Maundy Thursday 2025

John 13:1-17

John 13:1–17 ESV

1 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. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 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, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 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. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 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.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 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.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” 12 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? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 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. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Introduction

This is the scene of Jesus’ last meal with his followers, just hours before he is arrested and crucified. Look at this beautiful scene we have before us. This the kind of table, the kind of scene, maybe simpler, but it was meant to be a celebration of one of the most important days for ancient Jewish person (to this day, one of the most important days for a Jewish person) in Passover. Jesus knows where he’s headed, to his death, to leave this world, he knows the darkness that is before him and yet, do you know what the disciples were doing during this final meal?

In Luke’s telling of this final night, we see this: Luke 22:24 “24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.”

They were arguing about which of them was the greatest. An argument they had regularly, by the way. [kids bickering while working on something serious]. Jesus responds by talking about how according to the world, those with power lord it over others; there are people in high position and people in low, people with authority and people that are subjects, but the Kingdom of God, he says is not like this. “But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as the one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.”

I am among you as the one who serves, says our Lord. And how does he serve? By washing the feet of those who reclined at the table. John doesn’t even record the argument about greatness, he doesn’t need to. So profound a statement is Christ’s act of service to wash the feet of his disciples. To be the leader who serves in such an extraordinary way. You can picture it, right? Jesus gets up to wash feet and that argument over who is the greatest stops immediately. He doesn’t do this to be nice, to show off with some false sense of humility, he does this because he knew who He was and what he came to do.

Look at the first few verses here in John 13. There’s two things we see that Jesus knew. The first is this: He knew that his hour had come to depart. Like I said, Jesus knows what is going to happen, the hour had finally come. He was prepared for the betrayal, for the denial, the abandonment, he was prepared for the pain, the mocking, the sacrifice. He knew that this was the time and, what good news, despite all that he knew he still loved his own, he still loved his people to the very end. Though these disciples are about the abandon him, desert, betray, and deny him, he loved them still. This is part of the context for Maundy Thursday: Jesus knew what was coming, and yet he still loved his own until the end.

The second thing that he knew is this: V. 3: “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 knew that the Father had given all things into his hands. What does that mean? It’s a statement about Christ’s power, all-power was given to him. About his authority, all-authority has been given to him (we hear that in Matthew 28). It’s a reminder of the opening words of John. John 1:3-4

English Standard Version Chapter 1

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life

It’s the words of Colossians 1:17 “17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

“Knowing the Father had given all things into his hands...” it’s a statement of Jesus’ world-encompassing, cosmic supremacy! In his hands is all power, authority, all glory, all might, all things.

And what does he do with those hands? Those hands that have all power and authority, those hands that created the universe and everything in it? He washes the feet of his friends and followers.

This is not Jesus acting as a good host to show kindness to his guests, nor is it merely a great teacher showing deference to his students. No, this is the One to whom all things have been given, One who is from God, and on his way back to God, getting on his knees and with those mighty hands, he serves in a way that would be unthinkable to us. It was certainly unthinkable to the disciples.

Those hands that, according to the words of Paul in Philippians 2, did not grasp tightly to equality with God, but let go and emptied himself, he became a servant.

It’s these hands of the good shepherd that hold securely and protect his sheep that are the same hands that care for, clean, wash those sheep.

And notice the connection between what Jesus knew and what he did: He knew that the Father had given all things into his hands so or therefore he rose from supper to wash their feet. Who He is and what He had been given by God, this moved Him into sacrificial service and love of others. Of his friends, yes, but not only of his friends, he even washed Judas’ feet, his betrayer.

This is who our God is. Jesus’ has incredible power—and this is important to note, he doesn’t relinquish that power, rather he exercises that power for the sake of others, to serve and love in an unexpected way.

We see over the course of the foot washing that Peter is confused by this act. First, he wants nothing to do with it as if this is too far beneath his lord. Jesus responds in v. 7: “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”

And: v. 8, If I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Peter goes all in then, wash not just my feet but all of me! Jesus assures Peter: you are already clean. It’s not an act of water on the feet (or water on our hands this evening) that makes us clean in Christ. Rather it was Peter’s faith in Jesus, having received the word of the gospel and responded in faith, that made him clean. That faith will be tested, but Peter is restored by the end of John.

And look at v. John 13:12–15 “12 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? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”

Do you understand what I have done to you? He goes on: you call me teacher and Lord, this is right, but look what I’ve done. I’ve washed your feet. Jesus knows how unexpected this is. The disciples, like so many of us are looking for a savior that is powerful, influential, mighty in every way the world measures might. We look up and out to the biggest and greatest to find God, often tempted to think of God as far off.

NO! He’s he’s not far off, he’s too close for comfort, he’s washing your feet. Look down and that’s where we see the King of Kings, as a lowly servant.

This is the example he leaves for us. That we would walk in humility as He did, that we would serve others as He did, that we would give ourselves for Him as He has given Himself for us. At Maundy Thursday we’re reminded of the self-sacrificing love of Christ for each of us and the call to do the same.

We’re called to love others in humility and with sacrifice. We’re called to love others not out of selfish ambition, not to glory in our good deeds, but to serve, to think of others as more highly than ourselves. We’re called to look at our neighbors and say: how can I prioritize their flourishing as much as my own? The disciples were focused on their own greatness, but Jesus says: no, serve one another, care for and love one another. Remember how this whole passage started, Jesus knew that his hour had come and he loved his own until the end. And this is how he loved them.

Look at at your hands. What’s in your hands? What has God given into your hands? It’s not the same as Jesus. And it might be the same as your neighbor, but God has given each of us unique blessings, gifts, circumstances, experiences, even pains and hardships; what will you do with those hands?

Will you use that which God gave you to love others? To care for those around you? Will you sacrifice what God has given you for the sake of others? Our tendency is to tighten our fists; to think of ourselves first, and then, if and when I feel comfortable, to love others. But in Christ, we need not live in this way; we know that he has us securely in his hands, that there is nothing to fear, no anxiety we face that He does not already see; nothing we have to give that wasn’t given to us by him in the first place.

We can wash the feet of our neighbor, we can serve the people around us because our savior first did so to us.

You can tell, that image of hands has been with me all week. I think of other hands through scripture. God said to Moses in Exodus 4:2 “2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”” A simple shepherds’ staff. And with that staff and the leading and power of the Lord, the reluctant leader Moses because of means of God’s redeeming rescue of Israel.

I think of King David. Before he was king, in 1 Samuel 17:40, he took five stones and his sling was in his hand. He rejected the armor of the king, and trusted in the simple things that God had placed in his hands. With that he mounts a decisive victory against Israel’s great enemy the Philistines.

And Jesus, the son of God Himself, in his hands were more than a staff and a few stones, but all power and all authority, all things given to him. He did not mount a conquering army as many had hoped, he did not draw a sword against the oppressive leaders. No. He healed the sick. He calmed storms, he fed thousands, and he washed feet.

And it was those same hands with which he washed feet that, hours later, would willingly be stretched out on a cross. Laying down His life, love sacrificially, truly to the end, he does this for us. We don’t lift a finger to contribute to what Christ accomplished by laying down his life. Exercising his authority, he goes willingly for us. This is the gift of the Gospel for it is with his hands on the cross that Jesus achieves an unthinkable victory; a triumph greater than Moses with his staff against Egypt and greater than David with his stones against Goliath. This is a victory over our greatest enemies, sin and death. Amen.

OK. WE’re

PRAY.

Philippians 2:5–11 “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. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”