The Mandate
- Jilian Brown
- Apr 14, 2022
- 4 min read
You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am.
So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.
If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
~John 13:13-17, 34-35
If you are anything like me, the word "mandate" now makes you cringe. Our world has been tossed around by various mandates made by various entities over the past two years and my main issue with them is that mandates should bring clarity and not confusion. That was not the case with the pandemic mandates. Experts differed in their viewpoints and never have I seen so many opinions about anything in my almost four decades of life as I have witnessed over the mandates. Right or wrong, agree or disagree, we were ALL affected by them. And we had feelings about the people whose feelings were different from our feelings about them. It just wasn't great. So, I want to pause, take a breath, and realize that though the word is now problematic, the mandate from Jesus matters and applies to all of us.
The term "Maundy Thursday," is taken from the Latin word "mandatum," which means command. Jesus spends his final Passover with the disciples. He takes that opportunity to demonstrate His meaning of love by washing their feet and showing them through bread and cup what His sacrifice would mean. A servant heart is at the core of Christian living. Washing feet is not a job for a king, yet Christ demonstrates His love for us not just in cleansing us, but taking all our dirt on Himself.
I can't stand to be dirty. I've never really had an interest in camping. A "tough mudder" sounds like misery to me. Honestly, washing other people's dirty feet also sounds gross, but this is the humility of Christ and, thus the humility for us. When an opportunity presents itself to "Lord it over" someone else with my knowledge or experience or behavior, what am I to do instead? Kneel down and serve. And you know who was there at the foot washing? Judas. It is easy to serve people I love who think and act like me. What about the people who I know will never see things the way I do? Can I serve them? Can I get some of their dirt on me so that I can show the love of Christ? Can I enter into someone else's mess so they can see the cross?
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you." John 15:12-14
The mandate is clear: do as I do and speak as I speak. Mostly, be as I am. As the song below states, "Rid me of myself, I belong to you. Lead me to the cross." As someone extremely interested in personal development and learning to be a better human, I also realize that the starting point is the cross. I can not become my fullest self without following the mandate. There is one road to what is best in life and it was crafted by the author and perfecter of our faith, "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2, ESV)
May we love well, wash feet, open our tables and hearts to those around us. May we adopt the cause of Christ because of the cross He chose, which freed us to make the choice to follow. Lead us there, Lord.
Comments