There is an amazing and famous scene from the book of John where Jesus washes the disciples feet at the Last Supper the night before His crucifixion. I want to look at that portion in John 13:1-17 today as I have studied it more closely than I usually do and am excited to share what I’ve found. Here we go!
John 13:1 immediately gives us a clue about the rest of this section. It states, “Now before the feast of 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.” Well, Jesus is just before “the end,” so this line is saying: what Jesus is about to do is an expression of Him loving His own to the end. Washing their feet is a picture of His love.
Then, it says that after supper had ended and the devil had already put it in Judas’ heart to betray Him, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.” Jesus knew what was about to happen later that night when He was arrested. He knew the measure of authority He walked in. In this act of washing their feet, He was prefiguring His cross and picturing the whole of His ministry in earth for the disciples and all future readers of scripture to understand His mission in this world.
Within less than a day, He would again “lay aside His garments” by allowing them to be stripped by Romans and to again be “girded with a towel.” Where foot washing in His day was seen as a humiliating act, we see that within less than a day, He would once more submit Himself in obedience to the Father and humble His absolute glory to the uttermost by silently allowing Roman soldiers to humiliate Him and mock Him and strike and spit on Him and pull His beard. Not remotely being required to suffer pain as ruling King of heaven, He allowed them to scourge Him and crucify Him as a criminal that He wasn’t. Isaiah called it a “perversion of justice.” Paul said in Philippians 2:8, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross! Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.”
In John 3, Jesus said He would draw all men to Himself when He is lifted up (on the cross). In ultimately abasing Himself Jesus was lifted up high from the cross to the throne. Prefiguring this in washing the disciple’s feet, Jesus ultimately lowered Himself kneeling at their feet, showing that this culturally humiliating act that only a servant or slave would traditionally perform, was the extent and nature of humility and service He was revealing about His character as their Maker—He is humble and lowly and expects as much from His people. Matthew 11:29-30 says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” When we walk in God’s will and example, we rest in His peace and carry His blessing and favor. In this way, we walk with a clear conscience with His Spirit abiding. We carry no heavy burden of guilt or consequence of sin and pride.
One other interesting note is that Jesus “girded” the towel around His waist. In His times, the act of “girding your loins” describes someone pulling up the hem of their robe and tucking it between their legs and securely tying it at their waist to free up their legs for fast action, such as in a battle. When we humble ourselves and serve as a slave our brethren, girding our loins, we are not just serving in this world, we are actually preparing for spiritual battle in the spirit realm! We fight off the devil’s schemes in this way as the devil loves to use pride to destroy us and those around us.
This idea of kneeling at one another’s feet completely reverses those of the time. Jesus was preparing a peculiar people to demonstrate God’s wisdom to the world. In Mark 10:42-45, Jesus spoke to His disciples saying, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
In Jesus’ day and through the Old Testament, foot washing was an act of hospitality. Normally, the host would provide the water and basin and the guest would wash their own feet, as Abraham did in Genesis 18:4 with the three “men” or heavenly messengers that visited him and Joseph did with his brothers in Genesis 43:24. If anyone else washed the guest’s feet, it would be a servant or slave. In 1 Samuel 25:41, in a sign of her complete humble submission, Abigail bowed her face to the ground and said to King David after he sent for her to be his wife, “I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” For Jesus, Lord and Master, to kneel before His own disciples was a complete reversal of roles. Just like He said in Mark, He did not lord His Lordship over them, but rather became not only their slave, but also their ransom by laying down His life.
This act was so radical and perplexing that the next verse shows that Peter was shocked, stating, “Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, are you washing my feet?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.’” Jesus still had yet to teach them the full principle of this act. He was just about to share important truths after this in the discourse in John 15. We have the benefit of this knowledge laid out before us—how blessed are we!
So Peter says in astonished reverence, “You shall never wash my feet!” Then Jesus says something striking: “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” To have no part in Jesus, is to refuse His humble offering in His sacrifice for our sins. When we allow Jesus to kneel before us and wash our feet, we are willing to receive the humble offer of His blood on our behalf, to receive the words of truth He spoke in His life and through the scripture. We take His humility to heart and receive Him as our Lord and let Him cleanse us from our sin in the only way possible: by His own hands. In this way, we can have our part in Him.
Well, Peter becomes excited at this truth. If not being washed means I have no part, then by all means wash all of me! Peter then says, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Peter’s heart is in the right place. He longs to revere His Lord and Master. He longs to share in His part and to be with Him. But he lacks understanding. Isn’t it interesting how much we benefit from his lack of understanding? This lack prompts Jesus to reveal truth not only to him, but also to us!
So then Jesus says 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.” This last line was referring to Judas, which is the subject of a different post. First, what did Jesus mean that Peter was clean and need only wash his feet? A little later in John 15, Jesus teaches in verses 1-5, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. *You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.* Remain in Me, as I also remain in you… I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” They are clean because of the word Jesus spoke—His teaching of truth to them. Understanding truth cleanses them of lies and blindness. We too are cleansed by hearing and receiving the words of God. Thus, we need only wash our feet.
In Jesus day, people wore sandals through the dusty and animal filled roads of Judea. Their feet became dirty physically; but, their feet and our feet become spiritually “dirty” as we walk this dusty, sinful, broken path through this fallen world. When someone is “dirty” with sin against us and humbles himself and asks our forgiveness, we are willing to kneel and “humiliate” ourselves and wash his feet of his sin and forgive him in our obedience to Christ. Forgiving was not necessarily common in that day and was sometimes seen as self-abasing. Peter famously asked Jesus how many times to forgive his brother in one day, seven? Jesus told him, not seven, but seventy times seven times!
Aside from forgiving, we also cleanse each other by helping to sanctify each other and hold one another accountable to God. In humility, we choose to be brothers and sisters who speak truth in love, rather than watching a brother continue in sin. We humble ourselves and take the log from our own eye first before criticizing our brother’s ways. In all these ways we kneel at the feet of one another in loving service. Galatians 6:1-2 says, “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
Although we are all one in Christ and there is no division or rank, we are not called to be “equals” in a sense as we are called to humble ourselves before each other and consider others as better than ourselves. Salvation is only a partnership of equals when brethren are servants and slaves to one another, united in the equality of humility and love. We see Jesus confirm this in the final verses 12-17, when He says to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 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. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”
We are now those who “know these things,” blessed as we are to have the Word of God to learn and know Him. He has revealed so much to us in this short section of scripture and in this holy work He did. Let us take note of the lessons He revealed. Let us have our part in Him and receive His humble cleansing of our sins through His cross. Let us allow Jesus to wash our dirty feet. Let us become clean other than our feet by hearing His words in the Bible and abiding in the vine, apart from whom we can do nothing. Let us wash our feet and each other’s feet in humility, repentance, and forgiveness. Let us help to sanctify one another and bear each other’s burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ. Let us be those peculiar people that belong to Jesus and turn the world’s system of authority and pride on its head. Let us become great in becoming the servant and slave of all. Our Lord became our ransom. Let us, too, lay down our lives for Him and for each other. Thank You, God, for showing us that Your glory is humble. Thank You for Your example and sacrifice! Amen.