Perhaps you have heard the story of the lady who put a “Honk if you Love Jesus” bumper sticker on her car. Apparently she was lost in thought one afternoon and failed to move when the light changed. She was delighted when everyone began to honk, believing that they were responding to her bumper-sticker invitation.

            Only the imagination can limit the many ways in which Christian people advertise their faith. Some wear symbols on their lapels or around their necks in the form of medals or crosses. Others paste them on their vehicles in the form of the fish emblem or as bumper stickers such as the one sported by the woman who caused the traffic jam.

            While Jesus may not object to such proclamations, he may, however, suggest that they are, by themselves, superfluous. You see, long before bumper stickers, Jesus gave us the ultimate faith advertisement. We hear it in the gospel today when he tells us that people will know we are his disciples by our love for one another. While everything that Jesus told us is important, these words take on a particular importance when we consider the context in which he spoke them.

            The scene is his last meal with his friends. People do not waste words on unimportant matters as their lives draw to a close. And certainly Jesus did not waste his. He spoke both loudly and profoundly by both what he did that night and what he put into words. Just before he spoke the words we heard in today reading, he washed the feet of those who shared the table with him. This was something that was ordinarily done by servants for their masters and their master’s guests. Jesus became the servant.

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