The "Just the Church" Problem
John 13:3-5 (NLT)
"Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel he had around him."
Main Idea
Have you ever gotten something you were absolutely dying to have — a phone, a pair of shoes, a spot on the team — and then six months later, it just kind of sat there? You used to check the tracking number every twenty minutes. Now it's just a thing in your room.
That's not a you problem. It's a human problem.
There's this pattern that happens with almost anything we get excited about. At first, it's incredible. It's all you think about. You tell everyone. You can barely sleep. But time passes, and the thing that used to feel like everything slowly becomes just... ordinary.
It happened to the disciples with Jesus.
They had found the Messiah. The actual Messiah. They dropped everything — their jobs, their families, their whole lives — to follow him. But after three years of walking with him every day, listening to him teach, watching him perform miracles, something had shifted. Being with Jesus had become normal. Routine. Just the thing they did.
And here's what's wild: on the very night Jesus was going to be arrested, tried, and executed — the most important night in human history — the disciples were sitting around arguing about which one of them was the most important person in the group.
They were in the same room as the Son of God, and they were missing it.
It's easy to read that and think, how could they? But be honest — how often do you sit through a Sunday service, a devotional, a prayer, and your brain is somewhere else entirely? Not because you're a bad person. Just because... it became normal. Just church. Just another devotional. Just a habit.
Jesus knew all of this about them. He knew they were bickering. He knew they were missing the moment. And what did he do? He got up, wrapped a towel around his waist, and started washing their feet.
Not because they deserved it. Because that's who he is.
What Else the Bible Says About This
- — "You have forsaken the love you had at first."
- — Taste and see that the Lord is good.
- — His mercies are new every morning.
- — We must pay careful attention so that we do not drift away.
Let's Apply This...
Think about the last time something about Jesus genuinely surprised you. Not the information — the person. If you're struggling to remember, that might be worth sitting with today.
Pick one thing about Jesus that used to amaze you and let yourself actually think about it for five minutes. Not as a theological fact — as a real thing that actually happened. Pray this: "God, don't let me get so used to You that I stop seeing You."
God's Message to You
"I know the excitement can fade. I know that what felt electric when you first believed can start to feel like routine. But I haven't changed. I am not less remarkable than I was the first time I took your breath away. You've just gotten used to me. Come back. Look again. I washed the feet of twelve men who were arguing about their own greatness the same night I was about to die for them. That's who I am. That's who I will always be. I am not 'just church.' I am the one who knows everything about you and came anyway."
(Based on ; ; )
Prayer
God, I don't want to be the kind of person who treats You like background noise. I know I do it though — I go through the motions, I show up, I say the right things, and sometimes I'm just... not really there. Wake something up in me. Help me see You the way the disciples should have seen You that night — not as a routine, but as the most extraordinary person who has ever existed, who somehow still bothers to show up for me. Amen.
Reflection Questions
- Have you ever noticed the "just the church" or "just a habit" feeling creep into your relationship with God? What do you think causes it?
- The disciples had seen miracles firsthand and still drifted into pettiness. What does that tell you about how easy it is to take Jesus for granted — and how seriously we need to guard against it?
- Lamentations 3:22-23 says God's mercies are new every morning. If His mercies are always fresh, what would it look like to approach Him that way instead of on autopilot?