John 13:1-17
Textual
Introduction: Jesus’ public teaching has
come to an end. In the next few
chapters, he will teach some of his most profound lesson to his small band of
disciples, those who had been with him from the beginning, teach them during
the few hours before the crucifixion.
*******
Circumstances and schedules conspired to keep our youth from
going on what has become an annual mission trip. I’ve had the privilege of going with them on
each of their trips.
You’ve heard the stories of meeting Native Americans on the
Cherokee reservation, of painting houses, of dealing with children in Bible
clubs, of visits to nursing homes, of nightmarish bathrooms, of hordes of
wasps; and, most recently, of angry rioters burning homes only a few blocks from where we were staying. You haven’t heard
as much about the evening worship times.
These were usually encouraging and often inspiring. Still, I always looked forward to the final
night with a kind of dread. You, see the
Thursday night meeting always concluded with a foot-washing service.
From our first trip to Cherokee we’ve asked the local leaders
to make sure each person knew they had the right to decide for themselves if
they would participate.
We’re we trying to be hard to get along with? I hope not.
I think we were acknowledging that this passage has created some issues
for Baptists over the years. Some of our
fellow Christians are convinced Jesus was instituting a third ordinance, along
with baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In
fact, some Christian groups conduct a foot-washing service whenever they have
communion. They believe the act is a
sign of humility. One writer actually
implied a congregation wasn’t healthy unless it practiced foot-washing.
The irony is these groups often believe they are being more
humble than the rest of us.
Other groups focus on the cleansing Jesus speaks of and argue
that foot-washing symbolizes our willingness to forgive the hurts and slights
we may have received from that person whose feet we’re washing.
The fact someone has to go to such an effort to explain the
rite probably means they’ve missed to point Jesus was making.
By the way, from what I can determine, the rite of
foot-washing didn’t appear in the church until the fourth-century. Does this mean I believe any group of
Christians who observe this practice is doing wrong? No. It
does mean I believe the danger of missing the point of this story is very real.
As often seems to happen in John’s Gospel, there may be
several levels of meaning in this account but ultimately I believe Jesus is
calling those who believe in him to display a spirit of service.
Jesus had some final lessons to teach his disciples and he
does so dramatically by providing a visual aid.
To do so he casts himself in the role of a servant. But, of course, this was nothing new. Paul reminded the Philippians that Jesus had
conducted his whole earthly ministry in just such a servant spirit. Quoting what may have been an early Christian
hymn, Paul says:
Your attitude should be the kind that was
shown us by Jesus Christ, who, though he was God, did not demand and cling to
his rights as God, but laid aside his mighty power and glory, taking the
disguise of a slave and becoming a man. Christ humbled himself and he humbled
himself even further, going so far as actually to die a criminal's death on a
cross. (2:5-8)
Keep that in mind as we examine this story.
Look at
The Servant’s Example
In the ancient world most travel within a community and often
from community to community was on foot.
Even when a traveler was careful to bathe, his feet would inevitably
become soiled and dusty from the roads.
Most hosts made sure a servant stood ready to wash the feet of those who
entered the home. This courtesy not only
cleaned the dust from the feet but tended to refresh the traveler.
To omit this courtesy was highly irregular. Yet, as important as it was, washing
another’s feet was considered a menial task, one to be performed only by a
servant, a child, or your wife.
So, when the disciples gathered for what would be their last
Passover meal with Jesus, no one offered to perform the duty of washing the
feet of those attending.
The other Gospels tell us that the disciples had been debating
about which one of them was the greatest so no one was about to do anything
which might imply he was inferior to the others. Apparently, no one even felt compelled to
wash Jesus’ feet because to do so might lead to the expectation that they would
move on to wash their fellow-disciples’ feet.
Consequently, the meal began with their feet unwashed.
Now, at this point you might say, “Well, why does it matter,
they didn’t eat with their feet, they ate with their hands?” And, hygienically you’d be right. The problem was the attitude that led to the
breach of etiquette. Pride and a complex
sense of self-importance prompted their behavior.
What if this self-serving attitude, with it attendant passion
for self-promotion, had been allowed to remain unchallenged, unchecked at they
moved into the future?
§ No one would have placed the
needs of the Kingdom of God above his or her needs for comfort and security.
§ No real cooperation would have
been possible, especially if it involved sharing credit or recognition for any
good accomplished.
§ No one would have been willing to
serve in the small, out-of-the-way place without constantly scheming to secure
the larger, prominent place.
§ None of the entrenched leaders
would have been willing to hear a new idea from anyone not in their circle.
§ No one—as Barnabus did for Paul (as
John and Peter apparently did for others)—would have been willing to mentor a
younger disciple lest that individual gain greater prominence than they.
The list could go on but you can see how the church would have
been crippled if such self-serving attitudes dominated.
They had already settled into eating. Jesus, no doubt at the head of the table,
looked at the men who had spent the past few years with him, looked at them
with love. Within twenty-four hours he
would make the ultimate sacrifice for them and for those who would believe in
the future. Even though the ordeal of
the passion was only a few hours away, he thought of them. So, as John tells us, “Jesus got up…and laid
his [outer] clothes aside. He took a towel and wrapped it around his waist…put
water in a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet.”
Culturally, this was unheard of. In Judaism a teacher did not carry any burden
if one of his disciples was nearby. That
disciple would gladly take it and carry it for his teacher. Jesus’ actions may have easily shocked the
disciples into momentary silence.
But on another level, there is something beyond the cultural
anomaly in his actions. R. C. H. Lenski,
the Lutheran New Testament scholar who taught so long at Capital, wrote this
comment on verse 3 (“Jesus knew that the Father had put everything into his
hands.”):
“All
things were in Jesus’ hands when those hands washed the disciples’ feet. Yet we see that these hands are still in
deepest humiliation--they have almighty power but do not use this power in
majesty. John emphasizes the
consciousness of Jesus that all things were in his hands in contrast with the
traitorous hands of Judas and all the hellish powers that stood back of this
action. John intends to say that,
although Jesus knew all things were in his hands in those hours of hastening
toward his death, he did not smite the traitor and the foes in league with to
his son of perdition but followed his course of love, completed his mission,
and of himself laid down his life to take it up again.”
The hands that John has told us created the world wiped away
the dirt and dust from his disciples’ feet.
This same attitude of self-sacrificing service would take
Jesus to the cross. There he would
fulfill the Prophet Isaiah’s predictions regarding the work of the Suffering
Servant who would surrender himself to abuse for the sake of his people. There his goal would be salvation.
Now, his goal was to awaken his disciples to how much their
own attitudes needed to be transformed.
Of course, they didn’t waken to their need without
protest. Peter’s response shows this.
Peter protested that this just wasn’t right. It was clearly wrong for the teacher to wash
the feet of his disciples. Now, notice
that, at this point, Peter is only protesting the violation of cultural norms
and is, by no means, offering to finish the job himself.
Jesus’ initial response to Peter was direct and, possibly, not
unprecedented. He said, “Wait, Peter,
you don’t know what’s going on here.”
Peter, perhaps thinking he did know what was going on, said,
“No way, Lord. You’re not going to wash
my feet, not now or ever.”
Now, think about that, “Lord” and “No,” in the same
sentence. Before we scold Peter too much
we had probably better review the tapes to make sure we’ve never said something
similar.
Anyway, it’s Jesus next statement that really captures his
attention. Jesus said, “If I don’t wash
your feet, you have no part of me.” That
got Peter’s attention. But what was
Jesus saying?
I understand Jesus to mean something like this. “Peter, if you can’t submit to this, you
don’t understand what I’m all about. If
you don’t see the role humble service toward others has played in my work, you
can’t be on my team. If you still
believe you can tell me how I can and cannot carry out my mission, you’re not
ready to do my work.”
I’m going to talk about more about the dialogue Peter and
Jesus have in a moment. Right now, let
me observe some of the dynamics illustrated here. These dynamics continue to be at work in
almost every church.
Within every church there are those who are willing to be part
of “The Order of the Throne and the Crown.”
These are people who want to run things, people who insist on their
share of the accolades. Their life-verse
is Hezekiah 4:6, “If ye tooteth not thy own horn, the same shall not be
tooted.” (For the sake of those who
might be new to the Bible, stop looking in your index—I made that up.) Anyway, people who think like that create
cliques around themselves and encourage those cliques to be more loyal to them
than to the church. Because the status
quo has given them a place of prominence, they often make any real change
impossible.
Thankfully, within almost every church there are those who are
willing to be part of “The Order of the Towel and the Basin.” What a contrast these people are. They are the men and women who serve
faithfully year after year, never asking to be specially recognized. If their name is inadvertently omitted from
some list of workers being honored, they don’t angrily call the pastor to
complain. Whether the task they are
doing puts them in the spotlight or keeps them in the shadows doesn’t
matter. They’re simply glad for the
opportunity to serve.
In some churches the members of the Order of the Throne and
the Crown insist on having their contributions memorialized on brass plaques,
in those same churches you can sometimes find the members of the Order of the
Towel and the Basin quietly dusting those plaques.
But, now let’s go on with the story by considering …
The Servant’s Encouragement
The stories John recorded often involved layers of
meaning. Sometimes there is a story
within a story. The dialogue between
Jesus and Peter is almost parenthetical to this story about Jesus’ washing the
disciples’ feet. That story could have
been told without mentioning their discussion.
The dialogue reflected Peter’s response to Jesus’ warning that
a refusal to allow him to wash Peter’s feet would mean the disciple had “no
part” with Jesus.
An unnerved Peter exclaimed, ``Lord, wash not only my feet;
wash my hands and head, too!'' Peter was
probably thinking, “O, man, I’ve blown it again. I’d better make up for it. If washing my feet is good, washing the rest
of me has to be better.”
At this point Peter was still misunderstanding what Jesus was
about. He seems to have thought only in
terms of the ritual. He was confused but
that shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus had
already said, “You’re not going to understand just now, but you will later
on.”
So, Jesus responded by
with an observation which every person present would have understood—on a
purely physical level--Jesus said, ``The person who has already had a bath
needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean.” Traditionally, a Jewish person bathed before
the Passover meal; that being true, a
brief walk to the site of the meal would only make their feet dusty or
dirty. Having already washed their
bodies, only their feet would need washing.
That simple response seemed to satisfy Peter. The reference to one of them not being clean
was probably misunderstood to mean that someone had not bathed before
coming. Only later did he understand the
reference was to Judas and only later did he appreciate the full implications
of Jesus’ words, words that would be encouraging once they were understood.
Time would reveal there were two important principles and two
great promises implicit in this brief dialogue.
The principles demand we make a reality check when we examine our
spiritual lives. The promises are the
Servant-Savior’s encouragement in the face of what we discover.
Here are the two principles: First, there is a cleansing every person
needs if they would be a Christian.
Second, every Christian needs a source of continual cleansing to deal
with those sins that mar our fellowship with Christ.
Now, here are the two great promises: First, Jesus promises
the spiritual cleansing we need to become a Christian, one of his
followers. Because of his death on the
cross we may receive forgiveness when we place our faith in him. Jesus was
referring to what his great work on the cross would accomplish. The Servant Who Died would provide spiritual
cleansing for those who believed.
Second, Jesus promises the spiritual cleansing we need to deal
with those sins that threaten our fellowship with and effectiveness with
him. Bernard of Clairvaux understood
this was behind the imagery: "Feet-washing is cleansing of those daily
offenses which seem inevitable for those who walk in the dust of the world.”
Before the night was over Peter would fail Jesus
miserably. After the resurrection, he
would discover the reality of those promises.
Every person who would follow Jesus’ example as a servant
needs those promises. Without them we
can become spiritually self-centered, thinking only of how we can enhance our
chances of acceptance before God. With
those promises, we are free to serve others with sincerity and genuine selfless
concern.
We are then ready to hear,,,,
The Servant’s Exhortation
Jesus finished his menial task and returned to the table. Then he provided a brief explanation for his
outrageous behavior. (12-17)
That evening, when Jesus established the Order of the Towel
and Basin, he demonstrated a great humility.
He challenged his followers to think about what he had done, to consider
it in the light of their understanding of his identity.
They had called him “Teacher and Lord” and not once did he
contradict them. In fact, here and
elsewhere he accepted their assessment.
What they said about him was true.
In this role he had the perfect right to be served.
That was the basis of his challenge. And at
this point Jesus’ logic is clear:
If I’m not too good to do such an act of menial service, neither are
you.
So, Jesus said follow my example—I’ve washed your feet, you
wash one another’s feet.
I’ve already said I don’t believe Jesus was commanding us to
do exactly what he did that evening.
Instead, when he told them he had given them an example, I think he was
calling on them to discover ways to serve those they encountered, serve them
with a selfless love. He had provided a
pattern, now they would find ways to put it into practice.
One of the reasons I struggled with the foot-washing on the
youth missions was the fact that if felt most of our youth had been busy
“washing feet” all week.
I thought of the young boy who told me he had cleaned a toilet
in a soup kitchen, cleaned a toilet for the first time in his life. Now, I suspect the toilet at his home was often
cleaned—but I’ll let you guess who cleaned it.
I thought of how our youth played with the young children they
met, children who were sometimes dirty, children who touched their blond hair
with sticky fingers because they had never seen hair like it.
I thought of how our youth group, usually being the smallest,
so often had the privilege of cleaning up the restrooms at the end of the week.
They had already learned how to wash feet.
Conclusion
Over the centuries the church has often made its greatest
impression on a culture because simple Christians have washed the feet of those
no one else would touch.
In the Roman world, when plagues ravaged cities, Christians
didn’t join the exodus of those fleeing the disease. They stayed behind to help the sick and
dying. Those acts of compassionate
service cause the pagans to realize the anti-Christian propaganda was full of
lies, caused them to consider the claims of Christ.
In our own era, the ministry of nuns to AIDS patients made
most thinking people discount the attacks saying the church was indifferent to
the crisis.
Of course, there are many ways we can heed the Servant’s
exhortation, we only have to be willing to pick up the towel and the basin.
