were the words that made the deepest impression. And we see that not only from his Gospel account and how he devotes nearly an entire chapter, to capturing the command and the lesson that Jesus gave, but also we see it in how that same commandment then reverberates through all of John's letters. 1st John, 2nd John, 3rd John, it is like he writes those letters with the voice of Jesus still ringing in his ears, love one another. love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." Now that commandment that we are remembering tonight here on Maundy Thursday, that commandment was given within a context and it's important for us to consider the context to help us understand what that love was. that Jesus was commanding of his disciples. What that love means and what it looks like in very concrete and practical terms. Because it is very easy to talk about love and it is very easy to say that we do love one another as long as love remains abstract. as long as that is just a word that we throw around and nothing more. But that is not the love that Jesus had in mind when he gave the new commandment. It is not an abstract love. It is a very real and concrete love, which is why the command he gives in verse 34 comes in verse 34 and not earlier. It comes only after and within the context of what we're about to read in verses 1 through 17. And it is here in verses 1 through 17 that Jesus illustrates what that love he commands his disciples to show to one another, what that love looks like, what it truly means, what it demands of them, and what it demands of us. So I encourage you to follow along with me now as I read John 13, verses one through 17. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments and, taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered him, What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you. For he knew who was to betray him. That is why he said, not all of you are clean. When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. As I said a moment ago in these verses, we are given a picture of what love is. We're given a picture of the kind of love that Jesus would very soon command his disciples to show to one another. Jesus made that very clear, didn't he? It was taken for granted that disciples were to emulate their master. Disciples are to emulate their teacher. And so Jesus said to his own disciples, if I then, your Lord and your teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should also do just as I have done to you. And it is by following the example of Jesus, serving as he served and loving as he loved, that the world would be able to identify just whose disciples those men were. because they would see them loving and looking and acting just like Him, like their teacher. Now, of course, that does not merely apply to the 12 or to the 11. It applies to all of Christ's disciples. It applies to you. It applies to me. The goal of discipleship is to become like our teacher. Jesus commands that we, that you and I, Love like Him. that we love like him, and he gave us an example of what that means. So that as we follow his example, it would be clear to everyone watching whose disciples we are. The example he left that night was for us. And so with that in mind, I want to make just a few very simple and very brief observations from this passage that I pray will help us to obey Jesus's command to follow his example, and to love one another just as he has loved us. The first point I will make is maybe too obvious even to mention, but I will mention it anyway. And that is that love is manifest in a willingness to humbly serve others. Or to put it another way, the degree to which we love our brothers and sisters as Christ loves us. that will be demonstrated in our willingness or our unwillingness to humbly serve them. And that word humbly, humbly serve is very important because we can very easily deceive ourselves much more easily than we can deceive others. We can deceive ourselves into thinking that if we are doing things, then we are serving. And if we are serving, then we are loving. but that is not necessarily the case. If we are doing and serving without humility, without humility, then we really are not serving anyone but ourselves, nor loving anyone but ourselves. The world is full, it is full of men and women who are eager to serve, and even who will fight for the opportunity to serve, when that service is deemed an honor and a privilege. But what honor did Jesus grasp at? What honor was Jesus seeking when he laid aside his outer garments, took a towel, tied it around his waist, poured water into a basin, and began to wash his disciples' filthy feet and to wipe it with the towel that was wrapped around him. Where was the honor in that service? And with which of his disciples did he have to fight or wrestle to claim it? Which of them was clamoring for the honor and for the privilege of washing dirty feet? Not a single one of them. Why not? Because that was not the kind of service anyone esteemed. On the contrary, it was a duty fit only for the lowest ranking servant, the least among them. And that is the position that Jesus assumed. And it is the position that he said, we too, we too, his disciples would willingly assume ourselves for the sake of our brothers and sisters if we truly love them. The scandal of the evening was not that someone got up and washed everybody's filthy feet. That was very much expected. That was according to protocol. The scandal of the evening is that the one who got up to do it while no one else moved was the master, the teacher, the rabbi, the Lord. As I have loved you, Jesus said, so you also must love one another. It is not possible to convey love without humility. Let me say that again. We cannot convey love. Love cannot, cannot be conveyed apart from genuine humility. We have seen Paul make that point as we've gone through 1 Corinthians. We see Jesus making and illustrating that point here, and yet somehow we forget that. Somehow we let ourselves think and we expect others to think that so long as we are doing and serving, then we are doing well. But it could be that we are doing little more than serving our pride and serving ourselves. And there is a good way to tell if that is the case with us. And that is to think, to ask ourselves whether or not we are only eager to serve on our own terms and in our own way. Are we willing to serve but only on our conditions and not on another's? The reality is, though, the ways that we most often want to serve are very often not the ways that are most needful to others or helpful to the church. And if I am only willing to serve in the ways that I like and insist on serving only in those ways that I like and that I am interested in, then who am I really serving? And who am I really loving? If we are to love our brothers and sisters in the church, or to love our brothers and sisters at home, or our husbands and wives and children, if we are to love any of them, then that love will be demonstrated, not just in service or activity, but in humble service. in humility, in a willingness to be made low, to be the last, to be the least, to be disregarded, to be overlooked, to be unappreciated, and happily so, if only our service might somehow meet a need and prove helpful. This is the kind of love that Jesus showed his disciples and commanded that we too show to one another. This is what he demanded of us, of all who are his disciples. Love one another, he said, even as I have loved you. It is a love that is marked by utter humility. Humility and selflessness. But the problem is, with you and me, that we, by nature, are not that. We, by nature, are not humble and selfless. We are the exact opposite of that. So how then could we who are by nature proud and selfish and self-serving, how could we ever come to love one another as Jesus has loved us? How is it possible? Or is it even possible? Well, it is possible. And a great part of the answer to how it is possible is by remembering, remembering that what man is by nature is not what we now are by grace. If Christ had not redeemed us, if Christ had not given us new life, if he had not given us a new nature with new desires, a new power to crucify old selfish desires, then the new commandment to love one another is one that we would be powerless to fulfill. It would be impossible. But that's just it. Jesus Christ has done all of that for us. If we are his disciples, then we are not what we were. We have a new identity and a new orientation on life with a new perspective on what matters and what is valuable and what is not and how well we remember that. How well we remember that is largely what will determine whether we will love others as Christ has loved us or whether instead we will choose to love and serve ourselves. And I say that because of what we see in verse 3, where it says that Jesus, knowing Knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper, laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Knowing that the father had put all things in his hands, knowing that he already possessed everything, knowing that he had come from God and was going back to God, knowing with certainty all of these realities, Jesus got up and what did he do? He assumed the position of the lowliest of servants. And one of the reasons we do not love and serve with humility and embrace the position of the last and the least and the lowest is because unlike Jesus, Unlike Jesus, we forget or we fail to comprehend what we already possess and what we can never lose. We act as though there is something more of worth out there to obtain or act as though what we have obtained, we must be careful to guard that it not be lost. But what honor did Jesus forfeit? by making himself the servant of all. What power, what influence did he forfeit by assuming the position of a slave? Did he forfeit anything? None at all. None at all. The father had given all things into his hands. He was not poor or weak or vulnerable, nor become so by making himself low. He possessed everything and knew that what he possessed could not be lost. What do we think we will lose? by humbling ourselves and abasing ourselves to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ. Will you lose anything? I mean, you already possess the favor and the smile of God. You already stand to inherit the world as a co-heir with Christ. What are you concerned to lose by making yourself low? Or what of any value do you suppose you could gain by parading yourself as someone who's somebody that others should respect and admire and wait upon? Don't we already possess everything? Everything is ours in Christ, and if so, then should we not live as though we did not need or expect anything more from anyone else, that we did not need them to serve us, that we did not need their applause or their esteem? We already are most highly honored. knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God. Knowing this, Jesus rose from supper and served them. Understanding who we are before God through Christ and recognizing all that is ours in him really does make a difference. and how we are willingly able to humble ourselves and to sacrificially love and serve our fellow brothers and sisters. I said up to this point that Jesus left us an example to follow, and he did. He said that himself. I have left you an example to follow, an example of what it means to love. And that, we said, is demonstrated, that love is demonstrated just as Christ's love was there demonstrated in serving the needs of others with complete humility. But this act of feet washing by Christ was not just an example. It was more than an example to us. It was an illustration for us. It was an illustration of the ultimate act of love and humility and sacrifice that Jesus would very soon carry out for his disciples, his washing of their feet. pointed to a more humbling act of service that he would undertake for all of his disciples to wash them, to wash them and make them truly clean. He would humble himself to the point of death, giving his life, shedding his blood to wash away our sins. The water basin would be exchanged for a fountain. And in the words of Zechariah, the fountain would be opened up to cleanse from sin and uncleanness. Unless I wash you, Jesus said, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. He was eager to make us clean. Jesus was eager to make us clean, though it meant the death of him. Though he would be humbled to the grave, he was eager to make us clean. Such was his love for us. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And if he so loved us, John said, remembering Christ's words and his actions. If he so loved us, then we also ought to love one another. Let us pray. Father, we confess that even though we do acknowledge you as our Lord and Jesus as our Lord, our master, Our teacher. Very often we do not look like him. Very often we do not love like him. And our love could never do what his love did for us. Our love cannot redeem a person from death and judgment. Only Jesus' love can. Only his serving us could do that. And yet, he says, we are to reflect the way that he loved and the way that we love one another with humility, a self-forgetfulness, a willingness to be made low, and last, as Jesus said, he did not come to be served. He came to serve. And whoever was greatest would be last of all, and would be the servant of all. And how he demonstrated that in his earthly ministry, how he demonstrated it on that night, that Thursday night, but how he demonstrated it so wondrously on the cross, serving us, humbling himself to the point of death, that we would be redeemed, that we would be made clean. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's side, and by that blood alone are we cleansed. Father, how we thank you for the humility of Jesus Christ, his eagerness, his willingness, his desire to be humbled that we might be exalted with him. Help us, Father, to follow the example of Jesus, in humbling ourselves, in loving and serving with humility that reflects the humility of Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen.