Today's Gospel

Your Universal Gift

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. It's Holy Thursday. We're heading into these most sacred days and we're looking at the gospel. We're looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea. Whatever it is that strikes you, what strikes me might be completely different to what the Holy Spirit strikes you with. But you're looking for a word or a phrase or an idea to anchor your day and go out and live your life with that word, phrase, or idea in mind. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of John 13:1-15.

"Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside His garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with a towel with which he was girded. He came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, 'Lord, do you wash my feet?' And Jesus answered him, 'What I am doing, you do not know now, but afterward, you will understand.' And Peter said to him, 'You shall never wash my feet.' And Jesus answered him, 'If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.' And Simon Peter said to him, 'Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.' And Jesus said to him, 'He who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet. But he is clean all over. And you are clean, but not all of you.' For he knew who was to betray him. That was why he said, 'You are not all clean.' When he had washed their feet and taken his garments and resumed his place, he said to them, 'Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do as I have done to you.'"

And so what do we have here? We have, epic leadership lesson. We have masterclass in leadership. We have the birth of servant leadership. And Jesus teaching His disciples, again, a very different paradigm because the paradigm of the world is hierarchical. It's like everyone serves the people up the hierarchy. And in Jesus' time, it has certainly been set up so that the kings and the political leaders and the religious leaders, they were served in every way imaginable. And Jesus is saying, "Nope, my kingdom doesn't work like that. That's not how we operate, guys. We've got a new way of doing things. We have a new paradigm. The first will be last and the last will be first. And the servant will be served by the leader. And it's mind-blowing. Obviously for Peter, he's like, "Not a chance, Jesus." And Jesus has to explain again, "This is how it has to be. It's how it has to be, Peter." And then, of course, he's like, okay, "Then not just my feet, but my hands and my head." What is it that you take away from that? In what way are you being called to serve? Sometimes people will say to me, "I don't know what to do with my life, you know? Well, what should I do with my life, Matthew?" And I'll say, "Well, what do you feel like your talents are?" "Oh, I don't have any talents." And this, of course, is never true. Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking, "Okay. If I can't write a symphony like Beethoven, I don't have a talent in music, or if I can't paint a painting like Monet, I don't have a talent in art." This isn't true. But the reality is, is that we all have common universal gifts. And one of our common universal gifts - we've all got it - is the ability to serve. And very often, it's our common universal gifts that are much, much, much more powerful and important than our individual and unique gifts. The ability to hit a baseball is fantastic. But when you put it side by side in context with the ability to serve people, the ability to serve people is a thousand times more important, a thousand times more meaningful, and a thousand times more powerful. So what are your common universal gifts? One of them is to serve and to serve powerfully. Today is an invitation to look for new ways to serve, an invitation to revisit the ways we serve, and ask, are we serving with our whole hearts, with our whole minds, with our whole beings? Have a great day. Have an amazing day. And remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.

One thing I did want to mention is, for the first time now, we're releasing a video every day based on the Daily Gospel. And so Lent will finish, and we have this Holy Week experience. And usually, our best Lent ever videos would end this Sunday on Easter Sunday. But every day, the rest of the year, you're welcome to come back and enjoy this experience of looking at the Daily Gospel just for a word or a phrase or an idea to anchor our days. I hope you'll enjoy that, take advantage of that, and share that with your family and friends.