The Servant Leader

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What lessons should we draw from the fact that Jesus washed his disciples’ feet? How did people think about foot washing in the ancient world, and why was it necessary in the first place? The hosts will discuss the fascinating cultural background to this scene which helps to shed light both on the significance of Jesus’ actions and what it means for us today. On this program the hosts arrive at chapter 13 in their year-long series on The Gospel of John.

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.²During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,⁴rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.⁵Then 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.⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”⁷Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”⁸Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”⁹Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”¹⁰Jesus 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.”¹¹For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” (John 13:1-11)

Show Quote:

One of the beautiful things about this text is—here we see the one with all power, Jesus. And yet, what does he do? He humbles himself and identifies with the disciples—washes their feet. And I think that’s one of the things that’s so beautiful about Jesus, is here, the one that we worship is the one who has all power and all authority and yet, he doesn’t lord it over us in the way that people with power often do. He serves his people. – Adriel Sanchez

Term to Learn:

“Deity of Christ”

We believe that Jesus Christ, according to his divine nature, is the only Son of God — eternally begotten, not made nor created, for then he would be a creature. He is one in essence with the Father; coeternal; the exact image of the person of the Father and the “reflection of his glory,” being in all things like him. He is the Son of God not only from the time he assumed our nature but from all eternity, as the following testimonies teach us when they are taken together.

Moses says that God “created the world”; and John says that “all things were created by the Word,” which he calls God. The apostle says that “God made the world by his Son.” He also says that “God created all things by Jesus Christ.” And so it must follow that he who is called God, the Word, the Son, and Jesus Christ already existed when all things were created by him. Therefore, the prophet Micah says that his origin is “from ancient times, from eternity.” And the apostle says that he has “neither beginning of days nor end of life.” So then, he is the true eternal God, the Almighty, whom we invoke, worship, and serve. (Taken from The Belgic Confession, Article 10)

(This podcast is by White Horse Inn. Discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central, and audio is streamed directly from their servers.)