"If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

John 13:1-30 from  the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He would depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. ² And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, ³ Jesus, knowing that the Father had handed all things over to Him, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, ⁴ got up from supper and laid His outer garments aside; and He took a towel and tied it around Himself.

⁵ Then He poured water into the basin, and began washing the disciples’ feet and wiping them with the towel which He had tied around Himself. ⁶ So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, You are washing my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not realize right now, but you will understand later.” ⁸ Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no place with Me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet; otherwise he is completely clean. And you are clean—but not all of you.” ¹¹ For He knew the one who was betraying Him; it was for this reason that He said, “Not all of you are clean.”

¹² Then, when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? ¹³ You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’; and you are correct, for so I am. ¹⁴ So if I, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I gave you an example, so that you also would do just as I did for you. ¹⁶ Truly, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. ¹⁸ I am not speaking about all of you. I know the ones whom I have chosen; but this is happening so that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ ¹⁹ From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe that I am He. ²⁰ Truly, truly I say to you, the one who receives anyone I send, receives Me; and the one who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”

²¹ When Jesus had said these things, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Truly, truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” ²² The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking. ²³ Lying back on Jesus’ chest was one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. ²⁴ So Simon Peter nodded to this disciple and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.” ²⁵ He then simply leaned back on Jesus’ chest and said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” ²⁶ Jesus then answered, “That man is the one for whom I shall dip the piece of bread and give it to him.” So when He had dipped the piece of bread, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. ²⁷ After this, Satan then entered him. Therefore Jesus said to him, “What you are doing, do it quickly.” ²⁸ Now none of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. ²⁹ For some were assuming, since Judas kept the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, “Buy the things we need for the feast”; or else, that he was to give something to the poor. ³⁰ So after receiving the piece of bread, he left immediately; and it was night.

Many people identify as Christians, followers of Christ, but many who say they are His followers neither do what He said nor what He did. In today’s text it says: Then, when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’; and you are correct, for so I am. So if I, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example, so that you also would do just as I did for you. Truly, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I am not speaking about all of you. I know the ones whom I have chosen; but this is happening so that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe that I am He. Truly, truly I say to you, the one who receives anyone I send, receives Me; and the one who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”Jesus said He gave an example. It is not so much that we need to wash each other’s feet as it is that we are to follow Him and be servants to others. Surely, we are not greater than Jesus and He not only served, but also gave His life for us. How much more then should we give our lives to serve Him? Yet, it’s not our works that Jesus truly desires. His sacrifice for us was to reconcile us to God so that we could have an intimate relationship with Him. We were washed not by a religious ritual, but by His blood that was shed for us. In Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus says: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”Our first service to and for Jesus is to love God with our whole heart, soul and mind. Only then, out of that place of loving God, can we truly begin to love and serve others. 1 John 4:19 says: We love, because He first loved us.

We need to remember also that Jesus even washed the feet of Judas, His betrayer. In Luke 6:27-28;35-36  Jesus says: “I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who are abusive to you… love your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil people. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”  In the text Jesus says: “Truly, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

—St. Francis of Assisi