I Have Washed Your Feet

[0:00] We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church. This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication, redistribution, or any other use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church.

[0:15] Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org. Good morning, I'm Melissa Arseniega and I'm part of the North Berkeley Tuesday Night Community Group.

[0:32] Tuesday's, today's, scripture reading is from the Gospel according to John, chapter 13, verses 1 through 17, as printed in your liturgy. It was just before the Passover festival.

[0:47] Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.

[1:08] Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

[1:24] 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. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, you are going to wash my feet?

[1:41] Jesus replied, You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand. No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet.

[1:52] Jesus answered, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Then Lord, Simon Peter replied, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well.

[2:03] Well, Jesus answered, Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet. Their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.

[2:17] For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said, not everyone was clean. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.

[2:31] Do you understand what I have done for you? He asked them. You call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.

[2:47] I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

[3:01] Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. This is the gospel of the Lord. Praise to you. Thank you for that scripture reading, Melissa.

[3:15] Good morning, Christ Church. My name is Andrew. I'm one of the pastors here. It's good to be back. I am thankful to the session of elders at our church for allowing me to go on vacation last week. But I miss you guys, so it's good to be home, even though we did enjoy our time in Seattle.

[3:28] We got to visit Megan Wong. Some of you remember her. It was nice to see her, stay with her and catch up. But yeah, it's good to be here. I'm looking forward to bringing God's word to us today from this super famous passage about the foot washing Jesus.

[3:42] So will you join me in prayer as we come before God? Lord God, we want to hear from you. We want to understand this picture of the Lord Jesus Christ wrapped in a towel, on his knees, washing the feet of his disciples.

[4:09] Would you so impress this upon us as you clearly impressed it upon your servant, John, as he conveyed this picture to us?

[4:19] And would it make us different kinds of people? People so affected by your sacrificial, servant-hearted love for us.

[4:31] Help us to see and savor the good news of Jesus this morning, we pray in his name. Amen. All right, we're continuing through John's Gospel this second Sunday of Lent.

[4:43] We are on our way, right, to the cross of Good Friday and to the empty tomb of Easter. And though for us, Good Friday's still, you know, more than a month away, where we are in John's Gospel today, where we're going to be for the next couple of Sundays is in this upper room around a dining table with Jesus.

[5:03] We're now at the Last Supper, just hours before Jesus' betrayal and his murder. As it says in verse 1, Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.

[5:17] Now as we enter into this upper room, it's important that we understand, that we feel the weight, the gravity of this moment for Jesus. So try to imagine the emotions that you might feel, the thoughts that you might have if you knew you were about to die in 24 hours.

[5:33] How would you choose to spend the last couple hours of your life if you knew the very hour that you would die and how you would die by crucifixion?

[5:44] Imagine none of us here has experienced that firsthand. The closest thing that I could think of was a sequence of scenes from the movie Just Mercy. Anyone seen Just Mercy? Michael B. Jordan, he's the man.

[5:57] He plays the lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, and he's a lawyer who defends people unjustly put on death row. And the scenes I'm thinking about are the scenes leading up to the execution of one of his clients, Herb.

[6:09] See, Herb is one of his clients whose death sentence he was not able to overturn. And the movie takes us through these moments, through these minutes, right before Herb's execution.

[6:21] And they just do such a great job of making us feel how bizarre it is to be on death row. How bizarre it is to know that death is knocking at your door.

[6:32] Herb says, most people don't get to sit and think all day about it being their last day alive. And everything is heavy, and everything is sad, and everything is even awkward.

[6:44] There are no words that seem to be right and fitting between Herb and his lawyer and his cellmates. Even his guards don't know what to say to Herb, or they don't know what to do with themselves.

[6:55] They find themselves treating him more nicely than they've ever treated him before, and yet they also can't look this guy in the eye. Herb says, it's been a strange day.

[7:06] More people asked how they can help me today than ever asked in my whole life. And it's because everyone, even the people about to execute Herb, they feel the weight of his life just about to be extinguished.

[7:19] And nothing can be normal. Nothing can be right in these last moments. Now, toward the end of these scenes, Herb begins to walk down the hall from his waiting room to the room where the electric chair is.

[7:33] And he begins slowly, even compliantly, walking with the guards. And they're like, you know, politely ushering him there. It's so bizarre. But then as he gets closer, his body just goes limp.

[7:46] And you get why that is, right? Because how can he just willfully walk toward an electric chair? And then it's just excruciating to watch.

[7:56] You're pulled in as a viewer, to imagine yourself in Herb's shoes. There's this overwhelming sense of empathy that you feel for him as you watch the scenes unfold.

[8:06] The sense of like, how could anyone conduct themselves normally or nobly or intentionally knowing that death is just a few minutes away? And all the awkwardness, all the heaviness, the way Herb just falls over and goes limp.

[8:22] It's all so uncomfortable and yet at the same time, it all makes complete sense because death is literally at his door. And nothing about this can be okay.

[8:34] But now here we are in John chapter 13 at the Last Supper of Jesus in the final hours leading up to his gruesome death, which he knows is coming and which he knows will be upon a cross.

[8:48] And yet we find a man who's composed and who continues to live a noble, beautiful, measured, and deliberate life. He doesn't sulk or hang his head.

[8:58] His body doesn't go limp and listless. He doesn't surrender to helplessness and hopelessness, nor does he make it all about himself and demand, you know, the special treatment and the sympathy that are due to him as a man who's about to lose his life.

[9:12] He knows exactly what he wants to do with the last hours of his life. And so characteristic of Jesus, what he wants to do, even knowing that he was about to depart from the world, he doesn't give up on the world or forsake the world.

[9:25] What he wants to do is love his people. He wants to love his people. As it says in verse 1, knowing that the hour had come for him to leave the world, having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end.

[9:44] He loved them to the end. Don't you love that? That Jesus is a God who loves his own to the very end. Or in the Greek, he loved them completely.

[9:55] He loved them perfectly. Like he didn't just love them temporally to the end of his life, but he loved them unto the end for which they were created. He loved them with a perfect love that made them whole and complete before God.

[10:10] This is how Jesus chose to spend his final hours. He continues his deliberate lifestyle of love and service. He chooses to be a living picture, an illustration of God's perfect and perfecting love.

[10:26] Will you look with me at verses 4 and 5? At this famously vivid picture of Jesus. Verse 4 says, Now, to understand what's going on here, the depth of what Jesus is doing here, and how this is such a powerful illustration of his perfect and perfecting love, his humble, serving love.

[11:00] We have to talk about feet for a second, all right? We're going to talk about feet for a second because, you know, like, I don't know how many of you have participated in foot washing things, but I have, and honestly, it was more funny than deep.

[11:11] Maybe just because I'm immature. I just remember maybe my feet getting tickled, or at one time, one of my best friends, he had to wash my feet and I'd been playing basketball all day and he just got hit in the face with the pungent smell, right?

[11:24] But that's, like, not what this is about. Okay, so let's talk about feet in a Middle Eastern context. Now, to us modern Western people, feet are just feet, right?

[11:35] Maybe not the most attractive part of the human body, but still really just feet. But what we have to understand about the Middle Eastern culture is that feet are almost seen as inherently impure and unclean and shameful and unholy.

[11:50] Like, being trampled on, being stomped on, or having someone's heel or shoe, like, come against your head in particular, that is the ultimate shame. That is the ultimate dishonor.

[12:01] That's why in the beginning of the Bible, Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eve have fallen, what does God foretell? He foretells of the offspring of the woman crushing the head of the serpent with what?

[12:12] His heel. His heel, right? Or that's why one time an angry Iraqi journalist threw a shoe at President Bush. Or when Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled, people, crowds gathered around and they beat the statue with their shoe.

[12:29] The ultimate dishonor. The ultimate dishonor. Or like when Paul, when Paul talks about how, when he says, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news about Jesus, it's meant to be a crazy statement.

[12:42] That the gospel of Jesus is so powerful, so amazing, so transformative, it can even make dirty, filthy, shameful feet beautiful. Alright, so that's what you have to understand about feet in this context.

[12:55] And hopefully that can help us understand why washing people's feet was just an utterly dishonorable, shameful activity, maybe even a futile activity in their eyes, only reserved for the lowest of low.

[13:07] I mean, Jewish rabbis, Jewish masters wouldn't even subject their Jewish servants to this foot washing activity. It was just too dehumanizing, too shameful.

[13:19] But see, the thing is, someone had to do it. Remember, they're in a borrowed room. Who knows if any Gentile servant is present? The gospel accounts seem to give the impression that probably only Jesus and his closest companions were with him in these last hours, right?

[13:36] So who's going to do it? Who's going to step up? Surely they wouldn't go a whole night, eat a whole meal without washing the dirtiest parts of their bodies, right? So imagine the scene.

[13:47] Here's the scene. Imagine everyone reclining, okay? It's not like that famous Leonardo da Vinci Last Supper painting. They're all leaning in like on mats toward the table and their feet are pointing outward away from the table, all right?

[14:02] That's the scene right here. And of course, no one sees themselves as the one who is supposed to be washing everyone else's feet. In fact, quite the opposite in Luke's gospel account, what does he tell us?

[14:14] They're actually quarreling. They're debating who is the greatest among them. Who is going to sit at Jesus' right hand? Who's going to be the secretary of state to the Messiah, the vice president?

[14:26] They have no thoughts of washing one another's feet. They're debating who is the greatest, who is the least suited to wash everyone else's feet. And so of course, no one is even thinking about taking on this role as the foot washer until Jesus, their rabbi, their lord, gets up from the table and literally takes on the form of a servant.

[14:50] He dresses down to the outfit of a servant, taking off his outer garment, pretty much like stripping down to his undershirt and his boxers, and he wraps a towel around himself. And he pours water into a basin.

[15:02] He gets on his knees and does what no self-respecting Jewish man would ever do. And we gotta believe that at this sight, all of the jaws in the room just dropped seeing what Jesus was doing.

[15:15] This eternal word of God, right? The I am who I am, the Messiah King on his knees, taking the feet of his disciples.

[15:26] And remember, these feet were largely exposed. They only wore sandals back then. Largely exposed. People only wore sandals on dusty roads in these agrarian societies. Maybe these feet had walked closely to animal droppings.

[15:38] They're probably all cracked and crusty and calloused like mine. But he takes these very filthy feet into his hands. These same hands that he's about to eat with.

[15:52] These very hands that it says in verse 3 that God put all things into. He uses these hands to wash his bickering disciples' feet.

[16:03] And just picture this. Jesus kneeling before each of his disciples. The towel around him getting filthier and filthier. Picture the great I am who I am wrapped in a towel covered in dirty smudges like all around him.

[16:19] To quote a Syrian bishop from the 5th century, he who wraps the heavens in clouds wrapped around himself a towel. He who pours water into the rivers and pools tipped water into a basin.

[16:32] And he before whom every knee bends in heaven and on earth and under the earth knelt to wash the feet of his disciples. And this is supposed to blow our minds.

[16:46] Because what kind of a Lord, what kind of a Messiah, what kind of a God does something like this? It certainly blew Peter's mind. Look at verse 6. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?

[17:00] Verse 8. No, said Peter. You shall never wash my feet. In the Greek, never ever into all eternity shall you ever wash my feet. This is not the kind of Lord Peter wanted.

[17:12] This is not the kind of God Peter could even believe in. Peter didn't want a Lord who would wash his feet. And certainly not a God who would stoop so low to wash his feet. In Peter's mind, being both Lord and foot washer was completely incompatible.

[17:28] This is not what the Lord does. This is not what Yahweh does. This is not what you do if you are the most powerful, most honorable, most holy, holy, holy God of the universe. In Peter's mind, you cannot be God and a servant.

[17:43] In Peter's mind, you cannot be holy and come into contact with the filthy feet of sinful men. But see, even as the whole gospel account of John has been filled with very, very powerful demonstrations of the divinity, the deity, the godness of Jesus.

[18:00] And it's like, boom, boom, boom, right? The power and authority of God revealed to us in Christ everywhere. Boom, water into wine. Do you believe yet? Boom, the man born blind from birth. Do you believe now?

[18:11] Boom, Lazarus last week raised from the dead. Surely you must believe that Jesus is God now for who else but God can do any of these things? Even as John has gone to such great lengths to demonstrate who the Almighty I am is in Christ, John wasn't done there with the power and the miracles.

[18:31] Because see, the beauty of the gospel is that there is more to who God is than his mere power and holiness and transcendence. Yes, that is all that he ever had to be.

[18:46] The holy, holy, holy one. The Lord God almighty. I am who I am, but let me say this again. The beauty of the gospel is that there is more to who God has chosen to be for us than simply a powerful, holy, and transcendent Lord.

[19:04] Think about it. Why is it? Why is it that John's gospel account is the only one that tells the story of Jesus washing the feet of his beloved disciples?

[19:17] Well, it's because John wants to make very clear that the word who was with God and who was God, the light and life of the world, who was in the beginning and who made all things, he is also a God who became flesh and came near and in contact with sinful humanity and this broken and cursed world in order to wash our feet like a servant.

[19:41] And not only to wash our feet and wear a dirty towel, but to do the ultimate act of humble service that this foot washing pointed to, to cleanse us of our sins.

[19:52] How? To die naked on a cross, wearing and bearing nothing but the sin and curse and shame of the world in order to put death to death, in order to remove our sins and bring the reality of new life into this broken world.

[20:09] That's what he means when he says in verse 7, you do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand. When we read of Jesus taking off his outer garment and getting down on his knees to wash his disciples' filthy feet, we are to read it with the echo of Paul's words to the Philippians.

[20:29] Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.

[20:40] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross. This is the gospel.

[20:52] This is the gospel that in Jesus Christ, God has chosen to reveal himself to us as both God and servant without compromise, without contradiction.

[21:03] This is the gospel that in Jesus Christ, mighty power and humble sacrificial service are not at odds, but in perfect harmony. Look at how Jesus takes off his garment, wraps himself in a towel and washes his disciples' feet and then in the very same scene, he gets back up, he puts back on his garment and then he says in verse 13, you call me teacher and Lord and rightly so.

[21:28] He is not confused here. There is no tension for him. He is both God and servant with no contradiction. And it is of the utmost importance that we hold both of these truths tightly or else we will never grasp the greatness and the uniqueness of the one true God of the Christian scriptures.

[21:49] You see, if we only ever believe in an almighty, all-powerful God who has not chosen to also be a servant, we will always only live in fearful and maybe even in dreadful and resentful submission to him.

[22:03] Unfamiliar with God's tender compassion and the costly and sacrificial love which he has generously poured out upon us and pursued us with. But see, if we only ever believe in God as a servant and not the holy, mighty, I am, creator of the universe, then he is nothing more than a means to an end.

[22:25] A magic genie in submission to us and thus no true God at all. In fact, if he is only our servant, that would make us gods. And do I need to convince any of us that we all make for poor and terrible gods?

[22:42] But see, the beauty of the gospel is that in Christ, God is both God and servant without contradiction. And though it might be hard to believe and accept, sure, it sure was for Peter, though it might be hard to accept that the perfect and perfecting love of God is the love of God who is, of a God who is also humble and a sacrificial servant, though it might be hard to accept that this is the truth that changes the world.

[23:09] This is the truth that transforms everything. Now, how and why this changes everything requires some explanation. Like, why is it good, why is it even necessary to have a humble and sacrificial servant be our God?

[23:24] Well, look with me at this exchange between Jesus and Peter. Peter's like, no, never, ever, not in all eternity will you wash my feet. In Peter's mind, the Lord should not wash his feet.

[23:38] Peter could wash his own feet or maybe someone he believed to be lower than him, like a slave, a Gentile slave, someone with less power and prestige, they could wash his feet, but not his Lord.

[23:51] Never, Lord. Peter does not understand what Jesus tells him he will later understand. So Jesus has to insist and says in verse 8, unless I wash you, you have no part in me.

[24:04] And what he's saying is Peter, not in all eternity. Really, Peter? You really have no idea how filthy you are, do you? Sure, you got it right.

[24:15] I am the, I am. I am the Holy One of Israel, the Lord God Almighty. But let me ask you something. If the Almighty does not wash your feet, who will?

[24:28] And who can? Who can blot out the deepest stains of your sin? Who can fully remove your shame? Do you think you can wash it all away?

[24:40] Do you think you can wash your own filth away? Do you think some powerless slave will wash your filth away, make you white as snow, approachable in the very presence of God? You think you can be united with God and have a part in me with anything other than a God-grade cleaning?

[24:56] Peter, don't you see? Don't you see? You need a God who is a servant and you need a servant who is a God. This is what Jesus is getting at when Peter still doesn't understand and says in verse 9, oh hey, I need you to wash my hands and my head as well then.

[25:13] Jesus is saying, bro, you already had a bath before you got here. This is not about how many of your body parts are physically clean. Peter, it's not about you. It's not about checking boxes.

[25:24] It's not about outdoing everyone else and having the most body parts washed. Me washing your feet is not about you. It's about me. It's about me being a servant, the servant God that you need to be cleansed of your filthiest filth, your shameful sin.

[25:44] What Jesus is communicating to his disciples and what John is trying to communicate to us in his detailed account of Jesus' last hours is that we all need this God and servant, Jesus Christ, to cleanse us of our sins.

[25:59] We all need this God and servant to blot out the dirt and grime that we've collected upon ourselves by participating in the world's evil and darkness. And I know that as soon as I start talking about this, our need to be cleansed of sin, many of us might get uncomfortable, right?

[26:14] Because, oh, this sounds so spiritual, so abstract, so esoteric, right? Or maybe it frightens you like, oh, typical religion. Typical religion, always trying to do away with these evil things that some random people have arbitrarily deemed as sins.

[26:29] Probably just another social power play. And if you'd like to talk about that more in depth, Jonathan is available, I'm available, our elders would love to talk to you more about this sin stuff.

[26:40] But for the sake of time, could I just suggest one thing? Just one thing. Could I suggest that if we don't accept this notion of sin, which is so central to the Judeo-Christian understanding of the world, if we don't accept this notion that we and this world have been infected and afflicted and also are complicit with the world's wickedness, if we don't accept this understanding of sin, then I'm not sure if we could ever understand or experience the gracious and transformative love that we all want to believe in in this world either.

[27:17] because what is a love that costs nothing? What's that kind of love actually worth? Think about it. So much of what is past for love these days is actually just objectifying infatuation, contractual relationships fueled by self-interest.

[27:36] I'll love you and stay with you as long as I'm getting what I want out of this relationship. You can use me and I'll use you until we find each other no longer useful to each other anymore or until one of us breaks the relationship by sinning against the other.

[27:51] But what if the essence of transforming gracious love is not that feeling of attraction but a commitment to stay and endure and forgive and pursue even in spite of sins committed against ourselves?

[28:08] Does anyone remember that song from Hamilton? I'm looking at you, Robbie. I know you love that. It's quiet uptown, right? Alexander Hamilton has grievously sinned against his wife, Eliza.

[28:21] He's cheated on her for several years. His family has been extorted because of this affair. He's prioritized his political career above the needs of his family. And you could also make the case that his political quarrels were what led to his firstborn, Philip's death in that duel, right?

[28:40] And these sins of Alexander Hamilton, they leave both him, they leave his wife, they leave his whole family broken in every way, right? If you see him in the street walking by himself, talking by himself, talking to himself, have pity.

[28:54] He is working through the unimaginable. His hair has gone gray. He passes every day. They say he walks the length of the city. You knock me out, I fall apart.

[29:05] Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Then all of a sudden, Hamilton's there with Eliza and he's, what, he's seeking reconciliation. He knows that he doesn't at all deserve it.

[29:18] Look at where we are. Look at where we started. I know I don't deserve you, Eliza, but hear me out. That would be enough. If you see him in the street walking by her side, talking by her side, have pity.

[29:34] He is trying to do the unimaginable, to receive forgiveness. He's trying to do away with his sin, but he's not in control of that.

[29:47] He's trying to receive forgiveness for his sins, but it all depends on her response, whether or not she can muster that kind of love, whether she will be willing to bear the cost of his sins.

[29:59] And she contemplates this as she sings, there are moments that the words don't reach, right? There's a what? There's a grace too powerful to name.

[30:11] We push away what we can never understand. We push away the unimaginable. And then all of a sudden, she's made her decision. And they're standing in the garden, Alexander, by Eliza's side.

[30:27] She takes his hand, this filthy hand, that had caressed another woman, and that had spent most of its time writing more political treatises than love letters to her or her family.

[30:41] She takes his hand, right? It's quiet uptown. Forgiveness. Can you imagine? Forgiveness.

[30:53] Can you imagine? They're going through the unimaginable. Forgiveness is not cheap.

[31:06] Forgiveness is unimaginable. And that is the gospel. Is this not beautiful?

[31:20] Isn't this the unimaginable grace? forgiveness and forgiveness of sins? Isn't this something that you want to believe in if you don't presently believe in it?

[31:32] Isn't it the thing that you love to imagine? Well, this is what Jesus offers us. By cleansing us of our sins, it's free.

[31:44] He takes this job on himself. He doesn't just say, you can be cleansed, here's how to do it. He says, you can be cleansed by my blood. I'll do it.

[31:56] I'll get up. I'll take my clothes off. I'll wrap the towel around. I'll get my hands dirty. I'll come near your shame and your filth. It's free.

[32:08] We just have to admit and acknowledge that we are filthy. That we need a God-sized, God-standard cleaning. We have to admit that we have done what was once unimaginable.

[32:26] We rebelled against our Maker. We've done shameful things we ought not have done against Him, against others, against ourselves, and we have also shamefully not done what we ought to have done for Him, for others, and for ourselves.

[32:40] While the disciples may have been embarrassed for the Lord Jesus to take His holy hands to their nasty feet, while the disciples may have squirmed at the thought of the Lord Jesus so closely examining what they believed to be the most filthy, shameful, and unclean parts of themselves, Jesus met them there at their filthy feet in love and in tenderness, and He wants to do the same with us.

[33:14] And this is the Gospel. Jesus wants to do the same with us. He wants to meet us precisely where we feel most ashamed and dirty and impure and unclean.

[33:26] He wants to reach out His hand toward our selfish greed and our addictions to alcohol and sex and porn and our jobs and our phones and Netflix. But He doesn't reach out with a heavy hand to condemn.

[33:41] He reaches out with a tender hand and the ability and the desire to wash us clean. Wash us clean precisely because He is the suffering servant God that we need.

[33:53] He is the older brother who is willing to go down and wash his younger brother's feet and put shoes on those stinky pig feet. Washing away the deep stain of sin in our lives by His blood.

[34:07] That's what He's about. The payment for our sins with His blood. Friends, this is the God we need and this is also the God we never deserved but it's the God who is graciously offered to us in Christ.

[34:21] The only kind of God. The only kind of love that's going to make a difference in this world. That's going to save this world. That's going to usher in new creation and change our lives and make us the kinds of people that we all want to be.

[34:33] So to close, will you listen and consider this question Jesus asks in verse 12. He says, Do you understand what I have done for you?

[34:47] If our God is a servant and has served us with the perfect and perfecting love of Christ, how then shall we who are made in His image live?

[34:58] What might a community so convinced, so moved by the perfect and perfecting love of the suffering servant? What might we look like? A people freed by the gospel.

[35:10] A people who have had a Savior come to them and meet them in their most shameful, filthy place and say, I still love you. I want you to be a part of my family.

[35:21] What kind of freedom, what kind of safety, security, and confidence do you think a people like that might have? And what kind of fruit might such a church bear in the city, in the world?

[35:35] Now at the risk of getting too practical, maybe even sounding self-serving, I have some ideas of what that might look like. If you're looking to serve particularly in this church, we would love that.

[35:46] Jonathan is about to go on his sabbatical, end of April to end of August, all right? And we're looking for all the help we can get, but not just to get help, but because this is discipleship. This is what it means to walk in the way of Jesus.

[36:01] Talk to me. Talk to our assistant director of ministry, Maria Francis. Talk to our director of operations, Jesse Chewy. There are plenty of places to serve, whether on our care portal team supporting foster families, tutoring Oakland students at Harbor House, facilitating laughter and connections outside on our hospitality team during coffee time, teaching or mentoring our Christ Church kids, or youth, preparing these elements, chopping this bread up, pouring out wine on our communion crew, being up there, clicking through the slides, helping with the sound.

[36:35] Maybe you're interested in being a deacon and learning how to care for others, how to pray for others, how to counsel others in this congregation. Please let us know. We would love to empower and equip you to serve in the footsteps of our foot-washing Savior.

[36:50] So I want to close with these last words from Jesus in verse 15. He said, I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

[37:03] Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. Christ Church, let us be a blessed people who know the perfect and perfecting love of Jesus Christ.

[37:16] You pray with me? Lord, we all know deep down that what it's going to take to change this world, to make it what you want, is love.

[37:33] The love of Jesus Christ. And we want to be a people who bear witness to that perfect and perfecting, humble, sacrificial, servant love. But we have to be moved by this love toward ourselves first.

[37:49] So will you convince us of the filthiness of our feet? And would you astound us that the Savior has come near to our filth and our impurity?

[38:01] And he has washed us clean, white as snow. Transform us with that truth. Make us the people you want us to be. and make a difference through us in this world to the glory of your name and for the good of our neighbors we pray.

[38:15] Amen.