A Life of Humble Service
Question 1:
What characteristics do you think of when it comes to a hero?
THE POINT
We reflect Christ when we serve others with humility.
THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
I read a lot of books about kings, swords, and medieval battles. I have discovered that these books of fantasy tend to highlight a fundamental flaw of humanity. In these fictional worlds, strong kings crush weak ones. The fastest blade wins. The frail end up serving the fearsome.
Of course, we don’t live in a time of swords and kings, but ours is still a world in which those with strength often oppress instead of support. In the real world, many in positions of power abuse it, but the strongest Person in history set a different example. Jesus walked the earth with the power of God Himself, but He didn’t crush, kill, or overwhelm. He had power the world had never seen, but He used it to serve.
That is to be our way as well. Since being connected to Christ gives us opportunity for abundance, and since being like Jesus means becoming the person God wants us to be, then we should treasure humility. The God of heaven put on flesh and served the world. And we reflect Christ powerfully when we serve with humility.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
John 13:3-5
3 Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. 4 So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. 5 Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.
God washed feet. God—THE God—wrapped a towel around His waist, poured some water, and washed some feet. Isn’t that incredible? Of course, when the God of heaven inhabited a human body and lived a life with regular people, it surely was going to lead to a few remarkable interactions, but Jesus washing His disciples’ feet has to be one of the more surprising scenes of His life.

Question 2:

What does a humble person look like?

Verse 3 helps us embrace the significance of this moment. John helps us appreciate this act of service by reminding us where Jesus came from and where He was going. Let’s not be so focused on what Jesus did on this occasion that we forget who He is. He certainly didn’t. “Jesus knew that . . . he had come from God, and that he was going back to God” (v. 3).
Jesus knew the power He had. Of course He knew, as His disciples did, the miracles He was capable of performing. Throughout John’s Gospel of Jesus’ life, we see stunning evidence of the fact that “the Father had given everything into his hands.” Jesus healed an official’s son (John 4:46-54). Jesus fed more than five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish (6:10-13).Jesus walked on water (6:19-21). Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (11:41-44). That’s what the power of God looks like. Everything had been given into Jesus’ hands; He knew it, and He demonstrated it—but He also demonstrated humility.
Verse 3 also shows us Jesus knew where He had come from and where He was returning. “Jesus knew that . . . he had come from God, and that he was going back to God.” John’s Gospel began by pointing to the divine origin of Jesus. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created” (1:1-3). Jesus created everything. Jesus has authority over everything. Jesus was about to die for the sin of the world, conquer death by being resurrected, and return to heaven to rule forever. Jesus knew all this, yet with all that power and authority, what did He choose to do in this moment? He washed feet.
It’s an incredible example. We can find no greater model of humble service. We are called to be like Jesus. We have been given the privilege of being connected to the One True God who has everything in His hands. And if Jesus can work, we can work. If Jesus can die to Himself, we can do likewise. When we see how He served through His miracles, through His selfless acts like this one in John 13, and ultimately through His death on the cross, we are changed, and we are moved to be like Him. Through Jesus, we have the joy of humbly serving others.
John 13:6-10
6 He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” 10 “One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.”
I grew up in a church that practiced foot washing. Most of the time, when the church shared the Lord’s Supper, we would follow that up by washing one another’s feet. It was a vivid reminder of Jesus’ example. As a young person, my dad washed my feet; he also was the principal of my school. My fifth-grade friend, the fastest kid I knew, washed my feet. One of the pastors even washed my feet once. In that moment I thought, There is now no higher foot-washing for me. I’ve had my heels toweled off by a man of the cloth.
Peter’s experience put mine to shame. His feet were not washed by a school principal, a speedster, or a pastor. The One he had already acknowledged as the Messiah washed his feet (Matt.16:16). If we struggle with the image of God washing feet, we are not alone. Peter strongly protested. Peter had not volunteered to wash feet, yet it made much more sense for him to be washing Jesus’ feet. In typical Peter fashion, he stood his ground on the protestation: “You will never wash my feet” (v. 8).
Peter’s foot-washing protest set Jesus up to share that He can forgive sinners and make them clean. Just as Jesus humbled Himself and took on the servant’s task of washing feet, He humbled Himself further by taking our sin as His own and dying on the cross.
The humility of Christ isn’t just the greatest example of power being used to serve others, it brings with it the most stunning and gracious outcome of serving others the world could ever know. Jesus’ humble act of dying on the cross for us was also singularly generous, for by it He offers us forgiveness, holiness, freedom, joy, and eternal life.
The gift of the gospel is a connection to Christ, friendship with Christ, and the ability to be “in” Christ. Jesus, the humble Servant, doesn’t leave us half dirty. He gives us the full measure of His forgiveness and makes us completely clean.

Question 3:

How would you explain Jesus making us completely clean to another person?

John 13:14-16
14 “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you. 16 “Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him.”
Jesus pointed us to the value of service in verses 14-16: we find great worth in serving as Jesus served. “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” This is another reminder of just who was doing the dirty work of washing feet that day. It was Jesus, their Master and Lord. The One with the authority was also the one with the towel. The Leader humbled Himself to serve.
He calls us to do the same. Jesus could have said that for no other reason than because He is God. He created us. What He says to do is what should be done. When the Creator speaks, the created should obey. Period. But Jesus wasn’t just ordering others to do something merely because He said so. He was calling us to be like Him.

Question 4:

Why is it so important to Jesus that we serve others?

Jesus went on to perform the greatest act of service: He sacrificed Himself. The One who told us to humble ourselves died for the very ones He commands. His death in our place melts us. But even still, He isn’t just the Creator and the Servant. In verse 17, He reminds us He is the Blesser. “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
Shortly before Jesus went to the cross to pay the price for our sins, He promised to bless us for our humble obedience. This reality is all over God’s Word.

“If only you had paid attention to my commands. Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea” (Isa. 48:18).

“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28).
Christ has called us to reflect Him by how we serve others with humility. He modeled this service for us beautifully and clearly. He has motivated us by making us the beneficiaries of His gracious service. And He has promised to bless us as we obey.

Question 5:

What are some ways our group can humbly serve others in our church and community?

Engage
SERVING OTHERS
Choose one of the following images that best represents serving others to you. Then answer the question.

How does serving others grow your faith and draw you closer to God?
“He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.”
PHILIPPIANS 2:8
LIVE IT OUT
We reflect Christ when we serve others with humility. Choose one of the following applications:

Make a list. Consider the ways Jesus has served you, and thank Him for those things in your time with Him this week.

Pray for someone you can serve. Ask God to put one person on your heart whom you can serve. Decide how you can serve them, and do that this week.

Model service as a group. Get with a group, either your small group or a group of family and friends, read John 13:1-17, and either wash each other’s feet or choose another humble act of service you can do together.
Unlike the kings of medieval days, we serve a King who chose to humble Himself to serve us. Let’s ask Jesus to empower us to humbly represent Him to those around us this week.