He Laid Aside His Garments

John 13:3-5

“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 the towel with which He was girded…”

In that portion of John 13, the sentence, “laid aside His garments and girded Himself with a towel” is emphasized.  There is much in these words, as from Jesus’s very incarnation..even while He was still in Heaven, our exiled King laid aside His garments for the Father.., He laid aside His reputation, all of His rights and His Majesty and Divinity, and lowered Himself as a servant to a fallen Creation.  A Creation made of nothing but mere space dust which the Holy Spirit had breathed His Life into, and which the Father had originally fashioned into His image..    But dust (all of us) that lost that original image and needs restoration.  So the Son of the Father came down to this environmentally dysfunctional planet to live amongst men, .. to lay aside His divinity and be a servant of servants for the Father.

Jesus came to get His hands dirty.   He touched the leper with love;  He also washed the disciples filthy smelly feet.. yes including Judas’s feet, and He knew that Judas was about to betray Him.    Jesus came to serve and not to be served., and those who seek to belong to Him, as subjects of His Kingdom are also identified with Him as the Servant of servants.

I asked our Lord, if He wouldn’t mind allowing me to blindly open up to something from His recorded words in “He and I” pertaining to this, and He gave me this:

“5/22/47-  “See everything in Truth.  May your whole life speak the language of Love, in Me and by Me.  And may the moments that remain for you be nothing but goodness and tenderness- the gift of yourself.  You remember that evening before My death?  Wasn’t it as though My entire being had been translated into Love during My last supper?  Be full of indulgence and compassion for everone.  Remember that I called Judas “My friend”.  Imitate your Bridegroom.  Desire to be identified with Him.”

~Thankyou, our Lord of love and humility♥♥♥

The Time Had Come

 

Jesus knew the time had come where He would be going up that mountain that the Father would be showing Him.. the mountain outside Jerusalem’s city gates.   His face was then set toward Jerusalem.  Even the disciples noticed this.  The Samaritans noticed this as well and became offended in Him, not understanding that for Him, Jerusalem would mean death and a baptism by fire.  It was not a pilgrimage of honors.

The “mountain” the Father’s beloved   Son.. His “Isaac”, would climb was Golgotha, and the wood that He was to carry up that mountain was the wood He, the Lamb of Sacrifice, would be nailed upon.   As Isaac centuries earlier had allowed Abraham to bind Him on that wood, Jesus freely offered Himself to be betrayed, handed over and bound by His enemies and be put to death outside Jerusalem’s city gates.. a final act of love and surrender to His Father before being buried in a borrowed tomb.

His face was set toward Jerusalem because He lived to do the Father’s will, and He knew it was time.”

What He told Gabrielle Bossis in the published journal “He and I” mirrors His own  relationship with His Father:

“Sacrifice yourself to the point of not even noticing your sacrifice.  And suffer with the greatest simplicity, since it is all for Me, your Christ; Who suffered for you.  What is life when one possesses Eternity?  …Never suffer outside of My love, but let your suffering be like new accents of love for Me that says, “You know that I love You, that I am as incense burning before Your face with the utmost desire to please You, My Friend”.