Knowing, Doing, Being Happy

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.  -- John 13:17

We are set free by the knowledge of the truth, but for what purpose?  When the Lord washed the feet of His disciples, it was a visible lesson as to how they were to treat one another, but it also tells us something about the nature that has been imparted to us.  Service is not only something we do; we are servants. 

Jesus, we are told, “knew that His hour had come”.  He also knew that “the Father had given all things into His hands”.  The Lord knew who He was, He knew His destiny, and He knew where He was in His path.  He understood perfectly His relationship with the Father, His authority and power.  Because of this knowledge, He served His chosen ones.  He did not do it to gain their admiration, to get something from them, to impress them with His humility.  He did it because He was stepping into the messianic role of the Suffering Servant Isaiah had depicted. 

God is certainly our King.  Jesus is described as King of kings and Lord of lords.  He is worthy of our honor, our respect, our gratitude, and our reverential fear and awe.  Is that just because the King is special?  Obviously that’s the case with God who is our Creator, in whom we live and move and have our being.  We cannot exist apart from Him.  Yet, I don’t think that is what God means when He reveals Himself as King. 

An earthly king who truly understands his position and responsibility is a protector, a judge, one who will lay down his life for his people.  He is a true servant.  While he has a right to demand the service of his people, it is for their good, their freedom, their prosperity, and their happiness that he does so. 

Thus, paradoxically, when Jesus took on the role of a servant in the upper room that night, He was also taking on the mantle of His kingship.  This is what a king does.  This is who a king is.  Having been given "all authority", how many of us would be able to freely give rather than make demands, to serve rather than demand obeisance, to humble ourselves rather than compel others to bow before us?  Nevertheless, this is exactly what the King of glory did, and what He expects of us.

If some people made the rules for the cosmos, they would make all of us perfect.  There would be no need for serving anyone else because each would be sufficient unto himself.  Would there be any need to have more than one?  Surely the One knows the answer, and I think He has given it to us. 

We are not going to be happy people if we are only served.  We are a kingdom of priests – servants of the Divine, or “kings and priests” under God.  To understand our destiny and fulfill it, to live in freedom and peace and happiness, we need to do those things we know – serve one another, because we are from the One, made one in Christ, growing into One.  

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17:20-23).