Not Just Clean Feet

John 13:1–17 NIV

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

INTRODUCTION

We return this morning to Jerusalem, to the upper floor of a humble building, where around the table was gathered 13 men enjoying the Passover Feast together.

Three things would happen in that gathering that would remind the disciples what their mission was about to become, just as it reminds us why we gather today, and we talked about the first one last week...the meal itself. (P)

Now, the meal is the component least talked about, yet as we see in some scripture passages this morning, it was the longest in terms of duration. It seems as though there was some on-again, off-again eating through the course of the entire evening, and it was in uniting around that common need of satisfying hunger and nourishment that five chapters of powerful dialogue were recorded by the disciple, John, and even that is probably not all that was said in that gathering. (P)

We spoke last week about how meals help us come together and have intimate conversations and meaningful times together.

Some of you are probably planning to go out to eat together right after Worship,

and others may gather this evening around the dining room table in your homes.

Many of you are already in the planning stages of your Easter dinners,

and who isn’t looking forward to the first picnic of the spring and summer,

and some of you may already be looking for a week on your calendar for this year’s big camping trip, and more than likely one of the most special times of bonding in that setting is - around the campfire together, probably with food. (P)

In this Upper Room in Jerusalem, the meal would win the attention of the disciples as Jesus would fit two other important moments into the evening.

What we believe was the last of those events, while the disciples were still munching away on the feast itself, was the very first communion service as Jesus would present it. We will talk about it more in depth next week, but the reason we think it was last is because of how Matthew and Mark word it, almost identically.

Here’s what Mark 14 says: {CLICK}

Mark 14:22–26 NIV

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” {CLICK} Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. {CLICK} “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. {CLICK} “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” {CLICK} When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

It sounds as though the evening would end with the bread and cup, and it would be a fitting way to do so. (P)

And so that’s two of the components of this famous last supper, the meal itself, the bread, and the cup...

But before the bread and cup were shared, John 13 speaks of one other thing that happened first - the second component of the Last Supper event, and the one we talk about today. (P)

Verse 1 confirms what we already discussed - Passover was upon them, and the feast that kicked the festival off was happening that Thursday night before the weekend activities.

Now, this would be a somber moment for Jesus because He knew what was going to happen to Him the very next day. The last part of verse one says that Jesus knew the hour had come.

And sitting right there near Him at the table would be the one who would get the process of the end of His life started in just a few minutes. (P)

Can you imagine that?

Having your betrayer right there in the room with you - and knowing who it was who was going to do this?

And we know Jesus knew because of how He answered John’s question of who it was: {CLICK}

John 13:26 NIV

“It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

In fact, Jesus knew when He called Judas that He would be the one. {CLICK}

John 6:64 NIV

Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.

(P)

And now Jesus has to be the one to give Judas the prompt to betray Him - now is the time.

Verse 27: {CLICK}

John 13:27 NIV

As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

(P)

But before all of that would happen, Jesus had one more thing He wanted to do with Judas still there - perhaps the most remarkable part of this whole thing. He wouldn’t be there for the bread and cup, but Judas would be here for this.

Verse 2 says that the meal was in progress - the NKJ says that it had basically ended...people were probably still picking a little as they do at meals.

Jesus got up and did something that causes people wonder to this day. He took off the outermost garment, as ladies might take off shawls or cardigans today, or men might take off suit jackets, wrapped a thick towel-like apron around His waist, and began washing His disciples’ feet. (P)

Why? Why would He do that?

It baffles people today; it disgusted at least one of His disciples that night.

Why would he do it? (P)

It was certainly an odd thing that He did. But as we will see, it’s in the oddities of this act that we find the power, and we find this in each of the three acts Jesus demonstrated when He did this - acts for us to consider today as we contemplate why, 2,000 years later, we still find footwashing to be such a meaningful and important practice. (P)

First: {CLICK}

1. This was an act of humility.

This one was odd because of who He was. (P)

As the disciples had called Him many times, He was the Rabbi - the teacher and the Master. The disciples followed His lead. As they came to discover, and we now know, He was the Son of God.

If there had been a guest of honor at this meal, Jesus would have been it!

So it wasn’t the act itself of washing feet that was odd. It was that He was the one doing it. (P)

We will talk about the cleansing factor in a moment, but washing feet was customary in that day, particularly when entering a house. And for those who had slaves or servants working for them, it would have been their job to do it...not the guest of honor’s.

So why did Jesus do it? (P)

Well, the power of this first act is in the answer to that question.

Jesus did it because no one else would, and when we see shortly the bigger act this would represent, no one else could. (P)

Have you ever had to do something because no one else would do it, or no one else could?

I already know that answer for parents out there, but you don’t have to be a parent to have experienced that - to know what it’s like when the weight of the whole world seems to be on your shoulders.

There was a Dr. Harry Ironside, [who] was once convicted about his lack of humility.

A friend recommended as a remedy, that he march through the streets of Chicago wearing a sandwich board, shouting the scripture verses on the board for all to hear.

Dr. Ironside agreed to this venture, and when he returned to his study and removed the board, he said: "I'll bet there's not another man in town who would do that."

That’s why Jesus came to do what He did - no one else would or could do it.

Washing feet, or much worse still, sacrificing one’s life in an agonizing way, is not something people who were proud or thought they were great would typically do. They wouldn’t humble themselves to that degree of dirty work. (P)

Jesus tried to teach the disciples this in Matthew 20. He reminded them of the Gentile leaders who were notorious for throwing the weight of their authority around and basking in their supposed greatness.

But then He says in verse 26: {CLICK}

Matthew 20:26–28 NIV

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, {CLICK} and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— {CLICK} just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Paul would then testify to this in his work when writing to the Philippians. He’s talking to them about the humility of Christ in chapter 2 and verse 6: {CLICK}

Philippians 2:6–7 NIV

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; {CLICK} rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

(P)

And the simple application in all of these that we discuss today is:

How far would you be willing to go to employ these very acts in your interactions with others, both on an individual level, and as you take your place as a representative of Christ’s church, where we, more importantly, represent Him, and show others who Christ was and what He did by the way we interact with them?

How humble are you in your service to others? (P)

Second, coming back to Jesus’ washing those feet: {CLICK}

2. This was an act of cleansing.

For this one, the oddity to me is the timing. (P)

Why is Jesus washing their feet at this point in the evening? (P)

Let me explain the custom or procedure a little more.

Thanks to today’s technology used in manufacturing shoes, and even socks, our feet are usually pretty clean. Even if you work in the mud or a manure pile all day, when you go into your house and take off your shoes, other than perhaps an odor from sweat, your feet remain quite clean. (P)

But back in Jesus’ day, it wasn’t like that. And most of you aren’t surprised to hear that.

Whatever all happened in Jerusalem that Thursday morning and afternoon in preparation for this feast, in feet that had nothing more than a pair of sandals, if that, walking the dusty roads with perhaps a few animal droppings along the way, and who knows what else, I can say with pretty strong confidence that their feet were nasty.

It’s just how it was, and so, much like we might wash our hands when coming home from work or before a meal, they probably did that, too, but washing their feet was also an important task. (P)

If they entered a house that had a servant, as I mentioned before, the servant would take care of it, but there were plenty of times, no doubt, that they just had to wash their own feet.

Furthermore, to avoid tracking up the house with those nasty feet, the washing would take place pretty much right as soon as they walked in.

That’s why the timing is odd. The Bible says that the meal was already in progress, probably even almost done, and now Jesus is washing their feet. (P)

Now, based on what I shared about the normal practice, my assumption has always been that their feet had been washed when they walked in the room, and Jesus was doing it again for symbolism. A handful of commentators suggest that that might not have been the case...that they had not been washed yet.

I don’t know, but to me it doesn’t matter, because it’s still odd, and it’s still gross.

If they did wash their feet, why is Jesus doing it again? And even though their feet would have been cleaner, they probably all shared the same pail of water, all dipping in each other’s sludge...it still wouldn’t have been that wonderful.

If they hadn’t washed their feet, then why did Jesus wait until after the meal, and why would He put Himself through washing all of the rawest filth on 12 sets of feet?

Even Peter resisted that with similar types of questions, but the power, once again, is in the answer and the lesson Jesus would teach after Peter’s resistance. (P)

In the simplest explanation, Jesus gave a lesson on two types of cleansing.

In the Greek, those words are louo, which refers to cleaning the whole body, like bathing, and nipto, which is a touch-up kind of cleaning of the extremities, like hands and feet, as Jesus is doing here. (P)

In true Peter the Pendulum style, he had gone from resisting Jesus’ gesture to, when Jesus said, you have no part with me if I don’t wash you, the complete other extreme, where he now wanted Jesus to wash everything.

But Jesus said, you don’t need a louo, because you did that this morning when you took a bath. I’m just doing a nipto, touching up those dirty feet. (P)

Of course, like everything else, that would go on to have a bigger meaning at the spiritual level. (P)

As Christians, we need both types of cleaning, as well - a spiritual bath and a spiritual touch-up. The bath is what happens when we come to Christ the first time, and we are completely cleansed of our sinful past. It’s what Jesus was trying to tell Peter here in verse 10 of today’s text, and would go on to remind all of them later in this gathering in: {CLICK}

John 15:3 NIV

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

But:

That doesn’t mean sin stops.

It doesn’t mean we don’t have impure thoughts.

It doesn’t mean we don’t have moments where we stop acting like the Christians we profess to be.

When that happens, and we realize we did wrong, and we want to make amends, a process of touch-up has been laid out in 1 John 1, where we go through repentance and forgiveness, not a brand new conversion experience. {CLICK}

1 John 1:7–9 NIV

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us(louo, a complete spiritual bath) from all sin. {CLICK} If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. {CLICK} If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us (nipto, touch-up) from all unrighteousness.

(P)

Both processes of cleansing are critical for the Christian. We obviously don’t want to resist the bath of salvation, but we can’t be like Peter and think that we don’t need the routine touch-up, either.

Footwashing helps us remember that, but the process of repentance and receiving the forgiveness of Christ is what really holds the cleansing power, and it’s therefore just as important to extend to others as well.

In 1818, Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis was born into a world of dying women. The finest hospitals lost one out of six young mothers to the scourge of "childbed fever." A doctor's daily routine began in the dissecting room, where he performed autopsies. From there, he made his way to the hospital to examine expectant mothers without ever pausing to wash his hands. Dr. Semmelweis was the first man in history to associate such examinations with the resultant infection and death. His own practice was to wash with a chlorine solution, and after eleven years and the delivery of 8,537 babies, he lost only 184 mothers--about one in fifty.

He spent the vigor of his life lecturing and debating with his colleagues. Once he argued, "Puerperal fever is caused by decomposed material, conveyed to a wound. . .I have shown how it can be prevented. I have proved all that I have said. But while we talk, talk, talk, gentlemen, women are dying. I am not asking anything world-shaking. I am asking you only to wash...wash your hands." But virtually no one believed him. Doctors and midwives had been delivering babies for thousands of years without washing, and no outspoken Hungarian was going to change them now!

Semmelweis died insane at the age of 47, his wash basins discarded, his colleagues laughing in his face, and the death rattle of a thousand women ringing in his ears.

Boyce Mouton, who contributed this article, shares this lesson:

"Wash me!" was the anguished prayer of King David. "Wash!" was the message of John the Baptist. "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me," said the towel-draped Jesus to Peter. Without our being washed clean, we all die from the contamination of sin.

And like disease, sin can be infectious. If we aren’t cleansing ourselves of sin - if we aren’t repenting and we are, instead, holding onto those things God is calling us to let go of, others see it, and we cause them to stumble. Either because they know better, and don’t want to follow a God whose disciples don’t think they need to live like it, OR, they are interested in your faith and wish to follow your example, even if it wasn't a good one, and they imitate all the wrong things.

Jesus, also wary of this, then uncovers the third meaning behind this act of washing feet: {CLICK}

3. This was an act of service.

It’s similar to humility, but different in that humility is the attitude, service is the action itself. Here we see Jesus’ willingness to actually become a servant to not only His disciples, but eventually to all the world. (P)

This one is odd because, again, of who He was. It was the disciples' job and desire to do everything they could to serve Him, because they knew and believed in who He was. And the disciples, barring some imperfections, had done a pretty good job.

But now, here’s the God of all the universe, in the person of Jesus, kneeling down, and washing the feet of His disciples. (P)

And again, the power is in the explanation of why He was doing what He was doing.

Jesus knew why He had come. You heard it earlier - He had not come to be served. It was His job and desire to serve, and He knew who He had come to serve. (P)

This reminds me of a story John Kenneth Galbraith shares in his autobiography, A Life in Our Times:

It’s a story about the devotion of Emily Gloria Wilson, his family's housekeeper.

He says:

It had been a wearying day, and I asked Emily to hold all telephone calls while I had a nap. Shortly thereafter, the phone rang. Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White House. "Get me Ken Galbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson."

"He is sleeping, Mr. President. He said not to disturb him." "

Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him."

"No, Mr. President. I work for him, not you.

When I called the President back, he could scarcely control his pleasure. "Tell that woman I want her here in the White House."

(P)

Jesus said in verse 13 of today’s text: {CLICK}

John 13:13 NIV

“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.

Jesus understood how the disciples were watching Him, and why what He said and did was so important.

Verse 14: {CLICK}

John 13:14–15 NIV

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. {CLICK} I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

That act of service would be magnified in just a few short hours as He would submit to the lowest of lows in humble service on the cross. He would become the ultimate example of self-sacrifice and service.

And despite:

the disgustingness of that work

the pain of that work

the humiliation of that work

and the agony of that work...

...nothing was going to stop Him from serving who He came to serve - His Father in Heaven, and His people, including you and me. (P)

As Christians, we are leaders on a quest to show people who Jesus is, and we show them what He was like by the way we live our lives.

We set an example.

And the example has the title of humble servant written all over it.

You can’t feed the hungry if you aren’t willing to go to the hungry.

You can’t care for the sick if you aren’t willing to go to where the sick are.

You can pretend to care for people’s souls if you aren’t willing to go wherever they are, even if it’s a place you would otherwise never be found.

The disciples had to learn that lesson, too, after years of macho attitudes, and thinking they were fit to sit on Jesus right and left hand in the kingdom of Heaven.

Ultimately, we all have to learn this lesson, as Jesus shared it in: {CLICK}

Matthew 20:16 NIV

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

(P)

CONCLUSION

So with that, we close with this thought on what true greatness is:

Someone once asked Albert Schweitzer (theologian, organist, philosopher, doctor) to name the greatest person alive in the world at that moment.

The good doctor, whom many would have named as deserving the honor, replied quietly: "The greatest person alive in the world at this moment is some unknown individual in some obscure place who, at this hour, has gone in love to be with another person in need."

Is that you?

Are you among the greatest because greatness is the last thing on your mind, but service is first?

Are you among the greatest because you are striving to live like Christ, who was and is the greatest? (P)

When we gather in our Upper Room next week, I promise it isn’t because we are looking to clog your already full schedule. It is because of the importance of remembering what Christ did in the ultimate showcase of service, and we want to learn how to continue the work He started. We are remembering the foundational principles of being the church.

We are looking to unite together in a common mission of spreading the news and influence of Christ.

We are looking for ways to serve those who need it the most, the way Christ would have done it.

And as we will discuss next week, we are looking to remember what Jesus did out of love for us, and using the love He gave us for others, to help them understand what Christ is all about.

That’s why we are here. (P)

We will conclude next week with the bread and the cup, the new covenant that started, and then give you the opportunity to partake in the components Jesus offered 2000 years ago.

I hope you will join us.