Foot Washing

I want you to imagine for just a few minutes, you’re in a little upper room lighted only by candlelight in the city of Jerusalem, and the time is some 2000 years ago. Into that room came 13 men. They do not wear shoes as we wear shoes. They wear sandals and the dust and sand cover their feet as they walk into the room. On a stand is a bason of water and a towel. It is customary when you come into a room that a servant was to wash the feet of the guest. The disciples look around and there are 13 of them there. There was no servant, no one to wash their feet. They all recline at a u-shaped table a out one foot high and as was the custom they would rest on their left side leaving their right hand free to eat with.

They are reclining listening to Jesus, and they know what they are doing is improper, because their feet have not been washed, but no one is jumping up to take the position.

1. The lowest thing a person could do was to wash feet.

a. Not even Jewish slaves washed feet, only Gentile slaves. 2 Samuel 9

b. John the Baptist trying to compare his lowliness to the majesty of Jesus said, “I am not worthy to unlatch His shoes. John 1:27

c. Abigail came to King David, in trying to tell him how low she was said, “I am only worthy to wash the feet of his servants not the King.

2. Again, the lowest thing a person could do was to wash feet.

3. None of the disciples were about to place themselves in that kind of position.

4. Luke 22:24-27; there arose a strife among them as to who will be the greatest.

5. They had determined not to be the lowest, but the highest.

6. Verse 4, then Jesus does a strange thing. He interrupts the meal, he gets up.

7. Notice how John details this event. He doesn’t just say, “Jesus washed their feet.”

a. He arose.

b. He went over to the table where the water was.

c. He laid aside His outer garments.

d. He took a towel and put it around His waist. That was customary for a slave or servant.

e. Then He picked up the basin and poured the water, and then began to wash the disciples’ feet.

8. This is something even the disciples did not owe their master. According to the Jewish customs.

a. A teacher could not instruct his pupils to wash his feet.

b. They did not even owe this to Jesus.

c. Jesus, their master, and Lord was doing this honorable thing.

9. Verse 6-9, notice Peter.

10. Verse 12, after Jesus had finished, He sat down and then asked, “Do you realize what I have just done?”

11. I want you to pretend right now that we are with Jesus, and the disciples. As Jesus finished washing your feet, sits down, and with the shadow of the cross over that room, He points His finger at you and says, “Do you realize what I have just done?”

I. He Has Just Rebuked our own Self-Centeredness

1. Nothing so repulsive in others as their selfishness or self-seeking. What’s in it for me.

2. When we see someone who is always worried about their position, always afraid someone is going to get ahead of them. They are so wrapped up in themselves. It is sickening.

3. We never see it in ourselves.

4. It never occurred to these disciples, while they were probably at the highest spiritual time of their Christian life.

5. Let me say again, the number one problem with ourselves is the same problem the disciple had…. self-centeredness.

a. Seeking our own thing.

b. Having an exalted view of our own selves.

c. Notice what Peter says in verse 8

6. I pray God would give us a picture of what we really are instead of this false picture of ourselves.

7. The first thing that causes self-centeredness is thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought.

8. The second thing about self-centeredness is an envious spirit.

a. Strife arose among them; afraid somebody is going to get ahead of them.

b. The most miserable person in this room tonight is that person who is centered on themselves.

c. Keep a 24-hour watch on my rights, making sure I get what is coming to me.

d. 99% of the problems you had this wee all centered around me and my rights.

9. A third thing that causes selfishness and self-centeredness is an empty soul.

a. The Devil came and filled Judas.

b. Acts 5:3, Ananias and Sapphira, Satan filled, jealousy.

c. When a person is full of self, they are empty of the Spirit.