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Jesus Explains the Foot-Washing (John 13:12-20)

 Jesus put all his garments back on, and then he sat back in his place. He asked them if they knew the meaning of what he had just done. According to the wording here, Jesus didn't wait for an answer; it was a rhetorical question. They called him, "Teacher," because that is something the students of a rabbi might call him in this time. "Lord" is more interesting, because when one of the disciples of Jesus uses this word in the Gospels, it tends to be a divine title. The ruling authorities at the time didn't miss this meaning, because it kept getting the members of the Church in trouble. The Romans thought their emperors at the time were divine, and they used the same word. On the other hand, in certain places in the Gospels, the word could mean simply, "Sir."

So Jesus takes all this, and says that if he is God, and King of Israel, and he nevertheless takes the place of a slave in order to serve them, that they should serve each other in the same way. This is another one of those times when the message of Jesus is one of radical equality, and without the background, we could completely miss it. Even those of us in the Church called to be ministers and preachers are not too important to sometimes take the very lowest place for the good of us all. In the end, we are a family. Even Jesus takes a lower place in relation to the Father, at least as it relates to the plan of salvation.

Jesus tells them he knows which of them will betray him, not to scare them, or trouble them, but to point out a prophecy about it, in the book of Psalms. The Psalm it comes from is ascribed to David, the great King of Israel, who ruled during the best times of Israel's history. The Psalms are his diary, in many ways, and they tell the story of what he felt, thought, and prayed, at the most difficult times of his coming to power, or being in power. Jesus is reminding them of David, because he wants them to understand that like David, he is a man after God's own heart, as David was described. And he will be the greatest of all Kings, in Israel, and for all of us. Also, Jesus says again that anyone who receives him receives the Father, who sent him.

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