John 13:6-17
LET GOD SHOW YOU where you are vulnerable.
Standing at the threshold of His death, Jesus knelt and served His disciples, humbly washing their toes, soles, ankles, heels and…their Achilles tendons.
In Greek mythology, a woman named Thetis took her young son Achilles by the ankles and dipped him upside down in the magical River Styx. The water of the Styx gave him Superman-like invulnerability. But Thetis didn’t baptize Achilles completely. His heels remained dry. Achilles grew up to be a great warrior, but one day a poisonous arrow launched by an enemy hit him in his heel and killed him.
Twelve disciples with twenty-four heels were present in the upper room at the last supper. When the twelve saw Jesus do what a lowly servant normally did, the cat got their tongues. All except Peter, who put his foot in his mouth. “No way Lord.”
Jesus gave Peter no choice, so he asked Jesus to pour the whole bucket of water on his head. “You’ve already showered,” Jesus said, “when you listened to My teachings and let My words wash your mind. Just let Me get this smudge on your heel.”
Even Superman was vulnerable—to Kryptonite. And the Lord’s men were vulnerable, too. First, they had a tendency to not do what they knew they should do. “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17). “Serve others,” Jesus said. They knew they should, but there is a vast Grand Canyon between knowing and doing. Second, they had a tendency to project their expectations onto God. “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me” (John 13:8).
There was some poisoned thinking in Peter’s mind. Indeed, in all of their minds. Moments before, they had been arguing about who would be vice president in the Lord’s cabinet. Surely God would do it their way. “God is pretty wild, but I think we can train Him and bring Him into line.” Not so! The real and living God is not a manageable deity.
Our great vulnerability, I believe, lies in knowing what is right but not doing it—or maybe in expecting God to do things the way we think He should. Either way, such wrong thoughts about God lead us into wrong and destructive paths in our lives.
You might call it our Achilles heel.
Life Question: What is your primary Achilles heel? Discuss it with God.