D
DonKeesee
Guest
THE WAY UP IS DOWN
The Kingdom of Heaven is very different from the kingdoms of this world. In John 13, we see God the Son, the King of everything there is, washing the feet of His disciples. An amazing thing to us here in the world. And with this act, He makes a powerful humbling point: We should have the same serving spirit towards one another. How very different are Kingdom ways from earthly ways.
At another time, Jesus explains more about the nature of the Kingdom relating to what we see here. What He says then is equally amazing:
8: When you are invited by anyone to a wedding, don't sit down in the highest place, lest a more honorable person than you be invited there, 9: And he who invited you and him will come and say to you, Give this man your place, and you begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10: But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, Friend, go up higher Then you will have honor in the sight of them who sit at the table with you. 11: For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 14:8-11)
At still another time, the disciples are in a dispute, thinking that two of them were being given preferential treatment. Jesus says this to them:
25: But Jesus called them to Him, and said, You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they who are great exercise authority upon them. 26: But it will not be so among you. Instead, whoever will be great among you, let him be your servant, 27: And whoever will be chief among you, let him be your slave, 28: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.(Matthew 20:25-28)
We do not have a way to go to the depths of humility that Jesus did in that we cannot be a ransom for the sins of the entire world as He was. But we can follow the ways of the Kingdom, being a servant to others. We can take the lowest place. We can realize that, as was Jesus, the Son of God, we are here on earth to serve.
Blessings,
Don Keesee, ( Online novel: www.RanLives.com )
Passage referred to: John 13:12-17:
12: So after He had washed their feet and had taken His garments and had sat down again, He said to them, Do you understand what I have done to you?
13: You call me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.
14: If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
15: For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
16: Truly, truly, I say to you, the servant is not greater than his lord, neither he who is sent greater than he who sent him.
17: If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.
