Washing His Disciples’ Feet

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. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, 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 back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist. 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. He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, “Lord, do you wash My feet?” Jesus answered Him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 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.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 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.” For He knew who was to betray Him; that was why He said, “Not all of you are clean.”

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? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, 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 also should do just as I have done to you. 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."

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. 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.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am He. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives the One who sent Me.”

John 13:1-20

The Apostle John is the only one of the Gospel writers to include the story of Jesus washing His disciples' feet on the eve of His crucifixion. How grateful I am for this intimate picture of Jesus humbling Himself to bend down and wash twelve pairs of dusty feet and then to wipe them dry. As the passage tells us, Jesus, having loved His own, loved them to the end.

Jesus and His disciples had just finished a wonderful Passover meal and were leaning back, enjoying one another’s company. Jesus knew that in a few short hours, Judas would betray Him, Peter would deny Him, and all of the others except John would desert Him at the time of His greatest need. Yet Jesus, knowing His hour had come, gave them an object lesson they could not then understand. 

To see their Lord and Teacher condescend to wash one another’s feet must have been shocking. I imagine all side conversations stopped and that no one uttered a word as Jesus scrubbed each pair of dirty toes and cracked heels. It is likely that the only sound heard in that room was that of a basin scooting across the floor, water sloshing and dripping, and feet being dried on muslin cloth, that is, until Peter’s turn came. Impetuous Peter told Jesus, “You shall never wash my feet.”  Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with Me”. Peter lined up quickly and responded to Jesus by asking Him to wash all of him. 

The act of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples pointed to another washing …. being cleansed not by water in a basin, but by the blood of Jesus Himself, the Lamb of God, who was to be sacrificed the very next day. As Jesus promised, the disciples would later understand how necessary this washing was. To be washed by the blood of the Lamb was the only way to be cleansed of all of sin’s consequences forever. And so it is with each one of us! It is necessary for all who believe in Jesus to be washed by His blood shed for us on the cross … the blood of the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” There is no other way to be saved.

This humble and loving act by our Lord, which was something that the disciples had not done for one another, was also intended to be an example of serving others rather than being served. Jesus had spoken of sacrificial service before, when the mother of James and John asked that her sons be given prestigious positions in the Kingdom she thought was coming. Jesus told her that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Washing their feet was a picture lesson of serving others, and Jesus told His disciples to follow His example. So today, we who are Jesus’ disciples must also ask ourselves, “How do we apply this passage to our lives?” How should we live our lives in view of Christ Jesus’ example of humble, self-sacrificing love? I don’t know about you, but I find this a difficult passage to integrate into my everyday life. 

I was recently blessed with the gift of this kind of Christlike love at work in our church family. A woman in our church, whom I did not know well, attended my Mom’s memorial service 50 miles away and later took me to dinner as a further act of kindness. Her generosity of time and spirit truly ministered to me, so I asked, “What made you come?” She told me that on the morning of Mom’s service, she was listening to Robby Higginbottom pray during the Pastoral Prayer, during which he offered a prayer for my family as we were going to celebrate Mom’s life that Sunday afternoon. This was the first time she had heard that Mom had gone home to be with Jesus. She immediately pulled out her phone, looked up the time and place of the service, and said, “Lord, now I know why you had me wear a black dress to church today.” The Holy Spirit compelled this dear woman to give up her Sunday afternoon to travel an hour to attend the memorial service of a woman she didn’t know and to follow it up with a sweet card and a delicious dinner for me.  Who does such a self-sacrificing and loving thing? People filled with the love of Christ who are ready and willing to lay down their lives for the good of His people. 

My friend loved me so well that I will never forget her beautiful acts of kindness. I am convicted of my own sinful bent toward seeking my own comfort and the pleasure of being in control of my own schedule. Her loving example shows me what Christ’s washing of the disciples’ feet meant. It is a demonstration of God’s transforming love that leads us to humbly love and serve others in sacrificial ways. The Apostle Paul said it so well:

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourself, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
        Philippians 2:4-8