An Upper Room

I have always imagined it to be a dark night with a somber feel to it. I am referring to the night when Christ led his disciples to a lamp lit upper room to break bread and partake of wine with them for the last time. They did not know this would be the last time he would provide them with instruction. There is no way they could have understood the significance of this final instruction. The content of this final lesson represents what is perhaps the greatest teaching ever given about what it means to lead with divine influence.

This is, of course, fitting as this group of men would soon take the Savior's place as the leaders of His kingdom and they would have to learn to do so in His way. Through the series of posts that follow this one, we will explore these teaching in depth as they relate to divine influence.

But, we will begin where He did, with the washing of his disciples feet. As he rose from supper, and laid aside his garments, he took a towel and girded himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples feet, wiping them with the towel. Peter, not understanding what was happening, first refused and then insisted that his hands and head also be washed.

Christ then taught the lesson, "Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well; for so I am." If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, Verily, I say unto you the servant is not greater than his Lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him."

This act of washing the feet is often focused on as an act of service provided for his disciples, which it was. It was a great example of servant-leadership. But, this act was not merely a temporal act of service. Remember that the savior told Peter, "if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." He then explained that "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit; and ye are clean."

This act was a spiritual act symbolic of their being His, it was a preparatory act for that which was to come, it was a lesson in humility and service that they were to remember and embody in their own leadership, and it was an act of spiritual cleansing. Christ was showing them that their actions as leaders should be done in humility and service with a focus on bringing others into the fold and cleansing them from sin. Every leadership act, no matter how mundane was to be done to humbly bring souls unto Christ. This was to be there motive and should be ours as well. This is part of what it means to always remember Him.