阅读经文 

我小腿生黑素瘤时，医生从那里割掉一大块肉，我那缝了针的足踝被紧紧包扎起来，历时多个星期之久。我慈爱的丈夫跪在地上、拆开绷带、亲手洗我被汗水湿透的脚。这是一个难闻和卑微的体验。

在耶稣的年代，人们出门都是穿凉鞋步行的，习惯上由家仆为所有刚进屋的人清洗沾满尘埃的脚，以表示好客。但要一位有地位的人做这样卑微的差事，是难以想像的，甚至是可耻的，又何况是神的儿子呢！这就是彼得对耶稣提出异议：“祢永不可洗我的脚” 的原因。

然而，耶稣却有重要的事情教导他们——特别是要说明，在神的国里，仆人和主人都是弟兄姊妹，老师和学生都彼此尊重。男和女、公民和移民、屋主和无家可归的、来自不同种族文化和国家的人们——在神家里都是平等的。

有史以来，在世上活过的最伟大的人物耶稣，为了一群忘恩负义的人自己成为卑微，甚至为他们死。祂不但吩咐跟从祂的人要效法祂的仆人心肠，如果我们这样行，祂应许我们必然更加蒙福。我们可以做什么来服侍人呢？

Doctors removed a big chunk of flesh from my lower leg when I had melanoma, so my stitched-up ankle was tightly wrapped for weeks. My loving husband would get on his knees, unwrap my bandages and hand-wash my sweaty foot. It was a smelly exercise in humility.

In Jesus’ day, when people wore sandals and traveled everywhere on foot, it was a habit of hospitality for household servants to wash the dust-caked feet of all who entered. It would be unthinkable—even shameful—for a person of status to carry out such a menial task. Surely not the Son of God! That’s why Peter protested to Jesus, “No . . . you shall never wash my feet.”

But Jesus had important things to teach—and especially to show that in the kingdom of God, servants and masters are brothers and sisters, and teachers and students respect one another. Male and female, citizens and immigrants, homeowners and homeless, people from every tribe and language and nation—all rank as equals in God’s family.

Jesus, by far the greatest person to ever walk the earth, humbled himself even to death for a bunch of ungrateful sinners. And he not only instructs his followers to imitate his servant heart, but he also promises that we will be blessed in doing so. In what ways can we serve others?