How Low You Stoop

In one paragraph

Mahendra, who leads Crossroads Ministries in Durban, South Africa, brought a message from John 13 built around Jesus washing his disciples' feet the night before his death. He drew on thirty-two years of street-level ministry to show what it looks like when that passage moves from the page into daily life. The thread running through everything was that love, not title or position, is the engine of...

Read together

1. John 13:1-5, 12-17 read aloud as the sermon's main text, the footwashing passage
2. Isaiah 53 mentioned as giving a full rendering of the life of Christ
3. John 13:12 quoted: 'Do you know what I have done for you? I have given you an example'
4. John 3:16 quoted to show God's love in giving his only begotten Son
5. John 3:17 quoted: he did not come to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved
6. Romans 5:8 quoted: 'God commanded his love toward us, while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us'

Talk about it

1. Mahendra said it takes all of God's power in us to do the most menial and commonplace things in his way. What is your water bucket and towel right now, and what would it look like to draw God into it?
2. Mahendra pointed out that the disciples kept jockeying for greatness even after all that time with Jesus, yet Jesus still washed their feet and loved them to the end. Where do you find yourself wanting significance or position, and how does Jesus's response to his disciples speak to that?
3. Mahendra prayed each morning that the Holy Spirit would make him profoundly aware of God's presence so he would not miss the opportunities right in front of him. What does that kind of daily prayer look like in practice, and what gets in the way of it for you?
4. The story of Baba Johannes and the story of the witch doctor who came to Bible study both turned on ordinary faithfulness rather than dramatic strategy. What do those stories stir up in you about how you think ministry is supposed to work?
5. Mahendra said the Crossroads motto is, we love people until they ask us why. What would it look like for you personally, in the places you already are, to live that out this week?