Flicking across channels late last night whilst waiting for the FA cup highlights to start I came across a documentary 
about a man called Stephen Gough, better known as ‘The Naked Rambler’. He has spent two years almost continuously behind bars for more than a dozen breaches of the peace, and refuses to wear clothes at any time – either in prison or in court. Keeping him in prison has cost up to £200,000 from the public purse! I won’t make a judgement about whether he looks good naked or not (!) but he is a good example of someone refusing to accept or live by commonly accepted boundaries. Even those people who look good naked have to accept rules and boundaries to their behaviour, even if only to stop those of us who don’t look so good naked from getting disheartened!
Both legal and moral boundaries and physical boundaries make our world a safer place to live in. They prevent us from straying too far, they demarcate safe space to avoid dangerous collisions, they protect the vulnerable, keep us falling from a great height, and remind us when we are liable to forget our own limitations. Even relationships have boundaries…
Dr Pepper ‘I would do anything for love’ clip follows
Did Jesus have boundaries in his relationships? The commonly-asked question ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ (WWJD) suggests answer is yes – there are some things he would do and some things he wouldn’t do. How can we tell what these might be? Or, if you like, WWJBB? – What Would Jesus Boundaries Be?
The TNIV translation of John 13;2-9 begins with the phrase ‘The evening meal was in progress’ conjuring up a picture of domestic bliss perhaps, maybe like the Christmas dinner you or I might enjoy with our families. I suspect though a better analogy might be the Christmas dinner endured every year on EastEnders! You know the kind of thing, where an unwanted topic of conversation comes up over the sprouts, or an unwelcome visitor bursts in, after which mayhem breaks out and Peggy Mitchell at some point shouts the immortal phrase ‘Get out my pub!’
In other words this is a meal where the air is full of tension – as the passage goes on to tell us ‘the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.’ What follows this is remarkable. We’re told that ‘Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God;
This might suggest that there can be no boundaries for Jesus. He had all things under his power. He had come from God and was returning to God and had all power and authority from God. His past, present and future were all infused with the power of God. Surely there are then no boundaries Jesus couldn’t cross? It is now I think we come to the most important word in passage. It is also one of shortest.
‘SO’ – in my dictionary defined as ‘and for that reason; therefore’
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God so…
We may well expect fireworks next. Jesus has no boundaries he cannot cross, surely with this kind of power it can all kick off. He can summon God to destroy Judas, perhaps with a bolt of lightning, the catastrophe of his impending betrayal can be averted and everyone can relax and enjoy dinner (everyone except Judas, of course who’s now a pile of ashes!) Surely having all the power of God at this fingertips now is the time to demonstrate it…
We know from some of the more extreme reactions recently in the USA to the tragedy of the earthquake in Haiti that some people still believe that’s how God operates. But to believe in a God who acts in this way is, it seems to me, to remove Jesus from the picture.
‘Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so…
He got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that,
he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.’
At that very moment Jesus demonstrates how he will use all the power of almighty God. He will use it to humbly serve. We mustn’t miss the significance of the details here. The portrayal of this scene by Ford Madox Brown is the most famous one, but even if you find more contemporary representations of it in art they are invariably equally sanitised versions. They contain no more than a hint of Jesus nakedness or vulnerability. Jesus actually takes off his clothes and wraps a towel around his naked self. These are the actions of a Roman slave serving his master. Jesus demonstrates that the power given to him by God the Father will not be used for self preservation but for service. That his only boundaries are those raised up by love.
We heard that great theologian Meatloaf earlier declaring ‘I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that’. Here we see in a very concrete demonstration by Jesus that there is no limit to the power of God in him except the limits imposed by the very character of God Himself – love. Jesus does anything and everything for love, including giving his life for the world and for us.
What then might our response to that love be? In conclusion I want to suggest three things.
Firstly that we might recognise our nakedness – our need for God’s love and forgiveness every day in our lives. More than that though, that we might realise that God’s power can be demonstrated in our lives in our weakness and humility. The world we live in values strength and independence, but God’s love is shown, as it was in Jesus, in vulnerability and in dependence on Him.
Secondly that we might let our boundaries be set by God’s love in Jesus Christ. That like him we might do anything for love, of our neighbours, our family and friends, and even those who we don’t like all that much! In humble service is God’s love and power glimpsed, in us as in Jesus.
Lastly, that in pondering on all of this we might read and pray through Philippians 2.1-11 often, since here we find the relationship between God’s power, Jesus’ vulnerability and our response most fully expressed:
‘Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human being,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death-
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father’Amen
By Rev Tim Woolley, Director of Mission, Northampton District