Mending Our Need to Control
John 13: 1 – 17 Friends, as we step into John’s Gospel this morning, we enter a scene where so much of what we think we know about God, about love, and about power begins to unravel—and to be mended in a new way. John has spent twelve chapters preparing us for this moment, showing us Jesus moving through the world not as someone grasping for power, but as someone revealing it through relationship and transformation. Jesus has refused at every turn to let others control his timeline, his identity, or his mission. Still, the disciples have been doing what we do—trying to put Jesus into categories, roles, and reactions that make sense to them. But now, on the night before Passover, when everything is coming to a head, Jesus offers them not control, but love. Not clarity, but communion. Not power over, but power under. The moment Jesus gets up from the table— during the meal, right in the middle of the familiar rhythms—something shifts. Foot‑washing was supposed to happen earlie...