The Servant King

Product Information

This morning we’re going to look at a slightly different portrait of Jesus, John 13, where Jesus is just with his disciples, and he reveals himself as the servant of the Lord. In fact, we might call Jesus the Servant King. That’s the first thing we see in this section of Scripture, John 13-17, which is known as the “upper room discourse.” It’s called that because Jesus here is with his disciples in a second-story room somewhere in Jerusalem. He was just there in a very intimate setting with his disciples. This is where they had their Passover meal together, it is where Jesus, as we’re going to see today, washed the feet of his disciples, and then he began to teach them, and you have several chapters of Jesus’ teaching and instruction to his disciples; and then his prayer, recorded in John 17. A few years ago, I stopped to think. My thinking made me realize how little I know. My thinking made me see things I had never seen before. I think you should hear what I have to say, because what I learned and discovered is truly from an original source.

It says that, “having loved his own, he loved them to the end.” This shows the duration of his love. He loved them to the end! The end of what? Well, the end of his life. He loved them to the very point of death. He loved them completely and fully. Some versions would say he loved them to the uttermost. The word carries this idea of the completeness of Jesus’ love. That becomes clear when we consider the servant king’s teaching in verses 6-17. That’s point number three. The servant king’s love, the servant king’s humility, and then thirdly, the servant king’s teaching. So it was customary—every household would do this—that when a guest came to the home, part of ordinary hospitality was to wash your guest’s feet, clean their feet off before they came into the home. Now, the deal was that only the servants would do this. This was not something that the master of the house would do, this isn’t something that the high and the mighty would do; this was a functional menial task that was reserved for the servants and the slaves. This is what the slaves did. And Jesus, in a surprising, startling act of humble service, washes the feet of his disciples. That’s the context. Glorious Day Chords by Jason Ingram, Jonathan Smith, Kristian Stanfill, Passion Band, and Sean Curran

Examples

Another example are the servants, the house workers, we see on Downton Abbey. If you’re not familiar, this is a show about an English Lord, his family, and his staff at the turn of the 20th century. The servants at the Downton estate are like a well-oiled machine. They’re always a step ahead of their superiors, and keep the house running without much recognition. Or perhaps you are in a supervisory position at work, and the people you are supervising refuse to collaborate on an important project. Your task could be to use your position to step in and model collaboration. In this way, you are leading them in the direction you want them to go, and you are serving them by being willing to walk alongside them instead of lording your power over them. It is through the cross that Jesus takes the ultimate role of servant. It’s at the cross that Jesus, through the shedding of his blood, cleanses us from our sins. Unless you are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, unless you embrace the crucified Messiah, the servant king—unless you embrace him, you have no part in him. There is no forgiveness outside of Jesus. It’s only in Jesus that there is forgiveness. So you can’t be like Peter and hold yourself off, “Lord, I don’t want any part of this.” If you do, you cut yourself off from Jesus. You have to embrace what Jesus does as the servant king. According to Google, it means excellent, marvellous, first-class, first-rate, admirable, brill, grand, and even supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! You know, out of obedience and sometimes just out of sheer duty, I’m like, “Okay, Lord, yes, I should do that.” I go do it, and you know what happens? I find bubbling up inside this strange new joy, and I start to feel like, “This is right. This is walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”

I want you to note here the two things Jesus says. He says, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me,” and, “the one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean.” What does Jesus mean by that? There are two things, one that’s certainly hinted at and then a very definite meaning as well. No, you’re reading the book of Isaiah. But now you can see why the book of Isaiah, along with the Psalms, are the most quoted Old Testament books by Jesus, as well as the apostles who wrote the New Testament! Jesus calls it a new commandment. Why is it a new commandment? The command to love others is not new. The Old Testament said very clearly, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” What is new is the measure of this love, the example of this love given by Jesus himself. He says, “Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.” He’s showing us how to do it! He’s giving us the example of love. This is the new commandment: to love this way, the way Jesus loves.But what does this all mean for us? It is well and good that Jesus is our king who came to serve, but we aren’t kings or rulers, right? This is true, but in some way or another, each of us is a leader, which means we can follow Jesus’ example of servant leadership. What Jesus is showing us in this passage is that the expression of love—the tangible, concrete, real-life, on-the-street expression of love—is serving people. It’s servanthood, which means that if you’re not serving people you don’t love people, and if you do love people, it should bear the fruit of service. We do it for love. We serve for love. When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, ‘Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.’” D.A. Carson, once again, says that “his act of humility is simultaneously a display of love, a symbol of saving cleansing, and a model of Christian conduct.” We’ve already considered his love, but I want to think for a minute about these other two things, how Jesus’s act of humility is a symbol of saving cleansing and a model of Christian conduct. This gives us a portrait of Jesus as the Servant King, and I want you to see three things about this picture. First of all, Jesus as a servant king loves his people; secondly, his example of humility; and then thirdly, his teaching, where he explains his actions to the disciples.