Jesus Washes the Disciples Feet

Text: John 13:1-17

3-7-10

● John provides the most intimate and most detailed account of Jesus’ final evening with his disciples. Perhaps that is due to the kind of relationship that he had with Jesus. What others record in a few verses, John takes several chapters that have become known as the “Farewell Discourse”.

● That evening will be full of drama. Jesus will eat a final meal with followers, he will pray for deliverance in Gethsemane (the garden), he will be betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter and abandoned by all the rest.

As Jesus sits and contemplates their anxiety and failure to “get it”, he realizes that this is not the time to ‘rub their noses in it’. He knows that they don’t understand now and probably won’t for some time.

            But, one thing becomes clear: whatever he does is motivated by love, not resentment.

● The foot washing was an ancient expression of hospitality. In Palestine in Jesus' time, with almost all travel was done by walking and almost no pavement, dirty feet were the inevitable result.

A good host provided this service for guests on arrival. It was done by one of the lowest ranking servants because, as you can imagine, it was not considered one of the more pleasant tasks.

“The Passover meal had already begun…”

● The fact that the meal was already begun and no foot washing had happened indicates not only that they had not secured someone to do it, but that they all thought that such a task was beneath them… somebody ‘else’ should be taking care of that.

● In just three verses, John provides the context for everything that’s about to happen.

            First, he places it at the time of Passover. When John mentions a highly regarded Jewish festival, he wants us to see Jesus as filtering its meaning through himself. John had earlier introduced us to Jesus as the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29).

            Secondly, he advises us that “Jesus’ time had come”. Not in that Jesus had orchestrated everything for this moment, but with the religious leaders crying “blasphemy” and the Roman empire frowning upon insurrection, and with Judas succumbing to the Satanic powers at work in and through the process, the situation had reached its apex. This was his “moment”.

            Thirdly, what was about to transpire was fully-extended love. Don’t miss this: this was God washing our feet.

● The disciples looked at Jesus and determined that this is not the type of behavior that characterizes a Messiah. Jesus wanted them to know that this is exactly what they should come to expect from God.

● We have no indication that the disciples continued this practice and relatively few expressions of the church have participated in it on a consistent basis.

● Growing up, ours was one of the only churches that I knew which practiced this rather “bizarre ritual” routinely. When I was younger, it was ‘cool’; as I reached my teen years, it was just ‘embarrassing’; as I matured, it was ‘humbling’.

I just remember removing my socks and making sure that there was no foreign matter between my toes. I also remember casually inspecting the person’s feet next to me, to know what I was getting into because I knew that I would be called upon to participate as well.

● Jesus knew that there was nothing more that he could  say; no explanations which would possibly suffice to alleviate their fears and anxiety.

Service is fully-extended love; it demonstrates what words fail to explain.

            It’s love with no boundaries. It means that there was nothing that love could do for them that Jesus was not willing to do.

Too often, our love has limits; boundaries we’ve established which determine how far our love will “stretch”.

Warning: service can never be offered as some subtle (and often, not so subtle) form of ‘spiritual manipulation’. People will respond adversely to those whom they believe have simply taken them on as some type of ‘religious project’.

Service is love reduced to the lowest-common denominator.

i.e.  “long division”: as the numbers started growing larger and everything seemed to be getting more complicated and less comprehensible, we were instructed to find out the smallest number that those had in common. It was a way of understanding a very complex formula in the simplest of fashions.

● The beauty of service is that is requires no particular skill, education level or pedigree.

A proper understanding of authority and identity will always lead us to a life of service.

But, this is not what we expect from someone in authority. We usually use authority and identity as as means of exempting us from service (“Do you know who I am?”)

● This was not just one isolated, extraordinary act of God, but was to be the ordinary lifestyle which we are to portray.

“I have given you an example (“pattern”) to follow.” In the ancient world, it was a picture which showed how something was to be done; a tracing with the details to be filled in. “Here’s the pattern, you fill it in with your own expressions of service!”  

Here’s the beauty of service--- it requires no explanation, although it will likely evoke a lot of questions.

            It’s disarming because it doesn’t demand a response from the one being served… not even a ‘thank you’. It has the capacity to penetrate the most hardened heart when a good argument won’t.

Service is so random and indiscriminate.

They don’t have to share your political or religious views; they don’t even have to ‘like you’… in fact, they may already have plans for betraying you. Service that is birthed in that kind of strength of love is not too easily offended by another’s “dirtiness”.

● The “farewell discourse” begins with Jesus washing dirty feet and ends with him praying to the Father--- “serving and praying”. Maybe this pattern is what is to characterize us, as well: daily being empowered to demonstrate extraordinary love in ordinary ways.