MAY 6 / MAY 13, 2018
JESUS WASHES THE DISCIPLES’ FEET
INTRODUCTION:
1. We now begin one of the most interesting portions of John’s Gospel. For five consecutive chapters we find him recording matters which are not mentioned by any of the other Gospel writers. The contents of these chapters have been rightly considered one of the most precious parts of the Bible. Jesus’ public discourses now finished, His words and actions recorded in these chapters, all taking place in the final hours before His arrest, were for the benefit of His disciples – His little groups of followers; and have been a source of comfort and strength for all true-hearted Christians for two thousand years.
2. In this passage before us we have the story of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. This was an action of a singular nature, which, along with the discourse which followed, took place the same night in which He was betrayed; at the same sitting wherein He ate the Passover and instituted the Lord’s Supper, but after Judas had gone out.
3. Why would Jesus do this? A wise man will not do something that seems odd and unusual but for very good cause and consideration, but what cause and consideration?
a) That He might testify and demonstrate His patient and continuing love for His own in an act of condescending humility. (Verses 1-5)
b) That He might signify the spiritual washing referred to in His exchange with Peter. (Verses 6-11)
c) That He might set them an example. (Verses 12-17)
4. In opening up these reasons the whole story is expounded.
I. HERE WE SEE WHAT PATIENT AND CONTINUING LOVE IS IN THE HEART OF CHRIST TOWARD HIS PEOPLE. (VERSES 1-5)
A. IT IS AN UNDENIABLE TRUTH THAT JESUS, HAVING LOVED HIS OWN, LOVED THEM TO THE END. (VERSE 1)
1. This is true of the disciples that were His immediate followers, in particular the twelve.
a) These were His own in the world, His family, His inner circle.
b) They were weak and defective, and often needed His reproof, yet His love for them was unchanging.
2. This is true of all believers.
a) The love of Christ for sinners is the very essence of the Gospel. That He could love sinners is wonderful indeed. But the love of Christ for saints is no less wonderful – that He should bear with their countless infirmities and never tire of them or grow weary in loving them.
b) These twelve patriarchs were representatives of all the twelve tribes of God’s spiritual Israel.
c) Our Lord has a people in the world that are His own. They are His own because they were given to Him by the Father. (John 6:37) They are His own because He purchased them for Himself. (Tit. 2:14)
d) Though His own nation did not receive Him, yet to as many as did receive Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God, and thus, His own brethren. (John 1:11, 12)
e) Let us take great comfort and rejoice to know that while we are in the world, we are never separated from His love and care. (Rom. 8:35-39)
B. JESUS EXPRESSES HIS UNENDING LOVE FOR HIS OWN AT THIS TIME BECAUSE THE TIME HAD COME WHEN HE SHOULD DEPART OUT OF THE WORLD. (VERSES 1-3)
1. Because now “He knew that his hour was come,” – the time in which He would be offered had come, after which He would rise form the dead and ascend back to the Father. (Verse 3)
2. It is striking that following Verse 3, “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands,” we see Him washing the disciples’ feet. Perhaps, as many believe, He seized the last opportunity before returning to the Father to give His disciples a practical example of His love and humility. What better time to show the depths of that humility than after knowing that all power was now given to Him in heaven and in earth. (Matt. 28:18)
3. That His hour was come was also signaled by His knowing that the devil had put it into the heart of Judas to betray Him. (Verse 2)
a) Nevertheless, “Jesus…having loved his own…he loved them unto the end.” Judas’ betrayal did not change or diminish Christ’s love for those that were truly His.
b) This Judas, we must always remember, was one of the twelve. For three years he walked in Christ’s society. Yet here we see he was a complete hypocrite, possessed by the devil. As much as it grieves us to witness the defection of fellow disciples, let us not imagine that Christ’s love for His own is lessened at all.
C. JESUS, IN A SHOW OF GREAT HUMILITY, MAKES PREPARATIONS FOR WASHING HIS DISCIPLES’ FEET. (VERSES 4, 5)
1. The minuteness with which every action of our Lord is related is very striking. Seven details are here named by one who was there as an astonished and admiring eyewitness.
2. What is also striking is that He Who knew that all things were given into His hands, that He came from God, and was returning to God, should stoop to perform this lowly service. (See Gen. 12:4; I Sam. 25:41; I Tim. 5:10)
II. CHRIST WASHED HIS DISCIPLES’ FEET THAT HE MIGHT SIGNIFY TO THEM SPIRITUAL WASHING. (VERSES 6-11) There is a spiritual washing which is once for all, not to be repeated, and there is a spiritual washing which must be often repeated. The one is the washing of regeneration which is forever, and the other is the daily washing from the defilements of an earthly sojourner. The one has to do with our justification by which we are clothed in Christ’s spotless righteousness, and the other has to do with our sanctification which involves daily washing. Both of these washings are intimated in our Lord’s exchange with Peter in the following verses.
A. NOTICE PETER’S SURPRISE WHEN HE SAW HIS LORD PREPARING TO WASH HIS FEET. (VS. 6)
1. Though some suggest that Jesus washed Judas’ feet first, it is more likely that He began with Peter. “Then cometh he unto Simon Peter…”
2. Peter responded with an expression of disbelief and objection. “Lord, dost thou wash my feet?” Literally, “Dost thou, of me, wash the feet?” – meaning, “Dost such a one as thou art, wash the feet of such a one as I am?”
3. This was an exclamatory question, much like that of John the Baptist when Jesus came to his baptism. “Comest thou to me?” (Matt. 3:14)
B. NOTICE JESUS’ ANSWER TO PETER’S QUESTION OF SURPRISE AND OBJECTION WAS SUFFICIENT TO SILENCE HIS PROTEST. (VERSE 7)
1. Peter was at present in the dark concerning it and ought not to have opposed an action of His Lord that he did not understand. “What I do thou Knowest not now.”
2. There was something considerable in this of which he would hereafter know the meaning. “Thou shalt know hereafter.”
3. These words apply, of course, to the situation at hand, which in a few minutes Christ would explain so that all would then understand His actions, but they also have a much broader and far-reaching application, as Christians of every age since have come to realize.
C. SEE HERE HOW PETER PERSISTED IN HIS REFUSAL UNTIL HE LEARNED THE MEANING OF THIS SYMBOLIC GESTURE FROM HIS LORD. (VERSE 8)
1. Peter emphatically refused. “Thou shalt by no means wash my feet; no never.” So it is in the original.
a) Here is a show of humility which was, no doubt, out of genuine respect for the Lord. (See Luke 5:8)
b) But, many are beguiled of their reward in a voluntary humility, such a self-denial as Christ neither appoints nor accepts. (Col. 2:18, 23)
2. Christ insisted upon His offer and argued most convincingly why Peter should submit. “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me.”
a) This action was symbolic of that spiritual washing without which none can be saved. (Tit. 3:5)
b) The great question for everyone is this: “Am I washed; am I justified?”
D. PETER’S MIND WAS SUDDENLY AND THOROUGHLY CHANGED SO THAT HE WENT TO THE OPPOSITE EXTREME. (VERSE 9)
E. CHRIST THEN FURTHER EXPLAINED THE SPIRITUAL WASHING REPRESENTED BY THIS SIGN. (VERSE 10)
1. Jesus here explains that the initial washing of regeneration need not be repeated. Once joined to Christ and cleansed in His blood we are completely absolved, and free from all spot of guilt before God.
2. But, for all this we need every day as we walk through this world, to confess our daily failure, and plead for daily pardon. We require, in short, a daily washing of our feet, over and above the great washing of justification. “The devil allows no Christian to reach heaven with clean feet all the way.” – Martin Luther
F. THIS SYMBOLIC WASHING COULD DO NOTHING FOR HIM WHO WAS NEVER WASHED. (VERSES 10, 11)
1. “The traitor, Judas, though washed by the hands of Christ, was filthy still.” – Burgon.
2. Jesus knew the real character of all of His disciples, and thus, “He knew who should betray him,” literally, “the person betraying him.”
3. He knows what is in man (John 2:25), and He knows the character of all who profess to know Him.
III. CHRIST WASHED THE DISCIPLES’ FEET TO SET BEFORE US AN EXAMPLE. (VERSE 12-17)
A. ONCE THE WASHING WAS DONE, IT WAS TIME TO MAKE APPLICATION. (VERSE 12)
1. It seems after the conversation with Peter, all submitted to be washed.
2. After all had been washed, Jesus took off His girdle and put on again His outer robe and sat down to teach and press home the example.
B. THE GROUNDS UPON WHICH HE PRESSES THEIR DUTY IS VERY STRONG. (VERSES 13-16)
1. He, the Master had washed his disciples’ feet.
a) Jesus, knowing that all things were put into His hands, knowing that He is the Sovereign Lord over all, stooped to perform the lowliest act of servitude upon His servants.
b) These men were to take a very high station in the Gospel church, given great power and authority, yet He would remind them that they were not to act as “lords over God’s people,” but be their servants.
2. Since the servant is not greater than his master, should they not also wash the feet of their fellow disciples?
3. Let us perform this service upon our fellow Christians in the spiritual sense, and be willing also to perform its equivalent in the literal sense.
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