3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
If there is anyone we are encouraged to follow as Christians it is obviously Christ himself.
The very essence of God, God the son, God himself - loved his disciples so much that he washed their dirty, smelly feet and dried them with the towel that he had around his waist. Jesus was always doing scandalous things like that, he picked grain and ate it on a Sabbath, he healed on the Sabbath, he touched lepers and hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors and all other motley assortments of various "unclean" and "sinful" stuff in the world around him. Clearly he did not shirk ugly, he did not balk at ruining his reputation and being considered the lowest didn't matter to him.
How? HOW? How did Jesus have this ability - above all one of the greatest desires of my heart and something that I rarely ever see in the world at all. True humility. Being so wrapped up in loving God and the people around you that it doesn't matter who sees or who cares. The opinion of people loosing all of it's power. The opinion of others not mattering, and something else... not needed to be transformed into the likeness of amazing people on earth.
I don't know how many people look at the likes of Mother Theresa or others with amazing faith and amazing ministries and desire their ministry. Or on a much less spiritual side want to be famous, wealthy, or in any way more successful, more stand-outish then anyone else. To a lesser extent it is the constant, life killing comparing - the lie that says as long as we are better then someone else it's all okay and the devastation when we are not better then them in any way. When, in fact, they are better then us at something. This horrible and almost totally self conscious comparison life style drained me and kept me isolated from people - I felt unloved by God unless I was somehow outstanding. After all he knit me together in my mother's womb and His thoughts for me outnumber the grains of sand I must be pretty fabulous and all that wonder is something that I have to discover, right?
What I hadn't realized until lately is that Psalm 119 wasn't only written about me. That I am not stand alone - God loves us all equally and he will never compare us or encourage us to be "better then others" God did not make a few outstanding people - the ordinary, everyday people whom you see as you walk through the mall or pick up groceries are all as deeply and intimately loved by God as you, Mother Theresa, all of the apostles, Moses, ect. In other words by being ordinary people we are extraordinary beyond measure.
God created us all equally and that is not a bad thing or something that I want to say to keep anyone down or discouraged. God has the ability to deeply love and to plant the greatness that is himself in the heart of all people. What Jesus was modeling in John 13 was that when we really really know who we are in God, the labels and the "dignity" of man totally melt away. The being better, having status, money or even a more amazing ministry then someone else becomes irrelevant. Because Jesus knew deep down who he was and where he was going he served with a good heart out of genuine love and that is what God desires of all of us. He desires for us to be rooted in him and serving one another from the love that He gives. If you are not recieving this love or don't know it, don't be discouraged but pray for that knowledge - it may take years but God is faithful.
Getting off the comparison treadmill, and accepting true humility does not come by human effort but by the deep reality of who God is, and who we all are to him. After all, if Jesus came in the likeness of a normal, ordinary human being that must make our ordinary very extraordinary indeed.
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