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Reading from the Gospel according to John.
It was just before the Passover festival.
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.
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.
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, are you going to wash my feet?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
A new command I give you, love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Good morning, Christ Church.
If you see some people here today who look like they are part of the same gene pool as me and share my DNA,
your eyes are not playing tricks on you.
We are delighted to have my brother and his family here with us today.
And they have offered, yes, they have offered to host a Q&A after this service
so that you can ask all those questions you have been wanting to know.
Like, what is up with Jonathan?
You all seem so well adjusted.
What happened?
You can ask them later today.
But we are going through the gospel of John, and we are in this kind of like moment
where we are preparing for the 20th birthday of our church.
And we are using some text in the gospel of John to help us renew our sense of our mission
and our commitment to that mission.
And we have said the past few weeks that it is just so important when you sit down
to hammer out your mission, vision, and values of a new organization, a new institution,
that you clearly and adequately capture your core identity and your core purpose.
Who are we?
Why are we here?
What do we exist to do?
And I remember when we were crafting the mission statement of Christ Church,
we were not satisfied to simply say that we exist to lead people
into a deeper relationship with Christ and His church and just kind of leave it there
because we were concerned to add these words through community.
We want to lead people into a deeper relationship with Christ and His church through community.
We didn't want people to think that, you know, you can attend a worship service two or three times a month
or serve once a month on a ministry team and give an occasional financial gift
and that that would be the extent of your involvement in the mission.
We wanted to emphasize the personal relationships, the relational fellowship that a living church
and a dynamic church is meant to experience and express.
And so we wanted to push people.
We wanted you to be thinking about all the aspects of what it means to be part of a dynamic Christian community
that we don't just limit ourselves to a Sunday morning gathering
but rather our community extends Monday to Saturday
that we are a people who break bread together, that we open the Bible together, we pray together,
we bring meals when you get sick and when you have a baby,
we go on a walk when you're discouraged, we drive you to the airport,
we watch each other's kids, we tutor your struggling student,
we visit you in the hospital, we help you move.
And so today I want to kind of bore down on this question,
not just what is a good community, a good human community,
but what is an authentically Christian community?
What does a Christ-centered and Christ-like community feel like
and how do we cultivate such a community?
And I think John 13 is very helpful because Jesus knew that this was the last time
that he would have with his disciples before he went to the cross.
And so he's giving them this intensive graduate level training course.
And John 13 to 17 is the longest single body of Jesus' teaching that we have in the New Testament.
And he addresses some aspects of Christian community that I think are critical for us to get a hold of here in John 13.
And we're going to talk about three things.
First of all, a community of downward mobility,
a community of gracious sacrifice,
and a community of one-anothering love.
A community of downward mobility,
a community of gracious sacrifice,
and a community of one-anothering love.
Let's start with a community of downward mobility.
In verse 1 it says it was just before the Passover festival,
and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and to go to the Father.
And having loved his own who were in the world,
he loved them to the end.
In less than 24 hours,
Jesus is going to die on the cross.
And by this time,
tomorrow on Good Friday,
the lifeless body of Jesus will be carried to the garden tomb.
And Jesus, well aware that this is his certain destiny,
he wants to show his disciples what it means to love them to the end.
And so it says in verse 3,
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power,
and that he had come from God and was returning to God.
And so he got up from the meal,
took off his outer clothing,
wrapped a towel around his waist.
And 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.
Jesus,
knowing what was at stake
with his disciples,
he wasn't talking with them about the weather,
or sports,
or the NCAA tournament,
or politics,
or international affairs,
or the rising and falling of the stock market.
He was talking with them about the things that were most crucial for their life with God.
In fact,
Jesus actually wasn't even really talking with them at all.
He was showing them something.
And what was he showing them?
Well,
we know that in the other Gospels,
Matthew,
Mark,
and Luke,
this is the moment where Jesus' disciples were arguing with each other about which of them was the greatest disciple.
And Jesus,
in the midst of that argument,
he tells them,
I am among you as the one who serves.
And it was clear in that moment that none of the disciples were prepared to wash the feet of Jesus.
None of them were prepared to wash each other's feet.
And so,
Jesus,
in that moment,
puts himself in the position that they should have been in.
Jesus says he rose from the table,
he took off his outer garments,
and he tied the towel around his waist.
Now, let's just pause there to make a cultural observation
that what Jesus is doing here socially is not just jarring,
but it's offensive.
Because people,
as you know,
they didn't wear socks and shoes like we do.
They wore sandals.
It was hot.
It was arid.
They needed sandals on their feet.
But also,
very few first century homes
had toilets and sewers like ours do.
And so,
they would take the refuse of chamber pots,
and very often those would be dumped out into the streets.
Add on to that the manure of animals going up and down on the streets
and the accumulation of food waste.
An ancient street could be a pretty nasty place.
And so,
when you would arrive at a meal,
you would arrive with pretty stinky,
pretty grimy feet.
And the question is,
who is it that is to wash those feet?
And the answer was,
a slave.
That was the job of a slave.
And not a high-ranking slave,
mind you.
But the lowest of the low.
This was such an undignified and reviled task
that later rabbis would not allow Jews
to carry out this role.
But I want to also not just make a cultural observation.
I want to make a theological observation here
that at this Passover feast,
Jesus is the host.
Jesus is the teacher.
And therefore,
he's a person of high status.
He's a person
with great social honor.
But he's so much more
than just a host and a teacher.
It says again in verse 3,
that Jesus knew the Father
had put all things under his power
and that he had come from God
and was returning to God.
Now, if you and I were to finish that sentence,
that Jesus knew he had all things
put under him,
under his power by God,
that he had come from God
and that he was going to God,
we probably would have finished that sentence
and we would have written,
Jesus then displayed the majesty
of the one
who possesses all authority
in the universe.
And Jesus, of course,
does know that he's co-eternal
with the Father
in dignity and majesty
and glory and power.
He knows that from all eternity,
he's been face to face
with God himself,
that he's been the one
in closest relationship to the Father
and that in just a little while,
he's going back
to sit on the very throne of God.
Jesus knows himself
to be the Lord of all
and yet what does he do
with that power?
He humbles himself.
He becomes the lowest
of the lowest slave
and he begins to wash
the dirty feet
of his disciple community
that frankly was just too self-concerned
about who was the greatest
to wash Jesus' feet,
to untie his sandals.
And in this prophetic action,
in this acted parable,
the Son of the living God,
the King of heaven,
the Lord of glory,
the Word made flesh,
he's giving us a sketch
in miniature
of the larger portrait
of his overall humiliation.
If we can pull up a slide,
I hope we have a slide
that you can see.
Many scholars like to point out
the striking parallel
between this text
and Philippians chapter 2.
I don't know if we have that or not.
Maybe, maybe not.
Okay.
Don't worry about it.
If you know Philippians chapter 2,
the Apostle Paul
is writing there
that Jesus
began in the highest glory of heaven
and that he then came down
into the deepest depths
of the human condition
into a world
full of dirty feet
and grimy souls.
And he emptied himself.
He humbled himself.
He took the lowliest position
of a slave
in order to accomplish
our cleansing from sin
by his death on the cross.
And then the Apostle Paul says
then he was exalted
to the highest place,
to the highest place of honor
at the right hand of the Father.
And this,
in the New Testament,
is the V shape
of God's rescue operation.
There's the downward mobility
of Jesus' humiliation
and then there's the upward mobility
of his exaltation.
The downward mobility
of Jesus' incarnation
and his crucifixion
and the upward mobility
of his resurrection
and his ascension.
And what Jesus is showing us
is that the way up
is actually the way down.
And this foot washing
is not simply
the humble service
of a man to his equals,
nor is it even
the service of a good man
to others less fortunate
than himself.
But rather this foot washing
and the crucifixion
to which it points
is Jesus' way of showing us
who God is
and what God is like.
This is the humble service
of God
to sinful humanity
in need
of cleansing.
There's a downward mobility
in the heart of God.
There's a downward mobility
in the mind
of Christ.
Let's just pause
here
for some application.
What does this mean
for us?
Well,
first of all,
if you're here
exploring Christianity,
I want you to consider
whether or not
the other world religions
have anything like
what is going on
here in this text.
If you read Buddha
and you read Muhammad,
they are repeatedly
and clearly denying
that they are God.
They're very often
pointing away
from themselves
and saying,
that is the light
as far as I understand it,
so follow that.
Follow the light.
And Jesus,
on the other hand,
is pointing to himself
and he's saying,
I am the light
of the world,
follow me.
I'll be the one
to lead you
out of the darkness.
Buddha and Muhammad
are very often saying,
that is the way.
Walk in it.
That is the truth.
Trust it.
That is the life.
Go live that life.
And Jesus,
he's pointing to himself
and saying,
I am the way.
I am the truth.
I am the life.
And no one comes
to the Father
except through me.
Jesus is constantly
making these astonishing
claims that no other
religious leader
has made.
and yet notice
that his foot washing
is the exact opposite
of his claims.
In Jesus Christ,
you have this striking
juxtaposition
between the loftiness
of his claims
and the lowliness
of his behavior.
is there any other
religion in which
you see the master
making such incredible
claims about himself
and yet humbling himself
to wash the feet
of his disciples?
What the gospels
are telling us
is that here
in the stooping figure
of the slave
is revealed for us
the majesty
of the one true God.
The second application
is if you're a Christian,
the early church
said that Jesus'
downward mobility
was to be
a defining mark
of the disciple community.
And they said
this right here
is the measure
of greatness
among us.
The one who most
humbles himself,
the one who goes
the lowest,
the one who gets
the most dirty,
the one who acts
most like a slave,
the one who does
the most menial
of tasks.
The apostle Peter
who we'll talk about
in a moment,
he has a front row seat
to this,
he experiences
the foot washing himself.
And he writes
a letter later on
to Christians
who are scattered
throughout the Roman Empire
and he says
in 1 Peter 5,
Peter says,
clothe yourselves
with humility
toward one another.
And that verb
clothe
reflects
the picture
of a slave
who's tying a towel
around his waist.
He says,
clothe yourselves
like Jesus
clothed himself
with humility
toward one another.
Or think about
the apostle Paul.
Anyone know
the first words
that Paul writes
in his magisterial letter
to the church
in Rome?
His first words
are Paul,
a slave
of Christ Jesus.
Can you imagine
waking up tomorrow
morning and saying,
that is who I am,
Jonathan,
a slave
of Christ Jesus.
But Paul goes on
and he writes
to the Christian community
in Corinth
and he says,
he says to them,
we are slaves,
we are your slaves
for Jesus' sake.
So to the,
to a Christian community,
the mark of Christian community
is that we are a people
who kneel down
in our hearts
before our fellow disciples
and by our humble service
we say,
I am your servant
for Jesus' sake.
And that's the test.
That's how you know
that you've come in contact
with an authentically
Christian community.
It's a community
of downward mobility.
It's a community
that says,
I'm a slave
of yours
for Jesus' sake.
But secondly,
not just a community
of downward mobility
but a community
of gracious sacrifice.
I want us to think
about a community
of gracious sacrifice.
In verse five,
again it says,
after that he poured water
into a basin
and began to wash
his disciples' feet,
drying them with a towel
that was wrapped around him.
And I want us to notice
that Jesus is graciously
loving his disciple community
in the face of forces
that would stop most of us
from loving other people
in this moment.
Because I think most of us
would say,
you know,
when I'm under intense stress,
when I'm under incredible
pressure and strain,
I tend to kind of focus
more on myself,
right?
But Jesus knows
that in the next 24 hours
he's going to die.
And yet in the face
of his impending death,
who's he thinking about?
He's thinking about the needs
of each one of his disciples.
And notice that Jesus
loves his disciples
in spite of their unworthiness.
Jesus in a moment
is going to predict
that Judas will betray him
and that Peter will deny him
and that the rest
are going to abandon him.
And we don't know
which of those disciples
Jesus started with
in the foot washing.
We don't know
where he began.
But we do know
that Jesus eventually
washed the guy
who was about
to have him killed.
And then he washed
the feet of each one
who would forsake him
and hurt him terribly
within the next 24 hours.
And Jesus is just
graciously loving
each disciple
without exception.
And he's not doing
what I do
and what you may do sometimes.
He's not doing
a cost-benefit analysis
of his little
disciple community there.
He's not evaluating
each disciple on what,
let's see,
what have they done
for me lately?
How much am I getting
out of this relationship
with this disciple?
At no point
is Jesus saying,
you know,
I'll be in this community
as long as it's
making me happy,
as long as it's
fulfilling my needs.
But the moment it's not,
I'm out of here.
No, Jesus,
it says he loves
his disciples
to the end.
He's not loving them
because they're great,
he's loving them
because he's great.
He's loving them
with the power
of unconditional
electing love.
He's loving them
with a gracious love
that loves to the end.
A love that will
never forsake you,
even when I'm getting
nothing out of the relationship,
even when this relationship
is costing me terribly.
And at some point,
Jesus,
coming around the circle
of all the disciples,
he gets to the leader.
He gets to the leader
of the twelve,
and this is what it says
in verse six.
He came to Simon Peter
who said to him,
Lord,
are you going to wash my feet?
And Jesus replied,
you do not realize now
what I'm doing,
but later you will understand.
And Peter said,
no,
you shall never wash my feet.
Jesus answered,
unless I wash you,
you have no part
with me.
And then,
Lord,
Simon Peter replied,
not just my feet,
but my hands
and my head
as well.
See,
when Jesus gazes
into Peter's eyes
as he's about
to wash him,
Peter protests.
And it's like Peter
saying,
you know,
you shouldn't be doing
the work of a slave.
Isn't there some other
slave around here
that we could get
to do this job?
But I think Peter
is also kind of saying,
hey,
Jesus,
I just took a bath.
I'm not really
that dirty.
Like,
do we have to do
this foot washing?
But Jesus here
is speaking about
a different kind
of dirt.
Right?
When Jesus says,
unless I wash you,
you can have no part
with me in the salvation
that I bring,
he's saying,
Peter,
I'm not talking about
the dirt on your feet.
Peter,
I'm talking about
the fact that you're
spiritually dirty.
I'm talking about
the fact that you are
morally grimy,
that morally you stink.
And Jesus,
I'm sure,
has that phrase
in Psalm 51
that he's memorized
in his mind
in this moment
that says,
wash away
all my iniquity
and cleanse me
from my sin.
And he's saying,
Peter,
that's the kind
of washing,
that's the kind
of cleansing
that you need me
to do for you.
And yet,
Peter here is saying,
I don't think
I'm too dirty.
I don't think
it calls for such
drastic measures,
Jesus.
And perhaps you feel
the same way
about yourself.
That yes,
I've made some mistakes,
but on the whole,
I'm a good
and a decent person.
I've said some things
that I regret.
I've done some things
that I wish I could do
over,
but I'm not really sure
if it's necessary
for me to be washed
by the eternal
Son of God.
And Jesus says
to Peter,
he says in verse 7,
you do not realize
now what I'm doing,
but later
you will understand.
He's saying,
Peter,
what I'm doing now
is pointing
to what I'm going
to do
later on my cross.
This foot washing
is a signpost
to my humiliating
and cleansing death.
And Peter,
if you refuse
the sign
of what I've come
to do,
if you reject
the reality
to which the sign
points,
my dying on the cross
to wash away
your sins,
then you can have
absolutely no share
in the salvation
that I've come
to bring.
And Peter,
you've got to love Peter
because he's got
that personality
that just goes
from one extreme
to the other.
And Peter says,
well, Lord,
not just my feet
but my hands
and my head
as well.
Give me a bath.
Just make my whole body
and my whole soul
clean right here,
right now.
Why do we have to wait
for your cleansing work
on the cross tomorrow?
Let's just do it
here and now.
And I wish we could,
we had the time
to go into what
Jesus says to Peter
but he basically says,
hey,
chill out,
brother.
But let's just pause
for some application
about what this means
for us.
Again,
if you're here
and you're exploring
Christianity,
you need to hear
the word that Jesus
says to Peter.
He says,
unless I wash you,
you can have no part
with me.
You need to be
washed
of the filth
of your self-centeredness.
You need to be
washed of the grime
of your inordinate
self-love.
And if you spend
enough time
with Jesus,
you'll realize
that he doesn't just
want to wash you
from head to foot
but he wants to wash
you from the outside
to the inside.
He wants to wash
you in places
you didn't even know
were there.
He wants you to wash
you in places
you didn't even know
were dirty.
But don't make
the mistake
of saying,
well,
if I just follow
Jesus' example,
if I just serve
people enough
and I love people
enough,
then I can kind of
cleanse myself.
No,
before you,
the gospel says
that before you
imitate Jesus
as your example,
you need to trust
Jesus as your Savior.
That as your Savior,
Jesus must come
first perform
a service on you.
He has to cleanse you.
He has to forgive you.
He has to reconcile
you to God.
He has to justify you
in a right relationship
with your Heavenly Father.
He must do that first.
And then,
having served you
as your Savior,
He can then be
your example
and He can show you
how to live out
His salvation
in a transformed life
of service to others.
So the first question
you have to ask yourself
is,
do I need to be washed?
And who will wash me?
Who has the power
to really deeply
wash me?
And who's trustworthy enough?
Who's died for me?
Who's bled for me
and shown
that they love me
that much?
But the second point
of application
is that if you're
a Christian,
the way that we approach
our relationships
in the Christian community
is not,
how is this person
treating me
and then I will
do the same for them?
But rather,
the question is,
how has the Lord Jesus
treated me?
And that is the model
for the way
that I'll treat others.
With Jesus' power,
I will display
the same
gracious sacrifice
that I've received
from Him
that He's shown to me.
If the Lord of glory
has graciously washed
those dirtiest parts
of my soul,
those grimiest parts
of my innermost being,
then it's only appropriate
that I would turn around
and love
the way that I've been
loved by Jesus.
Now,
I don't know
if you're like me,
but I say,
yes,
I'm all about that,
but I also have
kind of a list
of exceptions.
that I will do
what Jesus did for me,
but not for Him.
Surely not for her.
I'm not pointing
to any particular people
right now,
by the way.
He's a difficult person
to love.
She can be
a real pain in the neck.
Why should I serve them?
Why should I kneel down
before them?
They don't deserve it.
But you see,
if Jesus had said,
I'm only going to invest
my time and my energy
to serve people
who will never abandon me,
never betray me,
never deny me,
none of us would be here
today,
would we?
None of the disciples
deserved what Jesus
is giving them here,
and none of us
deserve it either,
but we got it.
He washed away
the dirt
of our self-centeredness.
He bought us
with His blood.
We don't belong
to ourselves anymore,
and so we don't get
to do it the way
we would normally do it
because we have
a new master.
We got to do things
His way.
So the Christian community
is meant to be
a community
of downward mobility.
It's meant to be
a community
of gracious sacrifice,
but let me close
by talking about
the way we're to be
a community
of one-anothering love.
We're called to be
a community
of one-anothering love.
Isadora Duncan
was the mother
of modern dance?
I think she lived
here in San Francisco,
and she would often
quip, she would say,
if I could say it,
I wouldn't have
to dance it.
If I could say it,
I wouldn't have
to dance it,
and in some ways
that's what Jesus
is doing.
He's saying,
let me show you
the dance,
and then let me
explain the dance.
I'll show you
the dance,
and then we'll talk
about the why
of the dance
and the how
of the dance.
And so it says
in verse 12,
when Jesus had
finished washing
their feet,
he put on his clothes
and he returned
to his place
and he said,
do you understand
what I have done
for you?
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.
I have set you
an example that you
should do
as I have done
for you.
And down in verse 34,
a new command,
I give you love
one another
as I have loved you,
so you must love
one another.
Quick Greek lesson.
The Greek verb phileo
is about the affectionate
love between friends.
And the Greek verb erao
is about the passionate
love between a husband
and a wife.
And the Greek verb stergo
is about the familial love
between a parent
and a child.
But Jesus right now,
he's preparing his disciples
for some tumultuous days ahead,
for some really hard
decades ahead.
And so he says,
you're going to need
a love that's more potent
than any of those loves.
And so the word he uses here
is agapao.
This is the unconditional
self-giving love
that sacrificially seeks
what is best for the other.
It's the divine love
at the heart of the Trinity.
It's this unselfish love,
this giving love
that is to define
the relationships
in Jesus' disciple community.
And what Jesus is saying here,
he says,
agapao each other
as I have agapao'd you.
Love each other
out of the love
that I'm showing you.
And he says,
I've set you an example.
And that word example
really pictures a child
who doesn't know
how to write, right?
They're sitting down,
they're learning their letters.
And the teacher
comes up to the board,
the teacher writes a word,
the teacher writes a sentence,
and then the child
copies the pattern
of the sentence.
And now I want you
to learn my dance moves.
I want you to follow
my dance steps.
Jesus is saying,
I've taken
that most shameful place
as a servant of sinners.
And that means
that you owe me a debt
having taken
that place for you.
But what he's saying
is that now the debt
you owe to me
is to be discharged
by your subjection
to one another
in loving service.
That the people
in these pews,
the people in your
community group,
the people in your
discipleship group,
these are the appointed ones.
These are the ones
I've appointed
to receive everything
that you owe to me
and your master.
I want you to give
to them.
Agapao them.
Become a copy
of me
to him.
Become a copy
of me
to her.
And this brings me
to your little bookmark
that you received today.
It's a wonderful,
wonderful book
by Gerald Sitzer
and it's wonderful
to read
with your community group
or with your family
because it explores
this agapao,
self-giving love
in all of its
multifaceted dimensions.
But I'll just mention
a few of these
aspects of love.
He says,
you know,
when we welcome
one another,
it's all about,
in the church context,
it's all about
seeing that stranger
that walks
into the door
and not saying,
oh, there's a stranger,
but saying,
oh, there's a friend
that I have not yet met.
It means that
you take the initiative
and you go to them
and you open your heart
to them
and you open your home
to them
and you ask their name
and you remember their name
and you welcome them
and you say,
you're not a stranger,
you're a brother.
You're not a stranger,
you're a sister.
And Sitzer says
that prayer,
prayer is perhaps
the greatest service
we can render
to the disciple community
because prayer is the thing
that touches us
at the deepest part
of our lives
in those places
that we cannot touch.
It's a way that we love
and we serve each other
by praying for each other.
He says that another way
that we serve people
is that we give them our time.
And here in the Bay Area,
time is often much harder
to give even than our money,
right?
We're so busy.
And time,
giving our time
means that we've got to
simplify our lives.
We've got to
sacrificially release
more and more
of our time
to serve this person
or to encourage this person.
You can't serve someone,
you can't encourage them
without giving them
your time.
And Sitzer says that
when you see these things
working in a Christian community,
welcoming and praying
and serving
and encouraging,
he says,
you will recognize
the most Christ-like person
in your midst
by the ease
and the spontaneity
with which
they do those little
annoying and messy things
that no one else
wants to do.
They do the kind of things
that in the ancient world
a slave would do.
Right?
They do the kind of things
that we are secretly hoping
somebody else will do
because I just really don't
want to waste my time.
Jesus says,
you know,
I want you to do
this for each other
because I've already
done that for you.
And why should we do this?
What's the motivation
to do this?
Jesus ends,
he says in verse 35,
by this everyone
will know that you
are my disciples
if you love one another.
It's just inevitable
that people are going
to form their view
of the Lord Jesus
from your life
and my life.
Whether we like it or not.
And Jesus is telling us
that the embodied expression
of this agapao love
that Jesus has for us,
when that's operative
in the life of our community,
everyone will identify it
as belonging to Jesus.
And so the question is,
have you committed yourself
yet to a community
of people here
with whom you can
live out these
one another commands?
People with whom
you can pray
and serve
and encourage
and comfort
and admonish
in all the ways,
all the multifaceted ways
Jesus wants us
to love one another
because he says,
not only will you be blessed
if you do these things,
but Jesus says,
this is how everyone
around us,
everyone in our networks,
everyone in our city
is going to know
what the love of Jesus
is like when they see it
embodied among us.
And friends,
we can kneel down
before one another
and we can say to each other,
I am your servant
for Jesus' sake
precisely because
the greatest power
in the universe
has already knelt down.
And he's not just knelt down
to wash our feet,
he knelt all the way down
to the cross
to bleed for us,
to die for us,
to serve us,
and to save us.
And so he says,
now that you know
I've done that for you,
please,
agapao,
one another.
In the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit,
amen.
Amen.