Serve Like Me (John 13:1-15)
Good morning! Please turn in your copy of God’s Word to John 13.
As you are finding the passage, I want to ask you—have you ever been asked to do something you really didn’t want to do? Maybe you had other things you felt were more important, or maybe you felt like doing this thing would be really invonvenient, or maybe you just felt like the thing was gross and kind of beneath you. But for whatever reason, you were just looking for an excuse NOT to do it.
The other day, I was scrolling through Facebook, and I came across an ad for a new productivity app. Now, I realized eventually that the ad was a joke, But as I watched it, there was still a part of me that was thinking, you know, I really could use something like that. Watch this with me, and see if you don’t agree:
[Got this thing] commercial.
Be honest: How many of you would at least consider downloading this app if Got This Thing was an actual thing?
Well, as we continue our series on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, we get to the story of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. And yeah—that job was probably just as gross as it sounds. Why did Jesus do it? And what does it have to do with discipleship? We talked the first week about the call to follow Jesus. Then last week, we talked about what it means to learn from Jesus, to put His yoke on our shoulders, knowing that He is gentle and lowly in heart.
So the story in John 13 of Jesus washing His disciples feet is one that, if you were looking for one story out of the gospels that would exemplify what Jesus meant when he said he was gentle and lowly in heart, it would be this one.
I want to start by giving you all the blanks to fill in. It’s a decent outline for how to serve like Jesus, but I don’t want you to be distracted from hearing what the Lord might be saying to you because you’re waiting for me to fill in the next blank, so I figured I would give them to you on the front end.
• Demonstrate Ordinary Kindness (v. 1-5)
• Overcome Human Pride (v. 6-9)
• Demonstrate Superhuman Humility (v. 12-13)
• Follow an Extraordinary Example (v. 14-15)
Let me pray, and then we will get in to the passage.
[PRAY]
This morning I’m reading from the Christian Standard Bible. [Read John 13:1-4]
Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 Now when it was time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son,[a] to betray him. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. 4 So he…
Stop right there. Imagine you knew nothing about this story, and someone was telling it to you instead you reding it. It’s the last night Jesus is with His disciples. He knows He is about to be crucified. And He knows Judas, who is SITTING RIGHT THERE, is about to betray Him.
What would you expect to come next in the story?
• So he explained to them all the confusing parts from the book of Revelation about what the end of the world would be like. (No…)
• So He pointed to Judas and said, Get Him, guys, before he has a chance to escape! (no…)
[Read 4-5]
4 So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. 5 Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.
Let’s talk for a minute about foot washing. Like every other middle eastern people, the Jews wore sandals. And just like every other middle eastern street, the roads and paths in Israel were dusty. So it was expected that a host would offer his guests water to wash their feet, similar to similar to us offering to take someone’s coat if they were a guest in our house today
But in the ancient Middle East, it was just common courtesy. In fact, it was considered rude if you didn’t provide water for guests to wash their feet. When Jesus was in the home of Simon the Pharisee, Jesus rebuked his host for ignoring this common courtesy (Luke 7:44).
Today in Alabama, we would call it Southern hospitality. So that is our first challenge. If we want to serve like Jesus, it starts by simply demonstrating ordinary, everyday kindness.
Demonstrate ordinary kindness.
I’m not talking about going above and beyond here. I’m talking common courtesy. Basic decency. Things like treating your server at a restaurant with respect, even if they mess up your order. Or offering to take someone’s shopping cart once they are done loading their car. Giving up your seat on a crowded bus. Not going off on customer service representatives or telemarketers, even if it’s obvious English isn’t their first language.
And you’re thinking, “No—I’m really into this discipleship thing. Let’s talk about real sacrifice! I’m ready to be a missionary for you, Jesus! I would even be a martyr for you, Lord. I want to do great things for you!
Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun who spent her life caring for the poorest of the poor in Colcutta India. Someone asked her once what it was like to have accomplished such great things for God. Mother Teresa said,
“In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”
–Mother Teresa
Listen—do you really expect God to trust you to serve people overseas in Africa if you can’t even show kindness to the waitress at Applebee’s? Don’t be so consumed with figuring out the “great thing” God has for you. Instead, think about how you can do small things with great love.
So back to the story from John 13. Providing water for guests to wash their feet was a common, ordinary kindness. But when Jesus took it upon Himself to wash the disciples feet, ordinary kindness demonstrated extraordinary humility. And it freaked Peter out. Look at verses 6-8 with me:
6 He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.”
8 “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said.
Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”
I noticed something for the first time on Friday as I was preparing this message. I’ve always heard that footwashing was the duty of the lowest slave in the household. I know when I have taught this passage before, I’ve always pointed that out. Every commentary references this. Every note in every study Bible I looked up says this. There is one historical source that says the job of footwashing was so menial that not even a Jewish slave would be compelled to do it. The job would have to be done by a Gentile slave.
And I’m sure all this is true. I’m not about to stand here this morning and say that every commentary and every study Bible gets this detail wrong.
The only problem is, I can’t find this in the Bible.
The first time we hear about footwashing in the Bible is in Genesis 18, when Abraham receives the three angelic visitors who are on their way to destroy Sodom. He orders water to be brought ao they can wash their feet. Later, when Abraham’s servant was sent to find a wife for Isaac, Laban gave him water to wash his feet, along with all of the men who were with him (Genesis 24). In Genesis 43, when Joseph’s brothers came back to Egypt to buy grain, they were given water to wash their feet.
Before this story in John 13, the only time someone washes someone else’s feet is when a woman named Abigail, who happens to be married to a loser named Nabal, washes King David’s feet in 1 Samuel 25. And that was only after Nabal died and Abigail became David’s wife.
Interestingly, according to the Talmud, it was a woman’s duty to wash her husband’s feet. The husband was entitled to his wife washing his feet whenever he came into the tent, sat down to eat, or prepared for bed. It goes on to say that no matter how many servants the wife had, it was her duty to wash her husband’s feet. So if you are wanting a biblical marriage…
So let’s get back to this scene in John 13. There has been a breach of common courtesy. No water has been provided. Apparently no one had washed their feet before the meal, because verse 2 says it was “during supper” and verse 3 says Jesus “rose from supper.”
Maybe disciples are looking around going, “Well, our wives aren’t here, and we don’t have a Gentile slave, so who’s gonna wash our feet?”
That’s when, according to verse 5 Jesus got up, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples feet. Then he wiped them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
Peter is scandalized. He’s like—"oh no, Jesus. You’ll never wash my feet!”
But maybe the scandal isn’t that Jesus was doing what a servant was supposed to do. It’s that Jesus was doing for them what they would have been expected to do for themselves.
Can I stop and point out the gospel here? When Peter protests, Jesus says (verse 8), “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
Usually when I read that out loud, I emphasize wash. If I do not wash you… But listen to it this way: If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.
Hear the difference? We can’t make ourselves clean enough to have a share in Jesus. We can never, by our own efforts, wash away the guilt of sin. I really thought this sermon was going to be about serving, and I still think it is, but you need to know that even if you gave twenty hours a week to the local soup kitchen, or AICC, or the Humane Society, or the Salvation Army, or the Red Cross, it wouldn’t get you to heaven. Even if you came to this church and volunteered with every spare moment you have, you wouldn’t be able to wash away your sins.
Maybe the point of the footwashing isn’t that Jesus did something utterly extraordinary. It’s that He did something completely necessary.
Don’t miss verse 1: having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. We’ve seen that word before. It’s the Greek word telos. It means completion. Perfection. It’s what Jesus said in John 19:30—his last words on the cross—it is finished.
When Jesus washes us, we are clean. There’s no more work to be done to make ourselves clean.
Of course, to accept this, you need to overcome your own pride.
Peter had to allow Jesus to wash his feet. This wasn’t easy. Peter seems to have been a pretty self-reliant, independent sort of guy. I can imagine him saying, I’ll wash my own feet, thank you. It’s my fault, I’m the leader of these disciples, I should have thought about that, so let me do it, get off the floor, Jesus, this was supposed to be my job. I know I messed up, let me make it right.
Kind of like me when I see Trish gathering up the trash on trash day.
Peter had to humble himself and realize he couldn’t make it right. And that is the starting point for salvation. When we realize we can’t do enough scrubbing or cleaning or scraping or sweeping to remove the stain of our own sin.
Turn to Psalm 51. David wrote this Psalm after Nathan the prophet confronted him over his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Bathsheba’s husband. David realized this was never something he could make right on his own. So look at the language he uses:
Have mercy on me,[a] O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
Verse 7:
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Not “give me the sponge and the bucket and I’ll clean myself up.” Not “assign some penance and some acts of contrition I can do so I can work for my forgiveness.”
Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Church, make no mistake. We need you to serve. Jesus commands us to serve. We follow His example. Go back to John 13 and look what He told the disciples in verse 13:
13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
Ever since the Covid pandemic, volunteerism is down in the United States. An article in the Washington Post last month noted that in the first year after the pandemic a record low percentage of Americans—23%-- volunteered in any capacity for charitable organizations. And even three years later, the number of people that formally volunteer any of their time has not returned to pre pandemic levels.
The news isn’t any better for churches. Before the pandemic, about 40% of a church’s members volunteered in some capacity on a regular. In March 2022, only about 20% were. The decline in volunteers affected the education ministry more than any other area of the church. 57% of congregations say they had to reduce the number of small groups and Sunday school classes they could offer. In some cases, entire ministry areas, such as student ministry, were discontinued.
So we have to follow Jesus example and serve in Jesus’ name.
But before we can serve in the name of Jesus, we have be be saved by the name of Jesus. And salvation can only come through letting Jesus wash you.
[Explain gospel, invitation]
