Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WASHES HIS DISCIPLES’ FEET”
John 13.1-17
We in the United States are bombarded with challenging imagery of late.
In Dallas, an off duty police officer, a white woman named Amber Guyger, walked through the open door of a Black man’s apartment and shot him to death. His name was Bothan Jean. She was fired from the Dallas Police Department for what she did and subsequently prosecuted and convicted of murder.
In Texas, during the sentencing phase of a criminal prosecution that has returned a guilty verdict, family members are allowed to address the defendant awaiting sentence, the judge, and the open courtroom. When came the time for Bothan Jean’s brother to speak, he expressed his forgiveness to Amber Guyger, and obtained permission from the judge to hug the woman who shot his brother to death. He said he did so because he knew his brother would have wanted him to forgive her.
Some expressed outrage that Brandt Jean, the victim’s brother, would dare to forgive his brother’s killer. Others were astonished, overwhelmed by the young man’s grace and courage, and they praised God for his willingness to forgive the person who took his brother’s life. When he and his brother’s killer embraced in the courtroom, she openly wept. Shortly after that, I am told, the judge who presided over the trial gave the convicted ex-police officer a Bible. Of course, the atheists were outraged. Atheists are always outraged.
Regardless of your position on Bothan Jean’s brother’s forgiveness of his killer, or the judge’s gift of a Bible to the convicted killer, there is one thing no one can deny. Such responses to that kind of criminal wrongdoing, the killing of a young man in his own home, happen only where the Gospel is preached, and the means of grace is available. Can you imagine any similar reaction as Bothan Jean’s brother displayed occurring anywhere else in the world?
Bothan Jean must have been a very impressive young man to have such a brother as would forgive his killer and measure up to his dead brother’s legacy. That, my friends, is the grace of God in action. That is God working in a lad’s life as He obviously and effectively worked in the life of the lad’s now-departed older brother. I am impressed. I am awed. I am humbled. Such a God, and such a Savior, to produce such a man as was Bothan Jean, and to produce such a man as is Brandt Jean.
In His providence, God has brought us through John chapter twelve and to the initial verses of John chapter thirteen today. Against the backdrop of the tragedy in Dallas, with glory rising up from tragedy and heartache, let us learn something of the Savior who affects young men as the Jean brothers were obviously affected.
From the Saturday night before to the Wednesday before our Lord’s Friday crucifixion, the evangelist has recorded for us seven events dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ’s honor, with honor being a key aspect of this important Bible issue referred to as glory. Allow me to refresh our memories of what previously unfolded in John chapter twelve:
The first event recorded in John 12.1-11 was when Mary honored the Lord Jesus by anointing His feet. She likely did so to express her gratitude for the Lord’s raising of her brother, Lazarus, from the dead in John chapter 11.
The second event is an account of the gathered masses honoring the Lord during His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The crowd likely reacted both to the news that the Lord Jesus Christ had given sight to blind Bartimaeus and his friend in Jericho two days earlier, and also the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy when He rode into Jerusalem on the foal of an ass.[1] We find this in verses 12-19.
The third event, found in verses 20-26, is where we read of the Greeks honoring our Lord by seeking an audience with Him in or near the Temple courtyard.
The account of God the Father honoring Him is in verses 27-36, with God’s voice from heaven heard by multitudes. That is the fourth of John’s recorded honor events.
The fifth account, verses 37-41, is the record of the honor paid the Lord Jesus Christ by Old Testament prophets. In Isaiah 6.1-8, we find Isaiah’s vision of Christ high and lifted up, some seven centuries before His incarnation.
Sixth, and necessarily a retrospective account written decades later by John verses 42-43, point out how the Lord Jesus was honored (however imperfectly) by some of the chief rulers in Jerusalem. John also notes that they were cowered, as so many are in similar situations, by the anticipated opposition to Christ of the Pharisees.
Wrapping up the twelfth chapter of John’s Gospel, verses 44-50 is where our Lord Jesus Christ’s assertion of His honor is recorded, the honor bestowed upon Him by His heavenly Father when He commissioned Him by sending Him, by commanding Him, by telling Him what He should say, and how He should speak. He was honored by His Father’s commission and took that Divine commission very seriously.
What I find particularly interesting, in both the actions of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the actions of those beneficially influenced by Him, are not the normal, natural, and expected examples of behavior. To me, it is reasonable that Mary would honor her Lord, that multitudes would honor the King riding into Jerusalem in fulfillment of prophecy, that the Greeks should seek an audience with Him, that His Father would honor Him by audibly responding to His prayer, that some of the chief rulers would harbor secret persuasions about Him, and that He would assert His honor based on His Father’s commission of Him.
Those things make sense to me. Those things are normal. Those things are expected with the certainty that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, who raises the dead, who fulfills centuries-old predictions, whose life and ministry are believable, and whose heavenly Father appropriately honors Him. Those who do not honor Him are the weird ones, the foolish ones, the spiritually blind ones, the insensitive ones, the irrational ones, and the obviously damned ones.
As well, to stand outside a Dallas courtroom and chant “No justice, no peace” is completely understandable to me. That is normal. Seeking revenge is normal. What jars and impresses me is a younger brother standing in front of his beloved and admired brother’s killer and expressing forgiveness. You don’t see that kind of thing in Buddhism, or Hinduism, or Islam, or among the secular humanists. You see that kind of thing only where Christ has been proclaimed.
My text for today is John 13.1-17, where we see the Lord Jesus Christ, after a chapter in which He was normally and appropriately honored, do something that stunned His disciples. Notice how this One who had raised the dead, turned water into wine, walked on water, calmed the storm, cleansed the lepers, gave sight to the blind, healed withered limbs and those stricken with palsy, fed the thousands with but little, and cast out demons, shocked into silence those who over the course of three and one-half years had thought they had seen it all.
Please stand and read along silently as I read aloud:
1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
2 And supper being ended, the devil having now put 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 was come from God, and went to God;
4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.
5 After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
9 Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
11 For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.
12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
Look for the unexpected, the uncharacteristic, the astonishing, the astounding, the jaw-dropping, the profoundly disturbing to your sense of reality. That is what we see in John 13.1-17. It is no accident that John spent the entire twelfth chapter bringing home the propriety of Christ being honored, and then suddenly recounting the Savior, the One commissioned by His heavenly Father to represent Him among men, the One born King of the Jews, washing twelve men’s dirty feet.
From showing Him honored by some, and taking some note of those who refused to honor this One who deserved all honor and praise, we are now shown the One who was honored by God, honored by His true disciples, and even honored in some small way by those who were not His disciples, John provides us with the most telling example of Christ’s condescension yet seen during His earthly ministry.
For a passage this long, you will excuse me if we must proceed through the verses in a somewhat superficial fashion for the constraint of time, to take note of four reasons why the Lord Jesus Christ, on Thursday, did what seems to be so opposite those things occurring Saturday evening through Wednesday. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ wash the disciples’ feet?
Before we address that question, allow me to ask two other questions of significance. First, if the communion service is as important as the Roman Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, and the Lutherans claim it to be, why is there no direct reference to it in John’s Gospel? Second, if the communion service is as important as the Roman Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, and the Lutherans claim that it is, why did the Lord Jesus Christ not invite His mother Mary, His half brothers, or His friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus to join Him in the communion of the Lord’s Supper?
The Lord Jesus Christ did not invite His beloved mother, siblings, and friends to this meal because it was of no significance to the saving of their eternal and undying souls. Had they needed the communion service as a saving sacrament, He most certainly would have invited them to participate. As well, if the Lord’s Supper were important in the way the liturgy-oriented denominations claim that it is mention of it would not have been left from the passage before us.
The communion of the Lord’s Supper is a memorial, a teaching ordinance, and not a saving ordinance. Is the communion service a means of grace? Yes, but not a means of saving grace. Rather, the Lord’s Supper is a means of teaching, encouraging, and consecrating grace to people whose sins are forgiven and who are already members of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Now we turn to our text and the four reasons why the Lord Jesus Christ washed His twelve disciples’ feet:
First, TO SHOW THEM HIS LOVE FOR THEM
1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
2 And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him.
Methinks this is the apostle’s summation of the entire episode dealt with in our text. Verse one anticipates the Passover meal and the communion of the Lord’s Supper that was instituted at the conclusion of the Passover meal. Verse two wraps up the events in the Upper Room, with mention made of the Devil’s capture of Judas Iscariot’s heart to betray the Son of God.
That said, what is impressed upon the readers by John? At the approach of Christ’s passion, calling attention to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world (by becoming our Sin Bearer and suffering the death of the cross)? That He loved His own who were in the world and that He loved them to the end.
Imagine someone you know facing imminent execution for crimes he did not commit, preceded by unspeakable torture. Would such a person’s focus be entirely on others as the Savior’s was? Even as He hung from the cross He ministered to the one thief with faith[2], the needs of His mother Mary[3], and beseeched God to forgive them all because they knew not what they did.[4]
Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ loved His own. The washing of their feet was the greatest demonstration of His love for those men they had ever beheld until He died on the cross for them. He would say after they left the Upper Room,
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,”
John 15.13. He washed those men’s dirty feet because He loved them.
Next, TO DISPLAY FOR THEM HIS HUMILITY
3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;
4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.
5 After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
It is in Philippians 2.5-8 that the Apostle Paul declares God’s will for believers in Jesus Christ:
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
God wants His people to be humble. So important to God is the humility of His own that He promises to resist those who are not humble, in James 4.6 and First Peter 5.5:
“God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”
Why is God so concerned with humility? Two reasons: First, humility is God-like. The Lord Jesus Christ is eternally humble in His submission to the First Person of the Godhead, God the Father.[5] It has always been so. To cultivate pride and to encourage pride in others is a losing proposition. The lake of fire was created for the proudest being who ever lived.[6] Second, God seeks to elevate the status and position of those who are His own, but He desires that only He receive the glory for our elevation in status and position.[7] The recognition of God’s role in our exaltation is attested to by those who are humble.
Notice that the Savior never asks of anyone what He was not first willing to do Himself. And what He did by washing the disciples’ feet was the most telling display of humility they had ever seen, yet it was eclipsed by the Savior’s willingness to die for others on the cross less than one day later.
Imagine the King of glory, who came from God and would go to God, and to whom everything had been given, stripping to His underwear for those men, then washing off their dirty feet and wiping their feet dry, in the performance of a task that no self-respecting Jewish person would conceive of any other self-respecting Jewish person doing.
The Apostle John did not inform his readers, because he did not have to inform his readers, of the stunned silence of the twelve as they observed their Lord’s actions. They had to be openmouthed in shock and amazement that their Master would stoop to doing such a thing. Yet He did, thereby showing that if the Son of God thinks it is not too demeaning to perform the most menial tasks in service to God and others, then there is no task in service to God or God’s people that is too demeaning. He washed those men’s dirty feet in a display of His humility.
Third, TO PRESS UPON THEM THEIR NEED FOR ONGOING SPIRITUAL CLEANSING
6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
9 Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
11 For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.
In verse 6 we see Peter’s question: “Lord, dost thou wash my feet?” While the others sit in stunned silence, Peter must speak out when the Savior approaches to wash his feet. Neither Peter nor the others have any idea what the Savior is about.
The Savior’s response, in verse 7, is to point out to Peter and the others that they do not presently know what He is about, but they will.
To this, Peter protests, verse 8: “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” It is at this point that we begin to recognize that what the Savior is doing is illustrating the progressive sanctification of the believer, the need for ongoing cleansing in the Christian’s life. However, Peter still does not understand that ongoing cleansing is not an option, but is intrinsic to a relationship with Christ, the second half of verse 8: “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.” That is something many do not grasp to this day.
Still failing to understand the implications of the Lord’s foot-washing, Peter asks for his hands and head to be washed in verse 9.
But that would spoil the illustration, don’t you see? The Savior’s imagery is to show the ongoing cleansing in the daily life of someone who has already been thoroughly cleansed, verse 10. The imagery is of sanctification, consecration, not salvation.
John’s conclusion to these six verses is another retrospective observation in verse 11. He knew who would betray Him. That is why He said, “Ye are not all clean.” He washed those men’s dirty feet to show them (except for Judas, of course) that despite being thoroughly cleansed, they had need of ongoing cleansing to address the defilement that results from a life lived after conversion and before glorification. Every believer needs ongoing cleansing. That is a third reason He washed their feet.
Finally, TO SET FOR THEM AN EXAMPLE
12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
He declares as much in verse 15:
“For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.”
The question is, what kind of an example this is? Is this an example to follow as an ordinance, like baptism or the communion of the Lord’s Supper? The Plymouth Brethren engage in ritual foot-washing because they are persuaded the Lord Jesus Christ set this example so His disciples would explicitly do likewise. Really? Did the Lord Jesus Christ establish two Church ordinances in that Upper Room, with foot washing being an ordinance that is never again referred to in the Bible?
A better conclusion is that the Lord Jesus Christ used a single instance of foot washing to teach the universal principle that He modeled to them. He calls attention to the universal principle by using the words “verily, verily” in verse 16, before stating the principle:
“The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.”
Who are the servants in the Upper Room? The apostles. The Savior explicitly reminds them that they are not better than He is. Therefore, if He can do a menial task in service to God, they can do a menial task in service to God. It is a lesson they would never forget. The Savior then reassures His men:
“If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”
What an example He set for them by washing their feet.
You are aware that there are still thirteen men in that Upper Room. Judas Iscariot has not yet left to complete his plans to betray the Savior. Thus, Judas Iscariot experienced the love of the Savior for those men. His feet were washed, just like the others. We know he was there because it was to him the Savior was referring when He said, “and ye are clean, but not all,” in verse 10 and “Ye are not all clean,” in verse 11. But showing Judas love, displaying to Judas humility, setting before him the need for cleansing, and showing to him a wonderful example to follow, had no effect on him at all. We know this because the apostle told us in verse 2 that “the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him.” That explains Judas Iscariot’s immunity to the greatest display of love and humility ever before seen, to be surpassed only by Christ’s crucifixion. His heart was gone.
Perhaps your heart is not yet gone. Maybe you are impressed by the Savior’s love for you, and His humility. That He was willing to wash their dirty feet shows how far He was willing to go for them, and for you. Of course, less than a day later, He would show so much more, by actually dying on the cross of Calvary an atonement for sins.
Are you here without Christ? Understand, you need a Savior, and He is the only Savior of sinful people’s souls. Won’t you trust Christ as your Savior? How about you and I talk about it?
Turning to you who know Christ, there is a great deal in this passage for us. We see our Lord’s love. We see our Lord’s humility. We appreciate His strong lesson on the need for believers to be continually cleansed. And we see the principle showing that we are not better than He is, and what He was willing to do to serve God and others we should be will to do to serve God and others.
What needs to be done, my Christian friend? What decision needs to be made? What step needs to be taken? What out of the ordinary, inexplicable, but for God working in your life, conduct will you be called upon to exhibit to give God glory and to see Christ honored?
__________
[1] Zechariah 9.9
[2] Luke 23.42-43
[3] John 19.26-27
[4] Luke 23.34
[5] 1 Corinthians 11.3
[6] Isaiah 14.12-15; Matthew 25.41
[7] Proverbs 15.33; 18.12; James 4.10
Question? Comment?
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