Recently, I have been spending my Bible study time going through the Gospel of John with help from the YouVersion App.
It is a Bible Project study, entitled “God’s Eternal Love.” John, with the inspiration of God, crafts Jesus’ story in a very interesting way. He divides the book into two parts. In the first half, chapters 1–12, John records a series of interactions between different people. During these interactions, Jesus does something that is designed to show his audience that He is the promised Rescuer pointed to in all of the Old Testament.
Each of these interactions should have been received with excitement and joy. Instead, they are met with misunderstanding and anger because those who are a part of the interactions did not correctly answer the question, “Is Jesus the one all of the Scripture points to as our Rescuer?” As I was studying through each of these stories, I found myself wondering how they did not see it? Jesus is right in front of them. They should know better.
As I continued to study, reflect, and pray, God reminded me that I did not always answer the question correctly either. He has always been in my life pointing me to Jesus. So what changed? Me! Rather than live my life on my terms, I gave my heart, my life, my all to Jesus! God’s love turned my heart from one of stone to one of flesh! I turned to Him, listened to Him and obeyed Him rather than myself. It’s in giving my life to Him that I truly began to live!
Chapter 13 begins the second half of John’s gospel and a shift happens. John moves from asking the question to answering it. “Is Jesus the Rescuer we have been waiting for?” Yes, he is! John spent the second half of his book talking about how our lives should look. In verses 1-17, we find the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Everytime I read this story, I can’t help but think about how gross this had to be! And yet, this is the story John uses to give us our first picture of God’s love for His people. Why? After all, what does this have to do with love? It shows that Jesus is not concerned with title or position. Jesus’ goal here is to show the character of God.
In bible times, it was unheard of that a rabbi or teacher would lower himself to the position to take care of someone else’s dirty feet. We can see this in Peter’s reaction when Jesus gets to him in verse 8, “You shall never wash my feet.” Peter thought that Jesus was too important to wash his feet. Jesus responds to Peter in the second part of verse 8. “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” This is Jesus’ way of saying, I am doing this to show you the love God has for you and all of humanity. God loves us so much, he is ready to take on the nature of a servant.
All throughout the rest of his gospel John continues to share stories of Jesus’ self giving love for us. Our lives must reflect love for others. Jesus says in verses 34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The ultimate example of the depth of Jesus’ love for us is the cross. This is where He took the penalty for our sin upon Himself, so we can share eternity with Him!
Each of us has a daily choice to make. Are we going to follow Jesus’ command to love one another?