JOHN 13
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
We are right in calling him master
It is a crowning beauty in the scheme of the truth, that one is set up for our adoration and obedience, who is
"altogether lovely,"
...the embodiment of God's authority, wisdom, excellence, and love.
let us never lose sight of the purpose he is carrying out, as concerning those who put themselves into the relation of brethren by the gospel; that is, to purify unto himself a "peculiar people,"-a people distinguished from common people (rich and poor who serve the flesh); a people for himself-his own property, his friends, his servants, his agents,-who shall be prepared to hold themselves as his stewards,-realising in their lives as well as in their sentiments, that they are not their own, but are bought with a price, and that their strength, and intellect, and money, and everything they have, are his, for the use of which, he will hold them responsible.
There are very plain directions as to what manner of people he wants his servants to be. We are not to be like ordinary people; we are peculiar people if we are his.
....Therefore, we must not make "Number one" our standard. Trust in God for daily bread, and do His commandments; and that shuts out everything. This is a plain rule, easy to follow, where God is realised by faith.
If we but fully realise His will, we shall be capable-if we are reasonably constituted at all-of doing it. There is every motive to do it; not that it is a hard service. There is a little hardness about it, there is a bondage: we are Christ's servants, or bondsmen, for the word translated "servant," means a slave; but nevertheless, as Jesus says,
"My yoke is easy, and my burden light."
It is so with those who take hold of it. It is a bondage associated with inducement in the highest form. There is everything to keep a person in the way of obedience, for the way of obedience is the only way to eternal life.
The Christadelphian, Nov 1870
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.
Could friend humble himself more completely to friend than in such an act?...It was an act of personal ministration, and in the most menial form. Peter appreciated it in this character and rebelled against it.
... It was the practical lowliness that Jesus intended. ... He was now about to leave them, and he wished to leave a deep impression on this point. Could he have possibly done it more effectually?
... It is evident that Christ contemplated nothing beyond the inculcation of humble, kindly, mutual, practical, personal ministration of which he chose feet-washing as the extremest form in a country where the wearing of sandals exposed the feet to dust and irritation, and rendered the washing of the feet a personal luxury.
That Jesus should enforce personal humility and lowliness on the future kings of the world is one of the numberless beauties of the purpose of God which concentre in him. What a noble race of kings and priests the saints will be when chosen for their faith and obedience out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and invested with the glory of the spirit nature.
Nazareth Revisited Ch 51
17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
Happiness is not in catering to desire, but in putting desire away. Happiness is not in seeking pleasure, but in recognizing and thankfully enjoying the myriad of pleasures that God showers bountifully on us every moment: in His love, in His Word, in His Purpose, in His marvellous Creation: from the infinitely small to the infinitely great -- all infinitely beautiful.
Happiness is not in getting, but in giving: not in being served, but in serving (though truly there is happiness in being served -- if the service is of need beyond our own capacity to fill, and if the service is in love). Christ tells us where happiness is: in pureness of heart, in meekness, in mercifulness, in hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Don't look for it anywhere else. It isn't there. It must be created within ourselves. Its source is of God.
Bro Growcott - Search Me O God
26 Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
... if a personal attendant of Christ, and a witness of his miracles, could be false to a trust directly imposed by him, what is not possible in the weak days of mere testimony by report?
27 And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.
That Jesus should wish him to do his fell work quickly is an interesting side-light. It shows us the Lord's state of mind with regard to the terrible trouble before him. Jesus was under a great embarrassment till his sacrifice should be accomplished. He endured and went through it with heroic fortitude.
This all can admire: but how it adds to his lovableness in the eyes of his people that he was not a stoic in the matter, but felt as human nature everywhere feels at the prospect of suffering -- going through it, not with callous indifference, but with the resolution inspired by a recognition of the Father's will, and an understanding of the "must be" there was in the case.
Nazareth Revisited Ch 52
33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.
When Judas had departed, Jesus appears to have drawn closer to the disciples...Jesus was referring to his approaching departure by ascension after resurrection. The disciples did not understand. .. The "going" in the case included shame, rejection, and death, as well as ascension.
Nazareth Revisited Ch 52