Introduction
We just finished
studying the “signs” recorded in Jn. 1-12. These
symbolic miracles formed a key part of Jesus’ public ministry.
In Jn. 13-17, John records a very private conversation between
Jesus and his disciples during their final evening together. Whereas
the “signs” section focuses mainly on who Jesus is and
how to believe in him, this section focuses mainly on how to become a
productive follower of Jesus. Specifically, Jesus explains what it
looks like to follow him, the resources he gives us that enable us to
follow him, and the wonderful rewards of following him.
This morning we
will look at Jn. 13:1-17, in which Jesus washes his disciples’
feet. Let’s start at the end—by looking first at the
reward that Jesus promises to those heed his instruction. Read
13:17. The word "blessed" sounds corny (like something
someone says at Thanksgiving dinner or when you sneeze). But
makarios means “happy in your soul” or
“fulfilled.” In other words, Jesus is claiming to
disclose the secret to a fulfilling life. If you understand what he
teaches in 13:1-16, and if you put it consistently into practice, you
will be fulfilled. I have tested this for 34 years, and I have found
it to be true. Let’s see what it teaches . . .
The setting
This takes place during what we call the Last
Supper—when Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples just
before he was arrested in Gethsemane. Read 13:1-5. Just before they
began their meal, Jesus got up from the table and began washing his
disciples’ feet. A little background information on
foot-washing in first century Palestine will help us to understand
the significance of this act.
Foot-washing was
not a ceremonial custom. It was practically important because people
walked in sandals through dusty, muddy and manure-filled streets.
Your feet got dirty and stinky—especially during Passover when
Jerusalem was filled with thousands of pilgrims.
Not surprisingly,
washing someone else’s feet was regarded as one of the most
demeaning tasks anyone could perform. It was reserved for household
slaves. But since there was evidently no household slave present at
this secret meal, who would perform this task?
Jesus’
disciples were not about to do it. For one thing, rabbinic teaching
exempted disciples from washing their teacher’s feet.
For another thing, Luke says they were in the midst of their
favorite argument—“which one of them was regarded to be
the greatest” (Lk. 22:24). This doesn’t mean that
Peter was insisting that John deserved that honor, etc. It means
that each one was beating his own chest, boasting about his
superiority over the others, putting the others down, etc. Any
disciple who washed feet in this setting would be admitting he was
the low man on the totem pole!
What an ironic situation! Years later, John
reflects that as Jesus was getting ready to suffer and die for them,
he and the other disciples were stepping on each other. How would
you respond to them if you were their teacher (explode; plead)?
Jesus disrobed, donned the garb of a household slave, and washed
their feet. By the time he finished, the towel was brown with dirt
and manure. His words during and following this explain the “these
things” of 13:17 . . .
Allow Jesus to wash you
Read 13:6-11. Good old Peter! He had no
resistors between his mind and his mouth. “How can I know what
I'm thinking until I hear myself say it?” This is Peter at his
sanguine finest: first, “Never to all eternity shall you wash
my feet!” and then “Give me the full bath!” This
is a difficult passage to understand, but the lesson is clear: If you
want a truly fulfilled life, you must allow Jesus to wash you.
Let's take a closer look to understand what this means . . .
First of all, it
is clear that Jesus is not literally insisting that Peter observe
foot hygiene. Jesus tells him that there is a symbolic, spiritual
significance to this act which Peter would not fully understand until
later (13:7). It is in fact a symbol of Jesus’ imminent death
on the cross for Peter—and for us.
It is consistent
with what he said just a few days earlier in Mk. 10:44,45
(read). His ultimate act as a servant is to give his life as a
ransom for us—a payment for our sins. Jn. 13:1 likewise
refers to Jesus’ crucifixion as the ultimate expression of his
love—of which this foot-washing is a picture.
Paul echoes this
event in Phil. 2:6-8 (read). Just as Jesus laid aside his
garments and assumed the role of a house servant to wash his
disciples’ feet, so he laid aside his divine prerogatives to
serve lost humanity whom he loves—all the way to dying on the
cross for them.
This helps us to
understand Jesus’ insistence in 13:8b. It doesn’t mean:
“Your feet stink so bad that I refuse to serve dessert until
they're clean.” It means: “Unless you are willing to let
me wash away your moral guilt, you may not have fellowship with me."
And so it is for all of us. Peter’s protest in 13:8a
communicates an attitude that is unacceptable if we want to know
Jesus and belong to him (essential for a truly happy life). In fact,
Jesus speaks of two distinct ways we must allow him to wash us.
He speaks first of
a full bath. Contrary to what our culture tells us, our main
problem is not that we are good people who need to love ourselves
more. We are filthy before a holy God because of our sins—so
filthy that we cannot possibly wash ourselves (read
Isa. 64:6). But God loves us so much that he has provided a
bath for us through his Son Jesus. Only Jesus can bathe us because
only Jesus (being man) lived a perfect life and thus qualified to lay
his life for us, and only Jesus (being God) could die a
substitutionary death of infinite value.
This is why,
instead of instructing his disciples to each wash his own feet (the
common practice when there was no household slave), Jesus washed
their feet. In doing so, he took their filth onto himself.
This is a picture of what he would do on the cross.
You cannot have a
truly fulfilled life without having a relationship with God—and
you cannot have a relationship with God unless you allow Jesus to
give you a full bath. The great news is that you need to be “bathed”
in this way only once. When you allow him to give you this full
bath, you become “completely clean” (13:10)—permanently
forgiven for all of your sins (Isa. 1:18). Have you allowed
Jesus to give you this bath? All you have to do is humbly agree with
him that you can’t clean yourself and ask him to forgive you
through his death on the cross. Why not do this today?
But even those who
have bathed (like Peter) need to go on allowing Jesus to wash
their feet. This is something different from being forgiven for
our sins, as Jesus emphasizes in 13:10. It refers to another,
ongoing cleansing we need in order to maintain a vital relationship
with him.
We have been
completely and permanently delivered from the penalty of our
sin—but we still sin, and we still need to be cleansed from
sins defiling effect on our relationship with Christ. God is
not an impersonal force; he is a Person with a moral will for our
lives. If we want relational closeness with him, we must respond to
his moral leadership. When we turn away from his moral leadership in
our attitude or behavior (and we all do), we do not forfeit God’s
forgiveness—but it does affect the intimacy of our relationship
with him. When this happens, how do we regain that intimacy? We
must allow Jesus to “wash our feet.” It is not difficult
to do this—it involves three simple steps:
First, we simply
need to agree with his verdict that our feet are dirty. When he
points out a wrong attitude or behavior, instead of rationalizing or
blaming others we need to take personal responsibility and admit to
him” “I have rebelled against you, and I am sorry.”
Then, having
agreed with his correction, we need to also agree with him that he
his death on the cross has already made full payment for this sin.
We must not attempt to pay for it by beating ourselves or replaying
it or doing penance—this only demeans the value of his work for
us. Instead, by faith we need to say “Thank you for forgiving
me.”
And then, having
received his correction and applied his forgiveness, we need to
simply get up and resume relating to him and following him. “I
am ready to serve you, Lord—what do you want me to do?”
He may want you to confess this to another Christian. He may want
you to apologize and ask forgiveness. He may want you to simply move
forward. I don’t know what he may want you to do—but he
knows, and he will show you.
When we present
our “dirty feet” to Jesus in this way, he washes them.
He cleanses our guilty consciences, and he restores the intimacy of
our relationship with him. Recommend Schaeffer’s chapter
(“Freedom from Conscience”) in True Spirituality.
Some of you are
needlessly forfeiting a fulfilling life simply because you won’t
let Jesus wash your feet when they are dirty. I think this is a
problem with many Xenoids. Most of us are clear about our full bath,
but we often use it as an excuse to avoid our need for ongoing
foot-washing. Consequently, we feel out of touch with Jesus’
loving presence and guidance and empowering.
Do you want a fulfilling life? Then let Jesus
wash you. But there is another “thing” we need to know
and do—and Jesus explains it to us in 13:12-16 . . .
Wash others’ feet
Read 13:12a. After Jesus washed everyone’s
feet, he sat down. I bet you could hear a pin drop! Now that he had
everyone's undivided attention, he was ready to teach them another
lesson they should learn from his actions. Read 13:12b-14
(misreading 13:14b – “. . . you ought to
wash my feet” or “. . . you ought to keep your
feet clean”). What is the proper response to allowing Jesus to
wash you? To wash others’ feet. What does this mean?
Jesus is not
instituting foot-washing as a ritual for the church to observe. The
book of Acts never narrates the early church observing such a ritual,
while it does so many times with baptism and communion. There’s
nothing wrong with literal foot-washing—but you could do this
literally and miss the real point. Jesus is calling on us to embrace
something far more radical.
To emulate Jesus’
foot-washing is to embrace a lifestyle of serving love
toward others. Just as Jesus washing the disciples’ feet
was a picture of his sacrificial love for them, his call to “wash
one another’s feet” is a call to sacrificially love
others. Jesus makes this clear in 13:34 (read).
I know this sounds
crazy. It is absolutely antithetical to what our culture teaches
about personal fulfillment. It teaches us: “You will be happy
when you get other people to love you the way you want to be loved.”
But Jesus declares: “You will be happy when you learn to love
others the way I already love you.” You can’t mix
these—you have to choose one or the other.
If you subscribe
to our culture’s lie, you will become a slave (because we
cannot control how people treat us) and your life will become
increasingly miserable. Self-absorbed people are miserable people.
Haven’t you proven this to yourself already? How much more do
you need to learn about this?
But if you trust
that Jesus loves you and will take care of you, you express this
trust by giving his love away to others. Then you will become more
and more free (because you can always do this, no matter how people
treat you), and you will discover that your life is becoming more and
more full of his love. Loving others increases your capacity to
receive and experience his love.
It is a real
cross-roads decision to reject this lie and believe Jesus’
counsel on this. Many of you are unhappily stuck at this cross-road.
You have allowed Jesus to give you a bath, and you even let him wash
your feet sometimes—but you haven’t decided yet to sell
out to an other-centered, serving way of life.
If you want to
learn how to live this way, get involved in a home group. This is
where you will see models whose lives will inspire you to
pursue this way of life. This is where you will get all kinds of
opportunities to practice serving others. And this is where
you can get great coaching on how to become a more effective
servant. And this is where you can get camaraderie with other
fellow-servants.
Footnotes
Copyright 2004 Gary DeLashmutt