Bad for the Ego (John 13:12-17)
===
[00:00:00] Here's what Caleb Campbell, pastor and author of Disarming Leviathan had to say about my upcoming book, the Edge of the Inside Releasing March 31st. The edge of the inside is an honest grace-filled exploration of what happens when the center no longer holds and following. Jesus leads us into unfamiliar territory.
It's part memoir, part Prophetic Call and part Survival Guide for anyone who has loved the church enough to tell it the truth. If you'd like to read a copy before it comes out, we'd love to have you join our book launch team. You can find out more at edge of the inside.com or at the link in the show notes.
jeremy_1_02-26-2026_123823: Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith.
These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts. Last week we looked at Jesus, explained that he had all authority, and then he did something really bizarre with it. He did like the lowest of the low menial task. And washed his [00:01:00] disciples feet.
And it was one of those shocking images where I have all the authority, I have all the power, and here's how I'm gonna use it. And today we're gonna look at the passage where he explains why he explains, what does this mean for us today? This is John chapter 13. Beginning in verse 12, after washing their feet, he put on his robe again and he sat down and he asked, do you understand what.
I was doing, I love this question. You can imagine him like, you know, putting it back on. He sits down, they're all stunned and shocked, and then he asks this question, what a question. Do you understand what I was doing there? The answer for them is really no, like they didn't understand. And the answer for us today is primarily no as well.
We don't really understand what this means either, which means as I would suggest, that you can literally watch Jesus and still [00:02:00] misunderstand him, right? Because they did. Like Jesus knows that He's asking, do you understand what I, what I just did? I see a look on your face. It doesn't look like you understood it.
You can read about Jesus and still. Misunderstand him. You can even follow Jesus and still misunderstand him. See, we are often convinced that authority is for our benefit and we do not understand what Jesus is modeling for us in this story. And then we keep reading in verse 13, Jesus says, you call me teacher.
Lord, and you're right because that's what I am. And since I, your teacher and your Lord have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet. I have given you an example to follow, do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth. Slaves are not greater than their master, nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message.
Now that you [00:03:00] know these things, God will bless you for doing them. Then you get this incredible phrase After he explains what's going on, he says, do as I have done to you. And yet I am reflecting on this thinking isn't our Christianity today? Mostly observation. We sit around, we talk about God, we talk about Jesus.
We read about what God did. Are we more about observation or participation? Are we involved in the life of what Jesus is doing today? Or do we seem to study him and talk about him from afar? When we understand who Jesus is, we practice living like him. We don't just worship him and focus all our attention on, he did something great, but we follow him, right?
We decide, Hey, he gave us the example. That we can [00:04:00] acknowledge and then replicate. We can follow in his footsteps, which means we don't get to worship Jesus and refuse the towel. We don't get to say, Hey, we are so glad that you did this. What a cool thing for you to do, and we will not also do it. There should be a massive disconnect in our thinking there.
We will not surpass Jesus in status as his followers, but we can mirror him in our posture. We can adopt the same way of life that he modeled, and we can live that out today. If Jesus shows us what our teacher and our Lord does with authority, it will have some difficult implications for us today. It means that as we grow in our own authority, in our own.
Influence. We must be willing to lower ourselves to ever greater levels, and yet this isn't why most people [00:05:00] follow Jesus. This isn't why most people go into ministry to pursue Jesus in this capacity. Either I teach a practical ministry class at a university.
This is a great book because a lot of pastors, when they're in school and they're studying and they have these big ideas for how great it's gonna be, are quickly disillusioned by the real thing. And in leadership pain, he gets into some of the realities of what to expect and how difficult this actually is.
I'm reminded of one of the things he says. He says, reluctance to face pain is your greatest limitation. There is no growth without change. No change without loss, and no loss without pain. And I have seen this play out time and time again, and it's such a fitting thought to pair with what we [00:06:00] see Jesus doing here because foot washing is anti ego.
Right. And I have found whenever you have something that is anti ego, it likely will involve pain. 'cause when you break the ego, it hurts. One of the phrases I heard years ago that I I live by is that what's bad for the ego is good for the soul. And I encourage myself with this, whenever my ego takes a hit and I'm like, oh, man, I, I can't believe this and I want to start feeling like a victim.
I go, this is probably gonna be good for my soul. This is probably going to be a healthy experience for me. But I want you to consider as well, are there feet that you don't want to wash? Right? There are people that you're like, well, I, I'll serve, I'll, I'll do certain things, but to a limit. And I wonder what kind of healing would happen if we were willing to treat our enemies the way that Jesus treated Judas.[00:07:00]
Because not only did Jesus wash feet do this incredibly demeaning act, but he did it for Judas, and then he says, go and do likewise, right? How? How would we heal the rifts in our society, the rifts in our culture? Rather than saying, we're gonna use dehumanizing language, because that's what's become normative and that's what we hear soundbites all day long of.
Instead, what if we said, no, no, no. We're going to figure out ways to serve even the people we don't like. Even the people we oppose, we're we're going to lower ourselves to love them. What kind of healing impact would that have on others if we were willing to follow this example? So here's the challenge for you and I today.
Where are we washing feet right now? Now, I would say this literally is one example of how to do it. Foot washing isn't the same thing in our culture today. We don't [00:08:00] necessarily have this as a, a function of what we do, right? We have different shoes and all of that, but there are equivalents. What would they be and are you doing them?
In what tangible ways are we following Jesus' actions here? In what tangible ways can we point to and say, I am doing likewise, and here's how I am doing it. 'cause we don't get to worship Jesus and refuse the towel. I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
