John 13:1-17 - Powerful Humility
- Chad Werkhoven
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Jesus showed that ultimate power looks far different than you might think.
Gospels: Week 10 — Jerusalem, commandment, service, and Supper
John 13:1–17 (NASB95)
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, 4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. 5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
6 So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.”
8 Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!”
Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
10 Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
Heidelberg Catechism
Q&A 69
Q. How does baptism remind you and assure you that Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross is for you personally?
A. In this way:
Christ instituted this outward washing
and with it gave the promise that,
as surely as water washes away the dirt from the body,
so certainly his blood and his Spirit
wash away my soul’s impurity,
in other words, all my sins.
Summary
We've seen before in our Bible reading together that John's gospel is different than the other three. John provides less of a synopsis of Jesus' activities (which is why the other three accounts are often referred to as the synoptic gospels) and features more insight and commentary on Jesus' character and divine nature.
This difference is well demonstrated in today's passage. While the synoptic gospels all record various elements of what we often refer to as the Last Supper, John skips over those details. Ironically, the only aspect he passes along is that during the supper, the devil put into the heart of Judas Iscariot... to betray Jesus.
John puts his focus on what happened after the supper, and in doing so, he's the only gospel writer to pass along the account of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples. Feet have never really been considered one of the more attractive areas of the human body, and in that age in which the streets were dusty, grungy and filthy, they were even less so. People reclined as they ate then, a position that seems awkward to us, but one that keeps a persons dirty feet as far as possible from their food.
So Peter's emphatic refusal to allow Jesus to wash his filthy feet seems appropriate. Jesus, of all people, deserved the place of highest honor, not a position of such low servitude. But Peter suddenly and faithfully reverses himself when Jesus makes it clear that if Jesus doesn't wash him, Peter would have no part in Jesus.
Dig Deeper
One commentator describes both the Last Supper and Jesus' feet washing exercise as "enacted parables." Remember, a parable is a shocking story with a spiritual meaning, and Jesus' actions in both the Supper and in washing feet are filled with both!
John opens this passage by reporting that having loved His own who were in the world, Jesus loved them to the end. He showed this love in the most humble way He could, with the self sacrifice demonstrated here eclipsed only by what He'd show on the cross a few days later.
Jesus did this all knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands. Yet Jesus used this immensely infinite power to serve others in the most menial way He could.
By cleaning the filthiest part of the disciples' bodies, Jesus prefigured how His ultimate self sacrifice would cleanse us from the filthiest of our sins.
Jesus expected His disciples - and us - to pattern our lives in this same way, explaining that He gave us an example that we also should do as He did. It's not the particular act of foot washing that we must model in our day and age, but rather it's Jesus' humble attitude.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, to whom we will depart when we're taken out of this world;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the same humble, self-sacrificial attitude that Jesus demonstrated;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
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