Love in Action: Pick Up the Towel

Love in Action: Pick Up the Towel

In this message, we are invited back to the upper room where Jesus, on the night of His betrayal, did something scandalous and beautiful: He got on His knees and washed His disciples' feet. Before He ever gave the new commandment to love one another, He picked up a towel and showed what that love looks like in action. The towel came before the commandment because Jesus understood that love is not a feeling we talk about — it is something we do, in ordinary, unglamorous moments, for ordinary and sometimes difficult people.

The challenge laid before us is to stop dividing the world into "us" and "them" and instead begin truly seeing the people around us — the grieving neighbor, the difficult coworker, the person whose story we have never taken the time to hear. Jesus washed the feet of a betrayer, a denier, and a doubter without exception, and He calls us to that same radical, indiscriminate love. Pick up your towel — a phone call, a kind word, a listening ear — and join an unstoppable movement of love that lets the world recognize Jesus in the way we treat one another.

• Love is shown through humble, everyday actions — not just words or good intentions.
• Jesus calls us to see and serve every person, even those who are difficult or different from us.
• Your "towel" — one small act of kindness or service — can change a life and reflect Christ to the world.