Christ washes His disciples’ feet
13
📚Now before the Passover 📖 Feast, Jesus, knowing that the time when he should go from this world to the Father, having loved his own 📖 who were in the world, he loved 📖 them to the end. 2 📚And supper being ended, the devil 📖 having already put into the heart of Judas 📖 Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 📚Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands 📖, and that he had come from God and went to God, 4 📚got up from supper, took off his outer garments, took a towel, and wrapped it around himself. 5 📚After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel which had been wrapped around him.
13:4-5 He knew He was God the Son, had come from God the Father, and was returning to Him. Yet He here performed the work of the lowliest servant. This shows His humility and desire to serve rather than be served. See Matt 11:29; 20:25-28; Phil 2:6-8. How different was He from many now who profess to be His servants and disciples!⚜
6 📚Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 📚Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you will not understand now, but afterwards you will understand”.
8 📚Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet”. Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me”.
13:6-8 To Peter it did not seem fitting that one he knew to be the Christ the Son of the living God (Matt 16:16) should perform the task of a menial servant. Even though Jesus told him this act had a meaning which he would later understand Peter flatly refused to allow it. Peter’s words on the surface may seem to indicate humility, but they reveal a certain arrogance as well. Did he think he knew better than the Lord Jesus what should be done? (See also Matt 16:22; Isa 40:13-14). Who is any mere man to refuse to accept what the Son of God would do for him? There may be many of His ways with us we do not understand now, but we must humbly allow Him to minister to us as He wishes (Rom 11:33-34). Some day we will understand the meaning of all He does with us, in us, to us, for us. There is a spiritual meaning behind His words “no part with me”. He is saying that it is necessary to cleanse His disciples from sin if they are to have fellowship with Him. See 1 John 1:7-9.⚜
9 📚Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”
10 📚Jesus said to him, “He who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet. He is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you”.
13:10 These believers in Christ had complete cleansing from sin when they first trusted in Christ. This is called the “washing of new birth” – Titus 3:5; John 3:5. Those who have this do not need to have it again and again. In fact, they cannot have it again and again. Birth is a once and for all thing, and the Bible nowhere speaks of new spiritual birth being received by an individual more than once.
But in their Christian walk in this sinful world their spiritual “feet” may get dirty – sin may cling to them and need washing away (see Luke 11:4; Ps 51:4; Rom 7:18-19; Jam 3:2). This Christ does as often as needed (compare Eph 5:25-26). By saying not everyone of them was “clean” Jesus meant that Judas had never experienced the washing of the new birth (Titus 3:5). He was still filthy in heart, mind and soul.⚜
11 📚For he knew who would betray him, so he said, “You are not all clean”.
12 📚So after he had washed their feet, taken his garments, and sat down again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?
13:12 He washed the feet of all including those of Judas the traitor – an illustration of how to deal with enemies. Compare Matt 5:43-44; Rom 12:17-21. The question the Lord asked has to do with the spiritual meaning of what He had done. He did not need to ask if they understood the physical act.⚜
13 📚You call me Teacher and Lord. And you say rightly so, for I am that 📖. 14 📚If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
13:14 The author of these notes does not believe that the Lord Jesus was appointing another ordinance to the Church such as baptism and communion. He was speaking of the humble service each believer should be willing to perform for any other in the ordinary matters of life, whether washing of feet or any other service. He may mean also that believers are to try to help other believers find cleansing from any sin that may cling to them in their Christian walk. This they might do by speaking God’s Word to them (John 15:3), and leading them to find cleansing through the Lord Jesus (1 John 1:9).⚜
15 📚For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.
16 📚“Truly, truly I say to you, the servant is not greater than his lord, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 📚If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
13:17 There is a blessing of God which comes only by doing what Christ says – Luke 11:28. Mere hearing is not enough (Jam 1:22-23). Notes on blessing at Gen 12:1-3; Num 6:22-27; Ps 1:1; 119:1; Matt 5:3-12.⚜
Christ foretells His betrayal by Judas
18 📚I do not speak about all of you. I know whom I have chosen. But that the Scripture might be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.’ 19 📚Now I tell you before it happens, so that when it happens, you will believe that I am he.
20 📚“Truly, truly I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me”.
13:20 Matt 10:40; Mark 9:37; Luke 9:48; 10:16. Those whom Christ sends are His ambassadors, His representatives (2 Cor 5:20). To accept them is the same as accepting the Father and the Son who sends them. But when people present themselves as Christ’s servants we must make very sure that God has sent them. Satan has his own servants and ambassadors whom he sends into the world and into the churches (2 Cor 11:13-15; Acts 20:29).⚜
21 📚When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in spirit and testified, saying, “Truly, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me”.
22 📚Then the disciples looked at one another, in doubt about whom he spoke.
13:22 They were all (except Judas) utterly amazed. None of them, it seems, had suspected Judas for a moment.⚜
23 📚Now one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was leaning against Jesus’ chest.
24 📚So Simon Peter gestured to him, that he should ask who it was of whom he was talking. 25 📚Then he, leaning back against Jesus’ chest, said to him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 📚Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I give a piece of bread, when I have dipped it in the dish”. And when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
27 📚And after the piece of bread, Satan went into him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly”.
13:27 Luke 22:3. Before this, Satan had put the idea of betrayal in the mind of Judas (v 2), and Judas had long been following the ways of Satan (John 6:70; 12:6). Now Satan possessed him completely – a terrible fact which brought Judas to a terrible end (Matt 27:3-5). Jesus’ words to Judas show that His time had come and He was prepared to endure the act of betrayal; let Judas not waste time about it (John 7:30; 12:1).⚜
28 Now no one at the table knew the reason why he said this to him. 29 📚For some of them thought, because Judas had the money bag, that Jesus had said to him, “Buy the things that we need for the feast”, or that he should give something to the poor.
13:29 See John 12:6. The dullness of the disciples is sometimes surprising.⚜
30 📚He then, having received the piece of bread, immediately went out. And it was night.
13:30 Judas knew what Jesus meant even though the others did not. It was then literally night outside, spiritually night in Judas, the beginning of the hour of darkness on earth (Luke 22:53). It would seem that Judas went out after the events of Matt 26:26-29. See Luke 22:20-21.⚜
Christ foretells Peter’s denial
31 📚Therefore, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of man 📖 is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 📚If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and will immediately glorify him.
13:32 This refers to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Because Jesus willingly endured the death of the cross God raised Him up and highly exalted Him at His own right hand in heaven (Acts 2:32-33; 3:13-15; Phil 2:6-11).⚜
33 📚Little children, I will be with you only for a little while. You will look for me, and, as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ Now I say this to you.
13:33 This is the only time Jesus called His disciples “little children”. It indicates His tender love for them. Compare 1 John 2:1, 12, 13, 18, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21. See also Matt 18:2-3.⚜
34 📚A new 📖 commandment I give to you, That you love one another. As I have loved you, you must also love one another.
13:34 On the night before He died one of the things uppermost in His mind was the need of all His disciples to love one another. And He did not merely request or advise them to do so – He issued a command. This command He gave three times (John 15:12, 17). See also Rom 13:8; Gal 5:13-14; Eph 5:2; Phil 2:2; Col 2:2; 1 Thess 3:12; 4:9; Heb 13:1; Jam 2:8; 1 Pet 1:22; 2:17; 3:8; 1 John 3:11, 18, 23; 1 John 4:7.⚜
35 📚By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.
13:35 If Christians love one another, this will be evidence to people outside the Church (and to themselves – 1 John 3:14) that they are true Christians, real followers of Christ. People will not be convinced of this if Christians bite and devour one another (Gal 5:15), cheat and deceive each other (1 Cor 6:8), etc, as so often happens.⚜
36 📚Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Now you cannot follow me where I am going, but you will follow me later”.
13:36 The disciples were very dull in understanding spiritual matters before the event described in Luke 24:45. He had told them more than once of His approaching death (Matt 16:21). Notice here that Peter passed completely over Christ’s command about love and questions Jesus about a thing He said before. Now many Christians would rather speculate about what Christ does than earnestly strive to do what they should do. Of course Christ was speaking of His ascension into heaven.⚜
37 📚Peter said to him, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for your sake”.
13:37 It seems Peter still did not understand Christ’s meaning. And he did not understand his own nature. See Matt 26:31-35. We can learn from this that there may be much ignorance of one’s own heart in even the most prominent disciples of Christ. How many of us are aware that the seeds of every sin are planted deeply in our fallen nature? How many are self-confident and boastful when they should bow humbly in the dust? See Jer 17:9; 1 Cor 10:12; Prov 16:18.⚜
38 📚Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for my sake? Truly, truly I say to you, the rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.
13:38 Though men themselves may not know what is in them, Christ knows – John 2:24-25.⚜