Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
As we studied last week, Jesus never stops (and it may seem that the same is true of my writings on the subject, but I digress). We have seen that Jesus never stops working on our behalf, laboring in the large things such as Creation and salvation. It is also true that Jesus never stops working in the little things of life. In John 13:3 we read the following: “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God…” Given that lead-in, certainly something monumental is about to happen! Then we read verses 4 and 5 and find that Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. I don’t know about you, but I wash my feet every day, whether they need it or not. Washing feet is not a big thing, but it was important to Jesus. First, there was the practical point that their dusty feet needed cleaning. Second, Jesus used this event as an object lesson to all of us to care for each other (verse 14). The practice of foot-washing in some churches derives from this passage. In fact, during Holy Week on Maundy Thursday, it is a long-standing custom (Maundy comes from the Latin word for “mandate” or command). If Jesus cares about our dirty feet, we can be assured that He is working even in the small things of our lives.