Knowing Who You Are

by Hugh DeLong

As Jesus and the apostles gather for their last supper, the apostles continue to bicker and fuss about who among them was the ‘greatest’. This has been going on almost the whole time they have been apostles!

All three gospels record one episode (cp. Mark 9:33-37; Matthew 18:1-5; Luke 9:46). Jesus calls a child and sets him (her?) before them and declares:, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all" (Mark 9:35). At some point as they were entering Jerusalem, James and John request to be seated at His right and left hand in His glory. Of course, the other apostles were indignant (my thought was that they desired those positions for themselves and were aggravated that James and John beat them to the request). Again, Jesus’ response is to show them that he, their Lord, came to serve, not to be served (Mark 10:45). Similarly, here in John 13, they are at odds over this question.

Notice here in John 13:3-4: “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.” Then he, their LORD, the Son of God, washed their feet.

While we don’t gather with dirty bare/sandaled feet, we need to be willing to serve even in the lowliest of tasks. Jesus could do this because He knew who He was! Doing this didn’t change who He was. Serving did not make them greater than He. Most of our problems of such dissension over who is greatest among us is that we don’t know who we really are and what our real role is.

Do you know this enough to be able to serve others? Are you serving?