Midweek Lenten 6 (2022)

John 13:1-20

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we come to the final night of the Lenten Series and it is Thursday, Judas has agreed to betray Jesus, and now waits for the appropriate hour to arrest him and have him handed over to the leaders who will put him to death. There is much that happens on this night, Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, He institutes the Lord’s Supper, He is arrested, put on trial, beaten, mocked and trussed up to be presented before Pontius Pilate. But tonight we are going to focus on a rather surprising event, Jesus takes the time to perform one of the lowest and most base acts that slaves in that day performed.

It is worth noting that this action is surprising for washing the feet was a disgusting thing to do. We certainly shy away from putting our feet out there today, wrapping them in socks, and shove them in shoes, and keep them out of sight. But we might appreciate in part how filthy this was, when we consider how dirty and messy our shoes can get. But we have relatively clean roads and sidewalks and places that we travel unlike their day.

When you put that in those terms you can see why this was reserved for the lower class of slaves, not the jewish slaves, but the gentile ones. So it is rather shocking that Jesus washes their feet on this night. Takes up this job, to wash feet that were covered in the filth and muck and other disgusting things.

We can also understand why it is that Peter tries to stop him from doing it. For there at Peter’s feet is the one who he has seen heal the blind, the lame, the sick, the demon possessed, feed thousands, walk on water, invited him out on to the waves and it was that hand that reached out to rescue him when he began to sink. He had seen Jesus transfigured on the mountaintop with Moses and Elijah, and had confessed boldly gladly that you are the Christ the son of the living God, and that He has the words of eternal life.

Now before him is the Son of the Living God, on his knees with a towel wrapped around him to do this lowly and disgusting work. So Peter says you shall never wash my feet. For how could he let one that is so holy and righteous and pure handle such filth?

But Jesus rebukes Peter, if I do not wash you, you have no share or no part with me. So Simon tries to make it more palatable by offering his hands and his head as well, but Jesus rebukes him once again. They did not yet understand this night why Christ was doing these things, for their eyes were still closed to what Christ was going to do for their sake on Golgotha. If you do not yet understand this it is my hope that the Holy Spirit will enlighten your eyes to see what Christ was doing here for their sake, and what He has also done for you.

For they did not understand that Christ did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. That He will take their filth upon Himself lay aside His outer garments that soldiers will dice for tomorrow and wash it away. Jesus is showing them what He would do for them in His death, and what He was doing for His bride, the Church, that is you.

For Christ did not just come to wash away the dirt from our feet, but to wash away our sins. So why the feet? Well what is more unclean? Feet which have been dragged through the filth of the world, or your sins? Sure we know the smell, the look, and the feel of sweaty and dirty feet, but sin is far worse. If Peter was ashamed to hide his filthy feet from Christ, what of His sins?

Now what Jesus says makes a bit more sense doesn’t it, why unless He washes you, you have no part with him. For Jesus said earlier that unless a person is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. You cannot spurn and reject that washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit and be with Christ. There are those who think what good can a little water be for the soul? But Jesus is in the water to cleanse not your feet, but your sin filled heart as he picks it up with his nail scarred hands and washes it clean so that you are forgiven.

Now Paul puts this beautifully in his letter to the Ephesians when he says, Eph 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

That’s why He became the lowest slave of humanity, that He might save His beloved Church, which includes you. He did not want you to perish and that is why on Good Friday, he will be covered in the filth of the world as He becomes sin for you, so that you might become the righteousness of God.

He will in fact take all of that filth and that sin, and toss it into hell itself, and then return to life for your sake and your salvation.

So, my brothers and sisters in Christ, treasure your baptism, treasure the fact that by His washing of water and the word, that he has cleansed you, see there upon the Cross how He came not to be served but to serve you. For Jesus came to take upon himself those unspeakable sins and became sin for you, that you might become the righteousness of God and be clean in God’s sight. In Jesus’ name. Amen.