FEET WASHING
John chapter 13 v.1 to 20
The Lord Jesus gave four major discourses. Three are found in the Gospel of Matthew: the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7); the Parables (Matthew 13), telling us about the Kingdom of Heaven; and the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24 and 25).
Now we come to the Upper Room Discourse which is recorded in John 13 to 17, one of the greatest that our Lord ever gave. It is the longest, and in it He speaks about His love for those who belong to Him, how they are to live in Him, the provision in store for them, and the relationship between Him and them.
The scene of most of this discourse was the room arranged beforehand by the Lord to have His last Passover Supper with His disciples. The discourse proper begins after supper and goes on until His arrest in the garden of Gethsemane (chapter 13:31 to the end of chapter 17).
The words concerning the institution of the Lord's Supper are not mentioned in this Gospel. The time would have been the Tuesday evening preceding the feast of the Passover and Preparation for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The Lord had called Judas a devil a year earlier (chapter 6:70-71), and Satan had entered Judas when he offered to betray the Lord to the chief priests and captains (Luke 22:3). Satan had an open door now into the heart of Judas. The Lord knew He would be betrayed by one of his disciples, disowned by another, and deserted by all of them for a time. Still He was prepared to show them how He loved them, in words and action. God knows us just as completely as Christ knew his disciples (John 2:24, 25; 6:64). He knows the sins we have committed and the ones we will yet commit. Still, he loves us.
The Son of God left His glory in heaven, came down to this earth, took upon Himself humanity, and was made in the likeness of a servant. He was the model servant, and he showed his servant attitude to his disciples. Washing guests' feet was a job for a household servant to carry out when guests arrived. But He took off the robe that He was wearing, wrapped a towel around his waist, as the lowliest slave would do, and washed and dried his disciples' feet.
There is a difference here from the anointing of His own feet in Bethany. Feet speak of the walk of a person: He was holy, harmless, and undefiled, so His feet bore the sweet aroma of the spikenard; but the disciples' feet needed washing, and the Lord washed their feet with water (not with blood, for the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, past, present, and future, in one application - Hebrews 10:14).
He knew that His hour had come that He should "depart out of this world." But His ministry would continue after He went back to heaven, through the instrumentality of His disciples and His people. They would continue to walk in this world of sin, and even today He still washes the feet of His disciples, by means of His word (chapter 15:3, Ephesians 5:25-26). Peter was not ready to understand it all, so the Lord told him "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this," by experience, even if slowly.
Peter immediately protested, in humility he thought, that he couldn't allow the Lord to wash his feet, but his attitude amounted to irreverence and want of confidence. The Lord's reply was blunt: if Peter wasn't washed by Him, their fellowship was ended.
Upon this reply, Peter impulsively declared his desire for full fellowship: if its symbol is washing, then he asked that his hands and his head also be washed. The Lord's reply was that anyone who has had a full bath, only needs his feet washed to be clean: between his bath and arrival at the feast a guest would have dirtied his feet, and needed them to be washed on removing the sandals, to be made completely clean again.
In parable, He was teaching that their sins had been cleansed and they had been regenerated through their faith in Him (the bath). When walking through this world, however, they were contaminated and got dirty. They could not have fellowship with Him when dirty, so they needed cleansing (feet washing) in order to restore them to fellowship (Ephesians 5:25-27; 1 John 1:6-7). Judas, however, had never been regenerated and was prepared to betray Him; that is why He said they were not all clean.
He then asked if they understood the meaning of this act, and reminded them that they addressed Him as Rabbi (Master, Teacher), and Lord, another and separate title (never just Jesus). He approved the application of both titles to himself (also my God - chapter 20:28), at the very moment when he rendered this menial, but symbolic, service to them.
Being what He was, He continued, He washed their feet and so gave them an example for them to follow: they must do this (or any other needed service) to one another. It was an object lesson in humility to rebuke their jealousy, pride, and strife exhibited at this very meal, and it applies to all the relations of believers with each other. It is one that is continually needed.
For example, when a brother in Christ falls into sin, he is to be brought back into fellowship by one who is spiritual (Galatians 6:1), not by beating him on the head and criticising him, but by washing his feet: cleansing him with the admonishment of the word of God.
But before we can wash the feet of a brother, we need first to have the Lord of glory wash our feet. We should come to Him every time that we are dirty and be cleansed by Him (Psalm 139:23-24). Continual practice of this brings happiness, not just knowing or occasional doing.
The Lord was very careful to tell them that He was not speaking of all of them. They would be happy if they did these things, but there was one man among them who couldn't do them: he had not believed. Saving, living faith leads to obedience, and that man did not have this faith. He was chosen by the Lord to be one of the twelve, and his forthcoming treachery was known beforehand by Him, but none the less Judas was responsible for his guilt. The Lord quoted from Psalm 41:9: "Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me." The metaphor is that of kicking with the heel or tripping with the heel like a wrestler.
It was a gross breach of hospitality to eat bread with any one and then turn against him so. This man never had a spiritual life, and was like a dog that has returned to its vomit, or a sow that has returned to its wallowing again (2 Peter 2:22). The water of the Word gives us our moral purification in our daily walk, but this is only possible after we are able to stand justified before God on the ground of our faith in the blood of Jesus Christ.
The disciples were forewarned so that when it happened, they would not be shocked, and say it was a pity the Lord didn't know him better. The Lord Jesus is still betrayed by his "friends" inside the church: the sin outside the church doesn't hurt Him, in fact, some of those sinners get saved. The hurt comes when He is betrayed on the inside.
Judas had been sent on missions with the rest of the disciples. He had preached and he had healed. The Lord therefore declared: "he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me." No one is saved by the faith of the messenger or preacher, but by hearing the Word of God and receiving Christ. A message is not invalidated by the bad character of the messenger.
R David Jones
1 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.
18 "I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, 'He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.'
19 "Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He.
20 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me."