upside down

"Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility."

Proverbs 18:12

Have you ever compared yourself to someone else?

I certainly have. It's a bad habit, but a very natural one. I measure myself against family, friends, and complete strangers. Morally, physically, intellectually: my comparisons build me up or tear me down. They lead, often, to haughtiness. (Just as often, they lead to something that is not humility but pretends to be: a negative fixation on self that we sometimes call "poor self image.")

Jesus' disciples, we read, often indulged in comparisons. But shortly before He went to His crucifixion, Jesus did something that changed their view of themselves and of others forever. He dressed Himself as a slave, knelt down, and washed their filthy feet.

John writes,

"So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?"

In that moment, Jesus turned His disciples' world upside down. He laid a responsibility on them that they probably never expected to carry. That responsibility brought with it a whole new view of the world. Remember, the disciples believed Jesus would usher in a kingdom, with them as princes in it. They expected to rule--not to wash the feet of others who were, perhaps, beneath them.

But Jesus did not allow them to think of themselves this way. After washing their feet, He said,

"Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.

"If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet."

John 13:12-14

God fully intended to honour Jesus' disciples. He honoured them in their lifetimes, and He has continued to honour their memory and work. But before God would bestow glory on His servants, He first taught them humility. Haughtiness, a view of life which is based on comparing ourselves with others, leads to destruction. Humility leads us to God, to love, and to honour.

The striking fact is that Jesus was superior to His disciples in every way. There was nothing in them that was greater, purer, or more righteous than He. He deserved their service; they did not deserve His. Yet He gave it.

Real humility is not about measuring ourselves against others at all, whether we see ourselves as better or worse than those around us. It doesn't matter who's "better," whose choices are more godly, whose life is more fruitful. What matters is that Jesus has loved us and washed our feet. In every relationship in life, no matter how deep or how cursory, God matters first. My relationships with my family and friends are not just about me and them: they're about God and me, and then about those He asks me to love.

Jesus, who died for us, reconciled us to God, and still serves us in a thousand little ways every day, looks at us and asks, "Know ye what I have done to you?"

I know a little: He has changed everything. My world is officially upside down.