I Have Loved You...Love One Another

[Read John 13:2-38]

I'm not sure how many of you have watched the TV show The Office, but I was reminded of one of their episodes this week. In one episode Dwight was working really hard to do something nice for everyone in the office. Yet, he met his match with a guy named Andy. Andy refused to let Dwight do something nice for him. Every time Dwight would do something nice for him, he would immediately do something nice in return. They both end up becoming extremely frustrated with each other as they try to "serve" and "help each other out"

Have you ever been in a situation like that before? You keep trying to help someone but they refuse to let you help. They keep interrupting you, trying to make sure you know they already know what you're about to tell them. They keep trying to serve you, while you're trying to serve them. They keep trying to one-up you and the way in which you're serving them. OR they refuse to accept a compliment from you. It's weird and frustrating at the same time. You're frustrated, but you don't know why. On the one hand, they seem like they're being nice and humble, but it's really annoying and doesn't feel nice and humble. That's because it's not. Actually, refusing to let someone serve you is not humble, it's prideful. It's a subtle way of saying, I'm not the type of person that needs to be served, I'm the type of person that serves those who are less fortunate than me. I'm better than you. So, why don't you let me serve you.

As we dive into this morning's passage, we're going to see two, or three, different forms of pride. Some of these forms of pride are much harder to detect because they're dressed up in the guise of humility, but it's still pride. This is really important for us because we often think that pride is clearly seen and easy to recognize, but that's not actually true. Pride is very crafty and hides beneath numerous disguises.

Look at the interaction between Jesus and Peter in this passage: “Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”” (John 13:5–6, ESV). Jesus tries to keep doing what he has planned on doing, so he tells Peter that eventually he'll understand what is happening, so just let him do what he is doing. Then Peter get's vehement about it and says, “You shall never wash my feet.” (John 13:8, ESV). One commentator said that it was literally translated "not in all of eternity will you wash my feet"--not gonna happen, not in a million-billion years, am I ever going to let you wash my feet. I will NEVER let you serve me! To which Jesus replies, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” (John 13:8, ESV). So, Peter responds saying, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (John 13:9, ESV).

Notice what is happening here with Peter. At first Peter says, "You will NEVER wash me!" but when Jesus rebukes him he says, "Well, fine, if you need to wash me, you better do my whole body, not just my feet." Peter is trying to dictate the way in which Jesus serves him. There's a sense in which Peter is still refusing to allow Jesus to simply wash his feet. It's all pride on Peter's part. He thinks he knows better than Jesus. He thinks Jesus doesn't know what he's doing. He thinks Jesus needs his help, not that he needs Jesus' help. Pride.

We see a really powerful connection to Peter's pride when it manifests itself at the end of the passage. Peter says, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” (John 13:37, ESV). Peter is absolutely confident that he is strong enough to go wherever Jesus goes and do whatever Jesus does. He will even lay down his life for Jesus. Notice Jesus' response and pay attention to how similar this sounds to something we've already talked about: “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.” (John 13:38, ESV). Did you catch it? Earlier Peter said this to Jesus, "Lord, do YOU wash MY feet?" and now Jesus is correcting Peter by saying, "Will YOU lay down your life for ME?". Peter is saying, "I am the one who serves YOU, Jesus. You don't serve me. I am the one who lays down my life for YOU. You don't lay down your life for me." It's all pride. Jesus' response is, "Nah. I am the one who will serve you AND I'm the one who will lay down my life for you."

We also see pride involved in Judas' betrayal of Jesus. There's a lot of speculation about why Judas did what he did, and the reality is, we don't really know why. We're never told. However, we know two things about Judas that show his pride: 1) he was willing to betray the man whom he had followed for the last three years, and the only way he could do that is because he didn't believe Jesus and thought he knew better and 2) his pride manifests itself differently than Peter's, because Judas was willing to lay down Jesus' life for himself, because he thought his life was more valuable. That's pride.

And it's important to notice how Judas' pride is talked about in this passage. Right away at the beginning we read, “During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,” (John 13:2, ESV) and later on we read, “Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”...So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.” (John 13:27–30, ESV). Guess who is closely involved whenever pride is involved? Satan. He put the idea into Judas' heart. Then, we read that he entered Judas as he left to do the dirty dead of betrayal. This shouldn't surprise us because the best explanation we have from Scripture for Satan's fall is that it was the result of pride--he pridefully thought he could overthrow God's kingdom. So, it shouldn't surprise us that the primary weapon they use in their warfare is pride.

I really want to make sure we understand this because there can be a fascination with Spiritual Warfare that is unhelpful. People like to watch movies with demonic possessions and rotating heads and things that creep them out. As a result, we begin to think that's the way Satan and demons act, those are the tools they use. We begin to think that Satan and demons look a lot like the villains we've seen on Disney movies over the years--the moment we see them, we KNOW they are villains. Yet, spiritual warfare is much more subtle than that. The primary weapon of Satan and demons in their warfare is pride AND to make it harder, they cloak pride in ways that make it very hard to recognize OR they deceive us into thinking that it's not actually pride.

It often begins with a whisper in your ear that you've been neglecting yourself too long. You're more important than that. You need to do something for yourself, give yourself a little treat. Do something for yourself. It seems harmless. Yet, it continues to spiral out of control from there as we become more and more focused on ourselves--which is just pride. It get's to the point where I've spoken with husbands whose marriages and families are completely falling apart and they keep telling me, "I have to work on myself first!" and their family continued to fall apart because they were always focusing on themselves and never laying down their life for their family. I've watched this in churches when people get to a position where they say, "I've served people long enough. I've done my time and I've done my service. Now it's time to focus on myself!" It's all pride. I am more important than this right now. I am more important than my family. I am more important than these other people serving me. I am more important than the service that needs to get done. It's all pride and it's all spiritual warfare and it's all from Satan himself.

And here's the scariest part of all this, it happens to the people we least expect it to happen. Notice that nobody expects Judas to be the one to betray Jesus: “After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke.” (John 13:21–22, ESV). We want to think that the disciples would respond by saying, "Oh, we know who that is. Judas has always been a little suspect." But they have no idea. And it get's even worse later on because Jesus eventually tells Judas to go and do what he needs to do--which would seem fairly obvious in the context of what just happened--yet we read, “Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.” (John 13:28–29, ESV). Nobody had a clue that Judas had been losing this spiritual battle. Nobody knew that Judas had been overcome with pride and self-love. Nobody knew that Judas was going to betray Jesus. To add something we've already talked about, I bet none of them knew that Peter would be the one to deny Jesus three times, either. Nobody knew. It was completely unexpected. Judas did not look like a Disney villain. It was much more subtle than that.

Now, I'm going to speculate a little bit here, but I think there's some merit in this, otherwise I wouldn't be telling you. Notice how things go down after Jesus announces that someone is going to betray him: “One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.” (John 13:23–26, ESV). Now, we have pretty good reason to believe that "the disciple whom Jesus loved" is the one writing this Gospel--it's John--and he's trying to be humble about that. But notice that he leans back against Jesus' chest to ask him who it is. Because of the way they reclined around the table at the time, the only way he could do that is by being at his right hand--the honored position. But notice how easily Jesus is able to hand the morsel of bread to Judas. Judas is very close to Jesus. I'm even going to say that Judas was probably reclining at Jesus' left hand, the second most position of honor. It fits with the reason why nobody expected Judas to be the one to betray Jesus. He may have been considered one of the top disciples. And yet, pride crept in and brought him down. Or to tie this into my sermon from a couple weeks ago, his heart got harder and harder and harder, until Satan had full control over him. And nobody expected it or saw it coming because it can happen to anyone.

I think we've seen this quite a bit over the past 5-10 years, haven't we? We've watched church leader after church leader fall into heinous and horrendous sin. And time and time again, we hear people say, "We never saw it coming!" or "We never thought in a million years they would be the one to do something like that!" It's because pride and spiritual warfare can take down the most unexpected people. Part of the problem comes when we pridefully say things like, "Well, at least I know that will never happen to me!" Wrong. That's what Peter said about laying down his life for Jesus and, I think it's the same thing he thought about denying Jesus--NEVER going to happen, not in a million years. Then, in his pride, he did the thing he said he would never do. Pride goes before the fall and it can bring down the strongest of leaders and the strongest of believers. Calvin says this too is one of Satan's strategies, "When the devil cannot estrange us from Christ by hatred of his doctrine, he excites either dislike or contempt of the ministers themselves." (Calvin, 67).

Jesus shows us the way to combat this type of spiritual warfare and gives us an example for how we live as Christians. At the beginning of this passage, we read a strong contrast: “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:3–5, ESV). On the one hand, Jesus knew that the Father had given him all power and authority, and on the other hand, he took the form of a servant and washed the disciple's feet. This is contrary to our expectations in many ways--and contrary to the expectation of the disciples. For many people, they would have expected this to read something like, "Jesus had been given all power and authority from God, so he used that power and authority to defeat his betrayer and his enemies." Instead, we see that Jesus lays aside that power and authority, takes the form of a servant, and washes their feet--even his betrayer's feet. We see the highest of the high doing the duty of the lowest of the low and not doing it begrudgingly, but doing it lovingly. This is why Jesus says, “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.” (John 13:12–15, ESV).

This is the message Jesus wants to leave with his disciples before he leaves. This is what is supposed to define the Christian community. If we are the people who put their faith in Jesus and follow Jesus, then we are to live like Jesus as well. We will love that way Jesus loved. That's why he says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” (John 13:34–35, ESV). Now, this isn't a "new" commandment in the sense that they didn't know this before. It's "new" in the way in which they will understand it--especially after Jesus dies on the cross. When they see Jesus loving his people by laying down his life on the cross, they will finally understand what he was doing when he laid aside his power and prestige and did the work of the lowest of the low. Now, they will understand the way in which they are to love one another, by laying down their lives. Or to say this in a non-politically correct manner: They will get over themselves. They will stop thinking they're a big deal. They will stop acting like they're better than anyone else or a big deal. And they will love one another by laying down their lives and serving. THAT is how people will know we are disciples of Jesus. This is what will characterize God's people as God's people.

I think it's important to take a moment to point out that this looks very different in a variety of different contexts and situations. Sometimes humility means laying down your life and your ego by serving someone in need. Sometimes humility means laying down your life and ego by keeping your mouth shut. However, humility can also look like laying down your life and your ego by saying something that is going to make people hate and despise you, but saying it because you actually love them. Sometimes humility means laying down your life and your ego by doing something you said you would never do, the thing that grosses you out and makes you cringe. Sometimes humility means laying down your life and your ego by doing nothing. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's the idea of laying down your savior/messiah complex. It's laying down the idea that YOU are the savior and that YOU are the one who saves people and instead you are trusting God to do the work and supporting someone along the way, giving them the opportunity to learn how to do things on their own. Like I said, it looks different in every situation and circumstance.

This is one of the hardest things we will ever do in all of our lives. It's the battle of killing our sinful, prideful hearts by continually laying down our lives in humble submission and service to our God and to other people. This is why Jesus tells his disciples, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” (John 13:7, ESV). Afterwards you will understand. Later you will understand. That doesn't just mean that they will understand what true love and service looks like after Jesus' death on the cross, but it also means that LATER, after they've lived life for a while, they will begin to understand what this looks like and how to humbly lay down their lives for one another. Eventually, Peter will learn this lesson. He will lay down his life in service to God's people, even to the Gentiles whom he always thought he was superior to. And he will eventually lay down his life sacrificially, and he will be crucified upside down, in service to Jesus Christ. Eventually, after the long, hard learning process of life, he would understand, and so would the rest of the disciples.

Yet, Jesus had to remind Peter, and the rest of the disciples, that they couldn't do this apart from him. We love because he first loved us. We lay down our lives because he first laid down his life. That's why Jesus rebukes Peter with: “Will you lay down your life for me?” (John 13:38, ESV). He's reminding Peter, that He is the one who will lay down his life for them. Jesus is the one who is going to humble himself, take the form of a servant, and lower himself to the point of death. He is going to do this because he loves his people. He is going to do this because he wants to see his people cleansed and forgiven. He is going to do this so that his people will also be shaped and empowered to follow him in this way of life. We can only love because HE first loved us. We can only humble ourselves because HE first humbled himself. We can only lay down our lives, because HE first laid down his life for us.

Even then, after we've put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, it will be a long journey of continuing to learn how to do this. It will be a journey where we're attacked on all sides by Satan and his demons, trying to get us to focus on ourselves and make a big deal of ourselves. It will be a journey filled with failures and mistakes, where we have to repeatedly repent and turn to Jesus for forgiveness. Yet, it will also be a journey where we are constantly being shaped and molded to become more like Jesus by the power or his Spirit, and where we are increasingly learning how to get over ourselves, humble ourselves, and love one another as Christ loved us.