¹⁶ “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.

Had Jesus not begun this with the double “truly” we might miss the import of His statement. It is like He is saying, “Now listen carefully, hear me, this is important…” We are reminded of when Jesus spoke in parables to the multitude and said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mk 4:9). Focus, guys! Core to being a disciple of Christ is to always keep in mind that He is greater than we will ever be. We are simply His servants. In some regards, we are like slaves who have resigned their will to the one who is greater. This comes before we can appreciate His later comment about them being no longer slaves, but friends (John 15:14-15). We are not “friends” of Christ because we choose to be, and we are not on the same level as Christ even though He later calls us friends. He is still the Master, and we are not!

John is the only Gospel writer to record the double “truly” phrase of Jesus (the others only record the single “truly”), and it occurs 25 times in John. While Jesus most likely taught in Aramaic, as many scholars and historians tell us, the Gospel writers all rendered His teaching in Greek, thus the various ways of conveying the Master’s teachings. However, the record of this statement in the Upper Room is unique to John. Matthew and Luke both tell us that Jesus spoke at other times of the slave not being greater than his master. But they don’t include Jesus repeating Himself in the Upper Room as John did. This is not surprising, because John included considerably more details of this conversation that others leave out.

Indeed, in the Upper Room Jesus speaks of things that most people will never understand because of their lack of faith or superficial faith. Seeing ourselves as “slaves” of God smacks of religious fundamentalism and extremism. Some religions describe their relationship solely in those terms, which in reality is slavery to someone’s interpretations of the Scripture. But Jesus calls His disciples to understand that since they have already voluntarily become His followers, they must obey what He commands them. His commands, contrary to earthly constructs, are based in His love and sacrifice of Himself, as He is about to explain further. That is a missing element in false religions.

Obeying God and being loved by Him weave together beautifully and bring wholeness, spiritual oneness. But it begins with rightly understanding the relationship we have with God. He is Master, and we are His servants.

Lord, when I am my own master instead of You, life becomes a fundamental failure. But with You as my Master, life is an integral whole. I am loved.