How many animal lovers do we have out there?
Maybe you have been in the position of growing up receiving a new pet for the holidays or even as a birthday gift. I new puppy can be just the kind of responsibility a young child needs to learn about when growing up. There is nothing quite like the feel of little puppy teeth digging into your finger or the purr of a kitten circled up on your chest. What comes with the small gift is often the added need to learn how to pick up after and clean up after it. What starts out as a tiny "fun thing" becomes an every day way of life. Now, we have to follow that creature around with a bottle of Lysol and paper towels. We have to feed it, morning, noon and night. We have to fill up its water bowl constantly. Mom and Dad make it clear to us. "This is your dog." "This is your cat." It doesn't take long before the newness and joy of the gift wears off. Those moments bring to us an epiphany. We are stuck with this animal.
Maybe you know the feeling. Maybe your have been there. Instead of hearing "This is your dog" you have heard "This is your husband" or "This is your wife". Or, “He is your child, parent, employee or boss or roommate” or any other relationship that requires loyalty for survival.
Loving the people we are stuck with in life can be a panic inducing event. Who exactly are we talking about? Take a look around this morning. Some of the people have the same last name as you. Some of them have been in this church and with this congregation for as long as you have or longer. Maybe you know what it feels like to have to answer the question - "Am I going to have to look at this hairy, grumpy, flat nosed face for the rest of my life?" (Any wives out there now where I'm coming from?) Am I going to be barked at until the day I die? (Any kids making the connection out there?) Will they ever learn to clean up after themselves? (Any parents know what I'm talking about? Any church ladies thinking about youth groups kids?)
The questions that were brought out before we read that passage of scripture from John 13 are the kind of things someone might be asking themselves if they feel stuck in a relationship. maybe you've been there with your spouse. Maybe you've been there with your pastor. Maybe you've been there at work with your boss or a fellow employee. How do we define such a feeling? Author and pastor Max Lucado would cover this subject in depth from his book "Just Like Jesus". Quoting Lucado from his book...
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There is a word for this condition. Upon consulting the one-word medical dictionary (which I wrote the day before I crafted this chapter), I discovered that this condition is a common malady known as stuckititis. (Stuck meaning “trapped.” Ititis being the six letters you tag on to any word you want to sound impressive. Read it out loud: stuckititis.) Max’s Manual of Medical Terms has this to say about the condition:
Attacks of stuckititis are limited to people who breathe and typically occur somewhere between birth and death. Stuckititis manifests itself in irritability, short fuses, and a mountain range of molehills. The common symptom of stuckititis victims is the repetition of questions beginning with who, what, and why. Who is this person? What was I thinking? Why didn’t I listen to my mother?
This prestigious manual identifies three ways
to cope with stuckititis: flee, fight, or forgive. Some opt to flee: to
get out of the relationship and start again elsewhere, though they are
often surprised when the condition surfaces on the other
side of the fence as well. Others fight. Houses become combat zones,
and offices become boxing rings, and tension becomes a way of life. A
few, however, discover another treatment: forgiveness. My manual has no
model for how forgiveness occurs, but the Bible does.
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Comedian and gospel singer Mark Lowry would take on the idea of what it is like to love and to like someone. Back in the mid 1990's as he was hitting his stride as a comedian, he produced the well known program "Remotely Controlled" where he details some of his life growing up as a child diagnosed with ADD and ADHD. How were things handled back then? A child was given some ritalin to try and calm them down and send them back to class. That might work. That might not. In Mark's case, going into the third grade, he had a hard time sitting still and focusing. When he came home one day with finger nail marks in his arm from his teacher, his mother had him moved across the hall to the old teacher's room. His teacher here was Mrs. Holland. When Mark had moments where he got hyperactive, when he couldn't focus and do his work, she would put her teacher-aide in charge of the class and take Mark for a walk around the playground. It was here that Mark heard encouraging words. He heard that God liked hyperactive kids. He had never heard that before. His parents were always telling him that God was going to use him for something special one day. Mrs Holland reinforced that notion in him. Mark heard from his teacher that God didn't just "love him but that God "liked" him. That really stuck with him. To the crowd that night, he posed some thoughts...
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"She told me that God "liked" me. I had never heard that before. I love a lot of people that I don't necessarily like. I gotta go through Thanksgiving and Christmas too." (Slight chuckles from the crowd) What? Some of you sit there like a bunch of pious gasbags. You know exactly who I'm talking about. (Crowd begins to laugh harder.) You know who popped into your head! You know what I'm talking about. You'll cry at their graduation or their wedding but you don't want to go on vacation with them. You know exactly who I'm talking about!"
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Jesus made sure that those in his circle of followers and friends knew that he loved them. Repeatedly, we see not just his words, but his actions, showing them that truth.
When Lazarus had passed, Jesus came to Mary and Martha and not only showed the power of God by raising his friend from the dead, but by crying and shedding tears with the family.
When the disciples wanted to shoo the children away and keep them from coming to Him, he rebuked them and allowed the children to come to him anyway. He made sure we understood that we are all children and need to have access to God's Love whenever we need it.
This moment in the Upper Room might be the best. These men who have followed Jesus for the last 3 years, very soon they will all desert him. They will all run and leave Him. Instead of chewing them out or being cold to them, he loves them. He washes their feet. A sign of forgiveness. The job of washing feet would fall to the lowest servant in the house. The moment here truly shows what selflessness means for the follower of Christ. There are pecking orders to any group of people. Even in the group walking with Jesus. There was the 12. And, then there was the inner three. And, then there were closer relationship between Jesus and Peter, and Jesus and John. These 12 men seemed to always be arguing about who was the greatest. We see it often throughout the Gospel record. During one of those arguments from Matthew Chap 20, Jesus says to them, "The greatest among you shall be your servant." In a group of servants within a household, there would be those who would set the table, and those who would take care of linens, and those who would wash things. And, then those who would get the job of washing everyone's tired and dirty feet once the guests were reclining at the table.
It is this job that Jesus takes upon himself.
The King of the Universe. The Savior of all mankind. The Prince of Peace. He was the one who should be served in the moment. Instead, he is the one serving. He isn't concerned about how great he is or whether any one is lifting him up. He knows what is going to happen in the next few hours, in the next day. Still he makes sure that these people who are with him know how much he loves them.
I recall hearing about a couple who needed to work out some issues. After two years of marriage they were at a breaking point. They weren't even sure they wanted to stay married. Money always seems to be a problem for new couples. There were accusations and blame assigned by both parties. Like something out of a TV reality show, they decided to follow the advice of a counselor and go away for trip. They headed to a get away spot where they could think and talk and take care of it all. They had chances to sit together. They walked on the beach. They sat alone in separate rooms. They argued some. They gave each other the silent treatment. Finally on the last night of the trip, the husband came back to him room to find a small piece of paper left on his pillow. In nine words, his wife made her choice as to how to move forward.
I love you.
I forgive you.
Lets move on.
Her words were like a basin of water. The piece of paper was like a towel. When given the choice to fight or flee, she went another route. The route of forgiveness means a new chance. It means we get to start afresh. We get to turn a corner. Love is the chance we all need.
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