SPEAKER_00: Here's a question today.
SPEAKER_00: Is it possible to be very close to Jesus and still miss him?
SPEAKER_00: In the gospel, Jesus has just washed the feet of his disciples, has net down, knelt down, taken the posture of a servant, and loved them in a way that should have changed everything.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he says, Not all of you, one of you will betray me.
SPEAKER_00: Which means proximity is not the same as discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: You can be in the same room, you can hear the words, you can receive the gestures of love, and still not surrender your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And if we go to the first reading, Paul stands up and does something very different.
SPEAKER_00: He tells a story.
SPEAKER_00: Not his story, God's story.
SPEAKER_00: He walks through the entire history of Israel, Abraham, Egypt, the desert, the kings, David, and he's building to one point.
SPEAKER_00: This has all been leading somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: This has all been pointing to someone, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Paul understands.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is not random.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is not random.
SPEAKER_00: God has been at work long before you noticed him, guiding you, correcting you, being patient.
SPEAKER_00: Even when his people wandered, even when they resisted, even when they failed, he was right there.
SPEAKER_00: And that is where the two readings meet.
SPEAKER_00: Because the same God who patiently led Israel is now kneeling in front of his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: The same God who formed a people is now washing their feet.
SPEAKER_00: The same God who raised up David is now standing in front of them, unrecognized by one of his own.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says something that cuts through everything.
SPEAKER_00: If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.
SPEAKER_00: Not if you admire it, not if you agree with it, if you do it.
SPEAKER_00: This is where most people get hung up.
SPEAKER_00: We understand, maybe we hear a homily, we read the gospel, we say, That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that that touched me.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: But then nothing changes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says that is not discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: Discipleship begins when understanding becomes action.
SPEAKER_00: And then he raises the stakes.
SPEAKER_00: No servant is greater than his master.
SPEAKER_00: If I've done this for you, you must do it for others.
SPEAKER_00: Which means you do not get to follow Jesus on your terms.
SPEAKER_00: You follow him on his terms, in his way.
SPEAKER_00: And his way always looks like this humility, service, self-gift.
SPEAKER_00: Again, here's where it gets uncomfortable because we do not mind following Jesus when it feels meaningful, when it feels beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: We struggle to follow him when it feels small, when it looks like forgiveness that is not deserved, when it looks like patience when someone who is difficult, someone that we avoid, when it looks like showing up when you'd rather withdraw.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like when you're loving someone who may never love you back.
SPEAKER_00: That's where the gospel becomes real.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus says something even more striking, whoever receives the one I send receives me.
SPEAKER_00: Which means this the way you treat the person that's right there in front of you is the way that you treat Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Not in theory, but in reality.
SPEAKER_00: The person at work who frustrates you, the person in your life that drives you crazy, that family member who drains your energy, that person who needs something from you all the time when you feel like you have nothing left to give.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is saying, if you receive them, you're receiving me.
SPEAKER_00: And now let's go back to the betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, the one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.
SPEAKER_00: Even that, even betrayal, even rejection, Jesus does not step back.
SPEAKER_00: He continues forward.
SPEAKER_00: He loves anyway.
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference between admiration and discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: Admiration says, wow, that's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: That touched me.
SPEAKER_00: Discipleship says, I will live like that.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because most people don't reject Jesus outright.
SPEAKER_00: They simply stop at understanding.
SPEAKER_00: They never move to imitation of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They stay on the peripheries.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul tells the story of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus shows us what it looks like.
SPEAKER_00: And now the question is placed in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: Will you live it?
SPEAKER_00: Because your life is part of that same story.
SPEAKER_00: God has been patient with you.
SPEAKER_00: He has led you.
SPEAKER_00: He has stayed with you.
SPEAKER_00: Even when you wandered, even when you resisted, even when you were indifferent, even when you did not recognize him.
SPEAKER_00: And now he kneels in front of you again, not to impress you, but to hopefully form you.
SPEAKER_00: So do not just understand this.
SPEAKER_00: Do it.
SPEAKER_00: Serve.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Show up.
SPEAKER_00: Love when it costs you something.
SPEAKER_00: Because is this real?
SPEAKER_00: Because this is where the blessing is, not in knowing, in becoming.
SPEAKER_00: And when you begin to live like that, something shifts.
SPEAKER_00: People begin to encounter Christ not as an idea, but as a tangible, concrete presence.
SPEAKER_00: Through you, you become the instrument.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the point.
SPEAKER_00: The story did not end with Paul.
SPEAKER_00: It did not end with the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: It continues now through all these generations.
SPEAKER_00: Through people like you.
SPEAKER_00: So today, do not settle for understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Step into imitation.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be like Christ because the world does not need more people who know about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It needs people who look like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.