Author: TechCommittee

May 7, 2023               Text:  John 14:1-14

Dear Friends in Christ,

While I still like my Rand McNally Atlas when traveling I have gotten used to the directions that are pulled up on Toni’s phone.  But the system is not foolproof.  Last year when we were searching for our house in Savannah, Georgia, the directions took us over the large bridge there and into an area with just a hotel, golf course, and Department of Transportation.  No house.  We recalibrated and found our destination.  When we, or mostly I, want to go a different route than the one prescribed you get that annoying, “make a U-turn in 100 feet.”

Like the directions on the phone can send us the wrong way, so many people in our world are headed the wrong way in seeking God.  There is only one right way and Jesus clearly spells it out in our text, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.” (v. 6)

In today’s Gospel Jesus makes statements like that that are very bold.  For starters, He thinks He is the Son of his Father, the Son of God.  Jesus backs up this claim throughout the book of John.  All that the Father is and does is equally embodied and personified in the Son.

“LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON”

Too often we take for granted the way Jesus lets the words “my Father” slip so naturally from his lips as in “my Father’s house” (v. 2) and “known my Father.” (v. 7). These words were shocking and brazen.  As Leon Morris comments:  “The expression ‘My Father’ is noteworthy.  It was not the way Jews usually referred to God.  Usually they spoke of ‘our Father,’ and while they might use ‘My Father’ in prayer they would qualify it with ‘in heaven’ or some other expression to remove the suggestion of familiarity.  Jesus did no such thing, here or elsewhere.  He habitually thought of God as in the closest relationship to Himself.  The expression implies a claim which the Jews did not miss.”  Like Father, Like Son.

Jesus speaks the very words of God.  They are the “words of eternal life.” (John 6:63). They are spoken by the one who is “the truth.” (v. 6). 

Jesus does the very works of God.  Jesus has the power to bestow life as we see in His miracles of raising the dead.  Jesus is Creator.  “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3). Jesus is the world’s Judge.  John 5:22 says, “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.”  Jesus is Savior.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son. That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17)  Like Father, Like Son.

Jesus reveals the very character of God.  Jesus is truth and faithfulness together.  True to his word, Jesus faithfully carried out the mission he was sent to do by his Father.  His mission was to save you and I from our damning sin.  His mission was to save us from hell.  His mission was to save us from the devil.  His mission took Him to a cross and to a tomb that was found empty.  And true to his word, this same Jesus will “come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (v. 3). We will be with Him in His Father’s house.  Like Father, Like Son.

Jesus works and words confront every human with the question “Who is this man?”  When we have grasped the “who”, the “what he came to do” falls in place.  The Gospel today shows that Jesus is God incarnate.  To know Jesus is to know God.  To see Jesus is to see God.  No one short of God could do the things he said and do the things he did.  When Jesus made statements like “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), he was identifying himself not just with the Father’s works and ways but with his very being.  Like Father, Like Son.

C.S. Lewis the former agnostic from Cambridge turned Christian wrote:  “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about (Jesus):  ‘I’m ready to (believe) Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic – on level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God:  or else a madman or something worse.”

Because he is who he is and did what he did, he will also make good on his promise to do what he said.  It is a promise we hold dear:  “In my Father’s house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:2-3)

Like Father, Like Son . . . for us.

Amen.  

April 30, 2023         Text:  Psalm 23

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of the most famous one-hit wonder songs of the 1970’s was “Seasons In The Sun.”  Sung by Terry Jacks its words were about a man who was dying.  Here is one verse, “Goodbye, papa, please pray for me, I was the black sheep of the family, You tried to teach me right from wrong, Too much wine and too much song, Wonder how I got along.”

The black sheep of the family?  What does that mean?  We define it as someone different from the rest, a family member who doesn’t fit in.  In the song the young man has some “prodigal son” in him and that makes him the “black sheep of the family.”

A black sheep has a recessive gene that makes their wool black.  Their wool is less valuable because the wool cannot be dyed.  Many languages of our world have some form of “black sheep” in their vernacular.

Do we have any amongst us today who were the “black sheep of the family?”  Or were all of you the nice, white sheep that always followed the voice of your dad and mom?  I am going this way in the sermon today – we are all black sheep.  Before throwing your hymnal my way, listen up and let’s see if this is not true.  We are going to find out together why . . .

 “BLACK SHEEP NEED A GOOD SHEPHERD”

Let’s start with a series of questions to get to the answer.  Do you ever wander from the flock?  Do you ever listen to voices that are not the best for you?  Ever push your way past someone else to get to the front of the pen or the buffet line?  Are you ever told what to do in God’s Word and you do the opposite?  If you still consider yourself a white sheep, one more question?  Does your pristine exterior ever get dirty because your interior is so rotten – in thoughts, in actions, in gestures?  Hello, black sheep!

OK, now that we are all in the pen together this morning, we are going to need an intervention.  We need a helper, a leader . . . a Good Shepherd.  King David has just what we need in the beginning of Psalm 23.  “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” (v. 1-3). 

Notice in this psalm that all the important actions happen by the Shepherd’s work, not yours.  He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads; He restores; He leads.  

As we heard in our Gospel for today, He leads us by His voice.  The Good Shepherd rose from the dead to lead you.  One positive of sheep is they have impeccable hearing.  You can merge them together quite easily.  We are to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd.  

He first taught you to recognize His voice at your Baptism; through the Word and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, He continues to teach you and lead you through this sinful world with His voice.  We are sent the Holy Spirit to help distinguish His voice and the black sheep voices we sometimes follow in this world.  He calls you and I – the black sheep of His family to repentance, to the anointing of your head with the oil of Holy Baptism, to feed on the lush pastures of His Word and at the Table of His life-giving flesh and blood spread before you.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (v. 4-6)

There are times you might feel abandoned.  Why would a caring shepherd lead me through the valley of the shadow of death?  Why does the death of loved ones cast a shadow over us?  Does your own death loom like a dark cloud?  Has the Good Shepherd left us black sheep because of our sin and failure?  No, He is not punishing us.  No, He has not failed to care for you.  He comforts us.  Jesus is with us in death.  He went through it first for you to open the way to life.  He is with you when you mourn.  He wept at Lazarus’ tomb.  Jesus is your Good Shepherd who gives you goodness and mercy.  He leads you to His house today and He will keep you in that house until you make the crossover to eternal dwellings.

As the Good Shepherd does His work in our lives, a transformation takes place.  That black wool gets whiter and whiter.  Washed in the blood of our Savior we enter His eternal House as white and as bright as we can be.  Feeling good, shining.  What a glorious day that will be to stand before the Good Shepherd.  

Can you see now why the black sheep need the Good Shepherd?

Amen.      

April 23, 2023             Text:  Luke 24:13-35

Dear Friends in Christ,

In 1799 the armies of Napoleon appeared on the heights above the town of Feldkirch, Austria.  It was Easter, and the rays of the rising sun glittered on the weapons of the French, as they appeared drawn up on the hills to the west of the town.  The Town Council was hastily called together to consult what was to be done.

After much discussion, the dean of the Church rose and said, “My brothers it is Easter Day!  We have been reckoning our own strength, and that fails.  Let us turn to God.  Ring the bells and have service as usual, and leave the matter in God’s hands.”

They agreed to do as he said.  Then from the church towers in Feldkirch there rang out joyous peals in honor of the Resurrection and the streets filled with worshippers hastening to worship.  The French heard the sudden ringing of the joy bells with surprise and alarm.  They concluded that the Austrian army had arrived to relieve the place.  So they hastily fled, and before the bells had ceased ringing not a Frenchman was to be seen.

Today the bells of Easter still ring with joy.  They rang for the two men on the way to Emmaus.  The living Lord rekindled their faith so that their hearts burned within them.  Do you still have the ringing of the Easter joy in your soul?  Let’s take a walk and find out . . .

“ARE YOUR HEARTS STILL BURNING?”

We join the two men on the road.  They are experiencing life without Christ and wondering what has happened.  There is no burning fire of faith or hope left in their hearts.

Without the living Christ the heart is cold.  We see this every day in our world.  The cold heart expresses itself in the coarsest language, the crudest behavior, the cruelest actions.  The cold heart seeks a warmth by embracing more and more things that are contrary to God’s Word.

We can have a cold heart as well.  If we don’t suffer that way, then we may experience a sad heart – a heart weighed down with sorrow or suffering or sin.  Do you have a troubled heart?  You are perplexed by the problems of this life and let it affect your mind and attitude.  How about a weak heart?  Struggling with the trials and temptations thrown your way.  Is your heart doubting?  Wondering if God is really walking with you and working for your good.  Or maybe you suffer a lukewarm heart.  You question the Bible.  Societal change creeps into your brain.  You need a good fire of faith to lift you up.

The living Christ comes to open our minds, warm our hearts, and give us a living hope.  Jesus joins the walkers and explains the Scriptures.  He meets these sad, troubled, weak, doubting and lukewarm hearts with hope.  “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (v. 27)

The words of Jesus rekindle faith.  The hearts of these men are set of fire, they are burning with joy.  Is the same joy you have?  As Christ walks with you do you feel His presence?  He is the promised Messiah and the Risen Savior.  Faith, and hope and joy abound for these men and for us.  “Please stay Lord, we want to hear more.”  They run to tell the disciples.  There in Jerusalem Jesus appears again to the believers.  Their hearts are warming up.

We have that same warmth for our hearts.  Life can no longer bog us down with guilt or the fear of death.  Life is not hopeless.  We have been born anew “into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Pet. 1:3). We do not walk alone in this life.  We do not walk alone to the grave.  The risen Christ promises, “Because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:19)

There is a little more giddy up in our steps.  These two disciples were just shuffling along but now they have good news to share which means they hurry to tell it.  The living Lord changes everything.  We have a living Savior in the midst of sorrows and joy, in the midst of life and death.  We live by faith in him and the power of the resurrection.

Easter Island is one of the remote islands of the world.  Found 2,000 miles west of Chile, it is so named because the Dutch discovered it on Easter 1722.  Fewer than 8,000 people live here, but many tourists visit occasionally.  For us, Easter is no island.  This Sunday is no holiday excursion.  We don’t celebrate Easter and then forget it.  It is an ongoing reality because Jesus lives!

When life is grinding you down, remember “Christ is risen!”  When facing a seemingly insurmountable problem we have hope because “Christ is risen!”  When standing at the grave of a loved one, all is not sad because “Christ is risen!”  

When your steps are heavy and spirits sagging, Christ walks with you.  He speaks to us in His Word.  He opens our eyes to His grace and love.  Hearts are warmed.  They burn with joy and peace.  Weak hearts are filled with strength.  Doubtful hearts are given confidence.  Lukewarm hearts have conviction.  Cold hearts are given heat from the “lifeblood poured from his sacred veins.”  

Wasn’t that a great walk?  Doesn’t your heart feel better?

Amen.      

April 9, 2023 – Easter Text:  John 20:19-23

Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you ever encountered this situation?  You are at the grocery store and run into an old acquaintance.  You make the proverbial small talk and then ask the question, “So how’s life?”  You expect the cliched answer, “Fine.”  Or they might say, “living the dream.”  You don’t expect to hear this.  “Well, I’m separated from Harry.  The kids seem to blame me.  I’ve hated my job for years and I’m just trying to make it day by day.”  She’s scared.  She’s angry.  Her life has been less than fulfilling.  She’d like to leave it all behind, start over, and start really living life.

Sometimes, it’s our youth.  Sometimes a midlife redirection.  Sometimes its burnout from a 30-year job.  Sometimes it’s the energy we put into the kids.  We can all go through cycles where we think it’s really time to start living.  The ideal is different for all of us, but usually includes a faraway vacation, spending lavishly or putting our time into something we really love.  Then we will really live.  But people can return from the feel-good trip and still feel empty.

The Bible has something to say about really living, and it’s not found in the Swiss Alps or the gearshift of the BMW.  We don’t need middle age or burnout to trigger a life worth living.  For us as Christians what we need is Easter.  We need the empty tomb and shouts of “He Is Risen!”  We need the appearance of Jesus to his disciples, showing them His . . .

“LIFE-GIVING HANDS”

The disciples were acting like the friend who felt her life was a mess.  John writes, “the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews.” (v. 19).  If the Jews were so corrupt as to orchestrate the crucifixion of an innocent man, what would stop them from coming after his disciples next?  Many of these men had abandoned Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Even though Jesus had been preparing them for his death, they still seemed shocked that it happened.  They were acting like Jesus was dead.  They were afraid and they felt guilty.  They were trapped in their own mid-life crisis.

Jesus wanted to calm their nerves.  He didn’t start with, “So how’s life?”  What he said was, “Peace be with you.” (v. 19).  They had heard the reports but hadn’t seen Jesus with their own eyes.  “Guys, it’s me!  I’m not a ghost.  I’m not dead.  I am very much alive.  “He showed them his hands and his side.”  They saw the life-giving hands and knew they were looking at their resurrected Lord.  He is risen indeed.

It took them a moment, but they finally grabbed hold of Easter that evening – it’s joy.  “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” (v. 20). No more fear, but Easter joy that makes life really worth living.  Have you grabbed hold of that Easter joy?

Jesus was alive but it was not a static thing.  His life-giving hands had a life-fulfilling mission.  “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (v. 21). Jesus was sent by God to forgive sins.  He knows asks us to be His ambassadors.  That is real living.

What a big job.  The disciples had to be overwhelmed.  They go from terror to being commissioned by Christ.  He knows what they need, “He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” (v. 22). The Holy Spirit worked so powerfully through these men that 50 days later these uneducated Galilean fishermen were apostolic fishers of souls.  When people heard Peter’s sermon, 3,000 souls were added to the Christian Church that day.

Christ even gave them the message.  “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” (v. 23).  It is a big day when a child is given the keys to the house, and even bigger milestone when they hand over the keys to the car.  With these words, Jesus confidently hands every believer the keys to heaven.  We are opening or closing the doors to heaven by forgiving or not forgiving.  The keys are the special power and privilege Christ gives only to Christians.  Forgiving sins and announcing peace is what Jesus did on Easter when he showed His life-giving hands.  What better way to live Easter daily than to use our hands for God’s life-giving purpose – to forgive our brothers and sisters.

What can be more meaningful than forgiving an estranged spouse?  Reconciling with a co-worker?  Resolving differences with an old friend?  Keys are only useful if you use them.  God gave them to you to use.  Living at peace with God and your neighbor makes life really worth living.  Those disciples took that message from the life-giving hands and made it their life-giving mission.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit that night, they went.  Today more than two billion Christians scattered around the world owe a debt of gratitude to the church’s humble beginnings that Easter evening.

So, how’s life?  Are you stuck?  Thinking you don’t really have anything to live for?  Stop acting like Jesus is dead.  He is not.  Look at the life-giving hands. Jesus is alive!  Let’s act like it.  Let’s pray like it.  Let’s believe like it.  Let’s embrace his call, “I am sending you,” and bring the gospel to the other six billion people in our world one soul at a time.  Let’s receive his Holy Spirit and use the keys to proclaim peace.  Live life like there is no death, because Easter means there is no death.  Easter makes life really worth living.

Amen. 

April 7, 2023 – Good Friday Tenebrae Text:  Luke 23:32-34

Dear Friends in Christ,

Were you there?  Were you there when they crucified my Lord…when they nailed him to the tree…when they laid him in the tomb?  We sing it every Good Friday Tenebrae Service as our closing hymn.  Were you there?

Who was there?  Roman soldiers.  It was their job.  They had to be.  None of them realized when they drove nails into Jesus and divided up his clothes that they were fulfilling hundreds of years old prophecies.  It did make a difference to one man, the centurion, who confessed that Jesus was the Son of God. (Mt. 27:54)

Two criminals were there.  They also had no choice.  They were being punished for their crimes.  Both derided Jesus, but then one confessed his sin and Jesus assured him they would be united in paradise. (Lk. 23:41-43)

The Jewish leaders were there to make sure Pilate followed through on his plan to execute Jesus.  They were going to enjoy this.  They got nasty and challenged Jesus to come down from the cross.  

It would be nice if we could say the disciples were there to give their support.  But most of them were not.  John was there along with another disciple as they stood by Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was there.  As she watched her Son die it had to break her heart.

We know who was there, but we ask again:  “Were you there?”  The obvious answer is no.  You and I were not physically there.  But think a little harder and the answer is yes.  You were there.  We didn’t condemn Him.  We didn’t jeer at Him.  We were there because our sins were there.  Jesus carried them there, on the cross He bore the crushing burden of our sin.

Our sin was the reason Christ had to die.  We are no less guilty than the
Roman soldiers or the Jewish leaders or the AWOL disciples.  Look up at that cross.  Look deep inside and examine your heart and compare yourself with Jesus.

A billboard once had these words:  “Real Christians forgive like Jesus.”  Would those words motivate you to forgive?  Remember what Jesus taught – “turn the other cheek,” “not 7 times, but 70 times 7,” “the parable of the prodigal son”.  I am reminded of Jesus’ prayer from the cross:  “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (v. 34).  Jesus asked God to pardon the people who were putting him to death.  Jesus had selfless love.

If I start comparing that to my own life with its perceived slights and petty squabbles, and the hurtful things I have said, it makes me fall to my knees in repentance.  Too many times I have help on to grudges and withheld forgiveness.  If real Christians forgive like Jesus, what does that make me?  If you claim to be a Christian, and are held to the same standard of forgiving like Jesus, what does that make you?  It makes us all guilty, not at all deserving of God’s love.  We need a miracle to be rescued from our sins.

Jesus didn’t look like a miracle worker on this Friday.  He looked weak and helpless.  Bloodied.  Beaten.  Defeated.  The devil had won the day.  

But the celebration was short-lived.  The evil ones had good reason to be afraid.  The Messiah was about to perform his greatest miracle.  To declare his final victory over the devil, to demonstrate his power over death, to announce to the world that news of his demise had been greatly exaggerated and assure you that all your sins have been forgiven, Jesus holds out to you His . . .

“NAIL-PIERCED HANDS”

It was a couple of days after Good Friday, and those disciples who were nowhere to be found on Calvary were now behind locked doors.  They were perplexed about all the happenings of the weekend.  They were in fear of their future.  But then they think they see a ghost, it’s not, it is Jesus.  He brings a message of peace.  He shows them something personal that instantly took away their anxieties.  He showed them his hands.  The nail-pierced hands.

Many scars are not attractive.  For the disciples, these were.  For us, they are.  The wounds remind us of the high cost of redemption.  Jesus took on flesh.  Jesus felt our pain.  Jesus endured the righteous wrath of God in our place.  Jesus prayed for our forgiveness on the cross, and he suffered and died on the cross to earn it.

It is this unconditional, sacrificial love of Jesus that makes this day good.  When your sins condemn you, he intercedes for you.  When Satan seeks to devour you, Jesus will defend you.  When you are feeling guilty, spiritually empty, totally unworthy of God’s love, remember what God has done to save you.  Remember that he will never leave you or forsake you.  Remember that he has ascended into heaven to prepare a place for you.

You are here.  Look up.  Look to the cross.  Look to Jesus.  Look at your living Savior’s nail-pierced hands.

Amen.     

April 6, 2023 – Maundy Thursday       Text:  John 13:1-5, 12-17

Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you ever had this experience?  You go into a restaurant – busy, not busy – doesn’t really matter.  But it takes minutes to get waited on.  You don’t get a “I’ll be with you in a minute” or anything.  You just sit and try to stay patient.  Or you go to a retail store and the clerk is on their phone . . . as you wait.  You are a patient in a hospital, and you feel the staff has neglected you.  “Hello, has everyone gone home!”  Or the one we have all faced, the repairman who gives you the three-hour window.  You come home from work and five minutes before the window closes they arrive.

God created people with an expertise in something.  We need someone’s help to help us get through life.  The accountant, the car repair man, the roofer, the dentist.  The world doesn’t work without us serving one another.  When we get good service, we are happy to tell others in person or online.

If that’s the case then maybe you are ready to refer Jesus to your friends and relatives (and maybe your enemies too) when you learn about the kind of service God provides.  In tonight’s lesson, Jesus not only provides great service to His disciples, but He does it for free.  No demand for payment, no excuses, no patronizing.  Jesus serves His disciples with His . . .

“HANDS OF HUMILITY”

Jesus has a lot on his mind this night.  In less than 24 hours He will lay down His life for the sins of the world.  God has laid all things at his feet.  Instead of a dazzling display of the divine, Jesus exercised abject humility.

While Jesus’ mind raced with anticipation the pain and suffering of hell, while He foresaw the cross He would endure, lovingly conscious of the souls He would redeem, His disciples were in a petty argument over who was the greatest.  They were oblivious to the needs of Jesus.  This carries over to the upper room and now no one is here to wash their stinking feet.  Which disciple would step up?  Even in the midst of this silly squabble, won’t one of them get up to wash the Savior’s feet?  Not one of them ever reached for the bucket.

On this Thursday evening, Jesus didn’t opt for a lecture.  He would model what humble service looks like.  He rose from the supper, put water in the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet.  They even get them dried.  If Jesus had blown a gasket here, we would understand.  His love never wavered.  He didn’t get exasperated.  He handled their pride with perfect patience.  He overcame their arrogance with humble service.

Most of our Christian service falls short because we base it on the behavior of our neighbor.  We shun people we don’t agree with.  Doctors are a little slower to help belligerent patients.  If we make our menu order difficult, we might be treated differently.  Inside our families, we tiptoe around the hothead and walk on eggshells around the opiniated brother-in-law.  Worse yet, we justify our behavior by suggesting they had it coming because they were being obnoxious.  The irony is this.  When we justify our behavior and blame our neighbor, we are the one who are being obnoxious.

If Jesus based His service on the disciples’ behavior, no one gets their feet washed tonight.  No one would have their sins forgiven because Jesus would have never made it to the cross.  Jesus’ humility shines brighter than ours because it’s not based on human behavior.  Jesus’ humility is based on love and grace.  His love is perfect.  He even washed Judas’ feet.

Would Jesus walk out of a restaurant because of poor service?  He didn’t walk out on the disciples, and He didn’t walk out on you.  He came to serve you.  Christ’s obedient death has served you well.  It paid the price for our pride and entitled attitude.  It paid for every shallow and insecure excuse we’ve ever offered God for failure to serve.  “The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

The disciples had a history of missing the point.  If Jesus got up and washed your feet, wouldn’t you feel ashamed?  Jesus wanted more than to shame their pride; He wanted to rewire their attitudes and invite them to use their hands of humility.  “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 ought to wash one another’s feet.” (v. 14-15)

Jesus was not superior to the disciples.  He didn’t tower over them.  He stoops to the lowliest of service to show what service is all about.  His service is incomparable, and it is free.  Jesus’ humble death purifies us of our poor service, and Jesus’ perfect humble, hands satisfy God’s holiness and provide us the motive to serve our neighbor.  Then heed Christ’s call and wash each other’s feet.  Love and serve your neighbor, like Jesus did, with humility.  “How can I serve?”  “Who can I serve?”  “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” (v. 17)

Amen.