Washing of the feet

In John 13, Jesus and the disciples take time to go into the upper room to have a meal. Looking back, we realize that this is what we know as the "Last Supper". This takes place on Maunday Thursday, or the night before Good Friday when Jesus is crucified. Before the disciples and Jesus made their way to the upper room, the disciples had been arguing about who would be the greatest in Heaven among them. Look around, this happens every day in our culture. How often do we spend our conversations trying to one-up each other. I know i have a problem with that, and the only way to take care of that problem is to remember one word: humility. Upon their arrival into the upper room, no one volunteered to wash anyone's feet. It was mandated in that culture that the house slave would wash the feet of vistors coming into the house. The disciples of rabbis were far above this duty. So because it was necessary (their feet were nasty) Jesus did it. Now imagine, God in human flesh, wrapping a towel around his waist, getting down on his knees and washing your feet. If you and your roommates were arguing about who had to do the dishes, and Jesus walked in, shook his head at you and did them for you, you would feel arrogant. This is how the disciples felt. They recognized the fact that their rabbi was humbling himself well beyond the cultural standards, and they recognized that they should have been the ones to do this. Mission accomplished. Jesus teaches the disciples the value of humility. Wrong, theres more. Jesus was being crucified the very next day. He knew this, and still took time to show love and humility to the ones that would carry on after he was gone. Done. They take communion and all is well. Nope. The most beautiful part of this story is something that most people never realize. Jesus washed Judas' feet. The man that, before the night was over would leave and lead the authorities to arrest of Jesus. Jesus lowered himself lower than the one who betrayed him. What an amazing picture of what real humility is all about. It isn't about not bragging about something you're good at. It isn't making sure you don't boast over money or awards. It is lowering yourself so far, that you can't see that the person you're serving talks behnd yur back alot, or cussed you out the day before. Jesus is all about love, and he never ever missed a chance to show it.

John 13:14- Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.

After, 1,000 years in the west and the churches
gettin bigger daily without understand'n worship.
Some regenerate but a lot ain't saved.You walk outside
and be surprised cuz the block ain't changed

Lately I have been listening to Christian rap. Kinda funny, because i'm as white as someone can get. But really, some of these guys have some serious stuff to say, and for the most part their lyrics trump a lot of the things you find in most worship songs. The excert above is from Lecrae's song "Send me". He makes an amazing point that has been bothering me for a long time. We, in America, think that our church is supreme and that American Christianity is the pinnacle of faith and giving and no other can represent what the Body of Christ should look like other than us. False. I don't know what the church really should look like ideally, but it isn't what we see every Sunday. We are so selfish and pompous as a culture, and we carry that with us into church every day. We don't understand true worship, because not too many of us know what it is like to really need God. Our materialism takes care of that. We want change, but we don't take the proper actions to attain it. If we truly wanted to worship God and show Him our love, we need to be serious about it and not expect it to happen because we go to church or a Christian university. Jesus' sacrifice was much too serious for us to take our faith and life lightly. If you are claiming to be a Christian, and don't act like Jesus taught you to act, you could be misleading hundreds of people to think that being a Christian is something completely different from what it really is. Jesus loves all of us. That doesn't mean he agrees with everything we do. Pluralistic thoughts that teach that grace means we can go do whatever we want are wrong. Grace isn't for when we jump into sin consciously. Grace is for when we fall and can't help ourselves recover. This has been my most scatter brained post because I don't know how to convey to people that most of the things that American Christians say is completely wrong. I hope that no one thinks i am being intolerant or any f those politically correct bad words. If i am, so be it. A true gospel presentation is the most loving, offensive thing someone can say. If we want to change the world, we can't do it on our own. We can't even do it together. It's only when you ut everything down, and let Jesus come in and change everything can you really get true change. Jesus didn't come so we could help ourselves, He came so we would stop trying to.

1 John 2:3- This is how we know that we know Him, that we follow His commandments