John 13:1-20--Jesus Washes the Disciples' Feet

John 13:1-20
English Standard Version

Jesus Washes the Disciples' Feet
13 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had 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 back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share 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, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

​12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, 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 also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. 18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ 19 I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

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Some time has passed since our last passage which probably happened on Holy Tuesday.  We are now either in the evening of Holy Wednesday or, more likely, Holy Thursday.  There's some variation in various Jewish calendars on which night of the week the Passover Seder that we see being observed here would have been held.  My tendency is to believe that this is Thursday night and that there is simply no account of Wednesday in the Gospel of John.

John makes sure to tell us that at this point Satan had already put it in the heart of Judas to betray Jesus, and yet, Jesus still washes Judas's feet, even though He knew Judas was going to betray Him.  Jesus laid aside His garments and wrapped Himself in a towel and took on the role of the lowest slave in the house that would wash the feet of those who came in.  This offended the disciples because this was not proper for the Rabbi to do since the Rabbi's students should be serving Him, but Jesus told them that if they did not let Him wash their feet, they had no part in Him and that He was giving them an example of how they were to serve each other--each was to think more highly of the others than of himself.  Contrast this with stories in the other gospels about James and John and the others fighting about which of them was the greatest and who was going to sit at Jesus' left hand and who was going to sit at Jesus' right hand.  Even after telling them multiple times that "The last will be first and the first will be last," and "He who wants to be the greatest among you must be a servant to all," Jesus had to do this to make it sink in.  This was one of the last things on His mind and therefore one of the most important lessons He had to teach His disciples--He needed to make sure that they learned it before His death and His ascension.

In typical Simon Peter fashion, Peter goes from the extreme of telling Jesus that he will never let Jesus wash his feet to telling Jesus to wash him all over.  Jesus corrects Peter on both accounts.  We already talked about the first point saying that if they would not let Jesus wash their feet, they had no part in Him, but then Jesus said that Peter didn't need to wash his whole body because he had already bathed.  This is a little cryptic, but we understand it better on this side of the cross.  You only need to be justified once when we will get a "bath" and be cleansed from all our sin, but we're still going to get our feet dirty walking through this sinful world and we will need to regularly help each other wash our feet (sanctification).  This is something that requires a spirit of humility and service.  The one who refuses to participate in sanctification does not truly belong to Jesus.  Sanctification is often something that we can't do ourselves and that we need the help of others to help us see the dirt and help us wash our feet.  It's not a nice job, but it is something we do out of love for each other--which is going to be the overarching lesson Jesus is focused on during The Last Supper--His lover for them and how they should likewise love each other.

​Jesus then makes sure that they understand that He did this in His roles of "Teacher" and "Lord" to leave an example for them to follow.  Since none of them are greater than their Master, and He became a servant to all of them, the lowest and most humble of servants, then they too should do likewise for each other.  Jesus then makes it clear that He knows that not all of them.  While all of them would be blessed if they do this, not all of them will.  He knows which ones belong to Him and exactly which will betray Him.

Jesus says that it is so that Scripture might be fulfilled that Judas would fellowship with Jesus before betraying Him and Jesus says these things in this way so that no one knows it is Judas other than Jesus and Judas until after everything has taken place.  Yet, after everything had occurred it would be obvious that Jesus knew and was talking directly to Judas here--just we see in the other gospels that no one suspected Judas, in fact they all suspected themselves of being the one that might possibly betray Jesus, and they weren't exactly wrong as all of them would desert Jesus and Peter would even deny Jesus three times.

Jesus wraps up this section of teaching with another slightly cryptic message, but I think we also better understand this one on this side of Pentecost.  "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”  While this could be talking about the apostles being sent out by Jesus, I think this has to do with anyone who receives the Holy Spirit who was sent by Jesus to be the Comforter for the Church (we'll see that later in the Gospel of John).  Anyone who receives the Holy Spirit receives Christ as the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ and whoever receives Jesus, the Son of God, receive the Father who sent the Son.  It is for this reason that I think that Jesus is talking about receiving the Holy Spirit because there is a parallel here about how the Father gave the Son and the Son gave the Spirit.  It also makes sense in the context of Jesus talking about who belongs to Him--only those who receive and are sealed by the Holy Spirit belong to Christ and everyone who truly belongs to Him receives the Holy Spirit like an "engagement ring" promising that the wedding is coming one day but showing everyone else that we are taken and that messing with us will mean having to mess with our husband-to-be.  The Holy Spirit is more than that though and is also our Guardian who helps to keep us chaste and pure for our future husband and to protect us and to prepare us for the wedding and to always be ready for the day when the Bridegroom will come for us, as that's the way that it happened in that time.  From the time of the betrothal the groom could return at any time and when he returned, everything needed to be in order for the wedding to start because he was not going to wait for his bride.

We'll talk more about the Last Supper and the final lessons Jesus taught and the institution of what is called The Lord's Supper or the Eucharist over the next few days.