Day 1108: Servants of Jesus - John 13 vs 6 - 17

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterwards you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10-11 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you (plural) are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12-15 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16-17 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. John 13:6-17 English Standard Version

How often the apostle Peter was the spokesman for many of us. When the disciples were startled to see Jesus walking on the water, Peter said: “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” When Jesus said that it's not what goes into one's mouth, but what comes out that defiles him, it was Peter who asked Jesus to “explain the parable to us.” When Jesus spoke of going to Jerusalem, and the suffering He would experience, Peter replied “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” And it was Peter who asked Jesus: “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” So it's no surprise to read what Peter says to Jesus in vs 6.

He knew that Jesus was special. He'd seen His miracles and heard His teaching. How could someone as holy as Jesus was, want to wash his feet? And even as Jesus patiently explained that he would understand later, Peter objected, and declared that Christ would never wash his feet. And Jesus gives a startling reply “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”

What could Jesus have meant?

I think that it tells us that we have all sinned. There is not one of us who can say we are truly clean. Only Jesus lived a life pure enough in God's eyes, to be the perfect sacrifice that could wash away the sins of others. Years later, in his epistle, Peter says to believers that they “were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from their forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19) He also said that “Baptism . . . now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 3:21) I wonder if he had this incident in mind.

So Peter then asks Jesus to wash not just his feet, but his hand and his head too. Perhaps an appeal to Christ to cleanse his deeds and thoughts. And what was Jesus' response? (vs 10-11)

I think Jesus was teaching Peter that those who are in Christ have been washed clean from sin. They have been justified by faith. Their conscience is clear. Yet there’ll be a need to come daily to Him for forgiveness of sins along the way. It’s just as we are to forgive those who sin against us even seven times seventy!

But having taught that there was indeed a lesson of cleansing in washing their feet, the Lord goes on to explain the real significance of what He had done. (vs 12-15) If He, as their Lord and Teacher, had served them by washing their feet, how much more willing ought they to be to wash one another's feet. It was a lesson in true servanthood. These were the same disciples who had squabbled on the way as to ‘who would be the greatest’ among them. And Jesus had taught them then that “he who is least among all of you is the one who is great.” (Luke 9:46-48) It’s one thing to know that we are called to serve one another, even in the most humble of tasks, but, says Jesus, “blessed are you if you do them.”