In Jesus’ final hours before His arrest and suffering, He spent much time preparing His disciples for His departure (John 13-16). The best of us, were we in similar circumstances, would have been overcome with ourselves and the coming wrath. Jesus set that aside, and focused on what His disciples needed from Him. He did everything He could to lovingly prepare them to endure the coming difficult days so that their faith might not fail (John 16:1).
Isn’t it marvelous that Jesus did this knowing full well that shortly they would abandon Him in His hour of greatest need! Upon their affirming the truth of everything He told them in the upper room, Jesus responded, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me” (John 16:31-32).
Here we find a wondrous manifestation of Jesus humility: kindness and service in the face of mistreatment.
Putting ourselves in Jesus’ shoes once again could make this even more unbelievable. Suppose that you know your spouse is going to leave you for someone else. With that knowledge, you get down on your hands and knees to wash the feet that will be walking away. Hard to even imagine that kind of humility, much less emulate it.
Why would Jesus do what He did? Why would He give so much? Clearly He’s getting nothing in return. But that may be something of a clue. Self-interest was never a motivator for Jesus, so His service could not be deterred by harm, injury, or insult. Rather, His motivation was love—to give of Himself for the good of the other person. This allowed Him to continue to serve regardless of how He was treated because He was never in it for what He was getting out of it. He was in it for what He could give.
How many times do we walk away from jobs, churches, family relationships, marriages because we have been mistreated? Does this perhaps say something about our motive for engaging in the relationships to begin with? If we walk away because we’ve been wronged, there must be a foundation of self-interest in our motives. We should repent and follow Jesus in humbly serving those who fail us.
Jesus shows us another mark of humility in this scene: dependence upon the Father. We know Jesus derived comfort from companionship. He actually expressed gratitude to the disciples for their companionship in Luke 22:28-30. He practically pleaded for their companionship in Gethsemane (Matt 26:36-46). Yet, in John 16:31-32, it is clear that Jesus knew He would not have it.
Where would His strength, His comfort come from? “Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” Perhaps this is what allowed Jesus to serve them so freely. While He desired their closeness and companionship, He didn’t depend on it. The Father would be with Him.
All this shows that if we are humble like Jesus, our service to others will not be predicated on their kind treatment of us. Humility moves us to consider them more important than ourselves and so to work for their good no matter what. We can do this with confidence, knowing that though all may abandon or mistreat us, God in Christ does not. And in Him, we have all we really need.
Are there any relationships in which you have retreated from service because of how you’ve been treated? What would the Lord have you to do?
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