Daily Lectionary: Proverbs 8:22-36, John 13:1-20

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (John 13:1)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Jesus was about to go out to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He would be arrested. Then He would be tortured, falsely tried, and crucified. But before He went out to be the sacrifice for our sins, He got up from His dinner and girded Himself to wash the disciples’ feet. One by one He cleansed them and taught them that as He has served them, so they ought to serve one another.

Only the next day, Christ would be taken down from the Cross and prepared for burial. His body (and feet) were coated with the blood that poured from His many wounds. As His followers prepared His body with spices, they also gently would have cleansed away the blood that had caked around His feet. They washed the feet of the One who had washed them. From His nail-pierced feet, they tenderly cleansed away the very blood that cleanses us from our sins.

Christ doesn’t kneel before us and wash our feet as He did that night, but we have been washed in the blood that poured from His wounds, dripped down His body, and dried on His skin. That blood has washed us in our Baptism. In those waters, the Spirit washed us in Christ, joined us to His death, and we now live in peace with the Father.

We bear the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are justified by His grace and adopted into His family, the Church. And in this holy Church, you turn to your neighbor. In your neighbor, you see someone else cleansed by Christ–another person loved by the same Savior who has loved you. You see your neighbor in need. In need of love and compassion and service in any of the thousands of ways that life brings.

And now you understand the point of Christ washing the disciple’s feet. Jesus serves you. Jesus serves your neighbor. Jesus invites you to serve them along with Him. Don’t consider it beneath you to serve your neighbor. Instead, treasure the incredible lifelong honor of serving alongside Christ. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus took the role of servant when upon that gruesome span, For all human sin He suffered as a vile and loathsome man; On the cross poured out like water to fulfill the Father’s plan. (“Jesus, Greatest at the Table” LSB 446, st.3)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch