Today is Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday is the day we remember Jesus celebrating the Last Supper with His disciples and washing their feet.

This morning I was reading the account of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples in John 13.

One verse stopped me in my tracks.

 In John 13:3 we are told, “Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God.” It is out of this fullness, out of knowing who He is, out of His divinity that He washes the feet of the disciples. Verse 4 begins, “So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself.”

These verses tell us Jesus washes the feet of the disciples out of knowing everything is His, that He is sovereign over every inch of this world, that He came from God, and will be going back to God. His divinity is the motivation for His service and humility here. Because He knew everything had been given to Him, He humbles Himself and serves the disciples leaving them an example to follow and a practical way to show their love for one another.

The one who knows He has been given everything is moved by this knowledge to make Himself nothing for the sake of His friends, out of His love for His world. Because everything is His and He loves us enough to humbly sacrifice Himself we can trust Him.

God isn’t waiting for you to mess up. God isn’t waiting to strike you down. God loves you enough to enter into the brokenness and chaos of this world, to wash the feet of twelve fickle disciples, and to die in your place to rise victorious so that you might know forgiveness and new life.

Jesus understood exactly who He was and it is out of this identity that He serves the disciples by washing their feet. The one who has been given everything serves us, loves us, dies for us, saves us, redeems us, and promises resurrection for us so that we might know Him and have everything as well. It is out of our identity in Christ we can serve on another, love one another, and faithfully follow the example Jesus left for us.