The main Bible text in today's sermong was from John 13:1-17
and from Matthew 20:25-28
What occured to me as I listened was how different how God uses his Authority and Power from how we as humans do. John writes that it was in His knowledge that the Father has given Him authority over all things, that he took on this particular servant role of washing His disciples' feet. He knew, he had that confidence, that assurance, of who he is/was. He felt totally secure in His Authority, His Power, and did not have to make a display of it, did not have to defend it, or impress others with it.
Instead He used it to serve. He used it, and all the resources made available to him, to give hope to the poor, healing to the sick, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and so on. He uses His authority and power to bring justice (and especially what we call "social justice" today) to all those who are discriminated against. He doesn't use His power for self-agrandisement: 1 Corinthians 13:5 tells us that Love does not insist on its own way, or as another translation puts it, does not seek its own.
Human authorities and power-holders are seldom like this. I recall being sent on a two-day journey of over 1000km by my government boss, to collect an $8.00 broken short-wave radio that government had lent to a small community in a remote forest community for a special programme. The justification for spending over a $1000 to reclaim this now useless portable radio? "We must not give the public the impression that they can keep Government property, even if it is broken." Nothing other than the insistence that people must be reminded time and again where the power lies! And so many of our leaders, both economic and political, our police and our employers are so insistent that we should know that we are small relative to them as people with power.
I was also reminded of Galations 5: 13-14:
When we are set free by Jesus Christ, we are not only free "from" but free "to" or "for." As believers we have the right to be called the children of GOD Himself. For that is who we are. We are free from the need to prove we are somebody (because we know we aren't, but our identity is now in Christ who definite is), compared with everyone else. We don't need to prove that we can stand on our own feet, that we do not need help from other, we do not need to put ourselves in social-debt to others. Instead, we are free to serve in love, as well as to accept service from one another.
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. And 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 to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.
He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not know 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 part in me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “You are not all clean.”
When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know 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 as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not know 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 part in me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “You are not all clean.”
When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know 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 as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
and from Matthew 20:25-28
But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
The sermon was a fairly standard presentation and interpretation of these passages and the central theme of Jesus' life as a servant, though the "Father had given all things into his hands."
What occured to me as I listened was how different how God uses his Authority and Power from how we as humans do. John writes that it was in His knowledge that the Father has given Him authority over all things, that he took on this particular servant role of washing His disciples' feet. He knew, he had that confidence, that assurance, of who he is/was. He felt totally secure in His Authority, His Power, and did not have to make a display of it, did not have to defend it, or impress others with it.
Instead He used it to serve. He used it, and all the resources made available to him, to give hope to the poor, healing to the sick, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and so on. He uses His authority and power to bring justice (and especially what we call "social justice" today) to all those who are discriminated against. He doesn't use His power for self-agrandisement: 1 Corinthians 13:5 tells us that Love does not insist on its own way, or as another translation puts it, does not seek its own.
Human authorities and power-holders are seldom like this. I recall being sent on a two-day journey of over 1000km by my government boss, to collect an $8.00 broken short-wave radio that government had lent to a small community in a remote forest community for a special programme. The justification for spending over a $1000 to reclaim this now useless portable radio? "We must not give the public the impression that they can keep Government property, even if it is broken." Nothing other than the insistence that people must be reminded time and again where the power lies! And so many of our leaders, both economic and political, our police and our employers are so insistent that we should know that we are small relative to them as people with power.
I was also reminded of Galations 5: 13-14:
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
When we are set free by Jesus Christ, we are not only free "from" but free "to" or "for." As believers we have the right to be called the children of GOD Himself. For that is who we are. We are free from the need to prove we are somebody (because we know we aren't, but our identity is now in Christ who definite is), compared with everyone else. We don't need to prove that we can stand on our own feet, that we do not need help from other, we do not need to put ourselves in social-debt to others. Instead, we are free to serve in love, as well as to accept service from one another.
I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
