First, I Love You Guys Sunday, February 11, 2018 Series: Getting Close Scripture: John 13:1-15, 34, 35 (pg. 1635) Theme: Love has a purpose. Well, you know I had a very good Sunday evening last week. I doubt anyone is surprised I cannot avoid an Eagle s Super Bowl reference, right? Well, I did not know that this had happened until 2 or 3 days ago, but I have since seen & heard the video. You can find the video on NFL films if you want to see it & hear it for yourself. Late in the game, with just over 2 minutes left and the Eagles up by 5 The Eagle s defense knocked the ball out of Tom Brady s hand and recovered the fumble. The Eagle s offense took the field with a golden opportunity to put the game away. Nick Foles called his offense to a huddle Hey, hey, hey, com ere, he said. When they were all looking & listening he said this: First, I love you guys. Now let s go get a first down and finish this thing. Imagine 2 minutes left in a Super Bowl and a quarterback says to his team, First, I love you guys. Imagine. -2- Now what follows next is also important: Now let s go get a 1 st down and finish this thing. Apparently for the Eagles, love has a purpose. Which makes me wonder about us? Is this also true for our lives? Especially for life as a follower of Jesus? Does love have a purpose, or is love itself the goal? Well, John 13 is the beginning of the end for Jesus With fully 1/3 of his book to go, John begins the final days of the life of Jesus, and he begins w/ what we call the Last Supper. And I think this will answer the question for us: Does love have a purpose, or is love itself, the goal? So, let s read it: John 13:1-15, 34, 35 SLIDES So, cut to the chase: Is our goal, love? Or, does love have a purpose? Well, #2 yes, love does have a purpose. I want to show you this, so take a look at v. 1: V. 1 is a prelude: It tells us what is going on in the mind of Jesus before he begins to act this is important. Jesus knows that this will be his last opportunity to spend a meal w/ his friends before his death. Jesus is confident that during his entire relatnship w/ these men & women he has loved them, deeply. He knows that he will love them as long as he has breath even on the cross, he will love them.
-3- That s what is going on in the mind of Jesus: I have not, and will not, stop loving this band of brothers. Then, in v. 2, Jesus begins to act, and we know what he s going to do the foot washing thing. However, you must understand that what Jesus begins to do in v. 2 is motivated by what s going on in his mind in v. 1. In other words, although this sentence is not in our Bibles and I m not about to suggest an editorial change It is safe to understand that between vv. 1 & 2, you can mentally insert the phrase: So, because Jesus loved these men, this is what he did. So yes love has a purpose. And the purpose of love is to act it is to be sure that another human being is actively loved. I saw a phrase this week either that or I made it up I no longer have any idea since it s written in my handwriting on a piece of paper: Love translates sentiment into action. I like that if I made it up, I m quite proud of myself: Love translates sentiment into action. Now, I know that you could argue that in one way, love is the goal there is no purpose for love other than love itself And I guess that s true enough -4- The Bible says, God is love and of course there s no higher purpose than to be what God is And Jesus said several times that you could sum up every single do and don t in the Bible in one simple phrase: Love God & love others So, yes, there is no purpose in life higher than love. However, the sentiment of love the feeling of love is never enough unless it compels us to act. So you could say that the purpose of the sentiment is to cause us to act. So, love has a purpose. Love translates sentiment into action Now, in John 13 this is what Jesus knew. He loved this band of brothers so he s going to act. And what he does will become a kind of acted-out parable of what it means to love another person. So, right as this last supper is getting started Jesus gets up, takes off his outer clothing and dresses like a slave by wrapping a towel around his waist And he begins to wash the feet of his friends. Now: foot washing is strange thing for us We wash our own feet, thank you very much
-5- But in the world of Jesus, having your feet washed when you came into a house was as common as someone taking your coat when you walk into someone s house today For all kinds of reasons some very practical, like the dusty, dirty roads combined with the sandals they wore made it kind of a necessity Some of the reasons were somewhat religious & cultural Kind of like praying before meals for some of us. Now: As you can imagine washing someone else s dirty feet is a really demeaning job It s very humbling not just is it dirty and yucky and smelly The very position requires you to kneel before another person you cannot avoid making yourself the servant of another. So, there were Jewish laws that said, One Jew cannot make a Jewish servant wash his feet. You can only make a non-jew a Gentile wash your feet. But not a fellow Jew. In the entire ancient history of Israel There are some very few examples of Jewish wives who washed their husbands feet -6- In fact, one romantic story of a wife, out of deep devotion, wanted to wash her husband s feet & he refused, saying it was the servant s job She actually took the case to the Jewish religious court and won the right to wash her husband s feet! Said, These are my feet now; I want to! There are very few examples of children washing their parent s feet And a few stories about students washing their teacher s feet But always, always it s an act of devotion that flows one way up. It is the one who is in some way considered to be the lesser of the two showing her devotion to the greater. Never, ever, ever, in all Jewish history, is there ever a story of a husband washing the feet of his wife Never does a parent wash the feet of his child Never does the teacher was the feet of his students. Always the devotion flows 1 way up, but never, ever the other way, down. So foot washing is very common happened all the time The problem was not that Jesus was washing feet. The problem was that Jesus was washing feet.
-7- It s the same with washing your floors it s quite ordinary. However, if you came home and the Queen of England was on her hands & knees washing your floor That would be a problem. Make sense? Which is why the disciples respond the way they do: W/ stunned silence. No one says a thing Until Peter. Although the Bible doesn t say it, I picture Peter pulling his feet away & trying to lift Jesus up No, Jesus, never. And I understand why in the whole history of Judaism, there is never an example of this kind of humble service flowing this way Up, yes Peter could wash Jesus feet. Down, never. So, Peter says, no. Now, let me kind of pause to make an observation that will be very, very important for us: Because of the extraordinary influence of Jesus on Western culture Humility is now a virtue. Serving others now flows downward all the time. -8- It did not, in the ancient world.. But it does now, because of Jesus. The idea of humbling yourself to serve the less fortunate is not at all surprising in our world no one is shocked. In fact, it s a thing It gets us kudos in our world. We win awards because of it. And this is a profoundly good thing Jesus and those who follow his example are making our world a much, much better place. Tim Tebow runs a foundation that does some fantastic things for people less fortunate them him There s the Night To Shine Event just happened Friday night 540 churches sponsored proms for young men and women with special needs 90,000 special needs boys and girls got to go to a prom how wonderful is that! J.J. Watt just won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year for raising $37 million in 19 days following Hurricane Harvey And he focuses his efforts especially on our poor communities and under-served boys and girls. This kind of humble service is just remarkable
-9- And it happens only because Jesus redefined humility as a virtue And today, men and women get awards for humbly serving others. Many, many of you have servant s hearts. You volunteer here and elsewhere. If I said, We have a need many of you would volunteer to step up and fill it. You ve devoted yourselves to teaching our kids, cleaning our building, making meals, adopting, giving, and on and on. Your servant hearts serve us, and serve our world very well. You follow Jesus you ve learned to humbly serve And you wear the name Christian admirably. Well done. So do you sense a However coming? There is one it s the however that prevents most of us from ever really connecting with each other the way we should myself included. And because I want what Jesus wants for us, I need to show you Peter, as you know says, No, Jesus, you can t wash my feet. I think we understand the reluctance of Peter, right? -10- This is Jesus, after all would you be thrilled if you went home and found Jesus on his hands and knees cleaning your bathroom floor? You need to understand something very important: Some of you know this story You know that later this evening, Jesus will predict that all the disciples will abandon him. It s a tough thing for these men to hear Peter will respond, Well, they might, but me: Never. I would die for you, Jesus. I would. Now we know how that story ended W/ Jesus being arrested, tried by a kangaroo court, and beaten by Roman soldiers. Peter is standing in a courtyard not too many yards away and when questioned if he knows Jesus, Peter will say, Nope. Never met him. Ultimately, after 3 betrayals, Peter will lock eyes w/ Jesus and Peter s failure will wreck him. However however there is a little story that happens in between Jesus prediction & Peter s betrayal that we often forget about: When the thugs arrive to arrest Jesus, Peter is carrying a sword and he whips it out and starts to fight for Jesus. Remember that?
-11- Jesus will scold Peter and heal the man whose side of the head Peter sliced open. But don t miss the real significance of that: Peter really is ready to fight and die for Jesus he is. Do you know what Peter is not ready for? He is not ready for Jesus to die for him. When Jesus scolds Peter and says, Put the sword away, and then Peter watches Jesus bound Watches as Jesus is dragged away by thugs Tried before a corrupt system And sentenced to death That s when Peter s world falls apart. Peter is a brave, brave man make no mistake. He would die for Jesus. In fact, later in his life, he will. What Peter does not want to do, is let Jesus die for him. This is the lesson of the foot washing Peter says, No, never, and Jesus says, If you don t let me wash your feet, you can t belong to me. The foot washing is a parable of what s to come It s a prequel for the cross Peter doesn t understand that yet and neither does anyone else. They nod their heads, they say, Yes. -12- But it won t be until much letter when they can connect all the dots. But here s the deal --- for you and I There are two kinds of humility: 1) Is the kind that motivates us to humbly serve another. We are quite good at that. I don t mean this cynically, because it is the kind of humility Jesus made into a virtue. Today, we get awards for it and that s a wonderful testimony to a culture that recognizes a good virtue when it sees it. 2) But there is another kind of humility It gets no awards No one is honored for it No one wants it No one here will be admired for having it. It is the humility of being served. It is the humility of letting someone do something for you that you cannot do for yourself. It is the humility of weakness. Serving someone else, is a humility of strength. Being served by another, is the humility of weakness. And Jesus once said to Peter, Without this one, my friend, you have no part of me.
-13- And although many of us, many of us, would gladly say, Jesus died for me, we then spend the rest of our lives trying to earn it. What no one here wants, is the humility of weakness. We will serve but not be served. And do you know what suffers as a result? Us Us-ness Connections. The kind of love Jesus was offering to Peter. We ll gladly connect if it can be done on our own terms If we can shape the thing to be what we want If we can be the givers I can t tell you how many times in my life as a pastor I ve seen people get broken in life Something happens that shames them They re embarrassed weak and broken. And they retreat & say, I can t go to church right now. I m embarrassed. I m ashamed. What has happened to us, since this night when Jesus said to Peter, Peter, unless I wash your feet? When did we stop being a community of people, all of whom, all of whom, need their feet washed? -14- I want to invite you to be Partners in this kind of community Building community is important to us Because it was important to Jesus. So here s what we re inviting you to become: This is what we ve defined over the last few weeks~ - A commitment to sharing the experiences of life. - A commitment to bringing out the best in each other. - A commitment to truth in the context of acceptance. - A commitment to rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping w/ those who weep. - A commitment to being a community of people, all of whom need their feet washed. One of my favorite movies is the quirky little romantic comedy called, The Princess Bride. It s a story w/in a story A grandpa, played by Peter Falk, arrives to read a story to his sick in bed grandson. Grandson wants an action story Grandpa starts telling a story about a prince & princess, and grandson is not at all happy. There s a princess named Buttercup who lives in a small hut on top of a beautiful country hill and she has a servant named Westley. The princess, being a princess, loves to order her servant around and she calls him simply, Farm Boy.
-15- Now, whatever she asks him to do no matter how insulting Westley responds, As you wish. Farm Boy, saddle my horse. As you wish. Farm Boy, as she drops a bucket on the floor, Fetch my water. As you wish. Farm Boy, fetch me that pitcher. As you wish. -16- Jesus bent the knee to serve his band of brothers. It was his prequel to his great act of service on the cross It was humble, servant Jesus saying to a broken world: As you wish. But we know, of course, what he was really saying. May it be ever so w/ us. Princess Buttercup is just terribly obnoxious But Westley is just the model servant ~ As you wish. But slowly, ever so slowly, Buttercup comes to realize something She is humbled and amazed to discover that whenever Westley says, As you wish, what he really was saying was, I love you. [Insert flowery music here.] Anyway, the story w/in a story ends And we re back to Grandpa & Grandson Grandson suddenly likes this kissing story very much and as Grandpa leaves, Grandson says, Grandpa, I liked that story. Will you come tomorrow & read me another? And Grandpa says As you wish. And we know, don t we, what he was really saying?