Adult Bible Study Online

To be a servant

See this lesson as a Word Document

Lesson text: John 13:1-8, 12-20
By: Omar Eby
Email: ebyo@emu.edu

“Jesus knew . . . his power” (v. 3) . . . ; so he “began to wash his disciples’ feet” (v. 5). The juxtaposition is startling: Power washes feet!

Juxtaposition? “Juxta” (Latin for “near, beside,”) and “pose” (Latin for “pause.”). Thus to put one thing beside another, two things often not sharing a common affinity. Cheek by jowl. Proximity. The improbable: The powerful wash feet?

And the connector, “so.” Used “for the reason specified; therefore, as a result; consequently.” A coordinate conjunction connects clauses of equal importance. A subordinate conjunction connects a subordinate to a main clause. Can either be understood in John’s text? (1) “Jesus knew his power,” SO (2) he “began to wash his disciples’ feet.” Clause 1 and clause 2 are of equal grammatical weight. The equation is balanced. Or is the better reading: clause 2 is subordinate to (depends on) clause 1. Even though Jesus knew his power he could still wash feet? Are there other readings of this interesting juxtaposition?

What exactly does Jesus’ action teach us? Knowing we are in a position invested with power, still we can choose to act as servant in some intimate, personal, or socially reversed manner? Literalists will wash feet ceremonially. Others, uncomfortable with feet, simply sing, “Will you let me be your servant?” (Hymnal: A Worship Book, 307) and find metrics other than feet?

For example: The May 26, 2008, New Yorker features Ian Frazier’s, “Hungry Minds: Tales from a Chelsea Soup Kitchen.” The Church of the Holy Apostles (Episcopalian) sits at the corner of Twenty-Eighth Street and Ninth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of lower Manhattan. Forty volunteers serve twelve hundred meals a day to the dispossessed of New York City. So earnest are the members to follow Jesus’ injunction, “Feed the hungry” (Matthew 25), they removed the pews to make space for tables and chairs to set up for dinner. Tables then are removed for Sunday worship. Rector Maxwell says, “The bread and wine of the Eucharist that we share with one another on Sunday become the food we share with our neighbors during the week. We believe that our job as Christians is to meet Jesus in the world.”

What shall we make of such juxtaposition, two peoples sharing one sacred place?

This message relates to the Adult Bible Study. For additional information on Adult Bible Study or Adult Bible Study Teacher, send email to info@mpn.net. To order either publication call Mennonite Publishing Network at 1 800 245-7894.