John 13:1-17: Washing the Disciple's Feet

(1) Sermon Script

Introduction: The Paradox of Hedonism

The ‘paradox of hedonism’ is something that even atheistic philosophers have observed. The ‘paradox of hedonism’ observes that the one who pursues his own pleasure as a goal will never attain it, but the one who loses himself in the pursuit of a cause bigger and better than himself or herself will along the way find the pleasure he refused to serve as an end in itself. It’s not really that far from what Jesus says: “the one who saves his life will lose it, but the one who loses his life for me and the gospel will find it.” (Mark 8:35) The happiest people are the least self-conscious, least absorbed with themselves, and most intent on serving the God who made them and their neighbours who are made with them. They forget themselves, and remember others. And they learn that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

And how much more fitting is it for us Christians, who believe that the triune God is other person-centred in himself, to accept this paradox, and live for God and neighbor above self.

On the night before he died, Jesus gave an example and a command to ensure we benefit from the ‘paradox of hedonism’, not just now, but into eternity.

Jesus’ Reasons for Serving (vv. 1-5)

Of the Gospel writers, only John records Jesus washing his disciples’ feet on the night before Jesus died. It is one of the reasons we can thank God for the Gospel according to John. John didn’t record for us the last supper. He did not record the infancy narrative, or the account of Jesus’ baptism, or the temptation. But John did not want us to think about the night before Jesus died without thinking of Jesus rising from the meal and washing his disciple’s feet.

And John not only tells us about the act of Jesus’ washing his disciples feet. He also cracks open the event. John tells us what was driving and motivating Jesus. Why did Jesus do this provocative and shocking act? John tells us. And he does so in quite a long preface and preparation to the act. And the reason Jesus did it was because Jesus loved them. Verse 1:

13:1Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, seeing that his hour had come, so that he would transfer from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Jesus loves his disciples. Why does Jesus wash their feet? Because he loves them. Jesus loves his disciples a lot.

What is love? It is a thoroughgoing and passionate commitment to the good of the other. It is an other-person centred, outward looking orientation. Jesus forgets himself, and consider others better than himself. That is why Jesus came from his Father in the first place. The reason the Word became flesh, and left the glory that he had with the Father before the world began, was love. Christ the good shepherd loves his sheep (John 10:1-21, 22-42). He has a relentless and unshakable commitment to their good. Jesus Christ will only ever do what is for the ultimate good of his sheep.

But this love Jesus Christ has for his disciples is not exercised in a vacuum. Jesus does not love in a situation where everyone loves him. A traitor is in the room, an instrument of Satan. Jesus knows he is about to be betrayed, and yet he still loves. Verse 2:

13:2And when the evening meal had come, when the devil at that time had put it into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray him,

Love rarely lives in tranquility. Love must breathe in air thick with betrayal and animosity. Love must ignore the contempt and keep on loving. Jesus’ other person-centredness, his love, is not derailed by the real risks that he himself faces. Jesus is determined to act for his disciples’ good, even when great evil awaits him.

Jesus was, and still is, a real man. Yes, Jesus was and is fully God. But you cut Jesus, he bleeds, as John will soon tell us. So how could Jesus continue with all that other-person-centredness, when he knew that Satan had entered one of the twelve, and wicked men were about to kill him? Again, John’s Gospel, the Gospel giving the inside view, cracks open Jesus’ thinking for us. Jesus can love in the midst of hate because Jesus knows who he is and what he means to his Father. From chapter 13 verses 3 and 4:

13:3knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand, and that he had come from God and he was going to God, 13:4he [Jesus] got up from the evening meal [...]

Jesus serves because he is secure in his Father’s love. Jesus serves from a position of personal confidence and assurance. Jesus knows who he is: God the only- begotten Son of the Father. Jesus knows where he is from: he comes from the bossom of the Father. He was with God and was God, and became flesh for us and our salvation. And Jesus knows where he is going: he is returning to the Father, to the glory he had before the world began (John 17:5). Sure, it’s through the cross that he returns to the Father. But after his suffering, then the Son will return to his glory. And in the process, he is redeeming an innumerable people for himself.

Jesus’ Service is Surprising and Initially Unwelcome (vv. 6-8)

And so Jesus doesn’t just lie there, allowing himself to be served. He disrupts the meal. He gets up from the table.

Now, at dinner time at your house, I bet that when everyone has sat down, when all the food is dished out, and served up, and God is thanked for it, it is always a disruption when someone gets up from the table. It’s annoying if someone rings the phone. It’s not acceptable if someone wants to go back to their screen. And its just plain rude if someone doesn’t come when they are called.

In our family, we try to remind our kids to ask permission to leave the table. We call them back if they have get up and forget to come back, because we think the family meal is pretty important. Sure, you can have TV dinner occasionally. But staying for table dinner, and not getting up, well that’s good manners.

But Jesus is impatient to do something, so he interrupts the meal by getting up and making a spectacle of himself. During the meal, he does something unexpected, surprising, and initially, unwelcome.

Jesus gets up. He takes off his outer garment in their view. Jesus was most likely bare chested and just had his loincloth on. He puts his garment aside. Then Jesus wraps a towel around his waist and pick up a bowl of water.

And no doubt, the disciples stop speaking, as they recline around the low stone table, eating, resting on their elbows, with their heads next to the table, and their legs and feet radiating out from the table. What’s going on here, they think? This isn’t what Jesus did last year? And what does the half-naked Jesus, their Lord do? He unobtrusively circles them, going from pair of feet to pair of feet, quietly putting water on their dirty, crusty Galilean feet. He cups his hands, pours water on their feet, rubs their roughened feet with his wet fingers and palms, rubs the sweaty black streaks out of the creases in their feet. Undaunted by the possibility of ancient tinea, Jesus’ hands pass lovingly over hardened and cracked Galilean heels, sharp jagged toe nails, callouses, and bunyons. And then, once adequately clean, Jesus probably places each foot in his lap, and wipes them dry with his towel around his waist.

The first observation we can make is that originally they all thought it was unnecessary. After all, they had survived most of the meal with their feet not needing to be washed. Come on Lord, forget about it and sit down. Now’s not the time.

The second observation is that it was a servant's job. Perhaps a household slave boy or child would have done this sort of service for the guests. It’s the sort of thing a valet or lady’s maid does in Downton Abbey, saying ‘My Lord’ or ‘My Lady’, while they dress their master or mistress. It would be the equivalent of getting a shoe shine.

The third thing is, it is intimate. Washing and touching feet is not something that you will allow anyone to do. At the risk of being thought to have a foot fetish, let me observe that feet are intimate things. I’m sure you would more easily consent to shake my hand than allow me to touch your feet. There is an intimacy about feet, which is why I suppose some women like to have them in fancy shoes. Feet are ticklish. And they look funny, because they are all different. You don’t let anyone touch your feet.

And we can imagine that the disciples are just watching Jesus. They never usually would watch this task being done. Perhaps they wouldn’t normally have given the person doing this job a second glance. But now each of them can only look at their Lord as he circulates around them.

Some churches have a ritual foot washing to remember this event that John records. There are foot washing Baptists, who believe you only do communion properly when you have the footwashing. When I was a Roman Catholic, each year in the run up to Easter, the priest would have twelve people from the congregation gather round the altar and he would wash their feet. The pope would also do it for 12 cardinals. I reckon they would have been the cleanest feet in the country. It would be like cleaning your teeth before going to the dentist. I might not have cleaned my teeth for a week, but I will make sure I give them a good brush and floss if the dentist will be sticking his nose in my mouth. Don’t laugh, you ladies are the same. I know what you lot are like. When you organize for the paid cleaner to come in, you all tidy up and vacuum before the cleaner gets there. Quick, the cleaner is coming. We better clean up.

Now, I reckon the rule at Our Lady of Fatima would have been, ‘“Make sure your feet are clean before father gets to them. Wear your best shoes and clean socks. Don’t make father smell your stinky feet.” I understand that recently the new pope washed the feet for 12 homeless people. Good on him. That’s more like the sort of feet Jesus would have washed—ones that didn’t get scrubbed up beforehand.

Perhaps a more telling example for us in our ‘well heeled world’ would be cleaning up vomit, picking up dog poo, scraping off the nappies, or cleaning out the sulo bin so that it doesn’t stink. You know it’s a job that needs to be done. But you don’t save it up for your Christmas guests, do you?

God willing, Peter Jensen, our former Archbishop, and his wife Christine, are coming to join us for our combined launch service. Imagine if I said to them at that service, “Well, it’s great that Archbishop Jensen and his wife Christine are here today. Because we do need a bit of help in our church. We’re not a very big church, as you can see. And the more help the better. So can I get you two to clean our toilet block. I’m glad you’ve brought Christine with you, because after that, we can put her to work in the kitchen for our brunch!”

Would you not, my dear brothers and sister, be embarrassed if I as your rector actioned that plan for getting our necessary jobs done? Would that bring shame on us, if I acted in such an inappropriate way to our honoured special guests? Wouldn’t you say, if you saw Archbishop Jensen heading out to the toilets with mop and bucket, or Christine in the kitchenette, “What are you doing? No, that’s not why we’ve asked you here. Leave that. We’ll make sure Matthew our Rector does that as penance.”

And if Peter pressed on doing those jobs, you would make me go out and stop him. And I would go out and say to him, “Um, Peter and Christine, thanks for the thought, but it would really embarrass me, and it would embarrass the people of our parish, if you did that job. I and they don’t want you to do it. Please stop.”

It would be like going into my Maltese nanna’s kitchen and attempt to cook the tumpana or the figoli, or the baked potatoes, for the Christmas lunch. If you know what’s good for you, get out now. Because it is shaming and humbling nanna for you to even think of doing that job.

Think of what has just transpired before we get to John chapter 13. Less than a week beforehand, Jesus has miraculously guided two of his disciples to the right house, and and pre-organized the loan of a young donkey colt and its mother. He then provocatively rides the foal into Jerusalem, in fulfillment Zechariah 9. He has accepted the acclamation of the crowd on the first Palm Sunday as he entered Jerusalem, as they sing the words of Psalm 118 to him. The Messiah, the King of Kings that God had long promised in the Old Testament Scriptures to save his people, has now come. His enemies, the religious leaders, see that the whole world has gone after him. His disciples saw it all. And they are glad to be part of it. And now he, the King of Kings, the Son of God, wants to wash their feet! They weren’t going to send him out to clean the toilet block when he comes to Jerusalem to take the kingdom God had promised him. And Peter wasn’t going to let Jesus keeping going and wash away his tinea and foot odour and toe jam. The others are speechless, but not Peter. True to type, he speaks up. The one who took Jesus aside and rebuked him for saying the Christ must suffer and dies says no once again to his Lord. Verses 6 to 8:

13:6So he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 13:7Jesus answered and said to him, “You do not understand now what I am doing, but after these things you will understand. 13:8 Peter said to him, “You will most certainly never wash my feet!” [...]

Peter’s reaction is a strong one. “You will certainly never wash my feet forever.” And he did so for the same reason that you don’t let your friends see your toilet after your thoughtless little grandsons fail yet again to put the seat up before they do a wee. It’s embarrassing. It’s not why you’ve invited them over. It’s a little too much information to be sharing with your friends.

You Must Be Served to Be Saved (vv. 8b-11)

Jesus again corrects the leader of the apostles. Peter must be gently rebuked, for his sake, and the sake of the others. And Jesus’ point is a simple one. To be saved by Jesus, you must be served by Jesus. No one is saved by Jesus who is not also served by Jesus. Verse 8, halfway through:

13:8 […] Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.”

Unless you let Jesus serve you, you cannot be saved. You cannot be part of Jesus Christ, included in Jesus Christ, unless you let him wash you.

Jesus of course is performing an acted out parable. It is an illustration, an example, a teaching point, that he is making. That is, Jesus is about to go to the cross to die for our sins. And by Christ’s death, by his blood, our sins are washed away. He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, the lifted-up saviour that sin-sick people look to and live, the one who will die for all the scattered children of God, to make them one. The washing of the disciples' feet anticipates the washing of their sins by Jesus’ blood. The blood and water from his side is what cleanses us and makes us clean in his sight.

And so the question I need to ask you, my friends, is ‘Are you being served?’ Have you let Jesus serve you? Are you humble enough to realize that you need Jesus to wash your feet, meaning, to die for your sins? Have you renounced your faith in your own cleanness, and gratefully receive the humbling cleansing that Jesus gives you? Jesus will not tolerate any in his kingdom whom he has not first washed clean. You cannot be saved without Jesus serving you.

And Peter responds well to his rebuke. Well done Peter. It’s OK to say something dumb, if you are prepared to change your mind 180 degrees when Jesus says to. Peter goes from you will certainly never ever wash my feet forever to verse 9:

13:9Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”

I never ever will eat at McDonalds forever. Sorry, there’s only McDonalds. It’s this or going hungry. OK, I’ll take the Large McAngus Meal with a large Coke Zero and Sweet Potato Wedges.

His stubbornness melts with a word from Jesus. Well done Peter. Peter wants to be washed by Jesus. And you too must copy Peter, friends. You need to be washed of your sins. And you should say to Jesus, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well. “Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me saviour or I die.”

All of this is a metaphor for spiritual matters. The filth we need to be washed from is our sin. We have too many sins to claim to be clean in God’s sight. And that is why Jesus came to earth, to suffer and die, taking the punishment for our sins, so that we don’t have to. He bore our sins in his body on the tree, and endured the wrath of God on our behalf for our transgressions.

Do you feel that your sins are washed away by the blood, the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ? Do you trust that the promise of God, whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life applies to you, yes you? Have you accepted the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for your sins? Yes? Good. Then you have been served by Christ, and you are part of him, heaven is your home, and nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Those Saved by Jesus’ Service Must Serve One Another As Slaves (vv. 12-17)

And so now I can talk to you as the saved, as the redeemed, as God’s special and dearly loved people, as his sheep who hear his voice, as the washed people that you are. I speak now to you who know and feel that Christ truly took your sins on the cross and purchased your salvation with his own blood, and that our salvation is as sure as the word of God which says, “Whoever believes has eternal life”. And this is what I say. As God’s saved people, washed and set apart, wholly cleansed by Jesus Christ and set apart for him, “Serve one another”. Verse 14:

13:14Therefore, if I, the ‘Lord’ and ‘teacher’, have washed your feet, you also are obliged to wash one another’s feet.

'Should' is a bit weak. It should read, ‘must’. You must wash one another’s feet. You are obligated and obliged and owe it to them that you wash other Christian’s feet. You are under a footwashing debt, a debt of gratitude for your salvation and cleansing. You have been cleansed and washed by Jesus. Therefore, you too must wash those whom Jesus Christ loves.

The argument is from greater to lesser. If the greater one Jesus, the Lord and teacher, washes feet, so must the lesser ones, you and I, Jesus’ slaves, and the ones Jesus has sent out to serve.

You must wash one another’s feet, not literally, but in the sense of serving the owners of those feet, by considering them better than yourself, by loving them as yourself, of serving them humbly and lovingly and tenderly and self sacrificially. And Jesus gives us two things in this passage to help us do this. We look back and see that we have an example. Verse 15:

13:15For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.

You don’t have to be smart and make it up for yourself and reinvent the wheel. It’s just a matter of copying Jesus. Serve other Christians by doing the yukky awful jobs, taking initiative when no one sees that it needs to be done. Just be like Christ Jesus, and you will get it right. And we look forward and see that we will be blessed. Verse 17:

13:17If you understand these things, blessed are you if you do them.

If you busy yourself serving others of those who are Christ’s sheep, you will be blessed more than you can ask or imagine, both in this life and in the life to come. Lose yourself in the great program of Jesus Christ, of serving God with all your heart soul mind and strength and your fellow human as yourself, and you will never be happier. Give up your life in the great mission of Christ Jesus, and you will keep your life for an eternity, and you will have joy that sickness and sadness and death and hell will never take away.

And not just in this life will you have this blessedness, but you will have blessedness greater than all you can ask for and imagine in all eternity. For God will reward all your work of service. Even the cup of cold water given in Christ’s name will not miss out on its reward. God rewards the works of faith in abundance. It will be the best return on any investment you will ever get.

Conclusion

It might be that some of you don’t want Jesus to wash you. People don’t want to be washed if they feel they are already clean.

But I hope that you realize you need Jesus to wash you. You must let Jesus serve you. If you don’t let Jesus wash you, you have no part of him. That is, if Jesus has not washed you, you aren’t a Christian. Jesus requires the relationship of Lord Servant with you. He is your Lord, and he is your Saviour. Jesus must be both, the Lord who saves, and the saviour who is Lord. Be like Peter: “Not just my feet, but my hands and my head.”

But if Jesus has washed you, know that you are obliged and must serve others. That is the command of our Lord and saviour: copy me, give yourself fully to your work of service in the Lord. Lose yourself in the service of God and others. Throw yourself not into ‘hedonism’, but the ‘paradox of hedonism’, which is to love God with all your heart soul mind and strength and your neighbour as yourself, particularly your Christian neighbour, the one another around you. It won’t be wasted effort, it will not be in vain. Jesus promises you will be blessed if you serve one another. So do it.

Let’s pray.

(2) English Translation

My Translation

13:1Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, seeing that his hour had come, so that he would transfer from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

13:2And when the evening meal had come, when the devil at that time had put it into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray him, 13:3knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand, and that he had come from God and he was going to God, 13:4he got up from the evening meal and put on the garments, and taking a towel, he tied it around himself. 13:5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of his disciples, and to dry them off with the towel which he had tied around him.

13:6So he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 13:7Jesus answered and said to him, “You do not understand now what I am doing, but after these things you will understand. 13:8 Peter said to him, “You will most certainly never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.”

13:9Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” 13:10Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but the whole person is clean. And you are clean, but not all of you.” 13:11For he knew who was going to betray him. For this reason he had said that “Not all of you are clean”.

13:12So when he had washed their feet, and put on his clothes and reclined again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you 13:13You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘Lord’, and well you say this, for I am. 13:14Therefore, if I, the ‘Lord’ and ‘teacher’, have washed your feet, you also are obliged to wash one another’s feet. 13:15For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.

13:16Truly truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his Lord, neither is an apostle greater than the one sending him. 13:17If you understand these things, blessed are you if you do them.