SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/18/2016 8:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 The Shocking Revelation of Christ’s Love
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 13:3-11
Message of the verses: “3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given
all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going
back to God, 4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a
towel, He girded Himself. 5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to
wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was
girded. 6 So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my
feet?" 7 Jesus answered and said to
him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand
hereafter." 8 Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!"
Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my
hands and my head." 10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs
only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all
of you." 11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He
said, "Not all of you are clean.’”
D. A.
Carson writes the following from his commentary on John’s gospel that is quoted
from John MacArthur’s commentary: “John’s
declaration that Jesus knew ‘that the Father had given all things into His
hands and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God reiterates
and amplifies the apostle’s earlier statement that Jesus was about to return to
the Father (v. 1). By stressing Jesus’
exaltation, John revealed the depth of His humility. Incredibly, incomprehensibly, the glorious
Creator and Ruler of the universe was about to humbly wash the disciples’ dirty
feet—a menial task reserved for the lowest of slaves (even Jewish slaves were
not required to perform it, only Gentiles).
‘With such power
and status at His disposal, we might have expected him to defeat the devil in
an immediate and flashy confrontation, and to devastate Judas with an
unstoppable blast of divine wrath.
Instead, He washes His disciples’ feet, including the feet of the
betrayer.’” (The highlighted part
is the quote from D. A. Carson, the other is from John MacArthur.)
Do you suppose
that Jesus was a bit disappointed in the fact that this task was not already
done by one of His disciples? Luke 22:24
“And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded
to be greatest.” This is what His
disciples were doing right before they had this meal, and so it is no wonder
that they did not take it upon themselves to do this menial talk. During the times when Jesus was upon the
earth when a big meal was given the people would spread out on the floor and so
people would have their feet near another one’s head. Now sandals were worn and so when you walked through
the wet or damp or dusty streets your feet got dirty and thus needed to be
washed before you ate or even entered a house.
As we think
of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet we can think of what Matthew 23:11 says “"But
the greatest among you shall be your servant.”
This goes well with the verse from Luke we quoted in the last
paragraph.
So no one’s
feet had been washed at supper and so we read that Jesus, the Son of God “got
up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded
Himself. Then He poured water into the
basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel
with which He was girded.” Perhaps the
rebuke embarrassed, and chastened disciples watched in awkward and painful silence,
perhaps they were thinking about what they were discussing earlier, or perhaps
they were realizing the truth of Matthew 23:11, at any point they were having
their feet washed by the Creator of the Universe, the One who spoke and the
worlds came into existence.
We will
continue our discussion of this section in our next SD as we deal with what
Simon Peter had to say about all of this.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Humiliation in the sense that these disciples
went through is a hard pill to swallow, but when I think about the Humility of
love that Jesus was showing it should drive me to do things like He did, and to
love like He loves.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I desire to enjoy this wonderful sunny day as my wife and I go to a
camp with some other seniors and perhaps even go horseback riding or some other
dare devil experiences. My prayer is
that God will bless all of what we do.
Memory verse for the week: (Romans 6:14) “14 For sin shall
not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Egyptian” (Genesis 16:1).
Today’s Bible question:
“The author of Hebrews asks us “What should we lay aside?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/18/2016 8:53 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment