John 13

John 13:15

Our Great Example I have given you an example.—John 13:15.Our text today is one of Christ’s sayings. He said it to His disciples the last evening He was on earth, just before they all had their last meal together.You remember that Last Supper. It was held in a large upper room lent by Christ’s friends. In the room was a table on which the supper, was set. There were also a number of couches for the guests. At an Eastern feast, you see, they did not sit on chairs as we do, they reclined on couches. But besides these pieces of furniture there were a pitcher of water, a basin, and a towel. These were specially important, for before a meal what seems to us an unusual performance was gone through.

All the guests had their feet bathed. This was absolutely necessary for their comfort, because the people wore no shoes in the house and only sandals out-of-doors, and the sandy roads of Palestine were both hot and dusty. So the custom was that when the guests arrived a servant poured cool water over their tired feet and wiped them with a towel. Christ and His disciples were poor and had no servant to perform this office for them, but one of the disciples was supposed to do it instead.On this last evening of Christ’s life, however, the disciples had been quarrelling as to which of them was the greatest and they had got so hot over it that they hustled into the room like a lot of great sulking schoolboys. They threw themselves down on their couches and looked at the table, looked at the ceiling, looked at the floor, looked anywhere but at the pitcher and basin and towel that were crying out to be used. They knew quite well that it was the duty of one to bathe the feet of the others, but they were all equally determined not to be that one.

They thought that he who would condescend to do such a lowly service would at once be acknowledging himself inferior, so they just sat down and gloomed and said nothing.Neither did Christ say anything; but He did something. He did a most surprising thing.

He took a look at their faces and He took a look at their hearts —for He saw all that was going on there—and then He rose and, casting aside His robes, took the pitcher and the basin and the towel, and, one after another, He washed the feet of those sullen, angry men. Can’t you guess how they must have felt when their Lord and Master—the Lord and Master of heaven and earth— stooped to do for them a servant’s duty? In one moment the angry passion must have left each heart, and burning shame must have filled it.We know that Peter, who was always the spokesman, did protest, and that he drew up his feet on the couch, and refused to let Christ serve him. But Christ insisted that Peter also should have his feet bathed.He bathed the feet of all, even those of Judas, who that very night was to betray Him for the price of a slave.Then Christ put on His robes again and sat down, and looking on their shamed faces said gently, “Do you know why I, your Lord and Master, have done this? It is because I want you to do likewise. I have given you an example, and I want you to think of it and copy it when I am gone.

I want you to learn that true greatness consists in serving others, and that the greatest among you is the one who is readiest to serve his brethren!”Now, when Christ said He had given us an example to copy, He did not mean that we were actually to take a pitcher and a basin and a towel and go round washing the feet of others. Emperors and Popes and Archbishops have done that and are still doing it every year on Holy Thursday—or Maundy Thursday as we call it —the day before Good Friday.

I am sure you will all have heard of Maundy money or Maundy pennies, the little silver pieces that our own King gives to deserving poor people on that day. He gives them money now instead of washing their feet, for the last English sovereign to carry out the ceremony of feet washing was James II.To wash the feet of beggars or poor people—that is one way of copying Christ’s example. It is copying it in the letter. But that is not the way Christ meant us to copy it when He said, “I have given you an example.” He meant us to imitate the spirit in which the deed was done. He meant us to learn that he who is really greatest is he who is readiest to cast aside his pride and serve his fellowmen.Boys and girls, you are good at imitating. Why not imitate the Highest?

Why not copy Christ? The world still thinks it difficult to copy Christ’s example; but those who know Christ know that it is easy for two reasons.The first is that Christ showed the way.

Christ gave the pattern. You know how much easier it is to do a sum if the teacher has worked one like it on the blackboard. If you have only written directions it seems almost impossible, but with the example before your eyes it is quite another matter.The second reason is that love helps us. If we love Christ and if we love our fellow-men we feel that we can never do enough to serve them. Love makes service joy.It is told of the famous French artist, Gustave Dore, that, while he was painting the face of Christ in one of his pictures, a lady came into his studio. Her gaze fell on the face and she stood transfixed, so wonderful was it.

The artist watched her anxiously meanwhile. “Why do you look at me like that, M. Dore?” she asked. “I wanted to see what you thought of that face,” was the reply. “You do like it—don’t you?” “Yes, I do,” said the lady. “And I’ll tell you what I think.

I think that you couldn’t paint such a face ofChrist unless you loved Him.” “Unless I loved Him!” exclaimed Dore. “Ah! Madame, I trust I do, and that most sincerely—but as I love Him more I shall paint Him better.”That artist knew the secret of service. He knew that the more we love the better we serve.

John 13:34

Loving And Giving Love one another.—John 13:34.When Jesus knew that His earthly life was nearly ended and that the time had come when He should be parted from His disciples, He left them this message— “Love one another.”Now people always like to fulfill the last wishes of their friends. They look upon it as a sacred duty. You remember King Robert the Bruce’s last wish— that his heart should be buried in the Holy Land—and how brave James Douglas died in trying to fulfill it. Jesus has left His great Heart of Love in our keeping, but He does not wish us to bury it in the Holy Land: He wishes us to carry it all over the world so that the whole earth may become a Holy Land.How can we do this? By loving one another.But what does “loving one another” mean? You may think it is very easy to answer that, but it is not so easy as it looks, because love is such a big word and it means a great many things.

I was trying to think of some way of making this plain to you, and while I was thinking, an old rhyme came into my head. It is a rhyme about the days of the week on which children are born.

I expect most of you know it. It begins—Monday’s child is fair of face,Tuesday’s child is full of grace.And when it gets to “Friday’s child,” it says—Friday’s child is loving and giving.When I reached that line I said, “Now that’s just it. ‘Loving and giving’ always go together, for ‘ loving’ is just ‘ giving’ in some form or other.”1. And, first, loving means giving in.Once two children were sitting together on a stool which was just a little too small to hold them both comfortably. At last one said to the other, “Don’t you think if one of us got down, there would be more room for me?”Often in our homes or at school it happens like that. Two people want the same thing—a thing that can’t be shared comfortably; and when that is the case, there is usually a quarrel—unless one of the two gives in. Now loving just means giving in.

It means thinking of others and realizing that they have a right to things too. It means saying, “Don’t you think if one of us got down, there would be more room for you?” 2.

And then loving means giving up.There was once a little boy who owned a canary. He loved it very much and he fed it and cared for it every day. But one day his mother fell ill. She was very, very ill indeed, and the singing of the bird hurt her and made her feel worse. The boy carried the cage to a distant part of the house, but still the shrill notes reached her room. One day the child was beside his mother when the canary began to sing. A look of pain crossed her face and when the boy saw it he left the room and ran downstairs. Without saying a word to anyone he took the bird, cage and all, and gave it away to a friend.

When his mother heard what he had done, she was very much touched, and she said, “But you loved the bird.” “Yes,” said the child, “but I love you more.”So loving sometimes means giving up.3. Loving also means giving away.On the day that Queen Victoria died, the news of her death was telegraphed all over the world, and wherever the tidings went people were very sorry, for she had been a good and kind and wise ruler.Now among other places, the news came to Dublin. And on the bills of the evening newspapers there was printed in large letters—“DEATH OF THE QUEEN.” One newspaper boy was busy laying out his bills on the pavement when a little ragged bare-footed urchin came running past. He stopped to read the news and when he saw it two big tears rose in his eyes and trickled down his grimy cheeks. Suddenly an idea came to him. He fumbled in the depths of his pocket and brought out a penny—the only penny he possessed in all the world!

Then he darted across the street to where a flower-girl was standing and purchased a bunch of violets. Back he came, handling the flowers so tenderly.

He unfastened the string and laid the violets one by one all over the word “QUEEN.” Then he stood looking down on them with tears in his eyes.A gentleman who was passing had noticed the incident and he stopped to ask the boy what had made him do as he had done. The little fellow replied, “I didn’t seem as if I could help it. I loved her so, for she was always so kind. My two brothers are soldiers out at the war in South Africa, and she was always so good to her soldiers.”Yes, boys and girls, loving means giving away.4. Again, loving means giving yourself.About three hundred years ago there lived in Portugal a monk called Fra Bernardo. He was supposed to be holy and happy, but he was neither.

For in his heart was neither faith, nor love, nor any vision of God.Now it came to pass that the plague visited the city in which this monk lived, and many people fled the place; but not so Fra Bernardo. He went in and out among the stricken people, he fed them, he comforted them, he nursed them with his own hands.

And, little by little, as he shared the sorrows of others, his cold empty heart was filled with a great pity. But still he had no vision of God.Then one day he visited the home of a poor woman who was dying of the pestilence. She was in great distress and she said, “I am not afraid to die, dearFather, but who is to look after my boy and girl?” And there and then Fra Bernardo promised to care for the children and bring them up.So he took the boy and girl home with him. He cared for them and amused them. He fed them, and clothed them, and took them for walks. He was to them father and mother and big brother all rolled into one. He loved them and gave himself to them. And then, one day, the great thought came to him—if these children mean so much to me, perhaps I mean something to God.

The vision of God had come, and his heart was filled with love and joy and peace. For the great secret of loving is serving—giving yourself to and for others.5. That’s four things to remember. Loving means giving in, giving up, giving away, giving yourself. Can you remember one more? Loving means forgiving.The other day I read the story of two cannibal chiefs who were neighbors and who both became Christians.

One was called Panapa and the other Tamati. In the old, bad days, before he became a Christian, Panapa had killed and eaten Tamati’s father, and he was very much afraid to meet Tamati, because he thought Tamati would want to kill him.Now it so happened that a Communion service was being held in a neighboring village, and the two chiefs, each unknown to the other, resolved to be present.

When Tamati went forward to the altar rail to receive the bread and wine—as they do in theChurch of England—who should be kneeling beside him but Panapa. Tamati’s face became convulsed with rage. He lifted his fist as though he were going to strike Panapa. Then all of a sudden his hand fell to his side and he rose up and left the church. In a few minutes he returned, tears streaming down his cheeks. He knelt down in his old place at the altar rail and drank out of the same cup as the murderer of his father.When the service was over, the missionary asked Tamati how he had received grace to act as he had.

And the chief replied, “I remembered how it is written in God’s book, ‘ By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.’”Boys and girls, if we want to be the disciples of the loving, gentle Jesus we must be forgiving. Loving means forgiving.