Into the Heart of Romans
A Deep Dive into Paul’s Greatest Letter
Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love (3|4)
Pages 209-215
John 13 (NIV) Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
Paul speaks uniquely of “the Messiah’s love,” a theme not explicitly drawn from earlier Jewish texts but rooted in the Old Testament vision of YHWH’s covenant love. Where do you see this covenant love of God (faithful, renewing, and unbreakable) most clearly reflected in the life, death, and ongoing work of Jesus today?
How does reading Romans 8 through the lens of first-century Jewish thought, where covenant faithfulness and apocalyptic renewal belong together, challenge the way we interpret Paul today, and how might this affect the questions we bring to Scripture in our own cultural moment?
The early Christians understood Jesus’ cross and resurrection together as the decisive revelation of God’s rescuing, reconciling love and the beginning of a new creation. How does seeing Jesus as the point where God’s own purpose and Israel’s messianic hope converge shape your understanding of who Jesus is and what God’s love looks like in action?
The first Christians understood Jesus’ crucifixion as the supreme act of love because it was consistent with the life of love they had already seen in him. How does holding together Jesus’ everyday acts of love with the meaning of the cross shape the way you understand both his death and what it means to follow him today?
Early Christians experienced Jesus’ ongoing presence (in storytelling, communion, service to the poor, and prayer) as the same loving person they had known before the cross, now revealed as the risen Lord. How does this combination of memory, lived experience, and Scripture deepen your understanding of Paul’s claim that “the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me,” and what does it suggest about encountering Jesus today?