Mealtime with the family has always been a highlight for me. Not necessarily the eating of food although I like it, but the fellowship taking place around the table is what I love. It’s an opportunity to hear what is going on in each other’s lives, talk about topics of interest, ask questions, laugh, discuss serious matters, but more than anything, it is a time to be together.

Reflecting on the final week of Jesus’ earthly life, I am reminded of the last meal that He partook of with His disciples. John 13 gives us a great picture of what took place around the table that night. Take a few minutes to read it.

Jesus knew that His hour had come and He would depart from this world to go be with His Father. Yet He loved those men that He had done life with for three years up close and personal. John records, “having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” Amazing!

Why is that so amazing? Remember who was in the room? If you guessed the disciples, you are right. But among the disciples were Judas (the one who would betray Him), Peter (the one who would deny Him) and the rest of the disciples (all would desert Jesus before the night was over). Wow! Imagine walking into the room being the only one who knew what was going to happen to you in the next few hours.

How would you have responded? My first inclination would have been, “no way am I going to eat with those guys, they are not true friends.” And yet Jesus’ response was to love them to the end.

Verse 3 offers a little insight “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,” Obviously Jesus could love freely because He knew where He had come from and where He was going. He was confident in His Sonship with the Father.

What about you? Are you confident in your relationship with Christ? Do you know how much He loves you? If life ended for you today, do you know where you would spend eternity? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father but through me.” (John 14:6) There is only one way to know our eternal destiny and that is through a personal relationship with Jesus.

During the middle of supper, Jesus got up, left the table, poured water in a bowl and began to wash the disciples feet. What a servant! I’m thinking if I knew what was ahead of me that evening I would have been curled up in a ball scared to death. Not Jesus! He spent time showing those He loved how much He loved them by serving them. Convicting indeed.

Jesus was always thinking of others. On this particular night, the night before His death, He was teaching them a great lesson in servant hood. Here are a few lessons I learned from His example:

• Sometimes we have to get up and leave the comfort of the table in order to serve. When was the last time you got out of your comfort zone to serve?
• Jesus washed their dirty feet! Ministering to others is not always nice and clean. Sometimes God asks us to do things that require getting dirty.
• Our friends might sometimes betray, desert, or leave us for a time; but that should not keep us from loving and serving them.

As we reflect on the death and burial of Jesus this week, ask Him to show you someone to whom you might express love through serving.

Julie

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