Full Transcript

To those of you who are joining us for the first time, welcome to Share the Word, a Great Commission project that we feel is the best way to learn your way through the New Testament one chapter at a time. And for all of you that have made Share the Word a part of your day and spiritual life, thank you. Well, let’s just jump right into today’s lesson. The job nobody wanted, John chapter 13. Tell me, what’s the worst job you ever found yourself having to do? There are certain jobs no right-thinking person wants to do.

Let me break a cardinal rule today and out myself as a very bad example on this point. At the first church I was the pastor, I doubled as the youth pastor too. I was only in my mid-twenties. Every summer, some of the younger pastors in that area who were friends of mine organized a summer camp for teens. We rented out a facility, put together our own staff from our churches, thought up our own activities, bought our own groceries. We did the whole thing.

I really loved that summer camp experience because I myself had grown up every summer at a summer camp. It’s a great way to strip away all the distractions, and if it’s a Christian camp, a great time to think about our relationship with God. But also, we had a lot of fun. My pastor buddies and I looked forward to going more than the kids did, I think. For a week anyway, we were still kids again, not just pastors. We were four guys acting like teenagers again.

The most difficult part of pulling that camp together, I remember, was getting enough qualified counselors. I remember one summer in particular, we were really scraping the bottom of the barrel for people we trusted to be counselors in the cabins. And to make matters worse, when we arrived at the camp that week, all coming from different directions, we learned that one of the college boys we were counting on to be a counselor just decided not to show up. So now we had a cabin full of teenage boys with no counselor. My friends, the other three pastor guys and I, we convened an impromptu meeting. We weighed the option of just letting the boys run wild for a week with no counselor in their cabin.

We ruled that out. One of us was going to have to spend the week sleeping in the junior high boys’ cabin and being their counselor. Talk about the job nobody wanted. In retrospect, I realized the Christ-like thing would have been for me to volunteer. Next to that, at least the fair thing would have been to draw straws for it. But, and I’m ashamed to say this, I didn’t do either one of those things.

I pushed my weight around a little bit and managed to pressure one of the other guys into doing that counselor job. I had too many important responsibilities overseeing the program to do that too, I convinced them. That power move, by the way, really strained our friendship that week and put a damper on that whole week for everybody. Would it make me look any better if I told you this happened like 40 years ago? Travel back in your minds, if you can, to the Last Supper. We all have visions and images of what that is probably like if we’re Christians or if we’ve ever read the Bible.

When we come to John chapter 13, that’s where we are. John has now brought us to the last night Jesus spent with his disciples before he went to the cross. And how symbolically appropriate it is that Jesus and the twelve were together that night somewhere in an upper room in Jerusalem commemorating Passover. This was Thursday evening of the week we call Passion Week. The men were reclining around the low table. They were eating the bitter herbs, symbolic of Israel’s bitter years in Egyptian bondage centuries before.

The Paschal lamb was being eaten, reminding them of the night God set their forefathers free from Pharaoh by putting the blood of the lamb over the doorposts and lintels of their homes. As they ate together that night, like Jews everywhere, they retold the story of the death angel, the blood of the lamb on the doorposts, the harrowing escape from Egyptian bondage that we read about in Exodus chapter 12 in the Old Testament. That night, Jesus knew precisely what time it was now on God’s clock. He was fully cognizant of who he was and what he’d come to do. He was completely aware of Satan’s scheme and Judas’ part in it. The shadow of the cross was already falling over him, and he could feel its dark heaviness.

John writes at the beginning of this chapter that everything, though, was in Jesus’ hands. Think about that. He was not being dragged toward his arrest, his torture, his coming death like a helpless victim of unjust circumstances. John says that even now, even here, everything was in Jesus’ hands. He understood what was set up to transpire, and he was choosing to go forward with it to, as John beautifully puts it, now show them the full extent of his love. But in the upper room that night, Jesus alone knew these things.

Judas had some idea of what was going to happen next, but very twisted ideas. The others around the table with them were largely oblivious. Peter and John, by the way, were actually the hosts for the evening. Jesus had sent them ahead earlier in the day to make the preparations for the Passover. To purchase the sacrificial lamb at the temple, to ready everything for the seder. And they had taken care of everything.

Well, almost everything. There was the matter of the job nobody wanted. It was customary in that culture, on such an occasion especially, for the host, or the servants of the host, to remove the sandals of all the arriving guests and wash their feet before they entered the home. It wasn’t just a matter of cleaning off dirt. It was a ceremonial kind of cleansing. But Peter and John, who that night were acting as the host, had no servants, and they weren’t about to stoop to this humblest of tasks themselves.

Why should they? Weren’t they the most important of the disciples? As Jesus and the others arrived, an argument apparently erupted. We learn this from a parallel account in Luke chapter 22. It says there the disciples were actually arguing over which of them should be considered the greatest. Imagine.

I have to believe that question of who exactly should be doing the foot washing set that argument off. After all, who should have gotten down on their hands and knees and washed the others’ feet? Whoever was low man on the totem pole, that’s who. An argument about that at such a time as this seems incredibly petty, doesn’t it? Foolish from our vantage point now. But remember, these men didn’t realize the lateness of the hour.

They didn’t realize then, in a few short hours, Judas would leave this gathering to seal his bargain to betray Jesus to the enemies on the high council. They didn’t know then, in a few short hours, leaving Jerusalem for Gethsemane. For a band of soldiers with priests and torches ablaze would arrest Jesus while they fled into the night. They didn’t realize that in a few short hours, the earthly ministry of Jesus would come to a sudden, abrupt, and brutal end. Yet his disciples were wasting this precious time arguing about which of them was more important and who should avoid and who should be responsible for doing this job nobody wanted.

John was reclining nearest to Jesus, probably amused at the spectacle going on in the room, and I imagine Peter, his voice characteristically, could be heard above the rest as he said, After all the effort that I’ve gone through to make preparations for this evening, and on top of that, anyone thinks I’m going to wash their feet? Someone was probably egging him on too. Only Judas was strangely silent. And then it was in the midst of this almost surreal scene that Jesus arose unnoticed, took off his outer garment, wrapped himself with a towel around his waist. He had a bowl of water and a towel, and he stooped at the feet of the nearest disciple, and he removed his sandals and washed his feet, drying them with a towel. Can you even imagine the embarrassed hush that came over that room as the Son of God moved from one man to the next, washing and drying their feet?

The question of who was the greatest suddenly evaporated. There was no doubt about who was the greatest. The one on his knees was obviously the greatest. You know, Jesus did that for a purpose, of course, and I’m sure they never forgot it. Jesus didn’t just tell them, he showed them how in his kingdom, among those who call him Lord, worldly values should be turned upside down. Among those who call themselves Christians, there’s no higher role than servant.

It’s not about power plays. Husbands are to honor and put their wives’ needs before their own. Employers are to respect and treat their employees as their equals. Church leaders among their congregations should live and act as servants, not lords over them. Servanthood is the mindset of those who are at the top of God’s status ladder, which means those who enjoy pushing their weight around and see the grungy jobs as beneath them are at the bottom. This, you see, is why Jesus is at the very top, because no one has ever actually been so high who was willing to stoop so low.

If you want to assess just where you are with this, remember, servanthood begins where gratitude and applause end. You can tell whether you’re becoming a servant by how you act when people treat you like one. This night, Jesus also seized the opportunity to teach these men another vital lesson beyond the obvious one about humility, although they needed that one, as we all certainly do. That one didn’t even need words because his actions, his example, spoke volumes. But he taught them through this episode another important spiritual truth about cleansing. The washing of their feet provided a perfect object lesson about spiritual cleansing.

One by one, the sheepish disciples allowed, with no real eagerness, the Lord to wash their dirty feet. The embarrassed silence only broken by the quiet splashing of the water, until Jesus came to Peter. The one who was usually the loudest was now naturally the most chagrined and the most reluctant. Peter pulled his feet back toward himself. Lord, what are you doing washing my feet? Jesus responded, What I’m doing you can’t understand right now, but you will by and by.

He reached for Peter’s sandal strap. No, Lord, you’ll never wash my feet. But Jesus said, If I don’t wash you, Peter, you will have no part with me. What was he saying to Peter? He was saying that if he wanted to be in an ongoing spiritual relationship with him, a good spiritual relationship with him, he needed to stay spiritually clean. Peter didn’t fully understand what Jesus meant, so he reacted, Then don’t just wash my feet, wash my hands, wash my head.

He desperately wanted to feel close to Jesus, to feel like he was a devoted follower of Jesus. But Jesus had to clarify something for him that we probably need some clarification on too. He said in verse 10, A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet and is completely clean. That’s important. Listen. He’s saying that when someone comes to him in sincere faith, receiving him as their Savior and their leader, they are made clean in God’s eyes.

They are bathed all over, in Jesus’ terms here in this lesson. God takes us who are dirty with sin and guilty before his eyes. He thoroughly washes us. He makes us clean. He makes us holy. He makes us acceptable to him.

It says in Titus chapter 3, verse 5, This is the washing of regeneration, a renewal that God does for us. Those of us who have come to Christ in faith, when we made that decision, God gave us a good bath, spiritually speaking. Everything that made us unacceptable to Him before was washed away. We were cleaned up. We were clothed in Christ’s righteousness. That’s the bath that Jesus is referring to here.

You may be thinking, but after we receive Jesus, we still sin, don’t we? We still fall short of God’s expectations, right? We’re supposed to follow in His footsteps and walk as He walked, but frequently we do get off that path and soon find ourselves trudging back into some kind of sin or another. When we do, we get our spiritual feet dirty, to return to Jesus’ example. Trudging around in this world, as messed up as our world is, makes it almost impossible not to get our feet dirty, doesn’t it? You know, God knows my besetting sins and the besetting sins of each person listening to me now, just as Jesus knew the besetting sins of the men in that room.

He knew their pride. He knew their rivalry. Some things are obvious, but He also saw the less obvious. He knew what was going on in everybody’s mind. He knew the greed in some of them, the lust in some of them, the jealousy in some of them. Whatever their besetting sins were, the things that each of them struggled with personally, the things that clung to them like dust will cling to sweaty, dirty feet.

And what He was saying through this object lesson was, I just want to wash you every now and again. I want to clean you every now and again to keep you right with Me. The health of our ongoing relationship will depend on this spiritual cleansing. Sometimes Christians, especially newer believers, get confused about this area when they sin or even just fall short of their own expectations. They wonder if God is looking at them and is ready to reject them. They feel guilty inside, and they wonder how their sin now affects their relationship with God.

This passage is an important one to remember. Jesus told Peter, You’ve already been bathed, Peter. You don’t need to do that again. But what you do need to do is to let me wash your feet. This upper room experience was no doubt still fresh in John’s mind when many years later he penned these words in his first epistle. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we will have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all of our sins.

If we say that we have no sin, we’ve deceived ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful, he is just, he’ll forgive our sins and keep us cleansed from all unrighteousness. So what Jesus was teaching his disciples that night through this object lesson was that we all need, we’re followers of Christ, to regularly confess our sins and receive God’s forgiveness and cleansing. That’s the washing of our feet that he was explaining to them. But Jesus said more than that here. Look at verses 14 and 15.

He said to his disciples, Now I want you to do for one another what I have done for you. If I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s. We not only need to treat each other with humility and be willing to be servants, we also need the help of others to stay clean before God. If you think you can be who you need to be without the help of others, you’re deceived. We each have problem areas of our life. We need others to challenge us in.

This is one reason God designed the church, by the way, and this is why churches that are doing their job encourage people to get into honest personal relationships with other believers, like in small groups or in discipleship or in some kind of accountability relationship. The more we avoid being around other Christians or avoid being in situations where we are accountable and someone is willing to challenge us, the easier it is to stay dirty. God wants us to keep clean. He wants us to rise above sinful life patterns, and He wants us to help each other do that. This was Jesus’ further point to Peter and to the others, all the others except one.

When Jesus said to Peter, Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet and their whole body is clean, I wonder if it’s then when He looked up for a moment, His eyes met Judas when He added, And you are all clean, though not every one of you. John tells us, for He knew the one that was going to betray Him. That’s why He said, Not all of you are clean. The foot washing ritual continued as Jesus moved from one disciple to the next, but He must have eventually knelt before Judas. The two of them alone understood the significance of that encounter. Judas had already rejected Him.

He had already betrayed Jesus to His enemies. He alone of the men in this room had never been bathed in the sense Jesus was talking about. He had been following Jesus for selfish reasons. He was among the disciples, but he had never accepted Jesus for who He really was. Judas was still in his sins. Yet even at this late hour, Jesus was kneeling before Judas as he washed these men’s feet one after another.

Can you imagine that? I don’t think I have the words in my vocabulary to convey what must have transpired between those two men in those couple moments. I doubt any words were exchanged. No words were necessary. But even at this late hour, Jesus could forgive and cleanse Judas as easily as he washed his feet. But Judas sat nervously through this.

He only wished Jesus would quickly hurry up and move on to someone else. When I read this passage, I can’t help but imagine being in that room that night. Jesus has a towel in his hand. He is carrying that basin of water. He is almost to me. What if you were there and you were next?

Jesus wants to wash us, keep us clean. He’s not looking to condemn us. We don’t have to be afraid of him. If you’ve been born into God’s family by faith in Jesus, he just wants to cleanse us of anything that is blocking our fellowship with God. If the Holy Spirit points out things in your life that are not clean, any areas where you are not right with God, any degree to which you have been wandering away from things you know that God wants for your life, then Christ is asking us to seek God’s forgiveness, to allow him to wash us clean. He asks us to confess that as sin and let him cleanse us.

Determine before God that you’re going to make the changes that need to be made going forward. And remember, don’t struggle with things alone. If you’re serious about living for Christ, also involve a team of Christian friends around you that will help wash your feet, so to speak. As Jesus did this night for his disciples, we all need that to be sincere followers of Christ. Until next time, this is Paul for Share the Word. If you’re enjoying these commentaries on the Gospel of John, please help us Share the Word by passing along the podcast to your friends and family.

There’s no better way to learn the content of the New Testament than chapter by chapter. For more information, visit us at sharetheword.org. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.