JOHN 13:16 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.”
Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them — the proverb invokes hierarchy only to invert its significance: servants are not greater than master, true, but the master has defined himself as servant; thus to be the master's servant is the highest honor. A messenger's status derives from the one who sends; to be sent by Jesus is to participate in his mission of love. The logic cuts both ways: if Jesus, who is master, serves, how much more should the disciples embrace service? This verse reframes the entire understanding of greatness in the kingdom: true honor lies in proximity to Jesus' self-giving, not in distance from it.
Church Fathers on John 13:16
Our Lord, mindful of His promise to Peter that he should know the meaning of His act, you shall know here after, now begins to teach him: So after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was sat down again, He said to them, Know you what I have done to you?
Know you, is either interrogative, to show the greatness of the act, or imperative, to rouse their minds.
Mystically, when at our redemption we were changed by the shedding of His blood, He took again His garments, rising from the grave the third day, and clothed in the same body now immortal, ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father, from whence He shall come to judge the world.
Read all 26 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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