Discovering God's Will Week 7

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
2 And supper being ended,the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?”
7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”
8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”
Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”
12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, 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 should do as I have done to you. 16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. John 13: 10 - 17

vs 1) This verse marks a major transition in John's gospel. Beginning in chapter 13, John turns from Jesus' public ministry to his final private words to his disciples. Chapters 13-17 record what scholars call the "upper room discourse" because it took place in the second floor room where Jesus had his final Passover meal with his disciples. Knowing that he was about to depart from them, he distilled for them the most important truths and spiritual principles of the Christian life.

v2) Sometime during their meal, Jesus abruptly rose from dinner and began washing his disciples' feet. A little background information on footwashing in first century Palestine will help us to understand the significance of this act.

Footwashing was not merely a ceremonial custom. It was practically important because people walked through dusty and manure-filled streets with sandals. Your feet got dirty and stinky.

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 two reasons. First, rabbinic law held that although disciples should perform many services for their rabbis, they could draw the line at removing their sandals and washing their feet.

Second, Luke says they were in the midst of their favorite argument--"which one of them was regarded to be the greatest" (Lk. 22:24). Anyone who washed feet in this setting would be admitting he was the low-life of the bunch! 6 -11) This is a difficult passage to understand, but the lesson is clear: We must allow Jesus to wash us. Let's take a closer look to understand what this means . . .

First of all, it is clear that Jesus is not merely urging Peter to observe hygiene and etiquette. Jesus tells him in vs 7 that there is a symbolic, spiritual significance to this act which Peter would not fully understand until he received the Holy Spirit (Jn. 16:12,13).

It is in fact a symbol of Jesus' death on the cross. This action comes immediately after Jesus explained the Passover meal as a prophetic picture of his death on the cross for our sins (see Lk. 22:19,20). See also Phil. 2:5-8, which is probably Paul's interpretation of Jesus' footwashing. 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 is the way he "loved them to the uttermost" (vs 1).

This helps us to understand Jesus' insistence in vs 8b. It means more than just "You must have clean feet if you want to have dessert." It means that unless we are willing to let Jesus serve us by washing us, we may not have fellowship with him. Peter's protest in vs 8a communicates an attitude that is unacceptable if we want to know God and belong to him. In his response, Jesus speaks of two distinct kinds of washings.

FULL BATH: We are dirty because of our sins, and we cannot cleanse ourselves. Only Jesus can do this because only Jesus was both qualified and willing to do this for us. We must allow Jesus to wash us by receiving God's complete forgiveness through Jesus' death on the cross.

And this washing makes us "completely clean" (vs 10). We need be "bathed" in this way only once. This refers to the once and for all forgiveness we receive the moment we put our trust in Christ as Savior.

But even true Christians like Peter need to go allowing Jesus to wash their feet. This is something different from being forgiven for our sins, as Jesus emphasizes in vs 10. It refers rather to two ongoing ministries of Jesus which keep us in vital contact with him:

We must allow him to cleanse us from the other effects of sin in our lives. Believers in Christ have been completely and permanently delivered from the penalty of sin--but we still need to be delivered from the ongoing power of sin in our lives. When we sin as Christians, we are still forgiven by God, but our sensitized consciences are defiled and we get accused by Satan. As the Holy Spirit convicts us of wrong attitudes and behaviors, we need to acknowledge them to Christ, allow him to apply his forgiveness to our consciences, and cooperate with him as he begins to change us from the inside out. We must allow him to refresh us from the effects of living in a spiritually hostile world. In the ancient world, it was impossible to walk around without getting your feet dirty. Footwashing was a means of refreshment which revitalized. In the same way, it is not possible for us as Christians to live in this world without being negatively affected by its spiritual atmosphere. This is different from choosing to sin. Every Christian knows the experience of spending a day in the world at work, school, etc.--and feeling somehow spiritually fatigued, coated by a "dust" which makes us feel jaded and tarnished and distant from God. We need to be refreshed in our communion with God, and Jesus is the One who can do this. As we turn to him by prayer, or by getting into his Word, or by interacting with another Christian--he removes this film and restores our freshness with the Lord. This is one of the central principles of Christianity--ongoing personal.

vs 12a. After he washed everyone's feet (including Judas'), 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 the lesson they should learn from his actions. Read vs 12b-15. Jesus' action not only had a symbolic message that they would soon understand (above). It also had a plain lesson they could understand: wash others' feet (vs 14b). In what sense did he mean this?

He is not instituting foot-washing as a ritual for the church to observe. Unlike baptism and communion, both of which were already Jewish rituals, foot-washing was never a Jewish ritual. Furthermore, Acts never narrates the early church observing such a ritual, while it does so many times with baptism and communion.

Rather, Jesus' foot-washing is a picture of a lifestyle of serving love toward others. This is to be the hallmark of Christian spirituality (vs 34: "new commandment;" 1 Cor. 13:1-3). You can perform the ritual of foot-washing without practicing this lifestyle, and you can practice this lifestyle without literally washing people's feet. This "foot-washing lifestyle" is: