Motivated By Love

I find it interesting that we find ourselves right in the middle of one of the most humbling moments in the Scripture, as our culture is celebrating pride.

Sadly, pride is not confined to the unbelieving world, it is also a major problem amongst members of congregations all over our country

We are a nation of consumer Christians

Complaints like:

I am not being fed

I don’t like the music

The pastor is ...

We have a natural tendency to take the easy road and leave instead of serving.

Today we are going to see a time where Jesus could have rebuked His disciples, but instead rolled up His sleeves and served!

This was Thursday evening, the night before the Passover

We have now traveled alway from the nativity to not just the Passion Week but the Last Supper.

This starts the “Farewell Cycle”, it’s Jesus taking time to leave His disciples with His final lessons before they get to see who He really is.

It makes me think of Isaac and Jacob when they were reaching their last days.

His Hour Had Come

After telling us time and time again that His hour had not come, the hour is finally here.

to the Father

John uses this phrase, and alludes to the death of Christ as though it is His going away.

It’s almost like John doesn’t know that Jesus is coming back in three days

But he is doing this for the readers

He’s helping us to understand the importance of this discourse

The Contrast of Love and Hate

Love here is agapaō, it is the deepest love

His own

To the end (not the end of the world, but the end of His life)

Judas had already agreed to betray Jesus

Satan already had heavy influence on Judas

His Act of Humility

Knowing that the father...

Jesus did this not only out of love but out of His commitment to God’s will

Jesus was serving His people for one last time, before He returns tot he Father

The feet would be washed because of the dusty/sandy world they lived in and the sandals they wore.

It should have been done before eating and it should have been done by one of the disciples

There was a need to wash their feet, but a full bath was not needed

We have already discussed the fact that in antiquity, when a rabbi had disciples, they typically acted as his servants. However, they were never required to wash the rabbi's feet; that task was reserved for slaves. But even some slaves were spared this task. Within Israel, if a jewish person had a jewish slave, the slave owner was not permitted to require that slave to wash his feet. Only a Gentile slave could be required to perform such a menial task. So the fact that Jesus Himself undertook this task, and that He did it during Holy Week, fills this narrative with theological and ethical significance for us.

R. C. Sproul. John (St. Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (Kindle Locations 3209-3212). Kindle Edition.

The cleaning of feet was a task relegated to the lowest of slaves. Not disciples. Not Jewish slaves. Only Gentile slaves.

Not only did Jesus was the disciples feet, but he even washed Judas’ feet.

Knowing what Judas was going to do in just hours.

Philippians 2:3–8 ESV

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

His Discussion with Peter

Isn’t this just what we would expect from Peter?

To not want to allow Jesus to wash his feet

It’s a sign of pride, as if to say, I know what you are doing…you are testing us to see if we will stop you

Peter, always an extremist, swings from NO! to wash all of me!

There is a similarity to baptism going on here

Water baptism is a physical example of a spiritual cleansing

Like baptism, the actual footwashing isn’t required for salvation

When Jesus says, “If I do not wash you” he is not referring to the footwashing, but the spiritual cleaning

This is evident in Jesus’ comment about Judas, “not all of you are clean” though He did wash Judas’ feet.

Jesus Explains What He Did

Do you understand?

If a teacher, and especially a Lord, would do this, then we ought do this for each other

A servant is not greater than the master and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him

we are servants of Christ

We are messengers of Christ

If we are unwilling to serve others, our pride places us not only above them, but above Him

Blessed are you if you serve