John 13:1-17 The
Footwashing WC
McCarter
Introduction
As we move
into the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, the scene changes, the
ministry of Christ changes, and the overall tone changes. Christ and His
disciples are no longer out in the public performing miracles and preaching to
the masses. Jesus is now in an Upper Room with His closest disciples, the
twelve, eating a meal and speaking plainly to them about His departure. What He
will say to them on the eve of His betrayal, arrest, and death will be crucial.
The Lord will prepare them as much as possible for what lies ahead. He is
leaving, but it is not the end of the world or mission. As they sat in the
Upper Room, Christ’s glorification was only beginning.
READ Scripture- This is the Word of God
He Loved Them to the End (1)
The first
verse marks a transition in the Gospel of John. This verse, which is one, long
sentence in Greek, is an introductory statement to the rest of the book.
Christ’s love is about to be put on display. When human history comes to its
darkest moment, Christ will shine all the more brightly.
We are told
that this sequence takes place before the feast of the Passover, that is, we
have now come to a moment just before the Passover celebration. Jesus knew that
His hour had come. Christ has been aware of His coming “hour” from the
beginning of His earthly ministry. All the way back in John 2, when Jesus
performed His first recorded miracle, He said to Mary, “My hour has not yet
come.” In chapter 7, the reader is told that the Lord’s opponents tried to take
Him away, but He miraculously escaped, “because His hour had not yet come.” The
same things happens in John 8. As His hour neared, Jesus was fully aware. In
chapter 12, Jesus is somewhat signaled that the time has come. When the Jewish
authorities are at the height of their hatred toward Jesus, there are many
Gentiles who are wanting to see Him. Jesus says, “The hour has come that the
Son of Man should be glorified.” The “hour” is the appointed time of Christ’s
death, resurrection, and crucifixion. Picking up on Jesus’ reference to all of
this, John lumps these events together and calls them Christ’s “glorification.”
Jesus then says in chapter 12, “For this purpose I came to this hour. Father,
glorify Your name.”
So, when we
come to chapter 13, John reminds us that Jesus’ hour has come, and Jesus is
fully aware of that fact. He will leave this world and go to the Father. He
will go back to His place in glory at the right hand of the Father. Remember,
this is the Word that we are talking about. Chapter 1 told us that, “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was
in the beginning with God.” The eternal Word, who descended from heaven and put
on flesh, would be returning to heaven after completing His mission. He is the
Creator of this world and stands above it, but for a time entered into it in
order that He may redeem it by His own blood.
Although
Jesus would be leaving the world, He had loved His own who were in the world
all along. Jesus was invested in the men and women who were gathered around
Him. He loved the men whom He had chosen. Not only had He loved them during His
time with them, but He loved them to the end. This word, “end,” refers to more
than what may meet the eye. It refers to completion, fullness, and to the
uttermost. When Jesus cried out on the cross in John 19, “It is finished,” He
was using the same word as here. The full extent of His love would be shown on
the cross by His sacrificial death. He loved them to the end of His time on
earth with them. He loved them to the completion of the mission and fulfillment
of the promises of Scripture. He loved them to the uttermost in humbling
Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, when John says
He loved them to the end, He is not referring to only what happens in the next
few paragraphs, but to what happens in the remainder of the Gospel story (which
is why I think that 13:1 is an introductory statement to the remainder of
John’s Gospel account).
The Betrayer’s Heart and the Lord’s Mind (2-3)
After
getting the big picture of what is now going on, verse two takes us into a
particular scene. Jesus is gathered in the Upper Room with His closest
disciples, and they are eating the Passover meal together. The NKJV says that
supper has ended, but a better translation would be that supper had just been
served, and thus, the evening meal was actually still in progress at this point
in the narrative. Of course, food is not the only thing present at the table,
there is wickedness in the betrayer’s heart and there is awareness in the
Lord’s mind. The opening scene presents Jesus and Judas juxtaposed.
Although
Satan himself has not entered into the heart of Judas at this point (which
happens not long after this), the plan is already in the works. The devil has
already put the thought into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray the Lord.
The devil had been working on Judas for some time now. Judas has been shown to
be a lying, thieving, and greedy previous to this occasion, and now the devil
has Judas just where he wants the man. Although Judas had spent three years
with the Lord, close by His side, and even carrying the money bag, he was weak
and vulnerable to the wiles of the devil. As Jesus had previously taught in
Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”
The devil
was doing things that the men around the table could not be aware of, but Jesus
was fully aware of what was going on. Not only do I firmly believe that Jesus
knew what was in Judas’ heart, we also read that Jesus knew that the Father had
given all things into His hands. What can this phrase mean, but that all
authority was His? Although Judas would hand Christ over, Christ had all things
in His hands. John wants us to know, and later we will see that Jesus wanted
His disciples to know that He was fully aware of what was about to happen.
“Jesus knew” . . . “that His hour had come”
“that He should depart from this world to the
Father”
“that the Father had given all things into
His hands”
“and that He had come from God and was going
to God.”
Let me assure
you of something, JESUS KNEW!
And He
always knows! Christ knows your heart, and, not only that, He knows what you
are going through. He has experienced this life for Himself.
The Footwashing (4-5)
Verse four
makes clear that supper was still ongoing. In the midst of a celebration and
meal, the Lord stands up, takes off His clothes, and heads to the water basin
near the entranceway. Notice that the word “garments” is plural. He took off
more than His outer cloak. Apparently, He stripped down to only a loin cloth
like a slave. He then wrapped a towel around His waist. Jesus was doing the
unthinkable! In the homes of that day, there would have been a basin of water
by the door and a servant to meet you whenever you came into the house. It
would not be just any servant, but it would be the lowliest slave who had
footwashing duty. The roads were dusty and trashy, and the people only wore
sandals. Thus, although they may have had a bath that morning, after walking
the roads during the day, their feet would need to be washed upon entering a
house.
It is
obvious that none of the disciples decided to humble themselves to wash their
colleagues’ feet and not even their Lord’s. Of course, this is not unexpected. The
disciples had been arguing for some time now who would be the greatest in the
Lord’s coming kingdom. All of the men gathered in that Upper Room to celebrate
the Passover and eat the meal, but there was no servant there to wash their
feet and none of the disciples volunteered for the lowly task. Therefore, Jesus
saw an opening and decided to act out a lesson.
Peter’s Disapproval (6-11)
Do you know
anyone who has a foot-shaped mouth? Well, the leader of the apostles did! Peter
was always the one to speak up. While the other few that Jesus washed before
getting around the table to Peter remained in stunned silence, Peter speaks up.
He cannot allow the Lord to wash his feet. Peter is the one who somewhat
doubted the Lord when he first met Him, but soon learned to humble himself in
obedience to the Lord. He was blown away by the majesty of Christ in one of
those early encounters and fell down on his knees saying, “Depart from me, for
I am a sinful man, O Lord!” Since that time, Peter, to some degree, made it his
mission to defend the Lord. He self-appointed himself as the Lord’s bodyguard. So,
when Jesus says that He would suffer, die, and be raised again, Peter says,
“Far be it from You, Lord.” Even after they leave the Upper Room and head to
the Garden, Peter pulls his sword and is ready to fight for the Lord against
the Temple guards who come to arrest Him. If no one else would speak up about
the Lord humiliating Himself, then Peter would!
So, Peter
asks the question in utter bewilderment, “Are you washing my feet?” And the
Lord responds, “You don’t understand this now, but you will.” This is the first
signal that points me to something more being taught than simply humility.
Peter then rebukes the Lord, “You will never wash my feet.” To which Jesus
responds, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” So, Peter quickly
changes his story, “Give me a bath then!” Jesus responds by teaching a lesson
based on common practice. If you had a bath that morning, you didn’t need a
whole bath again after walking the streets, you would only need your feet
washed. Spiritually speaking, once you have been regenerated by the Holy
Spirit, you do not have to be regenerated again every time you fall into sin;
you only need to be forgiven. John, the apostle, learned this lesson and said
in his first epistle, “If anyone sins, they must confess their sin and Christ
is faithful and just to forgive him and cleanse him from all unrighteousness.”
Jesus, then signals that not all of them were clean. Not all of them belonged
to Him.
Do You Know What I Have Done to You? (12-17)
And, so, we
come to the last paragraph. Because Jesus says, “I have given you an example,”
many have come to this passage wanting to interpret that Jesus is simply
teaching us how to be humble. He is obviously doing that, but I think it is
beside the main point. There is something far greater going on in this passage.
Something far greater is going on in the washing of these feet, and we have
seen some signals in the passage to this truth. First of all, the whole setting
somewhat sets the pace for this. This is the last night that Jesus is with His
disciples. They’re in private. These are the men who are going to carry on the
mission. And we have already been told in verse one that the time has come for
Jesus to depart and return to the Father. Whatever preparation these guys still
need they are going to have to get right now.
I think a
major part of the preparation that is lacking is that they are going to have to
understand what Jesus does the very next day by willing laying down His life
and being crucified. This is a man who had large crowds surrounding Him who
wanted to kill Him . . . stones in hand . . . and all eyes on Him. Yet, He
slips away without a scratch. This is not a man who can be taken if He does not
want to be taken. But, He willingly allows Himself to be arrested in the
Garden. He willingly allows Himself to be dragged from one court/official to
the next. He willingly lays down on a cross to have nails driven into His flesh
so that He may take the sins of the world upon His sinless soul to pay our
penalty as our substitute.
Jesus is
fully aware of what’s going on, but the disciples are not, and as Jesus will
later say, You are going to be scattered,
and, Peter, you are going to betray Me three times. . . . You need to know what’s
going on, and you need to know that I know ahead of time what is going to
happen. Those two things are vital to this evening in the Upper Room. So,
by way of preparation, I believe, Jesus acts out a prophecy; He acts out a
lesson. If they could not accept Him taken off His clothes down to a loin
cloth, putting a towel around His waist, picking up the water basin, and
washing their feet, then they will NEVER understand nor accept what He does on
the cross. When He extends it past that to this being an example that believers
should do for one another, He is saying much more than, You need to wash one another’s feet on a regular basis. He is
saying, You need to lay down your lives
for one another. Another signal that I have this interpretation right is
that the apostle John learned this lesson and later said in his first epistle, “By
this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren.” The apostle John, who was sitting there
in the room with Jesus, who was reclining into His bosom because he was sitting
right beside the Lord, who had his feet washed by Jesus, and who was the only
apostle to follow Jesus to the cross – this apostle learned this lesson, and we
do well to learn this lesson too.
This is the
Gospel. We worship a God, the one, true, and living God, who put on flesh and
blood in the Christmas story, who humbled Himself in the first place to become
a man, and then humble Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross to
pay for our sins. You see, there is no atonement if the Son of God does not
offer Himself as a sacrifice. There is no atonement for sin if this story is
not true. If it is not true, what is your hope? What is your trust? What is
going to save you? If this book is not true, then we have no hope. If this book
is dead, then we are also dead. But, I believe this book is true and living,
and I live because of what it tells me. He has laid down His life for us, and
He has taken it up again. He has shown us that this is the way.
This is the
Way: Christ’s death and sacrificial love. This is THE mark of Christianity. Not
that we sacrifice others, but that we sacrifice ourselves. Our Master has done
this and as His servants we are no greater. He stoops to this level, so we
stoop to this level. He dies in order to pay for our sins, and we live in order
to tell others that He paid for their sins. We offer our bodies as a living
sacrifice that by some means people may hear the Gospel and come to a thorough knowledge
of the truth and to saving faith.
Conclusion and Christian Application
(1) Let us make something clear: Christ
knows your heart. He knows what is in you. He can see to the depths of you.
Does He find brokenness over sin? Does He find a contrite heart? Does He find
an admission of spiritual bankruptcy? Does He see a heart that is after the
things of God? Or does He find pride, arrogance, selfishness, worldliness, and
the like? What is your treasure?
Not only
does Jesus know your heart, but He knows what you are going through. Whatever
you find yourself in the midst of, whether it be a lack of necessities,
relationship problems, pain, suffering, the loss of a loved one, and the like,
Jesus can sympathize. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our hurts. He was
betrayed by one who was close to Him for three years, a man who spent every day
with Him.
(2) You must be willing to humble
yourself in behalf of others. You are probably willing to do that for your kids
or your family, but what about others? Are you willing to put yourself in the
lowliest of places to serve your brothers and sisters in Christ? Are you even
willing to show the love of Christ by humbling yourself to serve your
adversaries and betrayers? Christ did and commands us to do the same for one
another.