What we have presented to us in the first 17 verses of this chapter, is what I have called an animated parable. A parable is a story that is given to illustrate a spiritual truth. And so what Jesus is doing in washing the disciples’ feet is providing a living illustration, or an animated parable in order to teach a spiritual truth.
Now that is important to understand. Because the illustration is not the object of our attention, but the illustration serves to present an object lesson. There are some that take from this text the idea that we need to practice foot washing as an ordinance of the church. And while that in of itself may not be particularly bad, I don’t believe that is what is being taught here. The foot washing is simply to teach an object lesson about Christ-like love.
Agape love, or Christ-like love, or sacrificial love is really the principle being taught here. Notice how many times we see the word love in this text we call the upper room discourse. In the next 4 chapters which is the record of the upper room discourse, you will see the theme of Christian love presented again and again by Jesus. He defines love.
For example; in chapter 14:15, Jesus says, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” And in vs 23 Jesus answered, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” Then in chapter 15:10, He says, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.” And in vs .12 He says again, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” Finally, in vs13 He gives the grand summary of sacrificial love; ”Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
I was listening to a PBS broadcast the other day, and someone was attempting to define love according to their understanding of it, and they said, “for me, love is caring.” That was the way they defined love for themselves. And the world has done quite a job of redefining what love is. But God has defined love as He intended it to be. And that love is illustrated by sacrifice, particularly the sacrificial love of Christ, who laid down His life for us. He has defined love in Christ.
Now in this opening section we find Jesus and the disciples in the Upper Room, and right at the beginning John declares Christ’s love, and then we see this illustration, this animated parable of Christ-like love. And again I would remind you that the public ministry of Christ is over. He warned the Jews in the last chapter that He was soon to depart and their opportunity would be passed. So as John begins this passage, we see that Jesus has left the public arena, and is in the Upper Room with just the disciples. These are “His own” which John speaks of in vs 1. These are the true believers. And so in chapters 1-12 we have the public ministry of Christ, and now in chapter 13 to the end of the gospel we see the private ministry to the disciples. So it is safe to assume that this animated parable is intended for saved people. It’s not a parable to teach unsaved people, but an illustration to teach saved disciples.
Vs. 1 says that it was during the Feast of the Passover. We all are familiar with the Passover, aren’t we? It was the Jewish festival which commemorated the Israelites deliverance from Egypt, when God sent the angel of death throughout the nation of Egypt, and killed the first born son of every family. But for the Jews, God gave them the opportunity to slay a lamb and sprinkle the blood over the doorpost, and in response, the angel of death would pass over that house and not touch the first born son. The judgment upon Egypt then also served as the means of salvation for the Jews. And once a year, the Jews were commanded to celebrate this feast. Every family would provide a lamb to be slain, and would eat the Passover meal as a memorial to God’s deliverance.
So it was the time of the Passover. And according to the plan of God, it was also the appointed time of Christ’s sacrifice. He would become the Lamb of God which was slain for the salvation of the world. This was the appointed time. Throughout the three years of Christ’s ministry, He was constantly saying His time had not yet come. But now, John notes in vs.1, Jesus knows that His hour had come. The appointed hour when He would lay down His life, and return to His Father in heaven.
So John says, “having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” The idea there is not just to the end of His life, but that He loved them to the uttermost. He loved them completely. It speaks of the ultimate fulfillment of His love for His own. It speaks of an eternal love which continues even after He has gone to the Father. And it speaks of the ultimate expression of love, the ultimate sacrifice. As He says later in ch.15, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down HIs life for His friends.” He would make the ultimate sacrifice for His friends.
Now Jesus would illustrate this love, but in such a way so that the disciples might imitate Him, and so commemorate His love for us, by loving one another. Jesus is going to illustrate agape love to the disciples. But before He does so, John tells us that the devil has put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ. The question is why does John make that particular point at that particular moment? Well, I believe it is to illustrate that though God loved the world, yet the world does not all love God. It is a reminder that not everyone believes, and even within the church, there are those who do not believe. Even in the church, there are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
So Judas is the premier example of self love, which is pride. It’s the opposite of Christ-like love. But we will come back to Judas in a future message. For now, let’s just focus on the parable that Jesus provides. Basically, vs.3 indicates that Jesus knew full well that His hour was at hand, He knew who was His, He knew who would betray Him, He knew that God had already given Him the authority to lay down His life and take it up again, and in the fullness of that knowledge, He was going to spend this last night with His disciples reinforcing certain principles so that they would be better equipped to handle their mission once He was gone.
So in vs.4, Jesus “got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.” Now the first principle that is being taught here is humility.
Humility is a hallmark of sacrificial love. The more humble you are, the less interested you are in yourself, the greater your capacity to love someone else. Humility and love are related to one another proportionately. The lower you go in self esteem, the higher you are in concern for others. The more you sacrifice your priorities, the greater you will sacrifice for others.
In its purest form, biblical love is completely unselfish. That’s not true of human love. Human love is based reciprocation. We turn the Golden Rule around as if we say, I’ll do unto you if you will do unto me. There’s a reciprocal quality in human love that is really selfish at it’s root. But for the Christian, love in its purest form is completely unselfish. True Christian love is not based on reciprocality. Paul summed all that up by one statement, “Love seeks not its own.”
Judas is presented here in this passage as one that is governed by pride, by self love. He is hanging around Jesus, feigning love but in reality he just wants to get rich from his relationship. But that attitude has reached it’s zenith. He has sold Jesus down the pike for a few pieces of silver. So Judas’s self love is the ultimate contrast to Jesus’ humility.
But there is another stark contrast to Christ’s humility as well. We have to go to Luke 22 for this one. In Luke 22 we learn that the disciples during the Passover are arguing over who is the greatest. This is probably an argument that has been going on for some time among the disciples. You will remember that in Matthew 20 it records that just a few days before James and John had asked Jesus if they could be seated at His right and left hand when His kingdom was established. So this is probably an ongoing dispute among all the disciples, each trying to be first, each trying to be the chief disciple, all of them vying for prominence in anticipation of when the kingdom comes to fruition.
The problem is that in spite of everything Jesus has said regarding His death, the disciples still don’t understand what’s going on. Their paradigm of the Messianic Kingdom is so entrenched, that they cannot fathom what Jesus is talking about when He said the grain must fall into the earth in order for it to bear fruit. They can’t seem to get it. So they just discard the parts of Jesus’ teaching that they can’t understand, and persist in their wrong theology. That sounds like a lot of Christians today, I’m afraid. Many people don’t understand the spiritual nature of the kingdom, and they are so entrenched in the prosperity doctrine that they simply discard a lot of what the Bible says in order to maintain their theological predisposition.
So Jesus is there in the Upper Room just hours before His death, and He wants to teach them the true nature of the Kingdom. To do that, He lays His garments aside and girds a towel around His waist and starts to wash the disciples feet. This was the job of the lowliest of the household servants. It was customary in that culture for the servant to wash the feet of people as they entered the house. Contrary to Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, they were not sitting on benches or chairs. They would lie back on pillows around a low table. Actually they would recline on their left sides so that they could eat with their right hand. And consequently, their feet would be near the next guys head. So particularly before a meal, but also just as part of polite hospitality, when you entered the house you would remove your sandals, and these water pots would be near the door. A servant, usually the lowest ranked servant in the house would wash the person’s feet. That was the custom, and it was especially important at dinner.
But this had not been done in the Upper Room. There were no house servants in attendance. So as the disciples are fighting for the choice seats around the table, which were usually determined by rank or importance, Jesus gets up, and starts to wash the disciples feet. Now this was undoubtedly an awkward thing for the disciples. They know that this is not something that He should be doing. He was their Lord, their Rabbi. He was the Messiah. But none of them dared to take His place, for fear of seeming less important than someone else.
And as I said earlier, Jesus is using this to teach them by example what Christian love is. It starts with humility. It starts with putting others needs above your own. And that is what Jesus is illustrating.
When Jesus got to Peter though, he objected. Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” I think that there is an incredulity to Peter’s objection. I think he realizes that this is backwards. Peter knows he should be washing His Master’s feet. But Jesus responds, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.”
What Jesus is saying is that this is an object lesson that is not understood now, but when the Holy Spirit comes, they will understand it. That is the way it is with spiritual truth. We are given the Holy Spirit, Jesus said in John 16:13, to guide us into the truth. He said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” The natural man cannot understand it, so God has given us the Holy Spirit to give us spiritual discernment. 1Cor. 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” Once the Holy Spirit came, then suddenly Peter and the apostles understand the scriptures, and they understand the truth of Christ.
Peter though I believe really loves the Lord. But Peter loved the Lord with a passionate, human love. It was a love based in emotion. And as a result, we see Peter make some critical mistakes. It’s good to have passion, but agape love must be tempered by spiritual discernment. It needs to be based on truth. It’s not enough to be passionate, or to be emotional. But we must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Peter had the passion, but he was missing the truth.1 John 3:18 says “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”
But passionate Peter says, ““Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter *said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” First, he says Jesus will never wash his feet. He knows that is not the proper order of things for the Messiah to wash His disciple’s feet. But when Jesus says, “if I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me,” then suddenly Peter says, “then wash my hands and my head. Wash me all over.” Peter wants fellowship with Christ. So if fellowship is contingent upon washing his feet, then he thinks how much better it must be to be washed all over? But unfortunately, Peter is missing the point.
So Jesus responds, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” Now let’s make sure we understand the significance of what Jesus is saying. When a person in that culture took a bath, it was not located in the bathroom of their house. Houses were not equipped with bathrooms and bathtubs or showers. So it was necessary to often go to a pool or stream or if they were in a village or town, there would often be a bathhouse. After bathing, they would of course be clean. But as they went back to their home, wearing their sandals, their feet would get dirty again. So as we talked about earlier, they needed to have their feet washed upon entering the house.
Now remember, Jesus is teaching to His disciples, who are already saved, who are believers. And the principle He is teaching is this, that when you are saved, you are washed, you are made clean by faith in Jesus Christ. That is a one time cleansing. That salvation is not what is pictured here in this foot washing. What Jesus is picturing is the need for daily cleansing, for daily confession of the sins we commit as we walk through this sordid world. We have been made clean by the blood of the Lamb, the coat of righteousness which belongs to Christ has been given to us in exchange for our sins. But now every day, as I go through this world, I find myself getting dirty, I find that the things I wish to do I don’t do. I sometimes inadvertently sin. Sometimes I might even deliberately sin and then regret it. So every day I need to have my feet washed. If I am going to be in fellowship with Christ, if I am going to be in communion with Christ, and that is not going to be hindered in any way, then I need to confess and be cleansed of my daily sin. I don’t need to be washed all over again from head to toe, but I need the sinful dirt that I pick up in my walk taken care of, so that I might have sweet communion with Jesus.
So Jesus says, If I don’t wash you, then you have no part with Me. What is meant by part? Well in Luke 10:42 when Jesus visits Bethany, Mary and Martha are there in the house, and Mary is sitting at Jesus’s feet listening to Him, and Martha is in the kitchen. And in response to Martha’s complaint about Mary, the Lord speaks regarding the position of the two women. He says, “Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her.” The good part then is to sit at our Lord’s feet in communion with him and to hear his word. So the term “part” there has reference to communion, not to the receiving of life, but the communion in life.
Now how is this principle of foot washing related to Christ-like love? Well, remember how Christ defined love in chapter 14:15, Jesus says, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” And in vs 23 Jesus answered, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” Then in chapter 15:10, He says, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.”
So love is defined as keeping His commandments, and keeping His word, and that results in abiding in His love. Abiding means communion, fellowship, intimacy. So in like manner then, when we sin, we break His commandments, don’t we? And when we sin, then we break communion with God. We break fellowship with God. So it is important that we are cleansed from the sin which so easily besets us, as Paul said, in daily confession of our sins before God.
This principle is extrapolated by John in his later epistle; 1John 1:6-9 which says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The same principle is expounded in 2Cor. 6:14 “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?” Partnership can be translated communion, or fellowship. When we sin, we need to have our fellowship restored. We are saved, we have been washed, but our feet need to be washed so that we might have communion restored with God.
That’s what David prayed to God after his sin with Bathsheba. David said in Psalm 51, “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. ... Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy] free spirit. And then David said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Now David was saved when he sinned against God. David was saved when he sinned with Bathsheba, when he arranged the death of her husband Uriah. But he did not have a right spirit within him, he did not have sweet fellowship with God. Because he knew that he had sinned against God. He needed confession, he needed restoration, that he might have the right communion with God again.
Finally, there is one more application that can be made from this illustration of Jesus washing the feet. It too speaks to the principle of Christ-like love. And this application is made by Jesus himself in vs. 12, Jesus said, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
The application is pretty simple. We are to imitate Christ. Ephesians 5:1 says “be imitators of Christ.” So if you love God, you will love your neighbor as yourself, even as Christ loved us. That was the commandment Christ gave in Matt. 22:37-39 And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’”
Jesus is illustrating in this example how you love your neighbor. We just explained how you love God- you keep His commandments. And now this is the second commandment, you love your neighbor as yourself. You give the same regard to others as you would give to yourself. In fact, Jesus is showing that you give preference to your neighbor. The disciples knew that washing feet was needed, but they didn’t want to have to stoop to wash their neighbors feet. They didn’t want to have to humble themselves to a lower position than the other disciples. But Jesus showed that He was willing to humble Himself and become their servant, so that they might be benefited.
Paul says in Philippians 2:5-8 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Now that is often quoted as a great doctrinal statement on the humility of Christ, but notice that Paul says “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” That is exactly what Jesus is saying here in John 13. As He did for them, so we are to do for one another. The servant is not greater than the Master. And if you call Jesus your Lord, as you should, then you must do what He commands us to do. That is humble ourselves, empty ourselves of pride, of self love, and love the Lord your God with all your heart, keep your heart in constant communion with Him, don’t let any sin stand in your way of fellowship with God. And then love your neighbor the way Christ has loved you. Give up your life, your preferences, your prejudices, for the sake of your brother or sister in the Lord.
And even one more level of love is presented here. Love your enemies. Jesus gave the same treatment to Judas that He gave to the other disciples. Imagine Jesus, knowing that Judas had already plotted to betray Him, and yet Jesus washes Judas’s stinky feet. What humility. What an illustration of what Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matt. 5:43-44)
And then Jesus said in vs.17, "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” I could quote a lot of verses to illustrate this truth, but I will just pick one. In chapter 15:14 Jesus said, "You are My friends if you do what I command you.” That simply means that you will know the love of God. You will know the fellowship with Christ, the joy of your salvation. You will know the sweetness of communion as He abides in you, and you in Him. That is the blessing that comes from loving God and loving your neighbor. That is the blessing from being a servant to the brethren. I will leave you with one last word from Christ in Matthew 20:26, “but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
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