? The idea of box sets has become a real phenomenon in modern day television. The whole craze started a few years ago with the American series ‘24’, which went from one cliffhanger to the next, for 24 episodes. And then it went from one season to the next.
? The most annoying thing I found about 24 is that you made your way through a whole season of 24 episodes, and the very last one, where you wanted to have a nice finish that wraps everything up, so you can get on with the rest of your life – the last show ended with another cliffhanger, so you had to tune in to season 2.
o And season 2 pretty much had the same characters, with a different plot, and lots more cliffhangers.
• Now when we come to John 13, we’re really coming to Season 2 of John’s Gospel. Same plot – Jesus is still on his way to the cross - but different characters. The first half of the Gospel is all about Jesus’ evangelistic mission to the world.
? But now in ch.13 the scene changes dramatically, and Jesus focuses on his own disciples. A little bit like ‘24’, ch.13-17 is the teaching of a single night - the Thursday night before Good Friday. Every hour counts, every word matters.
? As Jesus prepares himself for the cross the next day, he wants his disciples to understand what it means to follow him, now that he is about to leave them and return to heaven.
• In chs 14 to 16 Jesus will teach his disciples about the challenges ahead, and their call to bring the Gospel to a hostile world. But he begins by helping them understand what he will do for them on the cross.
This is where discipleship begins. We can’t be disciples until we understand what Jesus has done for us at the cross. All our worship, all our serving, our giving, our sacrifice is fuelled by, inspired by, what Jesus has done for us.
This passage teaches us 3 things that Jesus has done for us that form the basis for everything we will ever do for him.
Firstly
• He has loved us (1-5)
• John has already told us that God loves the whole world - even those who reject him. But he has a particular love for his own people that is deeper and more intimate than anything he shares with the world.
(v. 1) ‘having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them til the end.’ The NIV translates it ‘he now showed them the full extent of his love.’
• And before we move on to the foot washing, just pause a minute here. Jesus was about to die a horrific death, within just a few hours. A death that was so troubling to him that he bent double in Gethsemane with blood like sweat pouring to the ground.
And yet what was foremost on his mind before he walked to Gethsemane was showing his disciples how much he loved them. That is extraordinary.
If I was heading to my death I would be in too much personal turmoil to have time to think of anyone, or anything else. Men on death row often have their favourite meal specially prepared for them, and the chance to have counselling with a priest on the day they die. But Jesus gathered his closest friends for a special meal where he would wash their feet and calm their fears and tell them how much he loved them.
And if you add to that the fact that Judas was also at this last supper – (v.2) says the Devil had already put it in Judas’ heart to betray Jesus, and Jesus knew it - and yet Jesus washed Judas’ feet, and planned and shared this meal with Judas. As the childrens’ chorus says in rather dodgy English, ‘Jesus’ love is very wonderful’.
• The specific way Christ demonstrated his love in this famous scene, was to get down from the table and wash their feet. (v.3) ‘Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured the water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet.’
The introduction of this foot washing is key. Jesus knew that God had given him authority over everyone and everything. He knew that he was Lord of heaven and earth, and the Greek text adds ‘so’…’so he get down from the table and washed their feet.
Illust I was struck by the story of Ade Goodchild, a factory worker who won 71M on the national lottery. He said, ‘I'm not one of these winners who is going to say this win won't change me. It will or at least I'll give it a good go!"
He has taken early retirement, he’s going to go on holidays to Egypt and the Caribbean, he’s bought a new house with a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi and a large garden, and he said ‘I wasn’t brought up to be wealthy, but I’m going to have fun learning.’
? And we smile and say ‘good on you’, because that’s how we would react if we had all power and authority. But what does Jesus do? He gets down from the table and washes the feet of his followers. That was a job so menial that Jewish domestic servants refused to do it. Only Gentile slaves would do it.
• But the foot washing was a symbol of the greater act that Jesus would perform on Good Friday. Just as Jesus stepped down from the table to wash their feet, so he stepped down from heaven to die for their sins.
? Just as Jesus took off his outer garment, so he took off his robes of glory in heaven where he was eternally at the father’s side.
o Just as he wrapped a towel around his waist, so he became human, to be our servant. Just as he bent low to wash their feet, so he died on a cross to save us from sin.
This is the extent of Jesus’ love for us. This is the basis for all our worship, all our service and sacrifice and discipleship. ‘We love him because he first loved us.’ Do you know this morning that Jesus loves you? That might sound such a basic question.
? But a member of this church said something to me that has stuck with me ever since. He said ‘I am too much of a Scottish Presbyterian to really believe that Jesus loves me.’ And I think that’s an issue that many of us face. Some of our church backgrounds focus on our unlovableness.
We had it drummed into us that we were ‘hell deserving sinners’ – that was the exact phrase preachers often used. We sang the song ‘amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me,’ and we focused on the ‘wretch’ part. And of course we need to acknowledge our wretchedness.
The problem is we focus on our unworthiness so much we never actually get round to realizing how loved we are. The big issue of the Gospel is not that I am a wretch, but that Jesus saved a wretch like me.
If I linger in my wretchedness I’ll never enjoy the fact that Jesus loves me so much, he took off his robes of glory to die on a cross to save me, and now I am his beloved son, he delights in me, and sings over me, and can’t wait to crown me with glory in heaven forever.
No one ever served God well because they felt their wretchedness deeply. They served God well because they were overwhelmed by the love that has transported them from slavery to sonship, from darkness to light.
? Jesus wasn’t reticent to set aside glory for the cross for wretches like us. He didn’t have to be cajoled. He did it because he loves you with an everlasting love, and Paul says in Ephesians his love for us is so high and wide and long and deep that we need power just to grasp how much he loves us.
? And all my worship and discipleship and sacrifice is motivated, not by guilt, but by grace. By the conviction that ‘the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me.’ Wide wide as the ocean, high as the heavens above, deep, deep as the deepest sea, is my Saviour’s love.
We love him because he first loved us.
The theologian Karl Barth – perhaps the greatest theologian of the 20th century - he was asked at a news conference in Germany what is the greatest thought he ever had. And he paused for a moment and then he said, ’my greatest thought? – Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.’
May you feel the love of Jesus so deeply, may you and I experience so richly, may we wake up every morning knowing that we are loved with such an everlasting, wide, deep, long and high love, that we can’t help but worship. We can’t help but serve. Our witness is the spontaneous overflow of hearts that have been ravished by the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
? Not only has Jesus loved us, secondly
• He has washed us (6-8)
• This is the basis for all our discipleship. He has washed us. You can imagine the upper room filled with a deafening silence, as the Son of God stoops down at the feet of each of his disciples and does for them what a Hebrew slave would be offended to do.
? Men walked long distances in those days, on dusty tracks more than tarmacked roads, and their feet would be cracked and dirty. So as Jesus took off each sandal of each disciple, no one knew quite what to say, but they felt deeply uncomfortable with the Master serving them in this ignominious way.
And when Jesus came to Peter, it wasn’t a huge surprise that Peter blurted out what everyone else was thinking but was scared to say, (v.6) ‘Lord, do you wash my feet?’
o He’s not really asking a question. He’s expressing bewilderment. ‘There’s no way you’re washing my feet Jesus. This is just embarrassing. It’s wrong.
o Why don’t we find some servant to do it, or better still, why don’t we skip foot washing entirely.’ It’s beneath you.
o If John the Baptist felt awkward when Jesus had came to him for baptism, Peter was positively mortified that Jesus would wash his dirty feet. And no doubt his instincts were honourable.
But Jesus replied in a way that showed what he was doing was both essential, and had a deeper meaning than just cleaning feet. (v.7) ‘what I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.’
After what? we want to ask. And the answer is ‘after the cross and the resurrection’ which of course none of the disciples knew about at this stage.
But Peter didn’t just sit back. ‘You will never wash my feet!’ And Jesus’s replied, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.’ That took the conversation onto a much deeper level.
‘If I don’t wash you, Peter, you can’t be my disciple, you can’t know me in any way, you can’t experience the salvation I am offering you.’ Jesus was clearly talking about the deeper cleansing that would take place through the cross.
? We cannot belong to Jesus until he has washed us in this deeper, spiritual way. You need to have your sins washed away. You need to repent and receive Jesus as Saviour and Lord of your life. Everyone does.
If Peter needed to be washed, then we certainly do. Peter had followed Jesus and listened to his teaching for 3 years and even performed miracles in Jesus’ name. Peter was the stand out disciple who Jesus would appoint as pastor of the first church. There was a real integrity and sincerity about Peter, despite his big mouth, that made him the natural leader of the apostles.
But Peter still needed to be washed, to be cleansed from his sin. And so do we, whoever we are, and however religious or irreligious we have been.
You may love being around church, you may have great relationships with people here, and enjoy the buzz of a Sunday morning. But something profound needs to happen before you can actually call yourself a Xian, a Jesus follower.
You need him to deal with your sin. To wash you clean. Can you point to a moment in your life’s experience when you truly repented and invited Jesus in? It’s so easy to replace genuine conversion for churchianity – for taking communion or being baptised, or even serving in the church.
The essence of Xianity is none of those things. In fact scholars often comment that John’s Gospel does not mention Jesus introducing communion on this sacred Thursday night. The other 3 Gospels tells us about the institution of communion. John doesn’t.
Why not? One commentator said ‘so that we wouldn’t miss the true message, that we need Jesus to wash us. Taking bread and wine doesn’t make you a Xian. No ritual does. You only become a Xian when you invite Jesus to wash away your sins, and you begin a personal relationship with him.
That’s when enjoying church and pursuing the rituals starts to mean something. When you have made a personal commitment to Jesus as Saviour. All of our worship, all our discipleship and serving, starts here – have you ever asked Jesus to wash away your sins?
Everything else is window dressing until that happens.
But this is the basis for our discipleship. If you’re a Xian this morning, you come to Jesus each day knowing that you have been washed. However bad a week you have had, however much you may have disappointed God, or feel far away from him, nothing changes the fact that he has washed you.
Your sins, past present and future are forgiven, and nothing can change that. It’s a once for all cleansing. Make sure that has happened for you. And if you know it has, then go and serve God with a free heart, and a clear conscience, not because you are the perfect saint, but because you have been made clean forever through the blood of Jesus.
All our worship, all our serving, all our discipleship starts here, knowing that Jesus has loved us, and Jesus has washed us. Thirdly we know that
• Jesus is keeping us (9-11)
• Jesus saves us once and for all, but he also goes on keeping us in his grace every day. That’s the point that Jesus goes on to make here. Peter’s naïve enthusiasm was in full flow by now. If he didn’t let Jesus wash his feet he could have no part with him, so Peter goes to the other extreme. (v.8) ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head.’
? His zeal was commendable, but his theology was questionable. Jesus said to him, ‘the one who has had a bath does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean.’
o Now this is the difference between 2 key theological words justification and sanctification. Justification is a ‘once for all’ act whereby the believer is declared righteous by God.
o From that moment on, and for the rest of life, we are ‘justified’, ‘declared righteous’ in God’s sight.
To use Jesus’ metaphor, we have had a bath and we don’t need to have another one. We are clean in God’s sight, despite us continuing to be sinners in every day practice.
So as we gather together to worship here this morning, God considers us clean. No matter how we have lived this week, or whatever chaos was going on in our families before we came out to church this morning, we stand here as justified children of God, totally righteous in God’s eyes.
? But being justified does not change the fact that we still sin on a daily basis. And we need Jesus to be keeping us every day, not because we can lose our salvation, but because we are in a dynamic relationship.
My righteous standing with God today does not change. But my daily relationship with God does change, and I need to confess my sins regularly, every day, and allow Jesus to forgive my ongoing daily sinfulness. That is him keeping me.
? He has forgiven my sins once and for all, but my sins still cause a strain in my relationship with him, even though I will never stop being his child.
You parents will recognize this with your children. However your child behaves, they remain your child, and you love them. Their behaviour cannot change their status. But it causes a lot of ups and downs in the relationship.
In the same way our ongoing sin does not change our status as God’s children, but it does cause a strain in the relationship. Paul says we can, and do, ‘grieve the Holy Spirit’. And when that happens we need to feel that dislocation in our soul.
Part of growing in Christ is knowing when we have offended the Spirit and desiring to make that right. So we need to come every day, not for a bath – that’s already happened – but for footy washing, for the daily cleansing we need as we grow closer to Jesus, and get as close practically, as we are positionally with God.
That is really the story of our Xian lives. To say ‘no’ to our sinful desires, and ‘yes’ to love, joy, peace, patience and so on, until our practical living reflects more and more, our positional status with God. We are righteous positionally, and we want to grow in righteousness practically.
• Jesus promises not just to wash us, but also to keep us, on a daily basis, despite the temptations w e face and the many times we fall. Having given us a bath, he continues to wash us daily, as we confess our sin, and grow in spiritual maturity.
? CS Lewis puts it beautifully in his book, ‘the Voyage of the Dawn Treader’. One of the characters in the book is a boy called Eustace who is thoroughly unpleasant, until he meets the lion Aslan. Then he starts to change. And this is what Lewis writes, “It would be nice and fairly nearly true, to say that 'from that time forth, Eustace was a different boy.'
• To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun.”
As Jesus looks at my life this morning, I’m sure he would say, ‘there are days when Jeremy can be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure has begun.’ Jesus has loved us, and has washed us, and he is keeping us every day by his grace, forgiving our sins, and deepening our walk.
All our discipleship springs from what Jesus has done for us at the cross. All our worship, all our serving and giving and witnessing is motivated by what he has done for us. Jesus has loved us, He has washed us once and for all, and He is keeping us, day by day, until the day we see him face to face.
