Saturday 11 Nov 2017

November 11: John 13:12-17

Key Verse: John 13:14
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

Devotion:
How special do you feel when someone important does something for you? We seem to play our parts in society whereby we do things for people whom we think are more important than us and yet we pass over doing things for people we think are beneath us. We impose a class society even though we may think there should not be one. We stick to that class society because this seems to be the way we think the world works. When someone is willing to bend the rules and do something out of the ordinary for someone who is perceived to be lower than them, it gets recognised! If a member of government or royalty goes out of their way to help the poor our needy, it makes news headlines! Why? Why can't we just take that as being normal and do things like this whenever we can? This is exactly what Jesus was teaching here!

Jesus reminded them there will always be a class society but that we should break the trend and do things across the classes. How else are we going to stand out as the people who live more like Jesus if we are not willing to do the same? This is not the only case of this happening because we hear how Jesus would heal the lepers, the lowest of the low. We hear how He talked to single ladies living in sin, something a Jew should never even think about. He bucked the trend because He knew what people needed.

It is not that hard to spot when someone needs a helping hand. It is not that difficult to help them out. The difficult part comes when you are the one who has to step forward over the boundary to do something – because we have these things burned into us by society. We need to get out there and make a difference to everyone's lives, not just the people we live with. We need to remember more than just our friends and neighbours. We need to remember the people in society who may not normally get noticed because Jesus has told us to do exactly that!

Points to Ponder:
Do you feel good when you help others?

How often do you help?