Series: Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gift
#16: The Gifts of Spiritual Roles: Servant
John 13:1-17,34-35 (NLT)
By John Gill ~ September 24, 2023
I didn’t want to go. The idea of spending a Friday night in the basement of a church in Atlanta with 50 homeless men didn’t sound very inviting to me! I could think of many other things I would have RATHER done on a Friday night…. I COULD have gone to the seminary library to work on that paper on Isaiah that was due the following Monday. Or I COULD have attended the special service they were having that night at the little church I worshiped at while I was in Atlanta. Or, of course, I COULD have gone out with my friends and had some fun.
But instead, I signed up to go downtown to help in the homeless shelter at St. Marks UMC which was practically in the shadow of the Georgia State Capital Building.
It was in a bad part of town. Lots of crime. Vagrants and seedy-looking people roaming around the streets. You know the type of neighborhood… the ones you drive through with your car doors locked. It’s not the kind of place you want to spend an evening. But every Friday night, our seminary provided the staff for the shelter and they were desperate for volunteers, and so, I signed up.
When the night came, I really didn’t want to go. But I did. Reluctantly.
Before the men were allowed into the shelter, we made soup in big caldrons on the stove… cabbage soup made of donated food. Along with the soup, we served bread and water. It wasn’t much, but they seemed to enjoy it.
I remember how uncomfortable I felt as I walked from table to table with a pitcher of soup for those who wanted seconds. These men were the kind of people I had always tried to avoid, and here I was, shoulder to shoulder with them.
Most of the men looked to be in poor health… I remember thinking to myself that if I didn’t want to catch some dreaded disease I had better remember to wash my hands. A number of the men seemed to have mental illnesses, and I found myself trying to keep my distance from them all evening.
And ALL of the men were filthy. I remember the smell vividly… the sweet smell of cabbage soup mingling with the foul body odor of 50 men who had been outside in the weather for days on end. Needless to say, it WASN’T very pleasant!
Before they settled down on their cots for the night, they were invited to take a shower and put on clean clothes from the clothes-closet. And then, as THEY slept, WE worked most of the night washing countless loads of their discarded laundry in order to restock the clothes-closet for the next night.
After a few hours of restless sleep on a cot in a hot storage room, we rose early the next morning to make a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee. And then, they were sent back out on the street to fend for themselves one more day.
And we, who had volunteered all went back to our comfortable upper-middle class university – just a little bit wiser.
That experience, which I almost passed up, proved to be one of the most significant in my spiritual journey, because on THAT night I began to read the teachings of Jesus differently. You see, all through my Christian upbringing I had “learned” about serving others… And in seminary I had even done papers on “servanthood,” But, until THAT night, I had never really SERVED others.
Sure, I had helped around the house while I was growing up, setting the table and making my bed (well, SOMETIMES I made my bed). And of course, I had served meals at church dinners. But I had never really SERVED …. OTHERS!
That night, in a room full of strangers, I heard the voice of Jesus saying, “When you have done it to one of the least of these, my brothers or sisters, you have done it unto me.”
All of a sudden, I realized that, if I am to follow Jesus, I must put aside all my prideful arrogance, all my stereotypical prejudices about people, and see them for who they really are… fellow children of God, whom God loves, and for whom Christ died.
And when a brother or sister is down and out, I must be willing to humble myself, to stoop down and help lift them up. The lesson I learned that night is this: “Being a disciple of Christ is more than just lip-service, it’s a life-style.”
This, I believe, is the meaning of our text this morning. Jesus’ gesture of footwashing in that Upper Room dramatically demonstrated to his Disciples (and to you and me) that REAL discipleship involves humility of spirit and a willingness to serve others.
That is why I have saved “The Spiritual Gift of Servant” to be one of the last gifts in our sermon series on the Spiritual Gifts. Most of the gifts we think are important are showy gifts – Leadership, Evangelism, Exhortation, Prophecy, etc. If we discover that we don’t have any of the more prominent gifts, we may feel like our gifts don’t really count.
But in these passages, scripture tells us that the exact opposite is true. While the gift of servant is a quiet, behind-the-scenes kind of gift, in many ways it is the most important gift of all!
Let me explain by looking at another scripture.
The Gospel of Luke tells us that, during the meal in the Upper Room, the Disciples began to bicker among themselves about who was the greatest.
Each thought that their role in the little band of Jesus’ followers was more important than the others, that their spiritual gifts were superior – and they were eager for special recognition. Perhaps they were arguing over who would get the seats of honor next to Jesus at the table that night, I don’t know.
In any case, arrogance and pride was causing discord among those there in the Upper Room with Jesus. That “set the stage” for the story we read this morning from John’s Gospel.
You see, when people in Jesus’ day came into a house, a servant would wash the dusty feet of the guests. Since that night in the Upper Room, there WERE no servants, it would have fallen to the youngest person there, or perhaps the person of the lowest rank to do that menial task.
Clearly NONE of the Disciples were willing to humble themselves and wash the feet of the others. It was already well into the meal, and their feet were STILL unwashed. You can almost feel the tension of the stalemate!
Jesus knew that the arrogance and self-centeredness of his Disciples was standing in the way of their relationship with Him. They couldn’t truly love Him unless they loved one another.
So, Jesus took a basin and towel, wrapped the towel around Him like a servant and began to do what no one else had been willing to do: The very Son of God, who would soon be glorified by His Father stooped to wash the feet of His Disciples.
There was stunned silence in the room (I am sure) as Jesus went around the table on his hands and knees, pouring water over each man’s feet and then drying them with the towel. And THEN he came to Peter …impetuous……volatile…..unpredictable Peter.
You know, it’s just my theory, but I have a feeling that it must have been Peter’s job to wash the feet that night. The reason I think that this might be true is because Peter protested so much. Peter REFUSED to let Jesus wash his feet….WHY? out of a sense of guilt and embarrassment, I suppose..
But Jesus insisted, and the lesson was driven home that ONLY BY HUMBLING YOURSELF AND BECOMING A SERVANT TO OTHERS CAN YOU BE A FOLLOWER OF JESUS.
There in that Upper Room, Jesus gave the model for us to follow. Friends, we can talk about “servanthood” and “loving our neighbor” until we are blue in the face. But until we actually are willing to get our hands dirty serving others in Christ’s name, our words will have no meaning at all.
A congregation may be filled with members with the showy, more prominent gifts of the Spirit, but Jesus is telling us that, if no one exhibits the gift of servanthood, that congregation ceases to be the church of Jesus Christ.
As Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant.”
Or, as Jesus said to Peter and the others: “Since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.”
Are you a foot washer? Are you one who is willing to put aside your prideful arrogance long enough to take up a basin and towel and serve others in Christ’s name?
If so, God has given you the Spiritual Gift of the Servant. Now, go out and find a place to serve.
© 2023 by John B. Gill, III