I’m the king of the castle and you’re the dirty rascal. Sound familiar? Looking for status and power? The disciples are. Jesus flips the disciples’ thinking with, “Forget the power play. Serve others. Later, there’s a kingdom where you will sit at the banquet table with me, like kings. But for now, do everything you can to help someone. Don’t think you are better than others. You stood by me all this time – surely you get the picture: serve others. If I served them, you serve them.”
Read More service, humility, restorationHow you would feel? He kneels before you and draws the clay basin near. Strong hands loosen your sandals. He lifts your grimy, smelly foot to the side and brushes the grit from between your toes. Debris from the long walk today falls away. He lowers your foot into the cool water.
You inhale and exhale with pleasure and unexpected relief.
Read More footwashing, service, forgiveness, humilityUnaware that this is Jesus’s last meal, the disciples celebrate Passover with him. In the privacy of the upper room, they listen eagerly as Jesus teaches the way to live. But, they are somber tonight. Jesus has frightened them lately with dark words of the end looming. Jesus is in danger from the crowds who have turned on him.
Read More evil, betrayal, repentance, forgiveness, JudasThe disciples are troubled, anxious. Turbulent emotions and poisonous politics about Jesus make them fear for his life – and their own. Now Jesus says he’s leaving them. What will they do without him? Hide? Go back to fishing and tax collecting? And all those miracles and changed lives and joy and peace? What about that?
Read More answered prayer, reassurance, requestsThe sugarbush beckoned every February in Quebec where I lived. About forty people dropped everything to tap 1,300 trees and hang sap buckets on the spiles. The clear, sweet water filled the sap buckets, drip by drip.
All day, we lugged pails of sap from the trees to the gathering tank behind the tractor.
Read More life, joined to Jesus, sharingIn verse 11, where the CEV has “to make you as completely happy as I am,” the NIV translates “so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
This joy that Jesus talks about is total immersion in God, total love, total belonging, total peace, being joined as one. And Jesus is the way to this happiness, this joy. We are made for this.
Read More love, obedience, joyIn this passage, Jesus breaks the news to us. We will be persecuted.
It broke news recently that the City of Toronto banned Christian events featuring songs that praise Jesus in public venues. Why? Because it is proselytizing. I’m stunned. Hundreds of groups shout their philosophies from public venues every year in Toronto, in parades, concerts, marathons, and fundraisers.
Read More Holy Spirit, helper, persecutionA few years ago, my husband and I rafted and camped with a small group down the stunning Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories, escorted by three experienced river guides. Canada’s version of the Grand Canyon, this incredible National Park boasts an ancient river that meanders for 150km beside painted canyon walls, towering rock cliffs, karst caves, plateaus, forest, and meadows.
Read More guide, Holy SpiritRiddles and riddles. He knows he is going to die, so Jesus tries to prepare his disciples.
But it’s cryptic – you won’t see me, then you will see me – you will cry, but the world will be happy – you’ll be sad, then you will be happy – you haven’t asked for anything, now you must ask for something.
Read More prayer, resurrection, asking