Blessed In The Doing

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
- John 13:12-17

This past Sunday we talked about the practicality of serving. This passage couldn’t be any more explicit. “You should wash one another’s feet,” he said. And he added, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” These were amongst the final words that Jesus spoke on earth, trying to help his friends see what it really meant to be his followers. It meant doing something. It meant using your body to put others first. It wasn’t enough for Jesus to know things about serving - he did actual, real, bodily things to serve others. Like washing feet. Like being nailed to a cross.

How about you today? What can you do to serve another human being or a community of people? What practical, bodily thing can you do? Perhaps it’s writing a check, or cooking a meal, or running an errand, or asking some good questions or folding the laundry or buying a plane ticket. Think about it. Pray about it. And DO it.