“Amen, amen I state to you, a slave is not greater than the lord of him, nor even a messenger greater than the one sending him. If you have discerned these things, you are blessed if you may do them.”
They ought to do these things because they are not greater than Jesus. Those who actually “discern” this are indeed blessed – if they actually do what’s pictured by this foot-washing.
That may be AOK but have you seen a big problem with it? The problem is that Jesus had just washed also the feet of Judas Iscariot. Was he included among those who would himself be blessed by doing foot-washing to others?
“I do not state concerning everyone of you. I myself discern whom I chose but, in order that the scripture may be fulfilled, ‘the one consuming my bread took up his heel upon me.’”
Jesus excluded one of his disciples from his statement of the blessedness of those who, discerning the real Jesus, actually do the foot-washing. He knew his chosen. He knew also the one who only purported to be one of his disciples, the one who even consumed “his bread”.
Jesus was not referring to this man when he said to his disciples: “If you discern these things, you are blessed if you do them.” But this man did have his feet washed by Jesus. Jesus had made known to him the love of God.
“From now I state to you, before its coming itself to be, so that when it itself may come to be you may believe that I myself am.”
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