My first jobs were in the restaurant industry.  Throughout my teen years, I worked in a host of them, at first as a dishwasher, then a cook.  But you know how it is, the grass is always greener on the other side.  It sure seems as though the servers in the restaurants I worked were having more fun and making more money than those of us behind the scenes.  So, when I got home for summer, one year I finagled a job as a waiter at a Tex-Mex cantina.  Now, look y’all, I was a disaster.  One table I served in particular stands out. 

  It was a woman dining with her three children.  The kids were young, one was probably around 2 or so, the other two not much older.  I show up at the table with four huge glasses of water, putting one in front of everyone at the table just like I was taught to do.  Well, what do you think happened next?  Well, the two-year-old IMMEDIATELY turned his cup of water over, spilling it all over the table.  As I rushed to mop it up, BOOM, the next youngest kid followed suit.  Now, two big cups of water were over everything, even the customers.  With some help, we got it all cleaned up.  They probably should’ve shifted me to another table because, when the food was done, inexplicable to reason, I put the youngest kids plate right in front of him…again.  He dumped the food over on himself…again.  Needless to say, I don’t think they tipped me.

  Like I said, I was a bad server.

  Service is important to us, isn’t it?  When we get good service, we’re likely to rave to our friends about it.  Receiving bad service, we shout out to everyone know, perhaps even penning negative reviews on the internet. 

  It only makes sense service would stand out so significantly to us on this third rock from the sun.  After all, as we’ve heard from the Gospel of John just now, Jesus the firstborn of all creation, the One through whom all things were brought into being according to Colossians, was Himself a servant.

  He didn’t have to be, after all.  One of the perks of omnipotence I imagine is getting a free choice in absolutely everything.  After all, if with a word you can part heaven from earth, light from darkness, it seems entirely possible that you’d possess the power to become anything your heart wished or could imagine.

  So, we should realize for a moment that Jesus Christ, as He comes to earth, could’ve fashioned for Himself any position under the sun.  King?  Emperor?  Not a problem.  So, we should also recognize that of all the infinite options available to Jesus Christ, that Jesus chose to be a servant.  Philippians 2:6-8 puts it this way, “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, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

  Reading the Gospel of John up until chapter 17.  We’ve seen Jesus do so many things to serve the people and His apostles and disciples.  He’s turned water into wine, fed thousands and thousands of people, done amazing acts of healing.  Resurrection doesn’t change this nature.  Remember, in John 21, after the Resurrection, Jesus is there waiting for His followers on the beach, grilling some fish for them once they come back from their work, tired and hungry.

  But you know, when you have a really, really big message to get across, it doesn’t hurt to reiterate it over and over and over again.  In fact, the human mind doesn’t really absorb all that much until it’s been exposed to a big idea or concept for at least 7 times.  Perhaps not wanting those that follow Him to NOT get the idea of what He’s teaching them, here, as Jesus’ final hours before His crucifixion wind down, He undertakes the most obvious action teaching His followers about being servants.

  So, as they are all eating their Passover meal, Jesus rises from the table, takes off His outer garments, ties a towel around Him.  He then fills a basin with gather, gets down on His knees and begins washing the feet of His followers. 

  To truly get the deep meaning of doing so, it’s important we understand just a bit about foot washing in the Ancient Near East.  Now, back then, people didn’t bathe nearly as often as we do, but they washed their feet every single day.  If you were privileged, you wouldn’t undertake such humble work on your own, instead relegating it to a servant or even a slave.  It was considered to be the lowest form of work a human could do.  For that reason, it was typically female slaves that performed the tasks.  Any self-respecting individual would’ve been mortified by having to do it.  In fact, foot-washing was among the lowliest types of work performed by slaves (often by females).  In order to exert his authority, the tyrant Caligula forced the elders of the Senate to wash his feet.