Opening
Prayer: Lord Jesus, O the depths you
were willing to go to in order to show us your love! O the depths to which you were willing to
stoop in order to show us our incredible worth.
Thank you for your unfailing love.
Amen.
Scripture: John 13:1-17
Journal: Put yourself in this passage. Put yourself in Simon Peter’s shoes. Jesus kneels before you, takes your dirty
feet into his strong and gentle hands.
He looks you deeply in the eyes, and then begins to wash your feet. What is your response? What else in you needs to be washed this day?
Reflection:
Years ago I was at a weekend camp with kids and
leaders from my community. My job for
the weekend was to make sure all of the leaders, who were there with their high
school friends, had everything they needed for a fruitful and successful
experience. Just before our main meeting
on Saturday night, one of our leaders came to me with a dilemma. His cabin and another cabin of guys, from a
rival high school, had been in conflict all weekend, several times being on the
verge of violence. His dilemma was that
during the free time, just before our evening meeting, some kids from the other
cabin had come in and vandalized his cabin.
His fear was that if the guys in his cabin went up after the meeting and
saw what the other cabin had done, there was sure to be a fight. He wondered if I might be able to go up
during the meeting and take care of whatever damage might have been
inflicted. So after making sure everyone
was in the meeting and taking care of a couple of more quick requests, I headed
up to survey the damage.
As soon
as I walked in the door I couldn’t believe my eyes, or nose. What these guys had done was come in and take
a bowel movement right in the middle of the floor of their rival cabin. And not only that, they had taken the
excrement and spread it all over the walls.
When I walked into the bathroom, I could quickly see that they had done
the same thing there as well; spreading the nastiness all over those walls
too. It didn’t take long before I
realized exactly what I had to do. While
the entire camp sat in the meeting listening to the incredible story of what
Jesus had done on the Cross, I would be on my hands and knees cleaning this
incredibly nasty mess off the floors and walls.
I must admit that, as I began the process, I was not pleased—and that’s
putting it mildly.
So what
do you do? You get over it, you roll up
your sleeves, and you get to work. It
wasn’t until about half way through the process that I was in a state to hear
anything other than my anger and frustration.
But as I continued on, I began to realize that God was right there in
the midst of it all. This is exactly where Jesus would be; just as he was
when we bent down to wash the disciple’s dirty feet—why in the world would
Almighty God stoop that low? Only because
of Love.
As a
matter of fact that was not all, God had something more to say to me. “You know that the kids that did this are
listening to the story of my great love for them right now don’t you? You see what you are doing right there,
cleaning this nasty mess off of everything?
That’s what I’m doing for them right now—even as they hear the story of
my Passion. I am washing them. I’m cleaning their filth and their stench and
their nastiness with my very own hands, with my very own blood. And you know what else? I did the same thing for you. You were exactly like them, covered in your
own sin and filth and nastiness. I got
my hands involved in your filth, I washed you clean, and I made you
whole.” And before I knew it, tears were
streaming down my cheeks; tears of joy, tears of gratitude, tears of
recognition of the depths of His amazing love—tears of peace. I, indeed, had been washed as white as snow
by the loving hands—and blood—of my Creator.
Only because of Love. Thanks be to
God!!!
Prayers
Closing
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you
were willing to wash my dirty feet. May
I learn to do the same for others. Amen.
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