Is he really Lord? - Chambers, Oswald

Jesus knowing . . . That he was come from god, . . . He riseth from supper, . . . And took a towel, . . . And began to wash the disciples feet. John 13:35

Jesus Christ riddles us from all unreality. What he did shocks all affectation, pious fraud, religious pretence, sanctimoniousness, and religiosity always.

1. What do you know about yourself ?

Jesus knowing . . . That he was come from god .

. . Do you know you have received the holy spirit, know you are a child of god are you going to be greater than Jesus Christ? Are you going to be disdainful? What a humiliating thing to do! Jesus, knowing who he was, took a towel and washed the disciples feet; and he says, i have given you an example, that ye should do as i have done to you. To shout hallelujah is humbug unless it is genuine. Jesus never tells you to shout hallelujah: he says do as i have done to you. How much long-suffering mercy has god shown you?

2. Where do you place yourself ?

He riseth from supper, . . . And took a towel .

. . Do you regard yourself as a highly respectable, dignified christian? Are you religiously self-important, placing yourself where you fancy you ought to be placed, in stately surroundings? If so, you are not following Jesus Christs example. If you cannot do ordinary things and live as nobody anywhere, you are not a saint. Jesus left heaven and lived nowhere of any importance all his earthly life. There is a religiosity that is inspired by the devil, that gathers its skirts around it and says, no, i cannot be in ordinary places, or in ordinary avocations; i am a servant of god. Then you will be found nowhere

But in the very commonest of common places. You say you are called to be a missionary, a minister, a christian worker: you are called to be a disciple of Jesus christ, other things are etceter as. Jesus Christ did not move among transfigured things; he moved amongst prosaic, unnote worthy things, among the most common-place things imaginable, and it was those things that he transfigured; he lived amongst them as the servant of men, and he says, if you are my disciple, you will do the same.

3. What do you do with yourself ?

. . . And began to wash the disciples feet.

Water, a basin, feet, a towel there is nothing divine about those things, they are the most ordinary, common-place things one can conceive. The lord of heaven and earth washed the feet of his disciples, he did it himself; one of them protested, but it made no difference. So after he . . . Was set down again, he said unto them, know ye what i have done to you? .. . I have given you an example, that ye should do as i have done to you. When the testimony and the hallelujah are followed by the following of his steps in example, then comes the tremendous flow of the power of god wherever you go. I will make the place of my feet glorious among the poor, the devil-possessed, the mean,11 the decrepit, the selfish, the sinful, the misunderstanding that is where Jesus went, and that is exactly where he will take you if you are his disciple.

I have given you an example, that ye should do as i have done to you. Your lips have called him mas- ter, and lord, are you prepared to take this lesson home to yourself ? What do you know about yourself ? You know you have received the holy spirit, you know you are a child of god; then let gods providence place you where he wills, don’t put yourself in special conditions. Where do you place yourself ? In the common round and trivial tasks of ordinary life supper times and ordinary people, with no pretence about it. What do you do with yourself ? Exactly what Jesus did for you. He came to your house, he found your bodily temple a very unkempt and disgraceful place to come into, but he came into it and cleaned it up and is keeping it clean; now he says, if i then, your lord and master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one anothers feet.