DS 007

The Purpose of Salvation

John 13:1-20

We talk a lot about salvation. We talk about heaven and hell, and yet Jesus actually had very little to say about heaven, hell, and the after-life. The vast majority of his words were about living here on earth. He seems to have been mainly concerned with bringing heaven to earth, rather than introducing us to a heavenly reality in some other realm of existence. That is not to say that Jesus did not teach about an after-life. Instead, it means that Jesus' emphasis was on the way we are to live that heavenly life beginning here and now in this material world. That said, how then should we think of salvation? What should we understand when we read Jesus' words about salvation?

We often miss the bigger picture of Jesus' teaching for focusing too much on little details of his discussions with people or symbols he used which people often did not understand. He spoke with Nicodemus about being born again, but we forget that Nicodemus did not understand him. Jesus addressed the woman at the well in regard to water, for that is what she came to get from the well. The larger picture, however, was not about birth, nor about water, nor bread, nor sheep. As we come to the last supper Jesus celebrated with the disciples, we find John's setting of that event places Jesus in a very different role than what we might expect. Jesus placed himself in the role of a servant.

Passover was a celebration of liberty. It was about freedom. It was about enjoying the blessings of God by a people redeemed from slavery and oppression. It was a feast celebrating the best that life has to offer. The Jews would recline at table in imitation of the Roman take on feasting. They celebrated freedom from slavery. John, however, tells us that Jesus wrapped himself in a towel and took up the role of the least of slaves, washing the feet of the disciples.

This action on Jesus' part was somewhat antithetical to all that Passover meant to the Jews of his day. Instead of placing himself in a role of reversal from oppressed to freed, Jesus debased himself, taking the role of the least of servants. This feast of freedom was transformed with Jesus' actions of selfless service.

Peter was not the least surprised of the band of disciples. He wanted to refuse Jesus' ministering to him in such a demeaning manner. He could not fathom that the one he claimed as Messiah would stoop to cleanse his dirty feet, especially amid a celebration of liberty from oppression. Peter was still thinking in terms of Jesus as a political leader, the promised Messiah who would grant Israel its release from Roman oppression. In consequence, Peter and the others considered that they would replace Rome as the ruling power, oppressing those who had once lorded over them.

Rather than a reversal of fortunes in which the apple cart of earthly power structures was upset, Jesus was offering a different way forward. He was not establishing a new structure just like the old one. He was not offering to shift the players from one side of the board to the other. Instead, he was offering a completely new path forward. This was a paradigm shift the disciples were not quite prepared to understand.

Jesus even told them that they would not yet understand what he was doing. Only over time would it make sense to them. He placed himself in the lowly position of washing their feet so they might understand that the life to which he called them was of a wholly different character than that of earthly political power struggles. Instead of seeking power, authority, prestige, and the influence of wealth, Jesus called for a radically different manner of relating to one another. He then called on the disciples to emulate his actions and attitudes, assuming this mission of a transformed life.

Jesus was setting an example for the disciples, an example for us. He then declared that the reason he was washing their feet was to remind them that none of them were above serving each other. As Lord, Master, Messiah, Teacher, Jesus was taking on himself the responsibility to care for the disciples in the most humble manner they would recognize. He washed their feet as an example of the depths to which they needed to go in serving others.

Then he proceeded to tell them that in order to truly be his disciples, they needed to follow his example. Indeed, Jesus told them that unless they followed his example, they would not be his disciples. At the end of the day, that is the crux of the matter. To be a disciple of Jesus is to live according to Jesus' example. To follow Jesus is to live according to Jesus' example. To be saved is to live according to Jesus' example. That is, after all, what salvation and wholeness are all about.

Perhaps salvation is not technically about becoming like Jesus, but that is its essential byproduct. We cannot be saved without being transformed according to Jesus' attitudes, values, motives, and purposes. Jesus came to embody for us what our lives should look like as human beings created by God. Jesus set an example for us in both word and deed of what it means to live under the influence of God's reign.

The Sermon on the Mount is not simply a message of what life should look like in the hereafter. It is about living life fully under God's direction and purposes here and now. It is the way of life Jesus taught, preached, and lived. His very life and example were the full embodiment of his message. His was the pattern set before us of what it looks like to become the redeemed of God. It was in this vein that Jesus humbled himself at the last supper to wash the feet of his disciples and tell them that, unless they allowed him to do so, they could not be his disciples. Then he called on them to follow his own example of humble service on behalf of others.

The reign of God Jesus had come preaching was not about lauding our superiority over one another. In contrast, it is about placing our lives in service to one another. It is about accepting one another according to the same character of grace, mercy, and love with which God has accepted us. As we have received that love and acceptance without regard to any sense of merit, so we are to offer it as freely to one another. It is in this transformation of our lives and life purposes that true salvation comes into play. It is in becoming like Christ Jesus that we fully become whole. We become the people God has redeemed us to become.

This is what Paul was getting at when he wrote the Philippians, saying, “For me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.” It is what Peter and John demonstrated in Acts chapter four, healing the crippled man in the way Jesus would have done and doing it under Jesus' authority. It is what James wrote about in defining true religion as caring for widows, orphans, and the poor. It is what Jesus referred to in Matthew by saying “As you have done unto the least of these my brothers you have done unto me.”

Salvation is not simply a message about heaven and hell. That misses the point. It is about our personal transformation. It is about becoming full representatives of God as revealed in Christ Jesus. It is about embodying the principles enshrined in Jesus teaching and example. It is allowing Jesus' gospel to so radically transform our lives that we become Christ Jesus to those around us.

Salvation is becoming whole. It is maturing in Christ so that Jesus is seen in all we say and do. Salvation is not simply evidenced in that transformation. That transformation is its very character and purpose. Jesus was not so much interested in handing out tickets to an eternal destination. He came to introduce us to God. He called us to a new way of relating to God and to one another. It is in following that call that we are saved. Are we ready to become transformed according to Jesus' example? That is the purpose of following Jesus.

Are we ready to begin washing one another's feet? It is, after all, in humble service that we portray Jesus' identity, character, and our our acceptance of His mission.

—Pr. Christopher B. Harbin

© Copyright 2017 Christopher B. Harbin.