Talk
We’re still in our Feast Talk series, COME and SEE.
We have been really chewing on the Gospel of John.
Talk 8, The Foot-Washer Who Got Betrayed, we go a bit fast because we’ll be discussing Chapters 13 to 17 of John. There are three main events that happened in those chapters.>
These three events start with these words: “Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. (John 13:1a NABre)
In the entire Gospel of John, Jesus was talking about the hour. If you remember the miracle of the Wedding in Cana, here, Jesus was telling Mother Mary,
“The hour has not yet come for me to do this.” In some other accounts in John, you will see Jesus telling people, “The hour is yet to come.” But in this verse, we’re reading, the hour has come.
The six signs (the miracles of our Lord Jesus) that we are talking about in this series, are pointing to the hour. This is that hour: The seventh sign.
I love what is said in John 13:1B: Jesus loves you until death.> Imagine that Jesus was telling that to Himself: “It’s my time.”
He knew the implications of that. He deliberately chose to go and do that because of His great love for you. Jesus loves you to the very end.
Why? Because to Him, you are worth saving.
You might say, “Bro, I am unworthy because I’m sinful. My life is not good.”
But God deems you worthy of His sacrifice. If there’s still this question in your heart right now: “Does the Lord really love?”
I think this answers it: The Lord loves you until death, to the very end.
Let’s pray:
Lord, I know that You love me. Teach me to appreciate Your sacrifice for me. I am valuable. I am forgiven. I am loved.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Let’s raise our hands to the Word of God.
Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet And a Light unto my path.
JESUS LOVES YOU. That is the big message of the talk today, from Chapters 13-17.
You might notice that in the past, we were discussing the talks by chapter– usually, one to two chapters per talk.
This time, in Talk 8, we’re taking five chapters– but when you read them, you feel how John slows down time, retelling— blow by blow—what happened in the last 24 hours of the earthly life of Jesus.
The hour begins with a common tradition– washing the dirty, muddy, and smelly feet of the disciples.
The washing of the feet was a common practice back then– done by servants.
For example, if you’re in a rich household, you would have four kinds of servants:
Servant No.1: The mayordoma or head servant who commands everyone. Servant No.2 : The PA or personal assistant of the boss.
Servant No. 3: A group of skilled workers– such as the cooks or gardeners.
Servant No.4 :The slave who was usually assigned to do the most undesirable tasks, such as the foot washing.
So, imagine Jesus doing this task for His disciples.
You would imagine their initial reaction: “Why would He do this to us?” Nowadays, modern foot washing happens on a Holy Thursday.
Your parish priest would invite us, “Brother/Sister, may we invite you for the honor of having your feet be washed on a Holy Thursday?”
If you said yes, what would you do next? You would go to the mall and have a pedicure and a foot spa to remove the little dirt on your toes so that when Father sees it, it would look beautiful, and it would smell like vanilla or an essential oil.
But back then, nothing like that. There were no paved roads but just muddy roads. People didn’t wear shoes, just open-toe sandals. So, they had something like what we call athlete’s foot— hairy, long toe nails riddled with fungus, bacteria (often growing between toes).
How Jesus Loves You
Let’s read what happened:
Can you imagine your boss or your leader suddenly taking off his clothes, putting a towel around his waist and starting to wash your feet?
I bet the disciples were quite awkward.
Imagine that you’re a factory worker. Your Chief Executive Officer (CEO) suddenly comes in. So, along with your co-factory workers, you line up because you want to please the CEO.
Suddenly, the CEO comes to you and says, “There’s dirt on your shoe.
Let me wipe it.”
I bet you will shrink in embarrassment. Probably, that’s what the disciples felt at that time.
But I believe that Jesus washed His disciples’ feet because it’s concrete example of His love.
Initially, Peter was kind of saying, “No, Lord, do not do it. I cannot accept that you’re doing this to me.”
But in John 13:7, Jesus tells Peter: “What I am doing to you, you do not understand now. But you will understand it later.”
What is this telling us? Jesus loves you to the very end, even becoming Servant No.4, the servant that does the undesirable tasks, to show
His love for you.
What are the two greatest Commandments? It’s to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. When God tells you that you must love your neighbor as yourself, this is the self that He is talking about.
Are you ready to love your neighbor?
Aside from demonstrating His love for His disciples, Jesus has another point on why He washed His disciples’ feet.
Jesus wants a reversal of social structure.
One day, three godchildren boasted to each other:
Grandchild No.1 says, “In our ancestral property, my grandfather did an excavation to know our history. We dug 100 feet. You know what he found?
He found copper wires– which means that our ancestors had telephone years back before it existed.
Grandchild No.2: “My grandfather did an excavation in our ancestral property. We dug 150 feet. We found not only copper wires but also aluminum antennas– which means that our ancestors had telephone and television broadcast signals already many years back before they existed.
Grandchild No. 3: “My grandfather did 200 feet of digging but found nothing. So, we dug deeper– 250 feet. But still, we found nothing. We dug again– down to 300 feet. We found nothing at all. No copper wires and no aluminum antennas.
Do you know what that means? Our ancestors already had Wi-Fi!”
It’s the way that we look at the world. Whoever has the most power, the most riches, the most followers on social media, or the most number of Labubus* – are on the top of the food chain.
What is this telling us? Jesus wants a reversal. The things that we think are valuable are not bad per se but he’s trying to teach us another focus.
*Labubu is an elf known for her mischievous personality introduced
by Kasing Lung, a Hong Kong-born artist based in Belgium. The character is part of The Monster television and online series about European fairy tales. Endorsed by celebrities, collecting Labubu dolls is now a craze worldwide, including the Philippines. Here, a Tiktok video shows actress and fashion icon Heart Evangelista with her Labubu.
Jesus’ Invitation
Are you using your power, your resources, your time, and your authority to serve people? That is the invitation of Jesus in this Gospel:
You might be wondering:
“Do we really have to go to work now and ask our officemates to remove their socks and their shoes so we will wash their feet? Do we do it literally?”
Of course, not. But the invitation of God is for you to apply and use what you have to serve others.
I’m part of an exclusive membership club which is called Life Begins at 40 Club. I recently became a member so, I’m a newbie. For the past five years,
my wife Athena and I were already very deliberate on having medical checkups– Annual Physical Exam or APE. Aside from the usual blood work, we go with the SGPT, SGOT, LDL, HDL, HBA1C, and fasting from sugar. For the young people who don’t understand, a time will come that it will make sense.
We hired a house help, and we thought of shouldering her APE. We brought her to where we were having it. My wife and I had HMOs (Health Maintenance Organization health insurance) so we don’t pay anything.
But we were shocked when our house help’s bill came out. It was so expensive.
So, we decided to bring her to a public hospital– but it was still expensive. It was around P3,000.00 for everything.
We were thinking if we should still continue with it– but we remembered this call from God. Yes, it may mean spending a little more but how many can have access to something like this? How many have the means to allocate for this?
Maybe this is our way of serving. I may just have let go of buying a pair of shoes for that. Maybe that’s a simple invitation from God.
If you’re a business owner and your profits are good this year, maybe you can share a little more. If you’re a boss in your company, maybe you can make it a little more conducive for your employees to have a balanced family life. I’m not saying that you to abuse yourself. Let me be clear on that– because Jesus did not let Himself be abused. He decided to do this deliberately.
For some, it may be different. If some people are so dependent on you to the point that it’s already toxic dependency, the servanthood that you might need to give them is tough love at this moment. Are you ready to give that tough love?
It’s always easy to just give in. Discern well.
The second event that happened after the washing of the feet is Jesus loving Judas to the end.
Remember that Judas was also at the Last Supper and that would mean that Jesus also washed Judas’s feet.
If I were Jesus, this is what I would do: I would not start washing Judas’ feet until I’d washed the feet of the other disciples– and so, I’d used up the water and soap.
Once I arrived to Judas, I would tell him, “Bro, sorry. We ran out of water. It’s nighttime already. God bless you.”
But Jesus did not do that. Even if he knew that Judas would betray Him. What did Jesus do? Jesus honored Judas. Check out what He did in John 13:26>
Back then, if your master or Rabbi handed you a piece of food, that was a gesture of honor.
Do we have Koreanovela fans here? When the CEO of the company pours out soju (alcoholic drink typically from rice or sweet potatoes) to your shot glass, that is a gesture of honor. That is also free because he pays for it.
That’s what it means when Jesus served Judas>
This shows us that to the very end, Jesus saw goodness in Judas.
There is an unspoken message in this gesture: Jesus at the very end was trying to compel Judas: “Hey, Judas, I know what’s in your mind. I know what you’re plotting. I know what you’re planning to do but I’m still serving you. I’m still loving you and telling you that this is not you. You are created better. You can decide to do otherwise.”
Are you like Judas?
You’ll probably say, “Of course not, Brother!” Most of us can relate with the other disciples:
“I’m like Peter. I want to be bold in declaring my faith.” “I feel I’m like John. I’m so loving with teaching people.”
But you might not hear anyone saying, “Sometimes, I feel like I’m Judas.” Because we use Judas for cursing. We tell people we hate, “Hudas ka!” Even in the jeepney, a signage says: “God knows HUDAS not pay.”
But I think we are like Judas at the brink of temptation– and we decide to give in to that temptation.
Like Judas Did:
What a waste.
Judas was given a chance to change his mind, but he still gave in to the temptation.
I believe Jesus’ gesture is very powerful also because it shows us that God respects our “free will” — so much that He does not intervene with what we do. But this gives us a warning.
The word nighttime in the verse is symbolic. It could mean a time of great crisis or difficulty. Judas entered the night or the darkness.
But let us not lose hope. Because note that the hour of
Jesus– which will be His greatest act of love– begins with darkness.
I want you to hold on to this. If you’re struggling with sin and temptation, God is telling you:sin may seem big. Sin may seem powerful. But it’s just the trick of the enemy trying to make you think that the temptation is bigger than the grace and the power of God. If you’re faced with temptation and it’s right in front of you, here’s a practical tip: Realize the pockets of grace that God is giving you like what He gave Judas. I have learned this pockets of grace concept around 2009 from Feast servant leader Bro. Migz
Ramirez who is now Fr. Migs. We were in an all-male Light Group. We were all campus missionaries.
Back then, I really wanted to overcome pornography. One time, I was sharing to the group that sometimes, when the Internet signal is good, I browse on a website, I type the porn site’s name, and click, what displays next is: “The page cannot be displayed.”
Because I’m really tempted, I would just refresh the page, and the porn site appears. Bro. Migs Ramirez interrupted me. He said, “No, do not refresh because that is actually a pocket of grace. It’s like Jesus telling you at the last minute, “You can still decide otherwise but I respect your free will.”
So, my reminder for you is this. Whenever temptation is right in front of you, try to discern what are the pockets of grace in front of you. When you’re driving and you’re so hot-headed and you want to cut the driver that has cut you, you inhale and say, “There’s a pocket of grace.”
Remember that even if you are in deep darkness right now, I want you to get ready for God’s light to shine His brightest. Always remember that no sin would be bigger than the grace and the light of God. No temptation can overcome that.
You have God’s power with you.
The third event happens in Chapters 14 to 17.
To summarize, Jesus gives His final speech because it was Passover, the Last Supper was about to happen. Jesus is already sitting at the table with His disciples and He begins His speech with an encouragement. And then He gives a call or an invitation. The next one is a prayer.
Jesus is saying His final reminders. By this time, the disciples are already overloaded with information from Jesus.
He is telling His disciples:
“People will persecute you because of me.
If you ask anything from my Father, it’ll be given to you. I am going away to a place you do not know, but I will come back. I will send an advocate.
Jesus is like telling them, “My hour is about to come. I need to tell you everything. You may not understand now– but one day, you will realize that I told you this.”
Sometimes, I believe that the Word of God is like that. You come here.
You absorb it. You feel that nothing is happening– but I tell you that one day, it will all make sense. You can apply it because you’ve been absorbing it.
There are three lessons we can learn from this:
Jesus tells them: “If you keep following me, there is a place that is meant for you.”
Jesus is talking about Heaven.
So, today, I believe Jesus is telling you: “Trust me. I live within you.”
When you trust the Lord, the second step that you must take is to follow Him. That’s why Jesus reminds the disciples that even if they fall, even if they stumble, and if they sin again, they must come back to Him:
Even before you were born, Jesus already prayed for you. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that comforting?
Let me just go back a bit.
Who among you have visited the cemetery to pay respects to your departed loved ones?
We Filipinos have a common joke when we are in the cemetery.
We would tell each other, “Look at our neighbors, they’re so quiet.”
I believe that interpretation came from John 14: 1-2>
That’s why we have interpretations that we are going to Heaven and St. Peter would be there. Or, if you are good on Earth, you have a bigger mansion in Heaven — and that’s partially true
