31.10 | God On His Knees
John 13:1-20
‘Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then 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.’
John 13:3-5
This morning I was chatting with a neighbour in her kitchen.
She’s a lovely person—deeply attuned to the inherently spiritual nature of the world in which we live, having grown and learned through seasons of suffering, cultivating a life of creativity and generosity and celebration.
And yet, she has a mistrust of the idea of a personal God. And, peeping through the cracks in her words, is a fear held by so many. And it is simply this:
That a personal God will abuse His power.
We live in a world that has seen power abused in many ways. Through history, power has been hoarded by a few to the great expense of the many. Reactionary movements, finding their way all the way through to postmodernism and identity politics in our own moment, have emerged from the wounds of a world where the very idea of power or authority becomes dangerous. My neighbour is not alone: so many who are open to the spiritual or even to the supernatural; and yet, so many who deeply resist the idea of God. A personal God is simply too dangerous. A personal God will inhibit our freedoms with His own oppressive ideologies. A personal God will abuse His power.
Today’s passage is immeasurably distinct from such a picture. In these simple moments in that candlelit room, we see Jesus shattering every such idea of an oppressive God, and in so doing regenerating a Christian vision of power. As He stood up from the table, dressed as a servant, and moved around the table, cleaning outstretched feet of dusty disciples, He demonstrated that the power dynamics of the Kingdom operate in a manner so far removed from the warped abuses of our culture as to be from from an entirely different world altogether.
For in this world, the most mighty serves. In this world, the King of the ages is found on His knees. In this world the one who has the exclusive right to claim and wield power, is found rinsing dust and mud and sweat from the feet of His people, before He goes naked and bleeding to the nails and agony of the cross to die for them.
What is this?
In a single word, it is love.
For love is the only atmosphere in which power can be used without harm—for in the atmosphere of love power is given and given and given until every wounded and disempowered life is restored to the beautiful dignity for which it was made. Love is the animating force behind all power in the Kingdom. It is the shape of true leadership. It is the waters within which the abused find healing. It is the movement that turns power from something grasped to something given.
As Jesus washed those feet, He was showing them how the power of God works. He was showing them how leadership is to work. He was showing them how the culture of the Kingdom works. For as He washed those feet — echoes of Moses washing and commissioning a holy priesthood over a thousand years before1—He was doing what God always does: serving, healing, empowering, commissioning.
My neighbour does not yet see this, although Lord in your mercy may she soon do so. For the God revealed in the Jesus we meet today, is—more truly than any vision, any ideology, or any movement—the blueprint of the serving heart of Almighty God. For here we find the God of all power, and here we find the God of all love.
On His knees.
Reflect:
What dust is the Lord washing from your feet in this season? What does this inspire in you?
Pray:
Lord Jesus,
Wash my feet,
For I have trod the muck of fear and pain and disillusionment,
And I have come away heavy—
And in so doing,
I have lost sight of the love of the Father.
Lord Jesus,
Wash my feet.
That the fear and hate and bitterness and shame
May be cleansed and healed,
And that I may walk free again.
Lord Jesus,
Wash my feet,
That I may be commissioned afresh
In the priestly work of God—
Animated by your love,
And empowered by your power.
Unto Your glory,
And for the true presentation of the character of the Father.
In Your Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Ezekiel 1:1-3:15 | Psalm 121
See Exodus 40:12, 30-31