Simon Peter saith unto Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
V. 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. V. 11. For He knew who should betray Him; therefore said He, Ye are not all clean.
Peter immediately became overenthusiastic and violently eager, desiring to have more than his share of the Lord's service, thinking it depended upon the extent of the outward washing, how close and certain the inward union and communion with Christ would be.
But Jesus curbs his eagerness about having also his hands and his head washed. Since the washing was symbolical only, it was not necessary that the whole body be washed with water. He whom the cleansing and sanctifying power of Jesus in His redemption has touched is altogether clean and holy in the sight of God. His disciples were clean; they had, by faith, accepted the redemption in His blood. They were justified from their sins.
And the sanctification of their lives must continue, as the washing of feet indicated; they must ever wash away and remove the filth of the sins that would persist in clinging to them and in soiling their flesh and their conscience. All believers have daily need of this cleansing from sins, it is necessary for them all, to lay aside the sin which does so continually beset them, Heb. 12, 1. That is the significance of the washing of feet.
And in making the declaration, Jesus deliberately makes one exception. One there was, the man that would betray Him, who was not clean, who had spurned the redemption and sanctification of his Savior, who had denied the faith completely by planning to deliver his Master into the hands of the unbelievers.