Monday of Holy Week (March 25). Blessed if you serve

Prepare to Listen.  If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
 
Prayerfully Read John 13:12-17
12After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you?  13You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am.  14So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  15For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.  16Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.  17If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
How would you answer Jesus’ question: “Do you know what I have done to you?”
 
A student once argued that the primary symbol of Christianity should be a basin and a towel, not a cross.  He had a point.  Jesus picked up and used a basin and towel, the tools of a servant not a Lord, to wash his disciples’ feet.  The basin and towel symbolize the way followers of Jesus must live, as servant to all, willing to do the lowliest of tasks.  That’s not what most of us want.  We’d rather be warriors, fighting a noble cause, or in positions of influence and power.  We don’t want to be servants, doing tasks few acknowledge or even see.  But we’re called to the often unseen and unpaid servant roles, putting the needs and interests of others before our own.
 
Jesus didn’t give lists of theological propositions to believe and moral principles to obey.  Instead, he showed by example how we’re to live.  He acted as a servant and lovingly washed his disciples’ feet.  He then commanded his disciples, which includes us today, to follow his example.  It’s that simple, “take up the basin and the towel” and serve one another, however menial and unnoticed by others.  Jesus will notice and he promised a blessing to those who do: “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
 
So perhaps we should include the basin and towel in our images of what Christianity stands for, but not as the primary symbol and or as replacement for the cross that is central to our faith.
 
To whom can you be a servant today and how?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Your call, Lord Jesus, isn’t to be great or in positions of power and authority, but to take on the role of servant.  Help me today to see where I can serve you by serving another so that I may be a reflection of you to the world.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Take up “the basin and the towel.”