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I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're in day three of our
look together through John chapter 13. Yesterday we began a look together at
Jesus' picture of a servant.

We're going to finish that look together as we look at verses 6 to 17 today.
Yesterday we looked at the fact that servants know who they are. That's what it
means to be a servant.

That's the picture that Jesus gave us. We also looked at the fact that servants
meet needs. That's the simple thing that servants do.

They wash dirty feet. There's a third truth we learn about servants in John
chapter 13. Third truth is that servants serve imperfect people.

Servants serve imperfect people because that's the only kind of people there
are. Jesus Christ is the only perfect person who ever walked this earth. Every
one of the rest of us are imperfect people.

So if you're going to serve people, guess what? You're going to serve imperfect
people. You see, Jesus, as he served, he not only knew who he was, he also knew
who they were.

He knew who the people he was serving were and still he served them, even though
they were imperfect people. Just think with me of the feet that Jesus washed. He
washed, we saw yesterday, the disciples' feet.

I don't know how you picture that upper room as they all came into that
religious moment in their lives. Picture it as this hushed tone with a holy
glow. Let me shatter that picture.

When they came in for this meal, they would all recline at a table and it was a
busy meal. It was around a table. They would sort of recline on their side and
eat at the table and there's a lot of noise, a lot of talking, eating, enjoying
the meal together.

This wasn't like Da Vinci's painting, by the way. They were all around the table
talking to each other. Sometimes we look at that painting and we think somebody
said, "Oh, everyone on this side for the picture.

" They had this picture made and then they all got around the table again. No,
it was this moment where they came into a meal and it wasn't a big meal. You
know how you can go into a restaurant and there's a lot of noise, there's a lot
of excitement.

In this meal, you would come into excited noises at the beginning of their time
together. They were dreaming together of greatness. They remember just
experienced the triumphal entry and were thinking about what Jesus Christ was
going to do with his life.

If you'd been there that night, you would have noticed that suddenly the volume
increased and no longer was it excitement, but it was an argument. They were
beginning to argue about who was the greatest of the disciples. The fact that
greatness is measured by the yardstick of service had not yet registered with
them and so they thinking about how great Jesus was were beginning to think
about how great they were and they're in the middle of all this since Jesus and
you get a sense that he was hardly noticed as the others argue and in the midst
of that, Jesus Christ walks across the room, takes off his robe, pours the basin
full of water.

In their stunned silence, he begins to wash the disciples feet. Can you imagine
the feelings of Jesus who would die for these men the very next day listening to
them argue about who was going to be the greatest? I don't know about you.

I wouldn't have washed feet in that moment. I would have felt angry at them or
sorry for myself, but not Jesus. He's our example.

Jesus simply chose to meet the need that was there. Christians serve imperfect
people. Jesus washed the disciples feet, but let's get even more specific.

Jesus washed, Jesus washed Judas' feet. He hadn't yet left the room. He's going
to leave in a little bit.

He hadn't left the room yet. In verse two, we're told this is the Judas who had
already decided to betray him and Jesus knew it. If you think, I don't know
about me, I don't know if I could ever stoop to show this kind of love that
we're talking about here.

Maybe as we talk about Judas, it's not just the Judases of the world. It's
anybody in the world. Maybe you think, I've got too many other important things
to do.

I'll hire people to do these kinds of services and I'll do the other things in
life because what I'm doing is so important. Or maybe it is a Judas issue. Maybe
it is the person that you're being called to serve and you know you need to
serve them, but what they've done to you or what you know they might do to you,
how unappreciative they've been towards you, it makes you not want to serve them
at all.

You're an imperfect person. Let me just remind you of this. No matter how
important you think you are, you're not more important than Jesus.

And if you think you're too important to serve what you know or what you do or
what you have or who serves you makes you too important to serve, you've missed
the point. I've missed the point if I think that way. Jesus served, even though
he was the most important person, he's God in human flesh, whoever walked this
earth.

No matter how important you think you are, you're not more important than Jesus.
And no matter how low you think they are, they're not lower than Judas. Jesus
gives us an example here.

We can serve anybody. I might have been tempted to use ice water to wash the
feet of Judas and you probably too, but Jesus just simply washed Judas' feet. He
washed the disciples' feet, he washed Judas' feet, he washed Peter's feet.

John chapter 13 verses 6 to 9, listen to what happened. 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.

" Now we don't know what the other disciples thought as Jesus washed their feet,
but we We do know what Peter thought because Peter was a man who did his
thinking out loud and he thought this isn't working. In chapter 6 he says,
"Lord, you wash my feet? " In the Greek language the words "you" and "me" are
placed together in that sentence to show the greatest contrast.

You, me? This isn't working for me, Jesus. You see, as they came into that room
the disciples were ready to fight for a throne but not for a towel and Peter
didn't say, "Let me wash your feet, Lord, I'll do it for you.

" He just said, "I don't think you should be washing my feet. " But look at
Jesus. Look at how Jesus serves Peter.

Instead of saying, "Okay, Peter, have it your way. If you don't want me to serve
you, I'm not going to force myself upon you. " Instead of that, he convinced
Peter to let him love him.

"Unless you let me serve you," Jesus said, "you're going to have no part in me.
In fact, unless I let Jesus Christ serve me, I'm going to have no part in him
with his forgiveness and his life and his grace. " Now, Peter is so human in
this chapter.

Here he says, "You'll never wash my feet to Jesus," but Jesus does in the end.
And later in the chapter, he's going to say, "I will lay down my life for you. "
But when it comes to the cross, he doesn't lay down his life for him in that
moment.

In that moment, instead, he betrays him. That's what makes me so glad that Peter
is one of the disciples because he represents us all. He is so sure and he's so
wrong so often, but he's still loved.

He is still loved. And if you've been so sure and yet so wrong, maybe so often,
you're still loved by Jesus Christ as you trust in him for grace and as you
trust in him for forgiveness, as you trust in him for life. Jesus goes on to say
to Peter, Jesus 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, for he
knew who was going to betray him. " And this is why he said, "Not everyone was
clean.

" In these verses, Jesus goes beyond talking about our feet. He talks also about
our souls. And my soul only needs one bath.

I only need to be saved once. But I do need daily cleansing, recognition of
Christ's forgiveness, but I only need to be cleansed by him, forgiven by him
once. And he points here to Judas.

There's one in here who is not trusting in me. He doesn't say who it is yet.
We're going to see that in a couple of days together in a couple of verses in
John chapter 13.

And then beginning in verse 12, Jesus sums up what it means to serve him. You
see, Jesus took up a towel for me, to teach me a lesson, for you to teach you a
lesson. No servant is greater than his master, and I serve Jesus Christ.

He is my master. I'm the one that follows him. If Jesus served others, and he is
the master, he is the Lord, then who am I as his servant to think that I'm above
serving others?

As we look together at verses 12 to 17 today, I'd like to pray these verses back
to God. Instead of just reading them to you, I'd like to pray through these
verses together in our time of prayer today. Beginning in John chapter 13 verse
12, would you pray these verses with me?

When Jesus had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned
to his place. Do you understand what I've done for you, he asked them. So in a
spirit of prayer, say, Jesus Christ, help me to understand.

Help me to understand what you've done for me on the cross. Help me to
understand what you've done for me even here this night as you wash their feet
and gave me a picture of what it means to serve. Verse 13, you call me teacher
and Lord and rightly so for that I am.

Now that I your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you should also wash one
another's feet. And so pray, Jesus, help me to understand what that means. Whose
feet do I need to wash today?

Who do I need to serve today? The practical, seemingly small, maybe even
unnoticed action of service you have for me to take today. It's so easy for me
to walk right by the towels in the wash basins of life and miss the
opportunities to serve.

Jesus, instead of getting caught up in the times when I haven't served, I want
to get caught up today in the opportunities to serve in that one opportunity
that you have for me. You've given me an example. In verse 15, Jesus says, I
have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

And in praying that verse back to you, Jesus, we say, help us to follow your
example. Help us to do as you have done for us. Jesus, in verse 16, you tell us,
I tell you the truth.

No servant is greater than his master nor is a messenger greater than the one
who sent him. Jesus, you are greater than all of us. And in verse 17, you say,
now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Help me, Jesus, not only to know these things, but Jesus Christ, I ask for your
strength and power to do these things and I ask for it in your name, amen.