Scandalous Sacraments

His hour - In John’s Gospel, “his hour” typically refers to the hour of his death on the cross. So Jesus says, my death is near, and I am going back to the Father.

Judas - He also knows that Judas is already going to betray him.

The relationship of Jesus and the Father - He was going back to the Father, and the Father had given all things into his hand.

He loved his church - He loved his church to the end. So Jesus loves his church, he yearns for us, he wants to save us.

Action (4-5)

Jesus rises from the table and he wraps a towel around his waste.

He starts washing the feet - the dirtiest part of the human body.

Peter and Jesus

Peter does not want Jesus to wash his feet (6). Why? For two reasons: 1) Because Peter felt embarassed that his master should wash his feet. He doesn’t want his master to see his filth, he doesn’t want his master to see his dirt, he doesn’t want his master to see him this way. It makes him lose face. It is one thing for a servant to wash the feet - after all the servant himself is already dirty. But for the Lord himself to bend down and wash our feet brings shame. 2) It reverses the relationship between the master and the servant. Jesus humiliates himself to serve the disciples.

Jesus says you don’t understand now, but you will understand later. Now, something very important John’s gospel is the presence of the signs. That there are these outward signs, that are reflective of a deeper reality. Jesus is not just teaching the disciples a neat little moral lesson here, he is embodying a mystery that they will later understand.

You must never wash me: Well, Peter doesn’t understand yet, which is clear. So he tells Jesus, he must never be washed.

Jesus says, unless I wash you, you have no part in me. But Jesus keeps talking in this symbolic language. He says unless I wash you, then you have no part in me. Here we see some of what Jesus is talking about.

Jesus is clearly talking about salvation. That is why later he says you are pure. This word for “pure” means forgiven in John’s writing. (1 John 1:7-9), and later in John’s gospel, in chapter 15, he talks about how to be pure is to be grafted into him. It’s to be “in him” united to him. This is why here Jesus says, “has no share in me.” So to be in Christ purifies us, and it washes away our sin. Now, remember that this all takes place under the banner of the last hour of Christ’s death. Because Christ is about to be crucified. So Christ is about to become the passover lamb for us, to have his blood shed so that we can be saved.

Jesus says unless I wash you, you have no part in me. Salvation is purely by grace. We don’t do anything to earn it, we don’t deserve it. It is purely something that God has given to me.

Finally, we see what faith is. Faith is to allow Jesus to wash us. It’s to allow Jesus to save us. That is what faith is. Faith is a passive action. So like someone puts a solar panel out in the sun to receive the solar rays, or someone puts a sponge in water to soak in the water, or someone puts a sail into the wind to receive the wind, so we receive what Christ has done.

Well, Peter does not quite get it, and I think he is being sarcastic where Peter says, okay then Jesus, wash my whole body. (9)

And Jesus says, “Not everyone who has been washed has need to be cleansed, except his feet only” but is wholly pure, and you are pure.” (10)

Bathed - A one time act of receiving God’s grace that makes us totally pure. This word for “bath” is baptism. Baptism is a one time experience where we receive the grace that Christ has given to us. Baptism is not so much about us telling everyone we’re Christians. It is about receiving what God has already done for us, once and for all.

Washing the feet - Then, there is a regular washing the feet. Now, notice how this is in John’s gospel where we would expect the Lord’s Supper. When we come to the Lord’s Supper, we are allowing him to wash us all over again.

So does this mean that all I have to do is get baptized and take the Lord’s SUpper and I am okay? No, it requires faith. That is why he says in vs. 10-11 about Judas. Judas ate the supper, Judas had his feet washed, Judas was baptized, but Judas did not have faith, therefore he stood condemned.

Sacraments

Christ is himself the ultimate sacrament.

So what we see then is that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are how we receive God’s mercy and forgiveness. It is how we let Christ wash us. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are how we express faith.

Without faith, they are, as Paul tells us later in 1 Corinthians 11 to our judgment.

Baptism is the beginning of the believer’s Christian life. It is the one time, it is when we’re washed. The Lord’s table is a continual return again and again to the Lord for him to wash our feet. Baptism happens first, the Lord’s Supper second.

Do we have to receive the sacraments? So sometimes we wonder, well what happens if I don’t receive the sacraments. I mean, do I have to get baptized. Do I have to take the Lord’s table. But that’s a little bit like saying to Christ, “I want you, but I don’t want your gifts.” I mean, can we really tell Christ we want him but not the sacraments? After all, if it is through the sacraments that we receive him, do we really receive him if we reject the sacraments?