Spiritual Disciplines #8: Service

          In Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster uses the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet from John 13:1-17 as the ultimate illustration of the spiritual discipline of service.  The context that Foster gives for this story is the ongoing discussion among the disciples, recorded in many places in the gospels, about which of them is the greatest and which of them is the least.

          The act of foot washing was not just a ritual or cultural thing in Jesus’ time; in a desert climate where everybody wore sandals, if any shoes at all, it was a practical necessity.  As an act of basic hospitality, a host would provide a servant, the lowest servant in the house, maybe even a child, to wash the feet of the guests as they arrived.  At the very least, the host would have a basin available for the guest to wash their own feet.

          Neither servant nor basin was present as Jesus and the disciples gathered in the upper room that night, and none of the disciples, who were all still trying after three years to figure out their pecking order, was about to volunteer.  Of course, if Jesus had asked one of them to wash feet, I am sure that one would have said, “My privilege, Lord,” while simultaneously thinking two very different things in his heart, “Why does Jesus always make me do all the dirty work?” and, “Ha-ha, guys look who Jesus picked!”  (Foster will go on in the chapter to talk about the difference between selfish and selfless service.)

          Then Jesus himself, who “knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God (John 10:3),” got up and performed the service needed. (All true godly service comes from a secure knowledge of who we are in Christ.  Insecure people may try to get attention by service, but they can never truly serve.) 

Peter’s head almost explodes!  Peter is unable to accept service.  Sometimes, it takes as much humility, or more, to allow other people the opportunity to serve as it does to serve.  In a way, allowing others to serve us may itself be a form of service.  If service is a spiritual discipline that each of us needs to practice in order to grow in faith, then how will any of us grow if we do not allow ourselves to be served sometimes?

          Jesus message is simple: my followers serve others.  In serving others we build the spiritual virtue of humility.  We serve not because people need to be served, and certainly not because they deserve it, but because we need to serve.  We do not serve primarily to “help people” or to “make the world a better place,” and certainly not to make ourselves, or our church, feel good or look good.  We serve because service glorifies God and makes us better disciples.  The fact that people are helped and the world is made better are blessings that God adds to our service.  So, go and find a person or a place to serve today.  Start small, but get started.