THE WORD 4 ev 1

Today’s reading is John 13 (click here for text)

Have you ever had a “teachable moment?” I have found as a parent that one of the most important skills to cultivate is the ability to recognize and capitalize on "teachable moments" in everyday life. A teachable moment can happen almost anywhere - in the supermarket, when picking your child up from school, when walking through a shopping mall or doing devotions at the table after dinner. Chances are that many of the valuable moral lessons that you learned from your parents as a child were not consciously taught at all. They were rather learned in the midst of casual moments of real life.

Today Jesus capitalizes on a teachable moment as he washes his disciples feet. He says, “Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

Ouch. Lest we think that we can simply ignore the messy work of loving those dirty others out there, Jesus takes aim at our complacent tendencies. Perhaps Jesus wanted to make sure that his disciples didn’t adopt the attitude that he had conferred some dignified status upon them. Perhaps he was preventing them from thinking that wandering around at the heels of the Son of God had elevated their stature above the filth and squalor of the world. And certainly he didn’t want them to exempt themselves from the unpleasant work of actual discipleship. Of course, washing someone’s feet was certainly not an enviable chore, and here Jesus uses this act as a symbol for how his followers are to relate to each other and to the world. If you think you’re above such menial tasks, or that stooping to touch the dirt, the cracks, and the calluses of the world is beneath you, Jesus would ask you a question: Do you think you’re greater than I am? If I did these things, why can’t you? I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.

His Peace,
Pastor Aaron