Take the lower place without feeling smaller.

What it meant then

It is the evening meal just before the Passover, and Jesus knows his hour has come (John 13:1). The devil has already put it into Judas’s heart to betray him (13:2). Jesus gets up, lays aside his outer garments, wraps a towel around his waist and washes his disciples’ feet (13:4–5), a job normally left to a servant. Peter protests, then asks for his hands and head to be washed as well (13:6–9). Now Jesus sits down again and asks whether they understand what he has done.

For today

Jesus did not kneel because he thought little of himself. John says he did it knowing that the Father had put all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God (13:3). He tells them plainly that he is their Teacher and Lord, and rightly so. Only someone that secure can take the lowest place without feeling smaller.

Then look at who was at the table. Judas was still there; he went out into the night only later (13:30). Jesus washed the feet of the man who would hand him over. That is the hard part. Serving people we admire is easy. This passage does not ask you to let anyone use or harm you, but it does take away the right to sort people into those who deserve your help and those who don’t.

Most foot-washing today looks ordinary: the mugs left in the office sink, the chairs still out after the meeting, the bin nobody takes out. You don’t need a title to do it, and you don’t need anyone to notice. Jesus says the blessing is not in knowing this but in doing it (13:17).