ALL POWERFUL, ALL LOVING
What is it like to take on the nature and character of Jesus Christ?
Maybe you are like me and have been on this journey of transformation for some time. I have enjoyed the fruit of a thousand different historical and modern forms of discipleship. I have read hundreds of books and engaged in instruction through conferences, media, and the web. All of it has helped. But the interaction between me, the word, and the spirit have been the best. The best at producing lasting fruit. The best at setting me free from myself.
In the following passage, Jesus gives a life lesson to the disciples. It is a life lesson to me too.
Here are 5 questions to consider as you read this text and walk with me through this article.
1. What will you do with your calling, purpose, power, and authority?
2. How do you prepare to change the world?
3. How is the gap between you and God filled?
4. Is humility an idea or a lifestyle?
5. How can I help illuminate my world?
Five big life questions addressed in three short verses.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, *got up from supper, and *laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He *poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
John 13:3-5 NASB
Jesus gets up from the table. In verse two John tells us that Jesus knew the devil had filled the heart of Judas to betray Him. Jesus lives this way in the middle of friendship gone bad, demonic activity, rejection and possible disappointment that no one took the role of helping the food and room stay clean by washing the dirt off the feet.
In a modern context, this would be like the kids coming into the house after playing in a yard that had both chickens and dogs. Only, in this case, the feet are not under the table but next to the table. As the kids (disciples) shuffle around they might kick one another or wipe their feet where someone’s hand is about to rest. Then that hand will grab something out of the bowl, or break the bread to be passed along.
Jesus, at that moment, gets up. He takes off what He is and adds to Himself something that few would have thought about Him. Jesus was not playing a role. This is not some parable, although it is a lesson. This is an expression of who Jesus is. And in showing us Jesus, it reveals who God is. Later Jesus will tell us that the one who has seen Jesus has seen the Father also. (Jn 14:9)
Everyone in the room knows this event is about Hygiene. Jesus is cleaning. By taking on the role of a servant, by practicing hospitality, by changing His position and posture, but not His identity; Jesus keeps on living like Jesus.
And here is my take on those five questions.
1. What will you do with your calling, purpose, power, and authority?
Jesus reveals the nature of God to us. He shows us that the external things of life are not more important than the internal. Attitudes, nature, and character are equal to accomplishments and callings. We are to be whole. We are word and deed people. We are heart and hand people.
The end, the action, the outcome does not have authority to rule over who we are. In this case, Jesus lives like Jesus. Jesus was not just the savior of the world. He is the very kind of being that can be that savior.
I find it easy to have only one set of clothes. I want to wear and be seen in what makes me appear the best, as in most important, successful, accomplished and powerful. But like Jesus, I need to intentionally stand-up and remove what I have covering me and put on what is needed. A need, maybe not necessary for my mission but for Christ nature.
And that leads us to the next question.
2. How do you prepare to change the world?
If we asked what were the highlights of Jesus’s life, we will get a number of answers according to what touched different people. I have my list. You have yours. But the truth is, everyday mattered for Jesus. It’s a weight we don’t like to consider.
If we live in a world where results matter more than everyday living, we can justify having time off. We can live in a “weekends for me” world where the weekends are what we do when not around our religious friends, what we do for vacation, or what we do in our own home.
It is unreasonable that God would have us live a life of no timeouts. But that holds true only if you need to go outside God to find joy, love, rest, refreshing, entertainment, peace…. You get the story. The problem most of us face is our inability to know how to live a rewarding life holistically. We divide ourselves all up. We cut up and carve out aspects of who we are and separate ourselves into pieces, all motivated by a need for expression, love, peace or some driving desire.
You don’t need to be perfect, only walking with the one who holds all things together. And as you live a whole life in God, you will find all that your heart desires. You truly will. And in taking on His nature, not just His power or purpose, you will change the world around you. You will be a light to the nations, or at least ethnic groups around you.
3. How is the gap between you and God filled?
Jesus comes to you.
We can fall into the trap that we must do something to get Jesus to come near us. He freely and often comes. But we dismiss His presence because we did not initiate it. We don’t control the events, so we go on with was we have the allusion of doing. Or maybe you reject the nearness of God based on not earing it, on the brokenness of your life, on the pain or suffering you are experiencing. There are a million ways we don’t see Jesus. Maybe we just can’t imagine him in the clothes and posture He is in.
God comes and fills in the gap, He enters the space near our lives in two ways. The first is through creation and acts of kindness. Kindness which we can also call grace or favor, are ways God greets us daily in life. The sunrise, the smile of a stranger, the cooling breeze, the help shoveling snow; all these are ways God whispers, “I am here.”
And God speaks in another way through more direct and spiritual means. Through the reading of Scripture, through prayer, through spiritual gifts, through divine intervention; God makes Himself known. Which one is more meaningful to you, the healing or the sunrise? Well, it most likely depends on what you need that day.
Jesus comes to us. He came to the earth. He found the disciples. He is seeking you and me through His Spirit. And that leads us to our next question.
4. Is humility an idea or a lifestyle?
Because Jesus is humble and not just acting humble, He comes to us. For God, humility is a lifestyle. It is an active expression of the way God lives. We talk about God being love and He is. But God is also much more than love. He is humble, kind, patient as well as a list of other things like just and truthful.
Because we are human and still a long way from being transformed, we often find moments or situations in life where we can ask, “should I humble myself here?” That is a great place to be. Many people, Christian people, still have not reached the place of even asking if humility is the option. But we don’t want to praise ourselves too much for only going part way. Living humbly is a reflection of Christ we and the world need.
I’m not prepared to tell you in fifty words what humility truly is and how you don’t need to fear it. So you may need to put this on hold (PONDER) for a while. But I don’t want you to miss the truth that Jesus did not just act humble, He was humble and in being humble, changed the world.
5. How can I help illuminate my world?
It’s not by being humble. I mean your ability to illuminate is not powered by taking on the nature of Christ Jesus, it is by taking on the person, not some qualities. Yes, we each have some ability to grab ahold of some aspect of Jesus much easier than others. But overuse of what we have can cause us to have no Godly illumination at all. The overuse of righteousness can become self-righteous. The overuse of mercy can lead to unsanctified mercy (self-motivated mercy and not mercy from God).
We are the light of the world to the degree that we reflect Him. That is why so many Christian people are now casting shadows of darkness. They are projecting or acting out some part of God and failing to live His wholeness. The reason we do this is mainly that we are driven by good desires and busyness of life. We are a house divided against itself. We are double minded. We want all of God, but we also want to live a rich and full life on the earth. We want all this world has and all that God has too. We don’t quite have faith to believe that He can give us all our hearts desires. We are like Eve in Genesis and look at the tree and see something we want for ourselves and family, things forbidden, but attractive.
I want to share this message because it is the message that John shares about Jesus. On the night before He was to be beaten and slaughtered for our sins, He didn’t take time off. Jesus didn’t say, “I deserve a time to rest, to prepare for those thorns being embedded into my skull or my limbs being beaten and punctured.”
And I don’t want you to take on false burdens. Life with God has both days of crucifixion and days of feasting and weddings. The Godly life has seasons of too much wine and days of too much suffering. Jesus feeds the five thousand and has leftovers. Not enough and too much are both realities in the life Jesus lived. It’s not all one thing.
Summary
With a drink in one hand, a snack on the table near you, in a moment when you are enjoying the friendship of others, ponder this passage. It may lead you to your own encounter when you see Jesus arise, then bow to wash away the world.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.Philippians 2:5-8 NASB
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