The Shape of Greatness | Dave Sloop

Praise to you, Lord Christ. Thank you, Bob. Welcome, everyone. So glad that you're here today.

How many of you are familiar with the television show Undercover Boss? CBS. It is a funny television show. The premise of this show, those of you that are unfamiliar with it, is that a CEO of a corporation, a really big company, puts on a costume, it might look something like this, puts on a costume and he goes from the c suite down to the floor or the line where the rest of his employees work. They all know him, and so he has to disguise himself. But he doesn't know them, and he shows up and he works alongside them. And it's so funny because these people are serving alongside a person that if they knew who he was, they would behave differently, at least some of them.

But there's a moment in the show, the climax of the show every time is when, in a sense, the owner or the CEO takes off his mask. He removes the wig. He takes off the mustache, and suddenly, there is a mixed reaction. Either there is tremendous relief that they were well behaved in his presence or there are some who realize, I'm about to get fired. I'm gonna get fired today because of the attitude that I had when I served alongside my unknowing disguised boss.

The Shape of Greatness

If you've been following along, we've been walking slowly, crawling probably is a more accurate term, through John's gospel, which truthfully, it is just the way that you have to do it if you want to give it justice. We have just completed chapter 12, and in so doing, we have closed the first section of John's gospel. And if you've been following along with us, you know that that first gospel, the first 12 chapters is referred to as the book of signs, that Jesus' miracles were not raw displays of power, but they meant something. They signified something. In the book of signs, Jesus is pointing through his signs to who he is, the kind of savior he came to be, the kingdom he means to bring.

In the book of glory, which we turn to today, Jesus is not pointing to his signs anymore, he is showing you who he is. In a sense, the wig is coming off, the mustache is coming off. He is unveiling the truth of who he is. And as we turn the page to the opening scene of the book of glory, it is not what you might imagine.

In fact, if you could take the 12 disciples, maybe one day you'll get to do this, and ask them, in Jesus' earthly ministry, as you followed him and saw incredible things, what was the moment that you were most shocked? I bet you'd get probably a different answer for as many disciples as there are. Maybe someone would recount that moment in the boat when in the middle of a life threatening storm, Jesus stands up and he says, hush, be still. And like a disobedient child, the wind and the waves listened at the sound of his voice and suddenly the sea was like glass at his word.

Maybe Peter would have remembered the time that Jesus said, it is me. Come. And he stepped out of the boat and walked on water and came towards Jesus on top of the water just like Jesus. Or maybe many of them would have remembered John chapter 11, as they gathered around and looked into the mouth of an empty tomb, and they watched a man that had been dead for four days walk out fully alive. It wasn't a party trick. Someone that was dead came to life just because Jesus told him to.

But I would be willing to bet—I don't know for sure, but if I could wager a bet—I think John would say was the most shocking moment in Jesus' earthly ministry. I think it was the passage that we're gonna look at today. And here's why I say that: he's the only gospel writer that mentions it, and he gives it quite a bit of press. In fact, this place in the gospel narrative, or more specifically in the passion week of our Lord, this is the moment when we're supposed to be talking about the Lord's Supper, but John doesn't even mention it other than to say, yeah, we were having a meal, but the main course was not a meal.

See, this institution of the Lord's Supper, which would become a sacrament of the church that we celebrate here every single week when we gather, John doesn't mention it. Instead, the main course of chapter 13 is the service of Jesus. See, the disciples, they would have not anticipated any of his miracles, but when they experienced them, it fit within their paradigm of what greatness looked like. And they thought to themselves, I'd like to follow a man like that. I'd follow that guy into battle. Good things will happen when you have a leader that teaches with the authority that Jesus has and has the power in his hands and in his voice that Jesus had. I'll follow that man. In fact, I wanna aspire to be like him.

But what Jesus would do in this chapter would shatter all of their categories of what greatness looks like. And it would call into question, how far, or perhaps a better way to say it is, how low are you willing to follow me?

I know that you'll follow me into battle, you'll follow me into greatness and victory, but will you follow me down to the floor to the lowest seat? Will you follow me into suffering and defeat and death? See, it was gonna call into question, will I go there too? Will I follow him there?

What is it that Jesus is doing at the beginning in John chapter 13 in the opening scene of the book of glory, and why is it that John gives it so much attention? It would be easy to jump ahead to verse 15, which we will look at, where Jesus says explicitly, he answers that question:

I have done this so that you would have an example, that as I've done to you, that you would do to one another.

And that's true. But this passage deserves a slower, more thoughtful reading to understand the essence of what Jesus was doing here. In fact, I think the key to understanding what Jesus was doing here is really in verse one. When John says:

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

And that word in the Greek is telos. When it's used in a temporal sense, it can mean he loved them to the end of his life, that every day he was alive, he was loving them. And that is, of course, true. But there are different biblical interpreters that give a different meaning to this passage. That word "end" can also mean to the uttermost—like, from the end of myself with every fiber and muscle and breath of my being, I loved you, which is why the NIV says it this way: "he now showed them the full extent of his love."

The Revealed Love of Christ

Here's what I think John is doing in this opening scene. He is revealing the love of Christ. He wants you to see and understand the nature and character of love. He is love. He defines what love is, but more personally, he wants you to see what his love is for you. Because you see, his love is not just something that we're meant to observe from a distance, like you might admire a cheeseburger, imagining how good that might taste. But as you know, you can stare at a cheeseburger, but you'll never taste it until you take a bite.

His revealed love is meant to become received love. And he wants us to know that there is a way to receive it, and he's gonna give you a snapshot into the life of one in particular, Peter, who does. And he wants you to understand that you need to receive it in order that you might reflect his love.

See, before his love can be a model for us, it has to become a meal in us because you cannot reflect that which you have not received, and you cannot receive that which you have not seen. In order to savor what Christ has done for you, you have to first see it. And here's what I can promise you, you will not show his love unless and until you have savored his love. And so let's look first of all at the revealed love of Jesus Christ in this opening scene.

John, I want you to notice this theme too, that there is a connection between what Jesus knows and what Jesus does. He goes into great detail to explain to you what it is that Jesus knows. Look at verse one:

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father.

That's a pleasant way of explaining what was about to take place. If you've been following along with us, you know that the hour referred to here is the hour of his death. And every time the hour shows up, usually in John's gospel, he's saying, "My hour has not yet come." But here, starting in verse in chapter 12, he says, "My hour is here. My hour is now." In fact, Jesus, in twelve to sixteen hours from this moment, he would be hanging on a cross. After having been betrayed, mocked, beaten, tortured, abandoned, spit upon, he will be crucified. Real nails will go through his real flesh, and he will hang on a cross and die in agony and pain as a criminal, falsely accused, unjustly hanging for a crime he did not commit. That's what was coming.

Here's the first thing that Jesus knows. He knows what's coming. And John wants you to understand what he does in light of the fact that he knows this.

Here's the second thing that he knows. He knows whom he loves. The second part of verse one puts it this way:

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

He loved his own. John chapter 10, Jesus is depicted as the good shepherd, and he is gathering to himself his own, his sheep, his flock. He says, "Some are from this fold," referring to the Jewish people, "and some are from a different fold. I gotta go get them too. But I'm bringing, I'm gathering together under my leadership, a new flock, a new people who are wounded and lost, harassed and helpless, and they will be under my leadership, the good shepherd, my own. I know them," he says, "by name, I call them."

Jesus comes. He knows who he loves. He's sitting with them. He's looking at their faces. John and James, Peter, Thaddeus, Andrew, Bartholomew, Nathaniel, Philip, Andrew.

He never remembered them all. He looks at them, and he knows he called them by name. He knows them. He loves them. And Jesus would say himself:

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. — John 15:13

But then notice what it says in verse two. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. He showed them the full extent of his love. In the very next verse, Judas was about to betray him. Why does John set as the backdrop for this great sacrifice, the full extent of his love? The backdrop is Judas' betrayal. Why? What is he doing here?

I don't know exactly, but perhaps part of what John is doing here is pointing out the fact that Judas, his betrayer, was right there. He's gonna mention him three times in this passage. Judas is gonna get his feet washed by the savior, and he's got betrayal in his heart. I wonder if part of what John wants us to see here is that if you just understand Jesus coming to die for his buddies, for his friends, it's an incomplete picture. Jesus came to die for enemies. That's what you and I were. Paul would say:

You, who once were alienated, hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death to present you to God. — Colossians 1:21-22

That's who you were. We were more like Judas than we were James and John and Peter—enemies. Unfortunately for Judas, he would die rejecting the love of Christ, but there would be other enemies. I'm among them. Some of you are among them who would encounter and experience the love of Christ, and it would change you forever.

How about a guy named Saul who was putting people to death precisely because they were friends of Jesus? And Jesus encountered him, came and met him on a road on the way to Damascus. Paul would never be the same. Saul's name would become Paul, he would be the guy who would later say:

Scarcely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might dare to die. But God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, still presently enemies. — Romans 5:7-8

We weren't like Peter, his best friend. We were hostile and alienated and doing evil deeds. That's who he went to the cross for—for enemies. See, the measure of Jesus' love is not so much that he died for his friends, but he died for his enemies in order that they might become friends, family, that they might become children along with him.

Jesus Knew Who He Was

Jesus knew whom he loved before they loved him. What else did he know? Look at verse three:

Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands — John 13:3

That's a lot of things. All of the things. Which means that there is no circumstance in Jesus' life over which he is not entirely and completely in control, including his imminent death. In John chapter 10, Jesus says:

No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord. — John 10:18

He was not coerced to the cross. See, it is one thing to be martyred for a belief or a cause that you stand for, but you're put to death because you have no control over how people feel about you. But that is not what Jesus was. He was not a martyr. He was not a victim. He was a volunteer. He was perfectly submitted to his father's will, and it was his father's will to crush him, as we learn in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 10. He laid his life down. He was completely in control.

How was he able to do that? Well, look at the next part of verse three. It said that he had come from God and he was going back to God. He knew who he was. His identity was bound up in the one that had sent him, the one that he had come from, and the one to whom he would soon return. His identity was lost in him. He was so satisfied and secure in his sure identity as Son, child of God that he didn't need you to stroke his ego to feel okay about himself.

Jesus moved out into the world, able to see you and your needs because he was so secure. Did you catch the language the way that John writes this? In fact, the NIV probably gets it better when it says he knew all these things, and so he got up from the table. It was knowing what he knew that he was able to do what he did. He was so secure in his high status that he was able to take the lowest seat at the table. It was his security in his identity that enabled this level of low, low, low sacrifice and service.

And so let's read verse four. That's what he knew. Look at what he does.

Knowing these things, he rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments. Taking a towel, he tied it around his waist, and then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. — John 13:4-5

I don't have time to unpack this. In fact, it would be impossible. Even if I had the time, we would not be able to unpack how culturally shocking this moment would have been for the disciples. They just had no framework for this.

In that culture, if you were here when we looked at Mary anointing Jesus' feet at Bethany in chapter 12, we talked about this a little bit, that in that culture, the lowest thing you could do was wash somebody's feet. You could not even require your Jewish slave or servant to wash your feet. That's how low this was. In fact, the reason that the disciples are gathered around the table with all of their feet pointing away from the table is because nobody would expect their peers to wash their feet. Peter wouldn't have expected Andrew to do that, much less his rabbi, his master, his teacher, and lord. No chance.

See, because Jesus, what love looks like, is coming to the lowest place. If you remember what we said about Mary when she poured that perfume on Jesus' feet, she came to Jesus and she said, the very lowest part of you is worthy of my very best that I have to give. Do you realize that that's what Jesus is doing here? He's saying the very lowest part of you, that part that you'd like to keep hidden, that you think you've successfully hidden from the rest of the world, I see it, and that is precisely where you meet me if you want to experience my love at that place, the place of your shame, embarrassment. Jesus meets you there, and what he says is, the very lowest part, the very most shameful part of you, is worthy of the best that I have to give. That is what Jesus does. And it is a humbling thing to receive it, but as we'll learn, we must.

There comes a moment when this better get personal. You can't just observe and admire Jesus' love from a distance. It's gotta get in your face, or more appropriately, it's gotta get to your feet. You have to see him there. Look at what happens in verse six. It says, he came to Simon Peter. I think John does this on purpose. The truth is, this moment happened for all 12 of them. He came to Simon Peter. He came to Andrew. He came to John. He came to all of them, but he just gives you a window into what it was like for Peter, my suspicion is that they all probably felt the same way. It's so inappropriate that my Lord would do this.

Peter said two things. First, he said this, "Do you wash my feet? Lord, you don't wash my feet. You can't wash my feet." This is not unlike the first time that Jesus and Peter had an encounter together when there was this miraculous catch of fish, and he realizes who it was that was in the boat, and he falls on his face and says, "Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man." Same thing here. But listen, what sounds like humility in this moment, understand, this is veiled pride. "Lord, you wash my feet? You shall never wash my feet." See, what Peter is saying is, Lord, I got this. Let me keep this covered up. It is true that he thinks Jesus is too great for this, but he also just doesn't like the discomfort of Jesus being this close to his filth. I don't want you there, Jesus. You see, Jesus' love is uncomfortably close. He meets you at the place of your greatest shame.

Listen to how Jesus responds to Peter's veiled pride, his resistance to his love. Look what he says. First, he says this, "What I'm doing, you do not understand, but afterwards, you will understand." See, this is the first time that Jesus says explicitly what we kind of sensed all along, that in the same way that his signs pointed beyond themselves, so his service here points beyond itself. He's talking about more than just washing Peter's feet.

The Deeper Meaning of Jesus' Service

In fact, if you catch the language of this account, just let me give you a few snapshots. It says, rose from the table. He took off his outer garment. He put a towel around his waist. That was the ordinary costume of a servant, a slave. He got down on his knees. He washed their feet. And then in verse 12, it says this, "After washing their feet, he put his outer garment back on and resumed his place."

Does this sound familiar? Paul would say it this way:

Though he, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he emptied himself. He made himself nothing. He took on the nature of a servant. He was made as a human. And being found in appearance as a man, he became obedient to death, even death on a cross, and therefore, God exalted him to the highest place. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. — Philippians 2

He will resume his place again. See, John wants you to know, this is not just about a foot washing, this is pointing to a different kind of cleansing. In fact, here's how we might summarize what Jesus essentially was saying to Peter. Peter, I know that this is uncomfortable for you, but I've come from much higher than you think, and I'm about to go much lower. See, you're uncomfortable because I came from the head of the table to your feet, but I came from the throne above, and I'm about to go to a cross.

See, I'm cleaning, dealing here on the surface right now with a filth that's embarrassing to you, that's difficult to reach, but I will go to the cross to deal with a filth that you cannot reach, cannot cleanse on your own.

Notice the second thing that Jesus says in response. He says, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me. I want to examine this phrase, first of all, in the negative, which is how Jesus presents it, but I also want to examine it in the implied positive framing, which is just as true.

First of all, he says, if I do not, you have no. In other words, Peter, this is not an optional cleaning. Let me clean you or die. Let me wash you, Peter, or perish forever apart from me. Jesus comes, and this is how he talks. He is not vague. What he is offering is life in the face of death. You can take it or you can leave it, but he will not water down what he means to bring to you. It is life from the dead. And he says, if you don't let me clean you, Peter, you don't have it. I must cleanse you.

But look at it from the positive. In other words, when I do it, Peter, I get you—you get my share. My inheritance, Peter, you get a share. What I deserve, what's coming to me, you get it. My standing before the Father becomes your standing. My righteousness becomes your righteousness. My joy, your joy. That's what is available to you, Peter, if and when you let me cleanse you in that place that you cannot reach and get to on your own.

Jesus comes to meet us at the place of our deepest shame in order that we might become, as John would say in verse 12 of chapter one, children of God with new hearts, new creations. That's what he offers. That's what he means to bring. That is his love revealed and that's what it looks like to receive his love. And if and only if we allow him to cleanse us, we can begin to reflect what we have received.

I didn't pick up on this at the first service, but when we were praying back here, Stuart Barnes said, "Lord, help us to show what we know." And I thought, man, I'm stealing it for the second service. We reflect his love. The whole purpose of receiving it is that we might reflect it.

Reflecting His Love Through Service

Look at what he says. We already looked at it once in verse 15:

I've given you an example that you should do just as I've done to you. — John 13:15

And then verse 16:

Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. — John 13:16

And then in verse 20, jumping ahead:

Truly I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me. — John 13:20

Jesus is saying, you're about to be my representatives and my messengers. That is to say, when you speak, it's as if I'm speaking. And when you show up, did you see what it said in verse 20? When they receive you, they receive me. Therefore, when you go on my behalf as my ambassadors and representatives, it's as if I go, and therefore, you had better sound like me, and you had better look like me. But you cannot show one that you do not know. You cannot speak of one whom you have not savored and received.

Here's the crux of it all in verse 17, I think. You see that before he tells you what Jesus does, he tells you what he knows.

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. — John 13:17

That word blessed—do you know what it means? Happy, filled with joy. You know what Jesus is saying here? He is saying the world is wrong. It actually is better to give than to receive. It's not just a pithy Christian saying, it's true. We actually do find our life when we lose it. It is in giving our life away that we actually are filled up with joy.

He's saying that's true, but notice the brilliance of what he does here. He does not just say, you'll experience that when you do what I do. That's true, but incomplete. And he doesn't just say, you'll be blessed if you know what I know. That's true too, but incomplete. He says, if you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

What do we need to know? Jesus is saying, there is a blessed life, but it will only be blessed if the doing is preceded by knowing. If there's something you know in the doing, you will receive blessing, happiness, joy, fulfillment. What do we need to know? We need to know what Jesus knew.

We need to know what's coming. Some of you are living in this, and this is tender. Jesus is gonna tell you in John chapter 14 what's coming:

In this world, you will have trouble. — John 14:33

Jesus was able to look his trouble, his death in the face and be so filled up because of the second thing, which is you have to know who loves you. You have to know whom he loves. See, there is a way that we might be tempted to interpret his love through our suffering, but that would be backwards. Jesus interpret his suffering through who he knew loved him. He let the deep trust of his Father's love inform and explain the suffering.

Do you know John characterizes himself throughout this gospel as the disciple whom Jesus loved? We need to know who he loves. And finally, we need to know who we are. That because he has cleaned us, because we've met him, not just at our feet, but at the cross, that we're filled, that we're his children, something that we cannot lose, and we have a new status as a result. We get a share in his inheritance.

This is why Paul can say to bond servants and slaves in Colossians chapter three, he would say to them:

Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that you receive the inheritance as your reward. You're serving the Lord Christ. — Colossians 3

The moment that you become his child, all of life is service to him, and you can look suffering in the face and say, do your best. I know who I belong to, and I, like Jesus, know where I've come from, and I know where I'm going.

So here's my question for you today. Are you happy? Are you experiencing blessing? For some of us, perhaps we have never known what Jesus knew. We never have experienced or seen him at our feet hanging on a cross for us. It has never become personal for us. It's been something we've admired from a distance like a cheeseburger on a plate that you've never tasted. It can be yours today, but you have to be willing to endure the humiliating experience of seeing the son of God on a cross because of your sin.

There are some of us that have known this for a long time, but we aren't happy either. And would you consider the possibility that perhaps it is because his love has terminated on you and it was never supposed to? It was supposed to be flowing through you on its way to somebody else. And if it has—if you've made his love all about you—then it becomes in us a stagnant pool and we grow stale. But to the degree that his love passes through us, or as he would say in John chapter four, it becomes in us a spring of living water welling up to eternal life. We're so satisfied that we're not looking to the world to meet our needs or to stroke our ego. We can just notice other people and love. And that is when we experience the blessed life in the kingdom of the savior.

Do you know him? You can know him today.

Prayer

Father, we need you. I pray that for some today, it would be the day of salvation. And for those of us that have known you for a long time but have grown stale, Lord, would you remind us to get down on the floor, to go to the lowest seat, to reengage with the love that you have for us. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.

If you need some time to pray, these curved rails and straight rails are open for you. And if you'd like someone to pray for you, we have people in the back that would love to do that. But the rest of us, please stand as we worship the king.