From John 13...

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to his father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 

None of us know how long we’ll have on this earth. But Jesus did. And I bet that if we did know how many years, days we had to be here, we would prioritize exactly what he did: love. Love the people in our lives. Love them to the end—whatever that is, and whenever it comes. But how?

Jesus, knowing that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, and dry them with the towel. 

There were no jokes about whose feet were the worst. No one knew what to say as Jesus moved around the table from one man to another. The men exchanged glances and the only sound was water sloshing in the bowl, until Jesus came to Simon Peter. Peter held back his dirty, calloused foot. “Lord,” he asked. “Are you really going to wash my feet?”

Jesus answered him: “You don’t understand what I’m doing, but later you will.”

When he had washed their feet and put his garment back on, he returned to his place at the table. He looked at them. “Do you understand what I have done? I have given you an example, and you should do just as I have done.”

You don’t understand, Jesus says—but this is love. You get up from the table, out of your comfy chair, and you get up close to the person you love, and you serve them. Even if their feet are dirty. Even if they don’t understand what you’re doing—because maybe later they will. Again and again, the Bible says, this is how God loves us:

He gets up from the table and comes where we are.

This week we begin the season of Lent, a reflective time—and we know where it ends: A cross. A tomb. A surprise. Resurrection. 

But it wasn’t so long ago that we celebrated Christmas. Remember? There were presents and lights and…masks. In a manger on a dirt floor we found a couple wrapping a newborn in cloth— on the day God got up from his throne and came to where we are. Why? Because God so loved the world. He loved it then, and he loves it now.

This first week of Lent, as we prepare once again to try and comprehend the meaning of Easter—remember what Jesus himself said was our example to follow.

It began with love. It ends with love. And then, it begins again.