¹It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

 ²The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. ³Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

 ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"

 ⁷Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

 ⁸"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."
      Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."

 ⁹"Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"

 ¹⁰Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." ¹¹For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

 ¹²When 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. ¹³"You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. ¹⁵I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

John 13:1-25 (NIV)

When I pray in the shower, very often I find myself repenting. (Yes, there is plenty to repent for.) Meandering along this line of thought brought me to the above passage. Very often, I've heard that this passage explains that we should serve one another. But this time, something different stuck out at me. Jesus' rebuke of Simon Peter is a curious matter. 

"Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."

What does Jesus mean by this? Simon Peter's response is a knee-jerk. Of course, LORD, wash whatever you wish! His motivations and intentions are pretty clear. But Jesus makes this whole foot washing business a requirement.

Let's look at what foot-washing meant in Jesus' day. Consider first, that only the lowliest of slaves were given the menial task of washing feet. The average person wore sandals and walked on roads where animals walked. Consider the dirt and animal droppings and who knows what that would end up on your feet by the end of the day.

Then Jesus, the LORD of glory, the King of Kings... washing his twelve disciples' feet.

Has Jesus washed you? Has He cleansed you?

Everyday, we take a shower. We brush our teeth. That takes care of the physical. But how about the rest of us? How about the daily grime and nastiness in our souls & minds? Has Jesus come and cleansed that as well?

My take-away is not simply that we serve our fellow Christians. It is not simply to denigrate ourselves. But it is to recognize Jesus' cleansing work and then go serve others as you have been served. Simply serving others is insufficient. We will become either patronizing or needy in our service of others. Only those who have been washed by Jesus can inform true Christian service. Until our nasty parts are cleansed by Jesus, we cannot serve others in those areas.

Do not go out without having Jesus' washing.
Do not being washed forget who we serve and why we serve.
Go out and serve as we have been served by Jesus.

This is an iron-sharpening-iron moment. Please standby...

We call ourselves followers of Christ. But I have to ask... really? You think so? Maybe because all too often, I have to ask myself. Are you following? I want to seriously consider how we make decisions... the little day-to-day decisions. Coffee? Tea? Water? or perhaps... Buy? Save? Invest? Borrow? I'm not trying to say that one of them is a better choice. I'm asking where your decision making nexus is located.

I've always been interested in learning about how people think. What makes them tick. I remember this one conversation with a gal. We were discussing a situation after the fact. So she was talking about the facts about the situation and then she told me how she had decided to proceed. So I asked her, how she arrived at that choice. And it was simply, "It felt right." I'm not trying to make her look bad, but seriously... How do you even start to discuss something when the support for the decision is purely emotional? There's no point of reference. It's just pitting one person's feelings against another person's feelings on the matter. Have you seen how arguments become circular and there is no honest move to compromise? I think it is because we want what we want and there is really, seriously, no way to discuss or compromise with someone who takes that kind of stance.

I haven't forgotten the left-brain dominated people. ^_^ Yeah, I must count myself among them. We have this idea that logic is the best way somehow. We can reason our way to the wisest decision. But this assumes we somehow know it all. But we don't... as much as have individual expertise, the range of knowledge is so specific that honestly... I think the best thing logic can come up with is pragmatism. Just go with what works. But there's a problem... How do you know it's actually working? You don't. We rationalize when it's convenient for us. We say it's logical, but really the problem is our basic assumptions. If your assumptions are off one iota, your extrapolations are going to be way off. So try to follow logic and you may end up a madman knowing neither right nor wrong, or you end up eviscerating yourself by saying there is neither right nor wrong.

To sum it up, when we just follow our emotions/logic, we fulfill those times described in the Old Testament, "everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes." So what other choice remains? I'd like to summarize it simply. Jesus is Lord. I think that this has yet to sink in fully for me as well. But I'm trusting that we will recognize His voice when he calls. And we will follow...

------------

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/08/13/lw.adultery.confessions.whats.next/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/12/studentsteachers.online/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/sports/olympics/21protest.html?_r=1&em=&pagewanted=all
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/2613399/Mosab-Hassan-Yousef-son-of-Hamas-leader-becomes-a-Christian.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/nyregion/13detain.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/08/26/o.divorce.dreams/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/08/25/manta.ray/index.html
http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/19/smallbusiness/make_sleep_work_for_you.fsb/index.htm
http://www.slate.com/id/2198942/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1051871/Stalins-mass-murders-entirely-rational-says-new-Russian-textbook-praising-tyrant.html
http://www.nysun.com/business/unthinkable-happens-manhattan-apartment-prices/84900/
http://www.smartmoney.com/10things/index.cfm?story=august2008-10-things-banks-will-not-tell-you&split=0
http://www.newsweek.com/id/156372/page/1
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1051981/Why-men-women-choose-partners-look-like-parents.html
http://www.slate.com/id/2199258/pagenum/all/#page_start
http://slatev.com/player.html?id=1784543751
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7616346.stm

<RANT>
"The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"

Idiot.

Anyone read the story of chicken little? (if you haven't... please do.)

I've been watching the story unfold about this "financial crisis" and I'm struck by how no one has really taken the time to flesh out this "crisis" people keep talking about. We need to bail out these companies or the whole financial system will grind to a halt. Please... who do you think you're talking to? This smells suspiciously like another "knee-jerk reaction" that has been orchestrated from the bowels of the White House. 9/11 to Iraq. Make people afraid and they will do anything you like. I'm going to tell my representatives to kill this stupid bill. I've had enough of inflation and moves in the public sector that majorly benefit the big movers and shakers in the private sector. A 700 Billion dollar move is NOT something to be made in a week... much less two or three. STOP and THINK! This crisis has sat for this long and I haven't seen a problem. You know what needs to happen? SOMEONE NEEDS TO FIGURE OUT THAT THEIR HOUSES AREN'T WORTH THAT MUCH!!! and you know what that takes? Time. I'm all for throwing money at big problems that need money. But this isn't a capital issue, it's the fact that people misunderstood the nature of the risk. So the taxpayer should help by taking on that risk?!? Because the investors and big guys are scared crapless about how much these "securities" are really worth? Yeah, let's put that on a national ballot and see how far it gets. McCain would look good up against those kinda of odds.
</RANT>

We now return to our regularly scheduled program