Loved and Taught to Serve
Yeshua’s covenant gift and the life His disciples are to share
Begin by reading Luke 22:14–30 and John 13:1–17,21–35.
How does a family learn a love that makes room for serving one another?
The Gospels bring us to Yeshua, also known as Jesus, sharing a meal with His disciples before His arrest and death. These are people who have travelled with Him and heard His teaching. They still need to learn how to live together.
Luke records His words about the covenant and a dispute over greatness. John records His washing of the disciples’ feet and His command to love one another. Read each account in its own setting. Together, they let us consider the gift they receive and the shared life He teaches them.
A meal within Israel’s remembered deliverance
In Luke, Yeshua eats the Passover with His apostles. Passover is Israel’s remembrance of deliverance from Egypt. We have already encountered that deliverance as the beginning of a people brought into covenant life before the LORD.
Now Yeshua speaks at this meal about His coming suffering. He gives bread to the disciples, identifying it with His body given for them. He also speaks of the cup in relation to His blood shed for them.
The KJV calls the cup the new testament in His blood. Here, testament means covenant. His words place the renewed covenant before the disciples in connection with the life He gives for them.
We can look back to Jeremiah’s promise of a new covenant, forgiveness, and God’s instruction written within His people. Yeshua now names that covenant in relation to His approaching death.
The family’s life is being held within His costly gift. Before asking how they will care for one another, we need to attend to the care they receive from Him.
Greatness questioned at the table
Luke also records a dispute among the disciples about which of them should be considered greatest.
Their closeness to Yeshua has not removed the desire for status. Even within the meal, their shared life needs correction.
Yeshua addresses the way rulers exercise authority, then tells His disciples that their life together is to take a different shape. The leader is to be as one who serves. He directs attention to His own presence among them as a servant (verses 24–27).
Notice that responsibility is still present. The question concerns how it is carried. A person entrusted with leadership must learn to serve the people affected by that authority.
For our own reflection, this searches the wish to be recognised, obeyed, or placed above others. What happens to the family when those desires govern its relationships? Who receives care, and who is expected to provide it without being honoured in return?
The Lord takes the towel
John begins his account with Yeshua’s love for His own and His knowledge that He is returning to the Father. It also speaks of the authority the Father has given into His hands.
Then He rises, takes a towel, pours water, and washes the disciples’ feet.
The act makes His care visible. The One they call Lord attends to a humble bodily need. His authority and His service appear together in the passage.
Read the action slowly. The disciples receive something from Him that they did not arrange or perform for themselves. Before they are told to follow His example, He has served them.
This gives a relational setting to the instruction. Their life together is to be shaped by the Lord whose care they have received.
Peter must also receive
Peter initially refuses to let Yeshua wash his feet. Yeshua tells him that without His washing, Peter has no part with Him. Peter then asks for his hands and head to be washed as well.
The conversation reaches beyond a simple lesson in politeness. Yeshua connects receiving His washing with having a part with Him. He also speaks of being clean, while distinguishing the one who will betray Him.
We should preserve that depth as we consider the example of service. The passage concerns receiving from Yeshua as well as learning what to do for others.
Sometimes receiving care can unsettle the place we prefer to occupy. We may be comfortable offering help yet reluctant to acknowledge our own need. Peter’s response invites us to attend to what Yeshua says about the necessity of receiving from Him.
Belonging begins within His gift and His claim upon us.
An example to practise together
After washing their feet, Yeshua asks whether they understand what He has done. He affirms their calling Him Master and Lord, then tells them that they too ought to wash one another’s feet.
The instruction is concrete. We should let the actual act remain before us as we also recognise the humble service it expresses.
He has given an example for them to practise. Knowing it is to become doing it (verses 12–17).
Notice the words one another. The pattern concerns a shared life in which care moves between the members. It challenges the expectation that service must always come from those with the least standing.
For a household or community, that can become an honest question: are the same people continually carrying the unnoticed work, while others protect their place? Following His example asks each of us to consider what care lies within our responsibility.
Love takes its measure from Him
Later, Yeshua gives His disciples a new commandment:
“That ye love one another; as I have loved you.” — John 13:34
We have already read the command to love the neighbour in Leviticus. Here, Yeshua directs His disciples to His own love as the pattern for their love of one another.
The footwashing has given that love a visible expression. His covenant words in Luke have brought His self-giving before us. The disciples are being taught within the care of the One whose life is given for them.
He also says their love will identify them as His disciples. Their relationship with Him is to become recognisable in their relationship with one another.
This is more than learning a socially useful kindness. Their shared life bears witness to the Lord they belong to.
Truth remains within the love
John’s account does not conceal betrayal. Yeshua identifies the wrong, and Judas leaves before the command to love is spoken.
The passage therefore does not present shared love as pretending that every person at a table is acting faithfully. Yeshua serves while remaining truthful about the betrayal before Him.
That helps us keep care and honesty together. We can learn to serve without denying a real wrong. The family’s peace needs truthful relationships as well as practical kindness.
The disciples have received His care, heard His covenant words, and been corrected in their pursuit of greatness. They are called to a life whose service and love reflect Him.
His example brings the question close: what does the care I have received from Yeshua ask of the way I treat those beside me?
Search the passages yourself
- How does Luke place the meal within Passover and Yeshua’s approaching suffering?
- What does Yeshua say about the bread and cup?
- How does He answer the dispute about greatness?
- What does John tell us about the Father and Yeshua before the footwashing?
- How are receiving His care, following His example, and loving one another connected?
Continue reading: John 17:6–23 and Acts 2:1–4,32–47. Notice what Yeshua asks of the Father for His people, then how the first believers begin a shared life after receiving the word and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Scripture quotations: King James Version.