Amen, amen, I say to you: The servant is not greater than his lord: neither is the apostle greater than he that sent him.
αμην αμην λεγω υμιν ουκ εστιν δουλος μειζων του κυριου αυτου ουδε αποστολος μειζων του πεμψαντος αυτον
13 Church Fathers comment on this verse
What He said earlier, He now says again, in order to exhort them. If a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him, and I have done this, then you ought all the more to do it. See verse 18.
So that they would not exalt themselves over one another, He cleanses the thoughts of them all. For a servant is not greater than his master so long as he is a servant, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him so long as he is a messenger. When he becomes greater, then he is neither servant nor messenger.
Christ now confirms the meaning of His action as though by necessary laws, or oaths. He shows that transgressing the saving commandment is exceedingly dangerous, for what is confirmed by an oath makes its violation inexcusable. Therefore, He says, it is an unforgivable fault in servants if they do not wish to think in accord with their masters. It is already greed, and nothing else, to seek something greater than our dignity and beyond it. In the same way, it must justly be counted a fault in the Apostles if they desire to be greater than the One Who sent them. For them, the mind of the One Who sent them is sufficient as the full measure of glory. This is nothing other than to speak approximately as follows.
You will rightly appear ridiculous before the divine judgment if, though you have received the common name of servants, you refuse through pride to do for one another what I do for you. Yet I am by nature God and Lord. For it is truly absurd, and more than absurd, not without the height of madness, for servants, far lower in dignity than the Lord and Sender, to be ashamed of servitude to one another.
We have just heard how, in the Holy Gospel, the Lord spoke and declared: “Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” He said this because He washed the disciples’ feet as a humble Teacher, instructing by word and example. But with His support we will be able to consider more fully what requires fuller consideration, if we do not linger over what is already clear.
Therefore, if I, who am incomparably higher than you, have so abased Myself, then all the more ought you to do this. It already bore witness to His extraordinary self-abasement that He, the Creator, presented in Himself an example for His creatures. Though incomparable, He nevertheless compared Himself with them in a certain manner. The same thought of Jesus Christ is also written in the tenth chapter of Matthew. Find the explanation of the passage: "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master," and so forth (Mt 10:24 and following). "A servant is not," so long as he remains a servant or messenger. The very fact that he is a servant or messenger shows that he is less than his master or the one who sent him.
If a servant is not greater than his master, then let those who follow the Lord walk His paths humbly, peaceably, and silently. The more one humbles himself, the more he will be exalted, as the Lord says: “He who is least among you all will be great” (Lk 9:48).
Having finished this work of humility, the Lord again reclined at supper with His disciples and explained the intention of His action. "If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, then you also ought to wash one another's feet. And blessed are you when you do this." But the thought of Judas again made Him add: blessed, but I do not speak of all of you. I know whom I have chosen. Yet even in this case the word of Scripture is not broken, but fulfilled. It is written: "He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me." Jesus repeated such hints so that the disciples would not waver in their faith when one of them became the instrument of betrayal. They were not to think that their Teacher Himself had been deceived in them. The Lord may also have explained this reason in order to awaken the conscience of Judas.
According to Luke the Evangelist, Jesus Christ accompanied His instructions on humility (25-27) with an indirect answer to the disciples' dispute about primacy. Because they had faithfully and steadfastly followed Him until then, despite all the persecutions against Him, He gave them all a promise of blessedness in His Kingdom: "that you may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom." He also indicated that the first degrees of blessedness in this Kingdom belonged to them. And that they would be especially near the Lord the King: "and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." John the Evangelist adds that Jesus Christ immediately limited this promise.
This Evangelist does not transmit the promise, though it fits very well among the Lord's sayings which he gives between verses 17 and 18. Namely, He indicated that only those chosen by God for salvation would share in the goods of the promise. Yet over one of them, though he had been chosen among the Lord's disciples, Scripture had to be fulfilled (Ps 40:10; Jn 13:18). The betrayal of Judas, together with all its consequences, would trouble the true disciples of Christ. But they had to remember that this had been foretold to them and therefore foreseen by the Lord (19). To strengthen their faith still more, the Lord, in contrast to the betrayal of Judas, foretells that they will be His messengers. At the same time He describes the high dignity of their ministry: whoever receives them receives Jesus Christ Himself and God Himself (20). The connection of verse 18 with what precedes in St. John, apart from Luke's Gospel, would be this: blessed are you if you not only know, but do what has been said (17). Meanwhile, one of you is not only unready to wash the feet of his fellow disciples, but will soon set his foot even upon his own Teacher and Lord.
When Jesus had finished washing their feet, He put on His outer garment, reclined at table, and said to the Apostles: Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and in saying this you speak rightly. Therefore, if I, being your Teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, then you also must always and in everything show the same humility. A servant is not greater than his master. A messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. And one who serves at table is not greater than the one reclining there. Yet I, who send you to preach, your Lord, reclining here in the first place, have washed your feet. Why, then, do you argue about which of you is greater? You should not argue, but act as I have acted and take your example from Me.
A servant is not greater than his master, and so forth. This saying, which the Lord used more than once in various applications (Mt 10:24; Lk 6:40; Jn 15:20), here expresses the thought, according to the context, that the lesser should not be ashamed to do what the greater does. I, your Lord and Teacher, have shown you an example. You, My disciples and servants, should act in the same way. But the Lord knew that it is easier to approve the virtue of humility and self-denying acts of love, and to admire them in others, than to practice them oneself. Therefore He promises blessedness not to those who merely know that one must act this way, but to those who truly act, and who fulfill these virtues in deed.
Having washed the disciples’ feet, the Lord Jesus Christ also explained to them the meaning of this act, as an example of humility, love, and service to one’s neighbors.
He says to them: "You rightly call Me Teacher. But if I, your Teacher, have washed your feet, then you also ought to do the same." This means that the followers of Jesus Christ must be marked by the same spirit of humility and love with which He, the Lord and Teacher, washed the disciples' feet. What human greatness should not fall into the dust before the humility of the Lord? What pride, unless it is satanic pride, will consider it a humiliation to serve one's brother in his need, even if he is the poorest beggar? For the Lord of heaven and earth gave His disciples an example of such humble service. If He washed the feet even of His betrayer, should we servants raise ourselves above our Master? We also must show love to those who have offended us, in whatever way we can.
The Apostle Paul, having in view the Lord's lofty example, teaches us: "Do nothing from strife or vainglory, but in humility count one another better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own things, but each also to the things of others. For you should have the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:3-4).
"For who is greater, the one reclining or the one serving? Is it not the one reclining? But I am among you as one who serves."
Thus the Evangelist Luke records the Lord's words (Lk 22:24-27), preserving one part of the Lord's discourse.
This part, together with the words cited by the holy Evangelist John, is one and the same discourse.
In it He explains that the servant and the messenger are not above the master and the one who sends.
He directly indicates to the Apostles their duties, the spirit of their preaching, and the humble yet great significance they will have in the world among the community of Christ.
The holy Apostle Paul describes this with such vividness: "Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being slandered, we entreat."
"We have become as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things until now" (1 Cor 4:12-13).
"We are persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" (2 Cor 4:9-10).
Compare also 1 Cor 2:2-4; 3:5-6; 2 Cor 6:8-20; 11:30, and many other passages.
"My strength is made perfect in weakness," the Lord says to the Apostle Paul.
Paul continues, "Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12:9-10).
There was not a single instruction to the disciples, nor a single duty laid upon them by the Lord, that was not taught both by word and by the Lord's example.
He truly bore our diseases and infirmities, our labors, humiliations, and sufferings, tasting even death itself. For He was perfect man, as He was and is almighty God.
Mutual help for one another, and complete humility as well, are what the Lord taught in the washing of the feet.
At the foundation of humility, help, and service, the Lord places love.
The love of the Almighty for the human race lay at the foundation of His taking upon Himself suffering human nature.
The Lord places this same love at the foundation of the whole life of man and all his relations, on the one hand to God, and on the other to his brothers.
The Lord requires man to forget completely his human, selfish "I."
He sets before him an image that is not fully attainable, yet is forever present to man.
It shines upon him forever and calls him onto the path of duty traced by the Lord.
Only on this path does man's spiritual "I" grow bright. It is illumined to the extent that man forgets his material "I" on earth.
But "blessed are you" not only "if you know these things," but "if you do them."
Here lies the stumbling block for many. How often a heart moved to compunction does not find sufficient strength to break through the thorns of the world.
Though it knows where true happiness lies, it cannot renounce the bonds that fasten the soul to the earth.
"Children," the Lord said, "how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God."
But when the disciples were astonished, the Lord revealed another mystery of mercy, saying, "With men this is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God" (Mk 10:24, 27).
From this it is clear that to do what we know, we must ask God for help with many tears.
Without the help of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for man to rise to that path whose end is the kingdom of God.
Therefore the Lord told the disciples before His Passion that the Comforter would be given to them.
Therefore on the day of the Resurrection He said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
Therefore at Pentecost all the faithful were baptized with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore the Lord also gave us the mysteries, so that they might help man in his infirmity, weakness, and wavering.
For man is powerless without the help of God.
Let us say here, incidentally, that the self-reliance preached by Protestant churches of every name is precisely the stumbling block that separates knowledge from doing.
Within Protestantism it is assumed that study, which gives knowledge, is enough for man. But for those who know human nature, this is not so.
Man needs not preaching, but the help of God, given through the mysteries.
Preaching unfolds, more or less, the meaning of the Word of God and sows good beginnings. This cannot be denied.
But only the Holy Spirit can give strength to fulfill it.
Through the mysteries, by grace, He acts upon the inner man and strengthens him for the accomplishment of God's work.
The disciples are sent to "do righteousness," not only to preach, Chrysostom observes.
"Blessed are you if you do them," and in Mt 5:19: "Whoever does and teaches them shall be called great."
First let him learn to do it himself and know by experience his own powerlessness without God's help. Then let him teach, and he shall be "called great."
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 17 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS