JOHN 13: 1-11
JESUS WASHES THE DISCIPLES’ FEET
[Luke 22:24-27]
In the earlier chapters Jesus had given His ministry to the people of Galilee and Jerusalem. In chapters 13 and following Jesus turns from an unbelieving world to minister the Father’s love to His inner circle of disciples. He gives these lasts days of love and instruction in the upper room to those who had devotedly opened their hearts to Him and His revelation.
Before the sustained discourse begins our Lord performs two significant actions. The first is the washing of the disciples feet. This humble service is poured out upon His companions and friends. God’s loves the world but displays it in special ways upon His close followers. These friends who experience the fullness of His love are requested to show it to others also. This parable in action sets forth the principle of lowly service and asks the followers of Jesus to be like Him, not like the world.
I. THE LOVE OF THE SOVEREIGN, 1-4.
II. THE ACT OF A SERVANT, 5-11.
The new section opens with verse1 setting the time for the event. Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
The synoptic gospels tell us of the institution of the Lord’s Supper which John omits, including the dispute over which of the disciples would be the greatest. John though includes events which they omit. To John we owe this priceless teaching on the humble nature of our Lord.
Jesus is in complete command of the situation. He knows that His hour had come. It did not take Him by surprise. The hour for Jesus to complete the supreme task and reason He came into the world was at hand. The cross would decisively mark the end of Jesus’ visible earthly ministry. The way back to the Father was the way of the cross. Knowing His time is short Jesus chooses to concentrate on those He loves intimately.
Jesus “loved His own” refers to those disciples given Him by the Father (10:29). He had accepted responsibility for them and not only taught them and protected them (17:6-12), He loved them. “He loved them to the end” is bettered rendered “to the fullest extent,” or “utterly loved them.” He would go to the cross for them as the full and deepest possible expression of His love for them, and us.
In Lewis Carroll’s children’s classic Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty Dumpty argues with Alice over the MEANING OF A WORD. He said “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean.” That understanding seems to have cause on, but no where more than the word love. People seem to use the word love by bending it to fit whatever meaning they have in mind.
For example, a character in a modern novel says that the only reason he loves is for his own pleasure. Our soap-opera generation seems to agree. But Jesus didn’t have that kind of love in mind when He said He "loved His own," because He started washing their dirty feet. Why? For His own pleasure?
A more Christian understanding of love is "Love is, above all, the gift of oneself." That definition includes the washing of feet, the touching of lepers, and the acceptance of death on a cross. That is the kind of love you can count on.
The devil was at work during the meal to ruin the fellowship by stirring up treachery against Jesus as verse 2 reveals. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,
Judas had already determined to betray Jesus. In His rebellion against God, he has opened himself up to greater and greater influence by the devil. Later, in verse 27 he will become possessed by the devil and come under his control.
The AIR CONTROLLER had picked up Flight 182 on his scope and had issued directions for a holding pattern. The flight crew had acknowledged the orders and already had begun maneuvers for position when suddenly a voice was heard issuing new positions and instructions. The flight crew, trained to heed the words of the tower, proceeded to a new position. Catching the words of the intruder, the control officer again identified himself and reissued orders for the "hold."
During the next several weeks, the air control officers at Tampa International were going to be confronted with that mysterious voice often. On several occasions, tragic accidents were avoided only by the alertness of the officers working in the tower.
How often, in our daily lives, are the orders of God interrupted and changed by the voice of the devil, the author of temptation! How often, if we are not extremely prayerful, are our lives easily lured off course and God’s purposes confused!
Pray for an alertness to be able to distinguish between the voice of God and the voice of the devil. The devil cannot destroy the work of God but he often weakens and diverts it.
Satan may be working but as verse 3 states Jesus is still in command of the situation. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,
The fact that Jesus is not the unaware victim of some plot transpiring upon Him is emphasized. Jesus is fully aware of His heavenly origin and destiny. He is conscious that His Father has bestowed on Him universal sovereignty. Neither Jesus’ divinity or authority change Him. He remained humble to the end.
The language depicting Jesus as the sovereign prepares us for something majestic, what we have is Jesus’ act in verse 4. got up from supper, and *laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.
Sometime during the meal Jesus removed His outer cloak, tied a towel around His waist and began to perform the menial task of a servant. Possibly it was in response to the tension in the room. Luke states that when the disciples entered the room they had been arguing about who among them would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Lk. 22:24).
His demeaning action contrasts sharply with their previous self-seeking (Mt. 20:20-24; Mark 9:33-34; Luke 22:24-30) and pictures His whole ministry on earth (Phil. 2:5-8). None of the disciples would have volunteered for the for such a task as it would have been like an admission inferiority to the others.
II. THE ACT OF A SERVANT, 5-11.
Thus prepared, Jesus moves into action in verse 5. Then He *poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
Foot-washing was needed in Palestine. The streets were dusty and people wore sandals without socks or stockings. It was a mark of honor for a host to provide a servant to wash a guest’s feet; it was a breach of hospitality not to provide for it (1 Sam. 25:41; Luke 7:40-50; 1 Tim. 5:10).
In spite of the fact that washing the feet of guests at a feast was the work of a slave; Jesus willingly performed the service. Serving others was characteristic of our Savior throughout His ministry. He could forcefully say, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mt. 20:28, NKJV).
Questions about God’s existence often troubled H. A. HODGES, a brilliant young professor of philosophy at Oxford University. One day as he strolled down the street, he passed by an art store. His attention was gripped by a simple picture in the window. It showed Jesus kneeling to wash His disciples’ feet.
Hodges knew the story recorded in John 13-God incarnate washing human feet. But suddenly the sheer meaning of that scene gripped this young philosopher’s heart. God-God!-humbling Himself to do that lowliest of tasks! He thought, If God is like that, then that God shall be my God! Seeing that painting was one of the circumstances that caused Hodges to surrender his life to the true God-the foot-washing God.
We Christians sometimes take God’s existence for granted. We believe what the Bible tells us about the eternal Spirit who had no beginning and whose existence will never end. But we may wonder sometimes about His character. If He allows disaster, how could He also be kind and loving?
As we read John 13 thoughtfully, we see that God is the foot-washing God. His unfathomable, sacrificial love for us should cause us also to sing “All to Jesus I surrender, Make me, Savior, wholly Thine; Let me feel the Holy Spirit Truly know that Thou art mine.” [Van de Venter]
Apparently there was dead silence until Jesus came to Peter in verse 6. So He *came to Simon Peter. He *said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?”
Peter sensing Jesus’ reversing of their natural roles, asked why He, Peter’s Lord, should wash the feet of His servant Peter. In Peter’s question the word You is emphatic in the Greek. Peter felt that Jesus should not degrade Himself by washing their feet.
In verse 7 Jesus indicates that there is a deeper significance to what He is doing. Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.”
Jesus said that later (after His death and resurrection) Peter would understand. The coming of the Spirit of truth would lead them into a deeper fuller realization of Jesus, His ministry, and His ways.
Peter’s reaction in verse 8 is characteristically forceful. Peter *said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
Peter pushes aside Jesus’s words of revelation and replies no, “You shall never (emphatic double negative ïὐ ìÞ) wash my feet. Apparently he did not feel that Jesus should act like a servant toward him. This is another case of Peter’s thoughtless speech ( Mark 8:32; 9:5).
Jesus responded that if He does not wash Peter he has no part with Him. It expresses the necessity not simply to make Peter’s feet acceptable to recline at the dinner table, but also for the inner cleansing that makes one fit for the kingdom of heaven and fit for fellowship with Jesus. This external washing was intended to be a picture of spiritual cleansing from evil. [Expositor’s Bible, Tenney, Vol 9, 136]
Peter changes his tune in verse 9. Simon Peter *said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
Peter continued to miss the spiritual lesson, but he was certain of his desire to be joined to Jesus. Therefore he asked Jesus to wash his hands and head as well as his feet. Separation from Jesus was unthinkable to Peter.
Peter still prefers to dictate to Jesus what He should do. He misunderstands the meaning of the action. It was not simply to clean the disciples, but a symbol of that cleansing. It is not the amount of skin washed, but the receiving of Jesus’ ministry to him.
Jesus gives a spiritual understanding to what He is doing in verse 10. Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”
He whose innermost nature has been cleansed by regeneration needs only to be cleansed from the fault which may accumulate through walking in the world. After salvation all one needs is confession of sins, the continual application of Jesus’ death to cleanse one’s daily sins (1 John 1:7; 2:1-2).
When Jesus added that not every one of you is clean, He was referring to Judas (John 13:11, 18). This suggests that Judas was not converted.
The fact that Jesus washed Judas’s feet is stunning and is a testimony to Jesus’ love and mercy for His followers.
Jesus’ sovereign awareness of what is transpiring around Him is communicated again in verse 11. For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
From the beginning of His ministry till now Jesus had a supernatural awareness of what was transpiring in the mind and hearts of men. That supernatural awareness of what in Judas life reveals to Him that Judas would betray Him.
Judas is now a man in the grip of the darkness. Judas had rejected the life-giving, cleansing words of Jesus (6:63; 15:3), so he was yet in his sins. Judas did have his feet literally washed, but he did not enter into the meaning of the event. [John stressed Jesus’ supernatural knowledge (2:25; 4:29) of Judas’ deception.]
When we read the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, we may think we understand why He was doing that for them. John, for instance, was a close friend. Then there were Peter and Andrew, who had been so faithful in following the Master.
Each of the disciples must have had something that endeared him to Jesus. But why did He wash the feet of Judas? Jesus knew that He was stooping down to serve the one who would soon stoop to perform history’s worst act of treachery.
Jesus was performing the most menial of tasks for a person who treated the Creator" of the universe as being someone worth no more than 30 pieces of silver. Knowingly, the One whose name is associated with giving life got His hands dirty to serve the one whose name would stand for betrayal and death for the rest of time.
Doesn’t Jesus’ example tell us something special about service? Doesn’t it remind us that we are not called to serve only those who are like us, or even those who care for us? We are called to serve all people - the lovely and the unlovely, the friendly and the not-so-friendly.
When was the last time you "washed the feet" of some one like Judas? [ Dave Branon]
When Jesus took a servant’s towel His honor set aside
He humbly showed us how to serve, And how to conquer pride. - Sper
It’s difficult to stand on a pedestal and wash the feet of those below. -Colson"
CONCLUSION
Jesus had just performed an act of humble selflessness-that of washing the disciples’ feet. Although this act of loving service was performed hours before the agony of Gethsemane, and the cruelty of the cross, Yet the Savior still humbled Himself and to attend to the needs of His disciples. [How easy it is to be taken up with our own sufferings or successes and so become self-centered or indifferent to the needs of others. As far as our Lord was concerned, however, His love was complete.]
Jesus knew He would be betrayed by one of His disciples, disowned by another, and deserted by all of them for a time. Still He showed them the extent of His love.
God knows us completely, just as Jesus knew His disciples (2:24f; 6:64). He knows the sins we have committed and the ones we will yet commit. Still He loves us. How do you respond to that kind of love?
