Most of us have wondered what would happen if only Elon Musk put his money into a specific charity or area that matters to us. He has enough money to transform the NHS, surely? Maybe we have wondered if only the President did something. If only someone with actual power and reach got involved, this problem would be solved by Friday. And it's a fair point. It is also a very comfortable place to be, because the person who should act is always someone else. The responsibility is always theirs.

This week Mike Harris took us into John 13, the famous passage about Jesus washing feet. But the message is not about try harder and it is not do more. But simply, you already have what you need, you have already been put where you are, and the thing being asked of you is being asked by God himself.

Are we over familiar with this story?

Jesus washing the disciples' feet is one of those accounts that has been told so often it can slide straight past us. We know the shape of it. Jesus knelt down, the disciples were uncomfortable, we should probably serve someone at some point. Next.

But if you slow it down a little, it gets stranger.

It is the evening before the crucifixion. Jesus knows exactly where the next twenty-four hours are heading. He gets up from the meal, takes off His outer clothing, wraps a towel round His waist, pours water into a basin, and starts on twelve pairs of feet.

Washing feet was not just very unpleasant, it was also demeaning. In that culture a Jewish master would not ask a Jewish slave to do it, because it was considered too degrading even for them. The job was given to Gentile slaves. There was a hierarchy inside slavery itself, and foot washing sat at the very bottom of it.

That is the role Jesus chose.

Is it all just history repeating itself?

There is an interesting parallel to this in Genesis. Joseph's brothers arrive in Egypt, not knowing who they are dealing with. Before Joseph reveals himself, his steward brings water so the eleven brothers can wash their feet. Water for feet, then the reveal.

Centuries later, Jesus washes twelve pairs of feet, and then the cross reveals who He is.

Same shape, one difference. Joseph sent his steward. Jesus picked up the basin Himself.

Jesus kneels

John 13:3, sitting immediately before Jesus gets up from the table.

"Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God."

Read it again. All things under His power. And in the middle of knowing that, He kneels.

Jesus did not serve in order to become someone. He served because He already knew who He was. Which gives us the practical question. If that is where the ability to serve comes from, what do we need to know?

Three things.

1. Who you are. See https://www.crowd.church/topics/identity-selfworth or even read https://www.crowd.church/inchrist because understanding "Who am I in Christ" is essential here.
2. Where you have come from. Last week Ade Birkby walked us through the Good Samaritan (https://www.crowd.church/talks/when-helping-someone-costs-you-something). It is tempting to read that story looking for who we should help. It is more honest to notice that we are the man left half dead by the side of the road, and someone stopped for us.
3. Where you are heading. There is a place being prepared. We are not building towards oblivion.

And the consequence of holding those three is the sentence that gives this week its title.

"When you recognise who you are, you don't now have to compete for attention. You don't have to compete for affirmation. You have that already."

That is the freedom underneath the whole thing. You cannot serve properly while you are think you are still auditioning for a role that is already yours.

Heaven is roaring you on

Mike admitted joining in the "if only Elon Musk would sort this out" conversation, and being genuinely persuaded by it. All that money. All that reach. Think what he could fix.

But then we see if from God's point of view.

"Heaven looks down at you with all of the power and all of the authority and all of the possibilities that you have within you, and is roaring you on to serve and to influence those that are around you."

God's world is an arena, and you have a huge role, an indispensable role to play in it. (Dallas Willard)

You are not a supporting role. You are not a role that gets covered if you do not show up. You are indispensable.

Maybe it is time to get up and kneel down.

The running shoes

Mike talked about a Catholic priest loved running and did not have much money. He saved for months and eventually bought one really good pair of trainers. He took them out, they were everything he had hoped, and he was content that they would last.

A few days later a man knocked at his door. No shoes, no shared language, clearly homeless and in real need. He pointed at his feet.

The priest went through the house and brought out every pair of shoes he owned. The man tried them. The only ones that fitted were the new running trainers.

So he gave them away.

That night the priest dreamt he was standing in front of Jesus, and Jesus was wearing the trainers. Retelling it later he could barely get the words out for crying. And the thought he woke up with was not relief. It was this. I could have fobbed him off with any old pair from the back of the cupboard, and I would have missed the chance to give my King the best I had.

Conversation Street

What in our society is the washing of people's feet that we could do for others?

Ellis asked this in the comments and it set the direction for the rest of the evening.

Mike suggested that the first thing to do is to bless people who have been written off as toxic. Not necessarily to befriend them, but to be the person willing to risk their own reputation to show them something of Jesus' love. As he put it, it might put some dirt on you.

The second is to praise people out loud. He reckons it is a lost art, and that the longer he spends online the less of it he sees. When you genuinely lift someone else up, you often do it at your own expense.

He also added a third thing. Forgiveness. This costs you a great deal and returns nothing you can point at. As he noticed, the only version of forgiveness social media talks about is the one where you benefit.

Dan's suggested being the first person to make the tea, without the mental scoreboard of whose turn it is. He also talked about the cancel-culture reflex, where you will not even like something good because of what it might associate you with.

Matt's answer was to stop hunting for a category and start noticing what is already in front of you. Usually there is a group of people you already have a heart for, whether that is people who are homeless (he mentioned Green Pastures, run by Andrew and his dad Pastor Pete), or people working in the NHS, or somewhere else entirely. Talk to anyone in that world for five minutes and they will tell you the four biggest problems in it. Start there.

Why does serving feel like a chore?

Nobody has ever said "how can I do more chores?" The word carries its own weight. Take the bins out. It is a chore. Serve my wife. Somehow that is different, and the difference is not the task.

Mike's answer was about who is asking. If a task looks menial and you think you are doing it for your boss, it stays menial. But if these are good works prepared in advance, then the person asking you to put the chair away, or say hello to someone, or pay for something, is the Creator of the universe.

"We mess it up all the time, and we don't do it, and we create a thousand reasons why we shouldn't."

He also flagged a trap in the phrase good works. Romans 8:28 says God works all things for the good of those who love Him, and it is easy to read that as God arranging our lives to make us bigger, stronger and more comfortable. The good is good by His standard. Sometimes that lifts us up. More often, Matt suggested, it is about somebody else.

Is it possible to serve someone you do not actually like?

Mike was honest that this comes up for him. He can see a way to serve someone and simply not feel much towards them.

His way through is not to manufacture the feeling. He knows he is commanded to serve, and he knows he loves God, so he does it for God. And in his experience the emotions tend to follow, they just are not the thing driving the car.

Does it have to be a big gesture?

Dan brought a story from a podcast he and his wife listened to on Monday (https://simonguillebaud.com/inspired-podcast/), a conversation between Simon Guillebaud (who has been on What's The Story -https://www.crowd.church/whats-the-story/how-gratitude-changes-everything-simon-guillebaud ) and a woman called Mary. Mary was homeless and had lived through a horrendous upbringing. She was out walking her dog on what she had decided would be her last walk. A man passed her and said "have a good day". That was it. She never saw him again, and it turned her life around.

Alicia's contribution came from the other end of the scale. She has been learning to make her sister's brownies. Small, except that her kitchen triggers her claustrophobia, so it costs her something real. And it means a great deal to her sister, who knows exactly what it costs.

Both stories make the same point. The size of the gesture and the size of the effect are not related.

Is greatness a dirty word?

Matt raised something else. In a lot of church culture, wanting to be great has been treated as suspect, as though the safest ambition is none.

Jesus does not do that. Asked who would be greatest in the kingdom, He answers plainly, and the answer is not "stop asking". It is that if you want to be great, be the servant of all.

Which turns leadership inside out. It stops being about who serves you and becomes about who you serve.

Jesus placed Himself under the tax system, under a human body, under temptation, under bad rules and a hostile occupation, surrounded by disciples who kept getting it wrong, and He had the power to end all of it in a second. Then He submitted to death.

The next day He would be crucified, and He still washed their feet. Most of us struggle to be useful on a Sunday evening because of work in the morning.

What to do this week

1. Look back at yesterday, not forward at your life. Walk through three or four things that actually happened. Mike's point is that the opportunities were there, and the reason we miss them is usually that we are busy or too far up in our own heads.
2. Find out "Who am I in Christ" and read the list properly. Both Mike and Dan landed on this. It is not a devotional exercise, it is the foundation the serving is built on.
3. Praise someone out loud. Look for what is genuinely praiseworthy in a specific person and say it to them. Mike thinks it is a lost art, and it costs nothing except the small risk of meaning it.
4. Do the small thing without the scoreboard. Make the tea first. Put the chair away. Ask how someone's day was and wait for the answer.
5. Notice who you already have a heart for, then go and ask them what is hard. Five minutes of listening will give you more direction than an hour of trying to work out your calling.

And if you are nowhere near this

Mike named two groups when he talked about the challenge of preparing this. There are people who hear "serve" and immediately go and do it, sometimes with their heart nowhere near it. And there are people who hear it and just feel condemned, because they do not think they are worthy of it.

The answer he gave was the same for both, and it was not a better effort. It was a better starting point. You are loved, you were rescued, and there is somewhere good you are heading. Serving is what happens downstream of believing that, not the thing that earns it.

So the question is not whether you are important enough yet.

What is the small thing in front of you today?