Sermon Tone Analysis

All bolding, italicizing, and coloring of words or phrases have been added by Leigh Mackenzie for quickness and clarity.

Places where ellipses are used (…) are where I omitted text that seemed to be off-topic or outside of parameters for the research.

Info included in parentheses are my thoughts or explanations or places where I thought it would make it easier for you to understand without skipping back and forth.

~LM

Scripture: NIV

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

13 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.

2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.

3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

5 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.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

10 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.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

12 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.

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

14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Holman NT Commentary (HNTC): John

13:1.

We have talked often about key words in John’s Gospel.

The thirteenth chapter opens with three of them appearing in the first verse.

The time had come, and Jesus would soon leave this world.

The word kosmos appears 185 times in the New Testament; 8 times in Matthew; 3 times in Mark, 3 in Luke; but 78 in the Gospel of John.

And if we add John’s epistles and Revelation, 105 of the 185 New Testament uses come from John’s pen.

The other two key words are time and love.

…the latter part of this verse (“he loved them to the end”) where full extent translates the Greek word eistelos that means “to the limit.”

Some interpreters have noted a change in John’s vocabulary beginning with this chapter.

The life and light words that dominated the first half of the Gospel appear in some form a total of 82 times in chapters 1 through 12.

But in chapters 13 to 17, life words occur only six times and light words not at all.

The key word for the next five chapters will be agape (love).

13:2.

Judas typifies a society in rebellion against God, but the Lord’s treatment also demonstrates God’s grace and compassion with that society.

Though the disciples never grasped Judas’ true nature until after the betrayal in the garden, Jesus knew it from the beginning.

Yet he gave Judas every opportunity to turn from his wicked ways, repent, and follow his Lord.

(Doesn’t this make you want to just CRY?)

John pulled no punches in his description of the betrayer and his evil master.

In a few more verses (v.

27) we read that “Satan entered into him.”

But even at the beginning of the meal the concept of betrayal had already been thrown (ballo) into Judas’s mind.

There is some grammatical argument over the text, but the plain intent indicates a willing perpetrator whose assassination plot originated with supernatural sources.

13:3–5.

Verse 3 reminds us that Jesus was the omnipotent God.

Rather than zapping Judas immediately, he allowed the full scenario to play out as the errant disciple made choice after choice leading to his ultimate suicide.

***: Some interpreters take these words symbolically, making the water equal to the Word, the towel demonstrating righteousness, and so forth.

That hardly seems necessary in light of the culture of the first century.

Luke 22 tells us about this event of physical humbling in light of the arrogant attitude still maintained by the disciples after the night of the crucifixion.

An old proverb says, “Actions speak louder than words,” and the Lord’s willingness to wash the feet of his disciples, even Judas’s, reflects servant leadership at its best.

***: People who are familiar with first-century culture will immediately recognize how socially inappropriate this behavior was.

Never in Jewish, Greek, or Roman society would a superior wash the feet of inferiors.

As Carson observes, “The reluctance of Jesus’ disciples to volunteer for such a task is, to say the least, culturally understandable; their shock at his volunteering is not merely the result of being shame-faced, it is their response to finding their sense of the fitness of things shattered.

But here Jesus reverses normal roles.

His act of humility is as unnecessary as it is stunning, and is simultaneously a display of love (v.

1), a symbol of saving cleansing (vv.

6–9), and a model of Christian conduct (vv.

12–17)” (Carson, pp.

462–63).

{You could cross-reference passage here.

Also, see .

re: widows shows this practice was talked about and done by women after this.

However, there is no mention of any man every doing it again in the NT...)

Love Demonstrated

13:6–7.

Little discussions with Peter fill the synoptic Gospels, and John enjoys recording them as well.

(I LOVE how John constantly throws Peter under the bus, don’t you?) Shocked by the cultural reversal as he literally looked down at his Lord, Peter said in effect, “What’s going on here?”

And Jesus replied, “You have no idea, but some day you will.”

Presumably Jesus began the foot-washing with Peter, so he was the first to be shocked.

Tasker picks up on the meaning of the moment: “Peter resists the attempt of Jesus to wash his feet, precisely because he failed to associate what his Master was doing with His death, but regarded it merely as an act which any slave might perform before a banquet.

In making this protest Peter was in fact displaying the pride of unredeemed men and women, who are so confident of their ability to save themselves that they instinctively resist the suggestion that they need divine cleansing” (Tasker, p. 155).

13:8–9.

Peter was too humble to have his feet washed but not too humble to command the Lord.

As soon as Jesus emphasized that this symbolic act united the disciple with the Lord in some significant way, Peter took the full plunge.

Let us not miss the practical theology of these verses.

There is no place in the body of Christ for those who have not been cleansed by the Lord.

Washing in this symbolic context cannot refer to baptism, but the atoning cleansing of sin.

13:10–11.

Here we have a beautiful picture of forgiveness and one of the most important theological texts of the New Testament.

How often does a person need to be saved?

Once?

Every time he or she sins?

Just before death to make sure?

These verses tell us that a person who has been completely cleansed once will only require regular washings after that.

The first verb (louo) appears in the perfect tense, indicating completed action, obviously union with the Lord through salvation.

The second (nipto), rendered wash, means precisely the kind of rinsing Jesus demonstrated on this occasion.

A full bathing depicts initial regeneration; the repeated washings symbolize forgiveness of ongoing sinful behavior.

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

The washing not only demonstrated humility and servanthood to the disciples but also laid an experiential foundation for the teaching of verse 10.

When the foot-washing ended, Jesus taught an important lesson about the relationship of believers—you also should wash one another’s feet.

As Mother Teresa has shown us, perhaps more than anyone else in the twentieth century, if our teacher and Lord does not hesitate to wash our feet, how can we fail to wash one another’s feet?

Certainly there can be no harm in the literal practice of foot-washing, but the symbolism of first-century behavior seems more appropriately replicated in the way we serve people in a variety of ways.

Incidentally, the only other reference to foot-washing appears in 1 Timothy 5:10, so we have scant evidence that the New Testament church actually practiced this as a regular ordinance.

Jesus emphasized the words Teacher and Lord in contrast with the way they had behaved toward him.

The Lord reminded them that he washed their feet as their leader.

Morris says, “Jesus proceeds to endorse this way of speaking.

He commends the disciples, for these expressions point to his true position.

But precisely because of this there are implications.

His repetition of ‘the Lord and the teacher’ (a reversed order may be significant) emphasizes his dignity.

This exalted Person has washed their feet.

They ought, therefore, to wash one another’s feet” (Morris, p. 620).