Welcome – let’s pray.
Okay, we will now hear the word of God set to music, sit in silence and when we come back pick the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet.
Music
Silence
Okay last week we read that Jesus exemplified humble service among the twelve apostles by dressing as a slave, and moving to wash their feet.
I made the mistake of saying that Judas had left them by this time – I was wrong – he was still there and will leave later.
I think this is even more significant since the Lord knew that Judas was going to go and betray Him but He treated Judas with love and respect anyway.
In any case the Lord, either coming to Peter first or when He arrived at Peter was met with a very impassioned rejection by this apostle.
So let’s pick it up at verse 6.
John 13.30
October 19th 2014
Milk
13:6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
9 Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
11 For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.
12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
So Jesus comes to Peter and Peter says:
“You are going to wash MY feet?”
Jesus responds by telling Peter that while he might not understand at the moment what or why Jesus was doing this someday he would.
Now verses 8 and 9 present us with a classic Peterism.
8 Peter (in the way ONLY Peter could do it) says, “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”And then Peter says: (verse 9) “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”
Here we are again – loving Peter. In verse eight he EMPHATICALLY DECLARES – “Thou shalt NEVER wash my feet.”
Total and utter reverence for the King, yes but a totally improper response at the same time.
See, Jesus had provided some complex and easy to misinterpret messages to Peter in their travels together – messages that with Peter being Peter it was probably easy for him to mix up their import and priority.
I mean Peter had seen the Lord do all sorts of miracles, and the Lord had asked him “who he thought He was” to which Peter replied, that “He was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
Additionally Peter had actually seen Moses and Elijah appear to Christ and Christ’s glory manifest itself on the Mount of Transfiguration, so He was in awe of Him as the Son of God.
But at the same time the Lord has moved forward to do something here, which He said would be understood someday, but Peter let the reverence he had for Jesus ride roughshod over fully trusting His actions.
I think it is entirely possible that Peter may have seen Jesus actions as a test, and that He was responding in the way he may have believed the Lord wanted.
We don’t know. But what we do know it this was certainly a teaching moment and Jesus wanted these men to understand some very important principles through what He was about to do.
Hearing Peter’s reaction Jesus responds perfectly toward the man and says:
“If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”
Now, the obvious application is in the literal washing of Peter’s feet. But the symbolism reaches far beyond feet washing. How can I say this?
I strongly doubt that after all that Jesus and the apostles had been through together that the literal rejection of having ones feet washed by Him) would cause Him to separate from them forever.
So first we can see the principle behind the action. What Jesus could have been saying is, “Peter, if you won’t let me do something as simple as washing your feet when I move to do it, how are you ever going to do other far more demanding things I require down the road. So if you can’t even submit to this it’s obvious that you have no part with me.”
This is the first principle we might consider.
Secondly, Jesus may have been speaking metaphorically. Washings, to the Jews, has always been emblematic of purification.
So when Jesus says to Peter:
“If I (meaning Christ) wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”
Revelation 1:5 says:
“. . . Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”
So this may be what the Lord was metonymically saying, and the feet washing was emblematic of Him ultimately washing them in His own blood.
Of course there is always a tie to washing and water baptism which many people believe is being pictured here . . . but I’m not one of them.
I say this because Jesus did not come to baptize with water but with the holy spirit so when He says:
“If I (meaning Christ) wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”
He has to be talking about rebirth and or the Holy Spirit that He baptizes with and not water baptism. Get it?
And if anyone is not EITHER washed in Christ’s blood OR baptized (washed) in the Holy Spirit they certainly would not have any part with Him would they?
He wouldn’t have changed them and they wouldn’t consider Him their Lord – so they would literally have NO PART WITH HIM.
Upon hearing this we see the adorable child-like humility of Peter as He completely reverses his earlier stance and says (verse 9)
9 “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
Jesus, having tied the principle to Peter and his salvation was able to take the strong emphatic position of Peter and turn it on it’s head.
And with characteristic readiness and openness, and transparency Peter expressed the inner devotion he had for the Lord.
He could have just said, “Okay then, Lord, was my feet.” But realizing what Jesus was saying and what hung in the balance Peter made an astute connection – “if your NOT washing my feet means I have no place with you then wash my whole body!”
Maybe Peter saw through the washing of feet example and understood the spiritual application and expressed this understanding in the hyperbole.
Maybe He momentarily understood the freedom what being cleansed from all sin could look like, and he wanted his whole soul – mind, will, and emotion – to be with the Lord, to be washed clean by Him, and totally immersed in His love, will, and work.
We get glimpses into this state as believers at times. Not just to be forgiven, but to be totally free from all earthly set-backs and fleshly inclinations, to be in total unity with God, what the word calls utter sanctification.
It is possible to experience here if we are willing to let it take root.
First we ought to understand utter and total sanctification when we are born again.
Like the thief on the cross, when we received in Him we are both justified before God (forgiven of all sin) and simultaneously sanctified (made utterly holy).
How? Through Christ. His perfect life of righteousness is imputed to all at that moment. So right then and there every Christian is forgiven AND imputed with the righteousness of Christ by . . .? that’s right, faith.
We then experience sanctification of the Spirit throughout our Christian walk.
LISTEN CLOSELY to this line (ready?)
Armed with the knowledge that we have both been forgiven and sanctified by faith in the Lord alone . . . we walk and live and act over time (and through trial and error) being sanctified.
This is processional, it takes time, and we might best describe it as the “dying of the self to the flesh.”
It’s not easy, it takes work and this work is best seen as LOVE – love for God (because of what we know He has gifted us with – forgiveness and righteousness through His Son) and love for our fellow man (because this is command).
This is earthly sanctification. It is where the fruits are produced which is what the Father seeks of all who are His Son’s – fruits of love.
So, again, we have justification and sanctification which occurs the moment we believe.
Knowledge of this serves as the FOUNDATION upon which believers live and operate.
The second phase of it occurs in and along our Christian walk and it is manifested by our dying to our will and living to His.
Finally, total and utter sanctification, one where the bodies we inhabit are no longer subject to sin and selfish inclination, occurs at death, where we are raptured, judged, receive our resurrected bodies, and enter into our eternities with Him.
And it all begins with being washed by Jesus. Which is what is being modeled here.
So now that Peter has received the highly symbolic and purposeful washing of feet (and has even asked that the Lord was the whole of him (essentially) Jesus says to him (verse 10)
10 “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
Now, historically this passage has been debated to meaning and I frankly cannot understand why.
To me it is utterly clear, relative to the context. But others have wanted to understand it in other ways and isn’t this the way it is?
We are all different and so we often all see things differently. I honestly think God allows for this but I also believe that those who seek Him in spirit and truth will ultimately – by His Spirit and His truth – more often than not see clearly.
In any case this passage has been interpreted to mean that Jesus was
Talking about ceremonial washings before Passover (though there is no evidence in scripture related to such and Passover) and that Jesus was saying that they were all clean to eat the Passover meal with the exception of the feet needing to be cleaned.
Or some suggest that this was Jesus actually instructing his apostles on how to prepare for social engagements in terms of outer cleanliness.
Then there are those who believe Jesus was saying that in terms of being washed and clean from the soul. I would agree. He is probably speaking to internal purity. The Lord was constantly taking and talking about external things and applying them to the internal heart and I think this is no exception.
Peter had just asked the Lord to wash his head and hands too and so in light of this we might understand Jesus to be saying:
“He that is washed (by me) needeth not (any more washing of any other kind) except (save) to wash his feet, because if I have washed Him he is totally clean (clean every whit).”
Get that?
Then he add a little line that can mess you up if you don’t read on to the next verse. He adds:
“and ye are clean, but not all.”
Simply put, the Lord says:
“And you apostles, because you have been cleansed by me, are clean . . . but not all of you.” (meaning Judas)
We know this because of what John writes in verse 11
11 For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, “Ye are not all clean.”
Okay. Verse 12
12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, “Know ye what I have done to you?”
And He tells them. (13)
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
Now. I would love to make this say that Jesus was saying that He is their heavenly Lord and Heavenly master because I believe that is what He is saying.
But the words that are used themselves for Lord kurios and master didascalos are words that are assigned to all types of people in scripture.
Lord (kurios) means one who is in supreme authority and it is certainly applied to Jesus hundreds of times in the New Testament.
But He is more than just a koo-ree os – He is the Kooree-os. In this passage the Greek does not bear this interpretation but it is in other places.
The Word master is translated from the greek word for teacher. It is also assigned to others in scripture but of course, like Lord, it is supremely assigned to the Master teacher Christ.
I love what the Lord says here to his disciples, though:
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. (verse 14)
14 “If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
As mentioned last week some have taken this verse and suggest that Jesus instituted a religious rite here but we have to note that the practice between the apostles or other leadership in the early church is not noted, and in the one time it is noted it’s in 1st Timothy 5:10, where Paul, addressing widows, lays out the good labors one would be involved in, saying she would be:
“Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.”
Obviously, the Lord was emblematically using feet washing as a symbol for humble service between these men, and then among the church they would manage.
Boiled down, perhaps the best meaning of what Jesus is saying is:
Be humble.
Serve each other.
Serve others.
Remove vanity from your person.
Avoid ambition.
Resist being seen as powerful in the world but as a servant of all.
(15) For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
AS you know by now, the “verily, verily” is an emphatic preface to His words. We might paraphrase them as, “LISTEN, this is important, LISTEN!”
And this is what He says:
“The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.”
In other words, He has told them that He is the Lord, and then He adds:
The servant is NOT greater that His Lord nor is He that is sent greater that the one who sends him.
So let’s first look at this relative to Jesus Himself.
He is called God’s Servant in scripture. And God is the one who sent Him and so we can readily see and say that He, Jesus of Nazareth, was not Greater than His Father (who is also the one who sent Him).
Then, we can apply it to the apostles, over whom He is Lord.
They were His servants, and He was their Lord, therefore they were not greater than He (as He was the one who also sent them out into the world).
In this we have an order, a hierarchy or “line of authority” if you will.
The Father is greater than the Son whom He sent and the Son is greater than apostles whom He sent.
This takes us back to verse 14:
“If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
‘You are not greater than me and I have served you (washed your feet) in this manner – you do the same.
And reading that Jesus said this to the apostles we can apply this to ourselves, as He tells them (verse 15)
17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
The Greek word for happy is also interpreted as fortunate and as blessed.
In this verse the Greek expresses this in the first class active indicative which means it is conditional and must be a continued action to remain in effect.
In other words as a means to prove Jesus words true a person must do what He says, in the spirit with which it was said, and to continue in this for it to continue to be effective.
When I meet people who are depressed, or feeling out of touch with the meaning of life, or weak and tired in their faith, I could NOT recommend ANYTHING more than what Jesus is telling His apostles right here.
The exception to this is if someone is serving without the Christian parameters in place such service can become a crushing burden which will ruin them instead of making them happy or blessed or fortunate.
This being said we have to then decide what needs to be in place first before selfless service will translate into happiness or good fortune for the soul.
I would suggest that a person must be in possession of a deep and abiding gratitude for Jesus – who He is, what He did, and how it actually translates to their life.
When this view is in place it removes ego, and selfishness (of time and talents and money and strength) that can lead to resentment when service is mandatorily applied or demanded.
When we firmly realize that we are recipients of His grace and salvation and blessings we are more apt to serve without guile.
This world view is reiterated in scripture which we will get to in a second.
Secondly, I think if we love and appreciate God for all He has done but have issues with loving our fellowman then the attitude that we are serving Christ (not men) we are likely to rejoice in the service rather than resent it.
To Christian slaves and servants, who would have some real reason to begrudge their masters, Paul said:
Ephesians 6:5 “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
6 Not with eye service, as men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord,(listen) and not to men:
8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.”
The only way such an attitude seems to be possible, while living in the flesh, is to truly believe that we are truly serving Christ in our labors.
And if we really want to ensure against burn-out, and resentment there’s another perspective or attitude that helps beyond measure.
True humility. Paul says (in Romans 12:10)
“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another.”
Philippians 2:3-4 adds:
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”
1st Corinthians 10:24 says, “Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s well-being.”
Nine verses later 1st Corinthians 10:33 says:
“Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.”
The paradoxical element of this type of Christian service is that while it comes with truly selfless and truly humble action it produces . . . (beat) . . . liberty.
Utter freedom in Him.
James summarizes it all this way. Listen:
(James 1:25) But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty (which is love which is a verb), and continueth therein (there’s that instruction that this type of love is not flash in the pan actions but a way of life), he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be “blessed” (fortunate, happy) in his deed.”
So, the application?
If you are feeling down, useless, tired, unloved, depressed, a failure, distant from God, alienated from humankind – serve them.
Selflessly. Without fanfare. Without expectation.
Freely.
And in the process, you will be made free of whatever holds you bound. The more freely we serve each other the more free we individually become.
I guarantee it.
(beat)
Let’s read our text for next week and see how far we get in it before wrapping our time up together now.
I am going to expound on the pertinent points as we read to cover ground.
