Introduction
Read 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.
Read vs 2-5. 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. [1]
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!
What a picture of fallen humanity! The ego, pride, and vanity; the complete
spiritual denseness. While he is getting ready to suffer and die for
them, they are jockeying for position in his earthly kingdom. How would
you respond to them if you were their teacher? He saw it as an opportunity
to teach them two essential lessons . . .
Lesson #1: Allow Jesus To Wash You (vs 6-11)
Read vs 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.
FOOT-WASHING: 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,
humble dependence on Jesus Christ. It cuts rights across the grain of
our pride and self-sufficiency. This is what the New Testament means
by faith in Christ.
But there is another lesson we need to learn from this event. Jesus
explains it to us in vs 12-16 . . .
Lesson #2: Wash Others' Feet (vs 12-17)
Read 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:
rooted in God's love for us. Jesus does not say "Since
I washed your feet, you should wash my feet" (vs 14).
This is one of the world's definitions of love--giving in order to
get: "I did something for you, now I demand that you do something
for me." He didn't need their love to be a whole person because
his life was securely rooted in his Father's love and faithfulness.
Because Jesus drew his life from his Father (vs 3), he was able to
serve his disciples freely and sacrificially.
He calls on us to love others in the same way--freely and sacrificially--because
we have access to the same source.
informed by how Jesus loved people. Vs 15 says "you
also should do as I did to you." In the parallel in vs
34, Jesus instructs us to " . . . love one
another even as I have loved you . . . "
The world has its own definitions of love, but if we want to learn
how to love God's way, we need to study the life of Jesus as it is
recorded in the Bible. He alone lived a life of perfect love.
This is a big subject with some real surprises. We're going to spend
the next two weeks explaining in much greater detail what this means.
But before we do, notice two other revolutionary statements Jesus
makes about this way of life . . .
It is the measure of true greatness. Read vs 16. He is their
master; they are his servants. He is the One sending them; they are
the ones sent by him. His point is that if he lives a lifestyle of
serving love, this is the definition of greatness to which they should
aspire. Lk. 22:25-27, spoken in this same setting, highlights
this point (read).
Many Christians spiritualize their own indolence by saying they don't
want to be great. But Jesus says it is good to aspire to greatness--as
long as you choose the right measure. The world measures greatness
by external things like WEALTH, BEAUTY, ARBITRARY NATURAL TALENT, POLITICAL
& SOCIAL POSITION. But Jesus chooses the antithesis of worldly
greatness (household slave washing feet) as his picture of greatness.
How do you define true greatness and success? Who do you admire? Who
would you be like if you could?
It is the way to true fulfillment. Read vs 17. The word "blessed"
sounds ethereal or corny--like something someone says when you sneeze--and
off in the distant future. But makarios means "happy"
or "fulfilled"--and Jesus uses it to describe what can be
ours in the present.
The world says you will be happy when you can take all you
want, but Jesus says you'll be fulfilled when you give all
you can (Acts 20:35). The world says you will be happy when
you get other people to treat you the way you want to be treated
("WOULDN'T IT BE NICE IF THE WORD REVOLVED AROUND YOU?"),
but Jesus says you will be fulfilled when you learn to love others
the way he loves you.
ELUSIVE BUTTERFLY: If you seek happiness as your goal, it will always
elude you. But if you turn away from this and instead depend personally
on Christ and serve others, happiness will find you.
Footnote
[1] "Loosing the sandal
was the task of a slave. A disciple could not be expected to perform
it. To get the full impact of this we must bear in mind that disciples
did many services for their teachers. Teachers in ancient Palestine
were not paid . . . But in partial compensation
disciples were in the habit of performing little services for their
Rabbis instead. But they had to draw the line somewhere, and menial
tasks like loosing the sandal thong came under this heading. There
is a Rabbinic saying (in its present form dating from A.D. 250, but
probably much older): 'Every service which a slave performs for his
master shall a disciple do for his teacher except the loosing of his
sandal thong.'" Leon Morris, "The Gospel According to John,"
The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1975), p. 141.