Daily Devotion for April 13, 2025

Devotion:

For an audio version of this devotion, click here.

Read John 13:12-17.

What a powerful, experiential lesson Jesus taught his disciples in this scene right before this reading. Washing the feet of guests was a menial task done by house servants. Jesus, their Rabbi and leader, had taken on that role and washed the feet of each of them. Then he followed it up with teaching to drive home the point even deeper: to be part of his way, they should follow his example and be willing to serve each other. Not only that, I imagine he was looking into the future, when they would be leading their own groups of followers. He was showing them what it looks like to lead a group in his name.   

Toward the end of this same chapter, we read that he gave them a new commandment, “to love one another,” and said that was how they would be identified as belonging to him. A major characteristic of that love is this emphasis on servant leadership. May it be that those of us who still seek to lead and guide others to him are willing to live by this example he set, not only on that night, but with his whole life.  

Personal Worship Option:

Offer this prayer or one in your own words: Servant God, thank you for the divine example you gave us in Jesus. Give us the wisdom and courage to follow what he taught us with both his words and actions. In his name, Amen.