The Suffering Servant

Today’s message was written by my friend, Rev. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

Something was missing. The disciples noticed it immediately. When they entered the Upper Room to celebrate the Passover feast with Jesus, they whispered to one another, "Where is the servant? Who will wash our feet?" They felt uncomfortable through the first part of the meal. Should one of them offer to wash the others' feet? The thought was quickly dismissed as beneath them. No wonder they were shocked when Jesus himself rose from the table, took a towel and a basin, and began to wash their feet. How could this be? They should have been washing his.

Washing the disciples' feet, like the cross that would soon follow, was something Jesus did because he knew why he had come into the world and where he was going. He was free to become a servant because he knew he was the Suffering Servant. Jesus said, "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet."(John 13:14)

That means more than water and a towel. Serving one another in Jesus' name means genuinely caring, lifting burdens, standing with each other through difficulty, and doing the hard work of forgiving and reconciling, regardless of cost.

Prayer: God of love, help us to think, act, and react as servants, doing what we can to serve others today. Through Christ we know where we came from and where we are going — and therefore we have nothing to lose, and everything to give. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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