Tuesday, July 3, 2018

John 13:1-5

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.

Knowing who you are

Knowing who you are, you know what to do, and you have strength within to give yourself to it. Jesus knew. Do you?

He knew he would be betrayed. He knew he would suffer. But first he knew he was the presence of the Immeasurable and Inconceivable, the Love who is before time … and who is for us and all creation.

He knew the time had come to reveal the Heart who is our truest home. And knowing, he took a towel and washed the feet of his friends, like a servant. I cannot see this and not love him. It is impossible, for I see the Love by whom we are loved and I know who I am and who I can be, although I am so often not.

I am the object, the recipient, the treasured pearl of the One who is this Great Love. As are you.  

Imagine for a moment that it is your feet he washes. His hands move across the sole, then the toes, arch and top of your feet. See and know: It is our lives being caressed by the Love we have always needed but for which we could scarcely ask, ashamed of admitting our crying need and fearing such Love is impossible, an illusion.

But his hands tell us it is not illusion.

Jesus washes feet, a defining act, in which we know … who God is, who we are … and the Love we can share.

We are more blessed and noble creatures than we assume. We enter our true blessedness and nobility when we know, when the Love he is halts our driven lives and anxious efforts to prove our worth and asks, “Do you know?”

Real life starts in knowing.

Pr. David L. Miller