Washing the Disciples Feet
Notes
Transcript
Easter is in 5 more Sundays.
That’s hard to believe.
So in preparation for Good Friday and Easter...
we will start a series on Passion Week.
Series - Passion Week
Passion Week is the week leading up to the cross and the resurrection.
It begins with the Triumphal Entry (Palm Sunday)...
“Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Everyone celebrating Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem.
We will look at 4 events from Passion Week leading up to the cross.
Then we will look at the crucifixion on the Sunday prior to Easter and on Good Friday.
Then, on Easter we will celebrate the joy and promise of the resurrection.
--- Title Slide
The first scene we will look at is Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.
The king becomes the servant.
Scripture Intro:
Scripture Intro:
Scripture Reading (“Please stand…”)
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.
John 13:2–4 (ESV)
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.
John 13:4–5 (ESV)
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.”
---
Pray...
Intro:
Intro:
Jesus - “I can not to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.”
“his hour had come to depart out of this world”
He knew it was the time that he would suffer, die, rise, and return to his Father.
The Amazing Love of Jesus
The Amazing Love of Jesus
(v. 1) “having loved his own who were in the world”
“he loved them to the end”
He is Above All Things
He is Above All Things
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,
“the Father had given all things into his hands”
He had authority over all things.
He is the one who deserved to be served.
He was (and still is) king and ruler of all things.
Yet, he is the one who washes the disciples’ feet.
You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.
putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
“With such power and status at his disposal, we might have expected him to defeat the devil in an immediate and flashy confrontation, and to devastate Judas with an unstoppable blast of divine wrath.” (D.A. Carson)
He Takes the Low Place
He Takes the Low Place
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.
So the picture is that they are reclined around the table.
They were most likely propped up on their left elbow,
and their feet were out away from the table.
Typically, for those who dined,
the servants would come around and wash their feet.
Their feet were away from the table so they could basically ignore the servant as they washed.
This function was the lowest of the low...
reserved only for menial servants.
“Some Jews insisted that Jewish slaves should not be required to wash the feet of others;”
This is why Peter objected.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
The Greek construction of his question suggests indignant emphasis:
‘Are you going to wash my feet?’
John 13:8 (ESV)
Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.”
And now, Jesus takes that place.
A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.
And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.
For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
---
ILL. Leonard Bernstein (an American conductor, composer, pianist)
was once asked which instrument was the most difficult to play.
He thought for a moment and then replied,
“The second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists,
but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm
—that’s a problem.
And if we have no second fiddle, we have no harmony.”
To play well without promise of notoriety,
that is the signed of true greatness.
B/c you can play without the need to be acknowledged.
Now, to make this scene even more stark...
(v. 2) “the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray him”
John gives special focus to Judas.
He was going to betray Jesus.
He was at the table for supper.
So Jesus knew what Judas was going to do.
For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
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.
Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him...
Yet, he still washed his feet.
App. That ought to blow our minds.
B/c what do we do when someone hurts us or betrays us?
We cast them off.
We ignore them.
Even better, when you betray Jesus...
and don’t speak of him.
Don’t trust him.
Don’t give him the worship that he is due.
He will still wash your feet.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
---
ILL. Ragman by Walter Wangerin, Jr.
I saw a strange sight. I stumbled upon a story most strange, like nothing my life, my street sense, my sly tongue had ever prepared me for. Hush, child. Hush, now, and I will tell it to you.
Even before the dawn one Friday morning I noticed a young man, handsome and strong, walking the alleys of our City. He was pulling an old cart filled with clothes both bright and new, and he was calling in a clear, tenor voice: “Rags!” Ah, the air was foul and the first light filthy to be crossed by such sweet music.
“Rags! New rags for old! I take your tired rags! Rags!”
“Now, this is a wonder,” I thought to myself, for the man stood six-feet-four, and his arms were like tree limbs, hard and muscular, and his eyes flashed intelligence. Could he find no better job than this, to be a Ragman in the inner city?
I followed him. My curiosity drove me. And I wasn’t disappointed. Soon the Ragman saw a woman sitting on her back porch. She was sobbing into a handkerchief, sighing, and shedding a thousand tears. Her shoulders shook. Her heart was breaking. The Ragman stopped his cart. Quietly, he walked to the woman, stepping round tin cans, dead toys, and Pampers.
“Give me your rag,” he said so gently, “and I’ll give you another.”
He slipped the handkerchief from her eyes. She looked up, and he laid across her palm a linen cloth so clean and new that it shined. She blinked from the gift to the giver.
Then, as he began to pull his cart again, the Ragman did a strange thing: he put her stained handkerchief to his own face; and then HE began to weep, to sob as grievously as she had done, his shoulders shaking. Yet she was left without a tear.
“This IS a wonder,” I breathed to myself, and I followed the sobbing Ragman like a child who cannot turn away from mystery.
“Rags! Rags! New rags for old!”
In a little while, when the sky showed grey behind the rooftops and I could see the shredded curtains hanging out black windows, the Ragman came upon a girl whose head was wrapped in a bandage, whose eyes were empty. Blood soaked her bandage. A single line of blood ran down her cheek. Now the tall Ragman looked upon this child with pity, and he drew a lovely yellow bonnet from his cart. “Give me your rag,” he said, tracing his own line on her cheek, “and I’ll give you mine.”
The child could only gaze at him while he loosened the bandage, removed it, and tied it to his own head. The bonnet he set on hers. And I gasped at what I saw: for with the bandage went the wound! Against his brow it ran a darker, more substantial blood – his own!
“Rags! Rags! I take old rags!” cried the sobbing, bleeding, strong, intelligent Ragman. The sun hurt both the sky, now, and my eyes; the Ragman seemed more and more to hurry.
“Are you going to work?” he asked a man who leaned against a telephone pole. The man shook his head.
The Ragman pressed him: “Do you have a job?”
“Are you crazy?” sneered the other. He pulled away from the pole, revealing the right sleeve of his jacket – flat, the cuff stuffed into the pocket. He had no arm.
“So,” said the Ragman. “Give me your jacket, and I’ll give you mine.”
Such quiet authority in his voice!
The one-armed man took off his jacket. So did the Ragman – and I trembled at what I saw: for the Ragman’s arm stayed in its sleeve, and when the other put it on he had two good arms, thick as tree limbs; but the Ragman had only one. “Go to work,” he said.
After that he found a drunk, lying unconscious beneath an army blanket, an old man, hunched, wizened, and sick. He took that blanket and wrapped it round himself, but for the drunk he left new clothes.
And now I had to run to keep up with the Ragman. Though he was weeping uncontrollably, and bleeding freely at the forehead, pulling his cart with one arm, stumbling for drunkenness, falling again and again, exhausted, old, old, and sick, yet he went with terrible speed. On spider’s legs he skittered through the alleys of the City, this mile and the next, until he came to its limits, and then he rushed beyond.
I wept to see the change in this man. I hurt to see his sorrow. And yet I needed to see where he was going in such haste, perhaps to know what drove him so.
The little old Ragman – he came to a landfill. He came to the garbage pits. And then I wanted to help him in what he did, but I hung back, hiding. He climbed a hill. With tormented labor he cleared a little space on that hill. Then he sighed. He lay down. He pillowed his head on a handkerchief and a jacket. He covered his bones with an army blanket. And he died.
Oh, how I cried to witness that death! I slumped in a junked car and wailed and mourned as one who has no hope – because I had come to love the Ragman. Every other face had faded in the wonder of this man, and I cherished him; but he died. I sobbed myself to sleep.
I did not know – how could I know? – that I slept through Friday night and Saturday and its night, too.
But then, on Sunday morning, I was wakened by a violence.
Light – pure, hard, demanding light – slammed against my sour face, and I blinked, and I looked, and I saw the last and the first wonder of all. There was the Ragman, folding the blanket most carefully, a scar on his forehead, but alive! And, besides that, healthy! There was no sign of sorrow nor of age, and all the rags that he had gathered shined for cleanliness.
Well, then I lowered my head and trembling for all that I had seen, I myself walked up to the Ragman. I told him my name with shame, for I was a sorry figure next to him. Then I took off all my sin in that place, and I said to him with dear yearning in my voice: “Dress me.”
He dressed me. My Lord, he put new clothes on me, and I am a wonder beside him. The Ragman, the Ragman, the Christ!
Our Need for Cleansing
Our Need for Cleansing
The footwashing anticipates the cross.
It’s the same motivation.
Humbling serving when he deserved to be served.
Dying for those who deserved to die for their sin.
The disciples don’t understand that Jesus must go to the cross.
And they don’t understand why he would serve them by washing their feet.
“The revered and exalted Messiah assumes the role of the despised servant for the good of others.” (D.A. Carson)
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.”
D. L. Moody wrote about knowing how to tell when a Christian was growing.
In proportion to his growth in grace he would
elevate his Master,
talk less of what he himself was doing,
and become smaller and smaller in his own esteem,
until, like the morning star, he faded away before the rising sun.
The Blessing of Humble Service
The Blessing of Humble Service
If we are brought into relationship with God through this radical type of service,
then our connection with each other should look the same.
Our love for each other should follow after Jesus’ love for us.
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 Jesus did this...
so should we.
We aren’t better than him, are we?
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
ILL. A businessman once asked Lorne Sanny, long-time president of the Navigators,
how he could know when he had a servant attitude.
The reply: “By how you act when you are treated like one.”
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Close in Prayer
Close in Prayer
Closing Song:
Closing Song:
“King of Kings”
“God of glory, Majesty”
Willing to take the low place for our salvation.
Benediction:
Benediction:
Extra Stuff:
Extra Stuff: