Redressed

So John 13 continues that Jesus took His garments (redressed Himself), and reclined at the table again.

The cleaning being done, He again dressed Himself in His own garments. When He was again dressed, He could return to the table and begin the seder...after He explains why He did what He did. He set them an example of service to mankind, starting with each other. They needed to set aside their pride and competition amongst themselves and see the others as better than themselves before God could use them to serve the church and the world.

And He redressed Himself for all eternity.

After the work of the crucifiction, He was able to get back to being God. He could again sit on the throne next to His Father and prepare the wedding supper of the Lamb that the church would someday eat from. He could be who He was before the world began. Clothed in righteousness, power, glory, and strength, He will show Himself for who He really is. He was everything they couldn't imagine He really was. But it only appeared to them when He put those clothes back on that He was back to normal...the Rabbi, the teacher, the leader. But He knew He was more...He was the example of servanthood for them to follow. They couldn't have imagined that He was going to give them the job of imitating Him, for them to become the leaders, the teachers, the Spirit-led authorities that the church was going to need. He would clothe them with the Spirit...He would send them their new wardrobe so that they would be wearing what He had worn as a man. They would be servants of the Most High God, servants of the church, and servants of one another, but only when they were willing to strip themselves of their pride and let Christ show them that their garments of humility were necessary. Then they would they be clothed from on High. They would function in the world “normally,” but knowing who they really were, servants of Christ. They wouldn't be seen by the world as any different, just as those who saw Jesus on a regular basis would never know by just looking at Him that He was God as man. The people He grew up with saw a fairly normal person. They didn't see God running around, and when He started His ministry, they were the last to want to follow Him. The same would happen with the disciples. They seemed so ordinary. Only those with spiritual eyes could see that they were set apart...that they had been with Jesus and that had made a difference somehow. When we serve and then reclothe, we will appear to be nothing special, but we will know that something profound has happened. We have been changed, not just our clothes. Jesus never would have been expected to be a servant. The disciples as leaders would not have been expected to be servants, but they were called to it. And they were doing it as unassuming men. Young for the most part, common laborers for the most part, outsiders of the temple on all counts. This wasn't the High Priest in his garments, or common priests called to serve the Lord, and not even Nicodemus, a Pharasee who wanted to keep the Law perfectly. These were common men who were called to be someone, but realized sooner or later that they didn't need the garments of priestliness to serve God. They just needed to follow Jesus, the real Priest, and they would have the garments that they needed to be servants of God.

They didn't need ephods, white collars, or long robes and tassels. They just needed to identify with the common man just as Jesus did. He didn't hang out in the temple like a monk and dress in a robe to show He was committed, and neither did they. They were to just be them...Peter, Simon, John, Thad, Judas not Iscariot, ...they were going to be at the table of communion in humble attire and serve in the same way. Just as we are called to do as a priesthood of believers. No robes, degrees, or collars necessary. Just going out into the world as nurses and doctors for the world without the white coats and shoes, as factory workers and hamburger flippers without the uniforms meeting needs for spiritual building and hunger. The uniform is taking back up the garments that we wore when we came to the table and leaving a changed person. No one may notice to start with, but it will show that we have been with Jesus and learned that to be most like Him, we must empty ourselves.