You remember The Princess Bride and Buttercup’s quest for “true love” with Wesley – and you well remember the scene with the priest proclaiming, “…and wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva… So tweasure your wuv…” True love – isn’t that what we all want to find? From the time little girls hear their first princess story, they long for the day they will find their true love. Even guys (who would never admit it) long for true love. But have you ever stopped to think about why we call it “true” love – why not just “love?” It’s obviously because there are a lot of things that go by the name “love” that in fact are not.

The Question A popular song released back in the early 90’s asked: “What is love?” That’s a really good question. What is love? And what is true love? And is there even really such a thing? Our culture seems to be constantly trying to convince us that there is – Hollywood makes millions selling movies that apparently model “true love.” The Billboard charts are filled with songs about love (of course country music makes its millions singing about how some poor guy has lost his love). Books, magazines, advertisements, commercials – they all seem to tell us that we can find “true love.” But true love as the world defines it is an illusion. This is because the world’s concept of love is rooted in selfishness – it’s all about me and what I can get out of someone else. In John 13:1-17 we are given a lesson from the Master Teacher which reveals that true love is the polar opposite of the world’s definition of love. What our Lord Jesus wants His disciples to see in this passage is that we, as His followers must not only understand what love is – we must practice it – and in doing so, we will be blessed beyond measure!

The Example In John 13 we find Jesus in the Upper Room with His disciples on Thursday evening, preparing to eat the Passover meal. But before the meal begins, Jesus does something absolutely remarkable. We’re told in vv. 1-3 that Jesus, knowing that His hour had come, that He had loved His own for the full extent of His time with them, that the plot to take His life, ultimately orchestrated by Satan and willingly ascribed to by Judas Iscariot was already in motion, that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God, leaving the glory of heaven, and was now ready to return to the right hand of God, did not demand that His disciples fall down at His feet immediately. Instead, He “got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.” This is incredible! In 1st Century Jewish culture, to wash someone’s feet was the job reserved for the lowliest slave – never did a Jew (not even a Jewish slave) wash another person’s feet! And yet here we see the Son of God taking on the garb and posture and action of a  lowly slave to wash the dirty feet of His disciples! Jesus, who had come from the heights of glory and would be returning there shortly, was descending to the lowest depths of service in this humble act. Notice that He states in v. 11, “and you are clean, but not all of you” – and John adds for us the fact that Jesus knew that one of them would betray Him. Now, if we thought that this act of humble love performed by Jesus could not be any more stunning, we are reminded of the fact here that Judas was among those whose feet Jesus washed! Can you imagine that! Jesus knew that this man was about to betray Him to death, and yet He washes his stinky, sweaty, dirty feet!

The Lesson Beyond the theological nuances of this sacrificial act, Jesus teaches a very practical lesson to His disciples. He takes His garments and reclines once again at the table and asks them if they understand what He has just done. He agrees with their calling Him teacher and Lord – they are right in this – He is their Teacher and He is their Lord. Now, if that’s true, and He has washed their feet, they ought to do the same to one another. He gave them an example, and the example was that no one who is under the authority of another can justify his refusal to do something that his master has been willing to do. Now, some have tried to turn this act of foot washing into another ordinance of the church – there is baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and foot washing. But this misses the point of what Jesus is teaching us here. His example of foot washing was just that – an example. And what was it an example of? True love! True love means humbly serving others – it means dying to self and sacrificing for the good of someone else – even someone who is your enemy, like Judas was His. It means that you are no longer selfish, but self-less – that you’re not interested in what you can take, but what you can give.

The Blessing Notice what Jesus says in v. 17: when you do this you’re blessed! Now how about that, Hollywood? When you stop thinking about what you can get out of someone else and start thinking about how you can serve them instead, you are blessed! Another way of translating the word “blessed” here is “happy.” People want love because they ultimately want to be happy, and Jesus says, start applying yourself to true love and you will be happy! V. 17 gives us the principle of obedience for life – if you know what is right, and you do what is right, you will be blessed (happy). In other words, if you know what’s right, and you do what’s right you will feel right. But you see, we sinners have it all backwards – we start with our feelings – we want to feel happy now because our focus is on ourselves and not on God, so even though we know what’s right, we do what’s wrong and then we wind up feeling bad! Oh, that we would apply ourselves to true love! But why don’t we? Perhaps because it’s hard; perhaps because it’s humbling. The fact of the matter is that it’s impossible without Christ. You see, the world can’t love because the world has never known true love –the love that was demonstrated ultimately at the cross. If foot washing was enough to make the disciples’ jaws drop, in just a few hours Jesus would humble Himself even to the point of death on the cross. And in doing so, He would take upon Himself the wrath of God for the sin of all those who would trust in Him. When we get our eyes on Jesus Christ, and on His perfect sacrifice of love for us on the cross, we begin to exemplify that love in our lives. And when we do, we find the satisfaction that we’ve always longed for.