“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.”
John 13:1-2 (NIV)
Jesus usually taught parables through a message or a talk. But these verses are a parable in action–it begins with Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. This is the beginning of Jesus’ longest and final training of the disciples, as one day later–Jesus will be crucified.
This simple action was both remarkable and strange in lots of ways. This scripture in John 13 gives us great insights into Jesus and who He is.
In these two verses, John gives us about two major insights we receive about who Jesus is:
JESUS’ UNCHANGING LOVE FOR HIS DISCIPLES
Jesus got up from the table, took off His outer clothing, put a towel around His waist, poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciple’s feet. The washing is a symbol/picture. Of what?
What Jesus does here in John 13 is socially jarring but also offensive to those who were there. They lived in a hot, dry climate and people wore sandals. You go to a great meal and you have these dirty, dusty, smelly feet and so feet were washed before a meal. Who washed the feet? Slaves. And not even the high-ranking slaves did that, there were all ranks of slaves and only the lowest of the low did this. It was menial and offensive to have to do this washing of feet.
But it’s not just that—the host of the meal would never wash feet, and certainly not the guest of honor, a great teacher would never wash feet. But Jesus is deliberately doing this.
It is amazing that Jesus is not thinking of Himself, even though He knows that He is rapidly approaching the cross which has been His mission that He has been living for. Instead, His thoughts are still on His disciples. He trains them, teaches them, and shows compassion and love and concern for them to the end.
JESUS’ HONESTY AND REALITY THAT REMOVES ALL PRETENSE
The act of foot washing is a picture of the truth that is in Jesus, of the heart to strip away all hypocrisy and pretense, and reveals things exactly the way they are. In the dramatic act of foot washing where Jesus stoops down to wash the feet of Judas and all the other disciples, we see the manifestation of the honesty of God, that reality and light that exposes all hypocrisy, shows Judas’ heart and what is happening to him.
Jesus is moved to do all this because of His awareness of His own authority. The Father gave all things into His hands–Jesus knew that. He knew who He was, He knew He had come from God, and He knew He was going to God. And based on His identity and authority, Jesus spoke direct words to Judas, exposing his plan and where he was headed.
The Bible gives us this amazing picture–the commitment of unconditional love that Jesus has for all the disciples–even Judas.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
John 13:13-15 (NIV)
We should be loving and kind to people who oppose us. It seems like in our world today we think you should be tolerant of everybody but intolerant people. And Jesus washed the feet not of an intolerant person but of someone who is trying to kill Him. As followers of Christ we should take the lead on this path.
We should follow Jesus’ model of greatness. Jesus in His teaching showed us the true definition of greatness. Is it the number of people that serve you? Is it power? Is it wealth? Is it the number of cars you drive? Is it the number of people that serve you or the number of people that you serve? In John 13, Jesus served in a humble, almost demeaning way.
Jesus is going to save the world by becoming weak, by serving, by losing His power, by being beaten up and killed and tortured. The Christian understanding of greatness is: The way up is down, the way to influence and power is to serve, and the way to find true happiness is to seek the happiness of others.
