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This week we focus on the Lenten theme of humility.

Words of Reflection

There’s a story that’s told about the famous 19th century evangelist D.L. Moody. It tells of large group of European pastors who came to one of Moody’s Northfield Bible Conferences in Massachusetts in the late 1800’s. Following the European custom of the time, each guest put his shoes outside his room to be cleaned by the hall servants overnight. But this was America, and there were no hall servants.

Walking the dormitory halls that night, Moody saw the shoes and worried that his guests might be embarrassed. He wandered the campus until he found some ministerial students who were still awake, and asked if they could help. He was met with only silence or pious excuses.

So Dwight L. Moody, the most well-known evangelist of his day, returned to the dorm, and gathered up the shoes. He returned to his room alone and cleaned and polished the shoes himself. Only the unexpected arrival of a friend in the midst of the work revealed the secret.

When the foreign visitors opened their doors the next morning, their shoes were waiting for them, spotless and shined. They never knew by whom.

This well-known story has echoes in it of Christ washing his disciples’ feet, and the command he later gave for them (and us) to do the same. Washing feet was the job of the servants, and Jesus used it to illustrate that true humility means giving yourself in service to others without thought of rank or position.

It can be easy for us to think that certain things are “below us,” but the call on our lives to emulate Jesus should silence that urge whenever it rises up. We need to always remember Christ’s words to the disciples when they began to argue which of them was the greatest:

“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”—Mark 9:35 (NRSV)

As we seek to emulate Christ’s servant humility, what dirty shoes or feet might he put in our path? And how will we respond?

Scripture for Meditation:

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
—John 13:12-17 (NIV)

Song: Humble King

Oh kneel me down again
Here at Your feet
Show me how much You love
Humility
Oh Spirit be the star
That leads me to
The humble heart of love
I see in You
You are the God of the broken
The friend of the weak
You wash the feet of the weary
Embrace the ones in need
I want to be like You Jesus
To have this heart in me
You are the God of the humble
You are the humble King

Questions for Contemplation:

Who in your life has modeled humble service to you? Spend some time remembering how they showed Christ to you, and offer prayers of gratitude for their example.

When we think of Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet, it’s striking to remember that he washed the feet of Peter, who would later deny him, and also Judas, who would betray him. How has God called you in the past to serve those you found difficult or with whom you had experienced a rift of some sort? Is he calling you to do the same today?

The lyrics of today’s song encourage us to serve the

-broken
-weak
-weary
-ones in need

Spend some time in prayer asking the Spirit to bring to your mind those you know who would resonate with these descriptions. Ask God to show you how best to serve them and be Jesus to them.