Popular Will or God's Will?

Readings:
I Kings 22:1-28
John 13:1-17

Focus:
I Kings 22:25:"Micaiah retorted, 'That you will find out on the day when you run into an inner room to hide.'"
John 13::"Peter said, 'I will never let you wash my feet.' 'If I do not wash you,' Jesus replied, 'you have no part with me.'"

King Ahab of Israel wanted to attack the King of Aram and win the city of Ramoth-Gilead back from him. He had a large number of prophets prophesy before him, and all said what he wanted to hear. But the prophet Micaiah, even though he was warned ahead of time to agree with the prevailing opinion, insisted on saying what God had told him to say, which was that a lying spirit had entered the mouths of those prophets in order to entice Ahab to do the wrong thing. One of the prophets is enraged and strikes Micaiah, asking how God's spirit could have left him and gone into Micaiah instead, and Micaiah tells him he will find out when God confronts him. Despite Micaiah's words, he is ignored; the popular will to attack the King of Aram is stronger.

When Jesus sits down to the Passover dinner with his disciples, he gets up and washes their feet. This is a task normally performed by menials, not by the rabbi. The disciples are aghast, and Peter refuses to let Jesus do it. But Jesus tells him that Peter must let Jesus wash Peter's feet if Peter wants to be part of Jesus's new kingdom. Peter is not like Ahab. He doesn't go with popular opinion or customs over what God wants. Instead, he jumps in wholeheartedly, and tells Jesus that in that case, he wants Jesus to wash every bit of him, not just his feet.

Peter is the model for us.