John 13:15

Our Great Example

I have given you an example. John 13:15.

Our text today is one of Christ's sayings. He said it to His disciples the last evening He was on earth, just before they all had their last meal together.

You remember that Last Supper. It was held in a large upper room lent by Christ's friends. In the room was a table on which the supper, was set. There were also a number of couches for the guests. At an Eastern feast, you see, they did not sit on chairs as we do, they reclined on couches. But besides these pieces of furniture there were a pitcher of water, a basin, and a towel. These were specially important, for before a meal what seems to us an unusual performance was gone through. All the guests had their feet bathed. This was absolutely necessary for their comfort, because the people wore no shoes in the house and only sandals out-of-doors, and the sandy roads of Palestine were both hot and dusty. So the custom was that when the guests arrived a servant poured cool water over their tired feet and wiped them with a towel. Christ and His disciples were poor and had no servant to perform this office for them, but one of the disciples was supposed to do it instead.

On this last evening of Christ's life, however, the disciples had been quarrelling as to which of them was the greatest and they had got so hot over it that they hustled into the room like a lot of great sulking schoolboys. They threw themselves down on their couches and looked at the table, looked at the ceiling, looked at the floor, looked anywhere but at the pitcher and basin and towel that were crying out to be used. They knew quite well that it was the duty of one to bathe the feet of the others, but they were all equally determined not to be that one. They thought that he who would condescend to do such a lowly service would at once be acknowledging himself inferior, so they just sat down and gloomed and said nothing.

Neither did Christ say anything; but He did something. He did a most surprising thing. He took a look at their faces and He took a look at their hearts for He saw all that was going on there and then He rose and, casting aside His robes, took the pitcher and the basin and the towel, and, one after another, He washed the feet of those sullen, angry men. Can't you guess how they must have felt when their Lord and Master the Lord and Master of heaven and earth stooped to do for them a servant's duty? In one moment the angry passion must have left each heart, and burning shame must have filled it.

We know that Peter, who was always the spokesman, did protest, and that he drew up his feet on the couch, and refused to let Christ serve him. But Christ insisted that Peter also should have his feet bathed.

He bathed the feet of all, even those of Judas, who that very night was to betray Him for the price of a slave.

Then Christ put on His robes again and sat down, and looking on their shamed faces said gently, “Do you know why I, your Lord and Master, have done this? It is because I want you to do likewise. I have given you an example, and I want you to think of it and copy it when I am gone. I want you to learn that true greatness consists in serving others, and that the greatest among you is the one who is readiest to serve his brethren!”

Now, when Christ said He had given us an example to copy, He did not mean that we were actually to take a pitcher and a basin and a towel and go round washing the feet of others. Emperors and Popes and Archbishops have done that and are still doing it every year on Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday as we call it the day before Good Friday. I am sure you will all have heard of Maundy money or Maundy pennies, the little silver pieces that our own King gives to deserving poor people on that day. He gives them money now instead of washing their feet, for the last English sovereign to carry out the ceremony of feet washing was James II.

To wash the feet of beggars or poor people that is one way of copying Christ's example. It is copying it in the letter. But that is not the way Christ meant us to copy it when He said, “I have given you an example.” He meant us to imitate the spirit in which the deed was done. He meant us to learn that he who is really greatest is he who is readiest to cast aside his pride and serve his fellowmen.

Boys and girls, you are good at imitating. Why not imitate the Highest? Why not copy Christ? The world still thinks it difficult to copy Christ's example; but those who know Christ know that it is easy for two reasons.

The first is that Christ showed the way. Christ gave the pattern. You know how much easier it is to do a sum if the teacher has worked one like it on the blackboard. If you have only written directions it seems almost impossible, but with the example before your eyes it is quite another matter.

The second reason is that love helps us. If we love Christ and if we love our fellow-men we feel that we can never do enough to serve them. Love makes service joy.

It is told of the famous French artist, Gustave Dore, that, while he was painting the face of Christ in one of his pictures, a lady came into his studio. Her gaze fell on the face and she stood transfixed, so wonderful was it. The artist watched her anxiously meanwhile. “Why do you look at me like that, M. Dore?” she asked. “I wanted to see what you thought of that face,” was the reply. “You do like it don't you?” “Yes, I do,” said the lady. “And I'll tell you what I think. I think that you couldn't paint such a face of

Christ unless you loved Him.” “Unless I loved Him!” exclaimed Dore . “Ah! Madame, I trust I do, and that most sincerely but as I love Him more I shall paint Him better.”

That artist knew the secret of service. He knew that the more we love the better we serve.