A Life of Humble Service

A trait of humble service, which simply cannot be counterfeited, is the willingness to be inconvenienced for someone else’s benefit. Imagine a Christian woman who is the evangelical version of Martha Stewart. She loves to throw big events and have people into her home as long as she can plan and prepare for weeks in advance. Being inconvenienced for her might mean noticing a sister is struggling one Sunday morning, walking over to her, and inviting her and her family over for dinner even though she has nothing prepared. Or picture a man—spontaneous, outgoing, the life of the party—who sees a brother dealing with a problem that will take months of work, months of tedious and difficult effort. Being inconvenienced for him may mean spending weeks and weeks doing the tiresome labor necessary to help him through the situation.

John 13:6-17

History gives us many great examples of selflessness. What sets apart this example of Jesus is not only that he is God (and therefore is the only one who legitimately deserves worship) but that through his selfless service we are given the ability to serve others as well. In this act of humble service, we’re pointed to a greater, more powerful act of service. Jesus was showing them he had come not to be served but to serve. In just a few hours he would humble himself and serve them through his death on the cross. This becomes clearer in his conversation with Peter, in which he tells Peter they will understand “afterward” (vv. 6-7). Not after the act, but after the resurrection. Looking back on the foot washing, they would realize Jesus was portraying the necessity of humbling himself in order to serve them. He had to become a servant for them to have life.

Peter, of course, thinks he understands now. I love what Kent Hughes writes: “Good old Peter. Sometimes the only time he opened his mouth was to change feet!” (John, 314). Unless Jesus humbles himself as a servant, unless Jesus selflessly offers his life in Peter’s place, Peter would have no ability to follow him (v. 8). Jesus’s service on the cross (pictured here by foot washing) is what makes discipleship possible. That’s why when Peter then asks Jesus to wash all of him, Jesus replies that it’s unnecessary. The point right here is not the depth of Peter’s sin. The point is the necessity of Jesus’s sacrifice. His ultimate act of humble service upholds all acts of Christian service and discipleship that follow. If he had not taken on the form of a servant and humbled himself to death, even the death on a cross, then we would have no ability to follow him. If he had not done that, then his words and his example of washing the disciples’ feet would have been nothing more than a historical footnote. However, because of his humiliation, we have been made capable of walking in his steps. He doesn’t just provide the pattern for service; he provides the power to serve.

He makes this point again in verse 15. When we read those words “just as,” we think it refers simply to being an example, but there’s more to it than that.

[Just as] indicates not only similarity and adherence to a standard but also the ground on which this discipleship rests and the source from which it gains its strength . . . it directs them to Jesus’ self-sacrificial love for them as the source and driving force for their love for each other. (Ridderbos, John, 463)

We will not humbly serve others in our own strength. We need Jesus’s help. Humble service flows from the gospel. The power to serve one another is not found inside of us. We don’t tap into inner strength or discover secret power reserves. We fall on our faces before Jesus and beg him to help us serve others. We rely on the Holy Spirit to enable us to love others and put their needs before our own.

This kind of humble service has to be rooted in the gospel. What Jesus commands is not an action but an attitude. Foot washing is not the point. Some have taken this as a command to literally wash the feet of others, but foot washing can be done arrogantly. It can be performed with a cold, dead, and uncaring heart. That’s why the focus is on desire, not duty. To follow Jesus by humbly serving our brothers and sisters requires a fundamental transformation of our nature. We are selfish, independent, arrogant sinners with cold, hard hearts—what Jesus demands from us is to live as selfless, trusting, humble servants. The only way that’s possible is if who I am fundamentally changes. Unless someone performs heart surgery on me, I cannot live a life of humble service.

Thankfully, when Jesus humbly sacrificed his life on the cross in my place, absorbing the wrath of God and giving me the gift of faith so that I would turn in repentance, faith, and obedience to him, he changed my nature. He gave me a new heart. Now what was impossible—a life of humble service—is not only possible; it’s wonderful. It is the path of true joy (v. 17). Joy, happiness, and blessing come not from a life of selfish accumulation but from a life of self-denying compassion and service. But humble service is not natural. Sin, self-gratification, pride, and the desire for power and control are natural. Jesus is telling his disciples in essence, “My humble service to you on the cross, pictured by this act of foot washing, will enable you and empower you to live as you were intended to. It will change your desires and goals, your dreams and wishes. It will change your fundamental makeup. You’ll learn that as you follow me, joy and happiness will find you: not standing on the throne, issuing edicts, and receiving tribute—blessing will find you kneeling on the floor, towel in hand.”

Jesus does not call us to a life of leisure but of labor. He doesn’t call us to follow him down paths sprinkled with gumdrops and lined with lollipops but down dirt-covered, sweat-stained paths—paths that stink, paths that are not simple or clean or neat. The cost of discipleship is high, but it’s worth it. God’s blessing comes to the genuine disciple—the one who follows Jesus into a life of humble service. Of all the marks of discipleship Jesus could have highlighted, he highlighted a willingness to pick up a towel and get our hands dirty. Few things we do make the gospel more beautiful and compelling than when someone sees Christians with dirty towels and clean feet. Dirty towels and clean feet make the gospel clear—everyday people doing everyday things to serve others. That’s what humble service looks like. That’s what following Jesus looks like.