Wash One Anothers Feet

Introduction

I’d ask you to go ahead and turn your Bibles to John the 13th chapter. John chapter 13. It’s good to see each and every one that is out tonight. We have a good number here. Good to see so many who were out yesterday and may not even have been feeling too well as I was not feeling the best, but thankfully I’m here, you’re here, and we’re here to study from the Word of God together. When you think of the last night of Jesus’ life before the crucifixion, and you think of all the things that happened on that occasion, and so many momentous things we consider Jesus partaking of that Passover celebration and of course instituting the Lord’s Supper. We think of Jesus and his disciples going out to the garden.

We think of Jesus in the garden praying and even having those few disciples who are just a stone throw away and encouraging them even as they’re falling asleep. And then, of course, we think of Judas and the guard coming out and arresting Jesus and all those things that happened on that one evening leading to Jesus’ arrest, and of course culminating in his crucifixion. But there’s one thing that happened that evening. One thing that happened that Jesus made sure happened because he was very much interested in changing some behavior amongst his own disciples. And that’s of course what we read about in John the 13th chapter, and something we want to continue to consider together as we think about what it means to be devoted to one another, even as Paul says we are to be in Romans chapter 12 and in verse 10.

You start in John 13 and beginning in verse 1. Now, before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that we depart out of the world, out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand. And note this. And knowing that he came forth from God and was going back to God. Now just think of the importance of that statement. Jesus is fully aware of what’s going on in this situation. He is fully aware that his death is upon him.

He is fully aware that just as he has come from the side of his father, he is about to return to his father. And John makes it abundantly clear for us that Jesus knows all of this. He got up from supper and laid aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girded himself. And he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. I tell you, it was only recently that verse 3 just really stuck out in my mind. We, of course, we know this episode. We know Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. But verse 3 makes it clear, Jesus does this because he knows. I’m returning to the Father.

And it’s because of this, I am going to teach my disciples this lesson, because I’m not going to be here much longer. And of course, the commission that he gives to his disciples following that event. If I then, the Lord and the teacher, wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. We want to take a little bit of a look at that this evening. And what it means for us as we consider the fact that we are devoted to one another, and how it is that we can serve each other, even in the way in which Jesus was urging his disciples to serve each other. Let’s note just a few points from our text together this evening. And really something we’ve already read here back in verse 1.

1. Having Loved His Own, He Loved Them to the End

Why is it that Jesus did this action? And we’ve already made one point, Jesus understanding that he’s going back to the Father. And so the time which he has with his disciples is very limited at this point. But it also makes this point in verse 1. When it says that Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart out of this world of the Father. And then it says, having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end. And of course, our mind will jump to the fact of Jesus’ crucifixion, the ultimate manifestation of his love for his disciples. But John doesn’t put that right before the crucifixion. He puts it right before the washing of their feet. Jesus loving his disciples and loving them to the end, in other words, John’s saying, it’s because of that that Jesus then washes their feet.

He loves them. And because he loves them, he wants them to grow. In fact, look further in the text as Jesus is going to be explaining what he’s done and urging them to do the same. He says in verse 13, You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I, then the Lord and the teacher, wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. Now, compare that with what he says in verse 17. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. He’s still talking about the same action. He’s encouraging his disciples to do what he has done, to serve them in a very humble and lowly fashion. He wants them to do the same, but he gives them two reasons.

One, you ought to do this. That’s language of command, responsibility. You should do this. This is what God wants you to do. And secondly, he says, if you’ll do this, you are blessed. That’s no longer command language. That’s no longer responsibility. That is blessing. That is honor, reward from God. And Jesus is making the point. You need to do this because one, God says you should, and two, you’re going to be blessed by God if you do this. Jesus loving his disciples. He wants them to do the things they ought to do. Jesus loving his disciples, he wants them to be blessed by the Father. And so it’s because he loves them. That he then urges them to do something which they normally would never have considered doing on their own.

2. It Hurts to Be Loved So Much by God

That takes us to a much larger point about our relationship with our God.

It hurts sometimes to be loved so much. One of the chief tenets of the new atheism, which they refer to as the new atheism, is actually just a bunch of repackaged arguments. But one of the things you’ll hear over and over again by men like Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens before he died, was that the God of the Bible is a mean God. The God of the Bible is one who, in making all these demands of you and giving all these rules and regulations, you see in that he really has no interest in your best interest. He only wants you to do things that makes him happy and that he can stand on high and he can, well, just be a tyrant. The God of the Bible is not a God who loves you too little.

And that’s really not people’s complaint with God. The complaint with God is not that he loves us too little, it’s that he loves us too much. He loves us so much that what he wants for us is truly what’s best. Notice a couple of passages with me. Go back in your Bible to Mark. Go to Mark the 10th chapter, a well-known episode out of the life of Jesus. Mark chapter 10. Well, I don’t know which one I opened. So we’re going to open a new one. So hopefully, Ken, by the time you or Greg get up here on Sunday, they won’t have all been opened by me and half drunk. Hell might need to invest in more water bottles by then. Mark chapter 10. You’ll, of course, recall how this episode begins in verse 17.

As he was setting out a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him and asked him, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, Well, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Jesus, of course, is not dodging the question here. Nor is he even deflecting some of the glory of God away from himself. I think he’s just simply trying to get this young man to consider do you really understand what you mean and what all is meant when you call me good teacher? God is good. And God certainly has the ability to grant eternal life. Do you understand that I’m on the same level here? Well, what does the young man, or what does Jesus say to the young man?

You know the commandments. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother. In other words, Jesus is saying that you believe God is good. Well, here is what God has said for you is good. When Moses says to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 10 and verse 13, these commandments which I’ve given you, which are for your good. These commandments which could make mankind holy in the image of God. Jesus is just reminding them okay, you call me good. You want eternal life. Well, here are the things that God has said you should do, so you will be good. And if you are good like God, you will certainly be with him in eternal life.

And he said, verse 20, Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up. Looking at him. Jesus felt a love for him. Now, just pause there for a second. We already know what Jesus is about to say to the young man. We already know that Jesus is about to tell this young man to go, sell all of his possessions, give to the poor, and come and follow me. Why does Mark add, Jesus looking on this young man, felt a love for him? I tell you how I have read that through much of my life. It’s almost like pity. Jesus looks at this young man, knows already that he’s about to tell this young man something that he’s not going to want to do. So he loves him, but it’s more like pity.

That’s not it. Jesus loves this young man. And it’s because, it’s because he loves this young man. And he recognizes this young man, he wants eternal life. And this young man in his life has tried to be the person God wants him to be. But Jesus, of course, sees something in this young man that needs to be rubbed off. Some fault that needs to be gotten rid of.

It hurts to be loved by God. Consider another passage, Ephesians, the fifth chapter. Ephesians the fifth chapter.

And this wonderful passage about Christ’s love for the church, and comparing it with a husband loving his wife as his own flesh. Verse 25. Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. So they might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. That he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be wholly and blameless. How much does God love you? How much does Christ love me? How much does Christ love his church? Loved it so much that he says his aim is to get rid of every blemish.

What is it the Lord says to his churches in Revelation 3 and verse 19, those whom I love I rebuke and chasten? It hurts to be loved by God so much. Because it’s that love of God that when you and I are reading in the scriptures, and we find these character flaws in ourselves, that God says, you know what? You ought to love others more than you do, Josh. Or you know what, Josh? You ought not to be so impatient. And you ought to treat others a little bit more kindness. That is God in his love showing me, Josh, you’ve got some things that still need to be gotten rid of so you can be holy and blameless and without spot. Jesus, loving his disciples, loving them to the end, looks at them, knows that these people, they have all kinds of issues with each other.

So what do they need to do? Wash each other’s feet. The ones you love the most, they’re the ones you’re very interested in how they act. I was telling Vicky and Kaylee and Greg and Kashka a story at dinner. This was right after we moved to Tampa. So when we moved, Ethan was a year and a half old. So this is right at the time he has his second birthday. And my mom and dad had come down and they were there and we had a party. Well, there’s a park right across the street from our house. And at the time, it’s just, you know, kids’ playground furniture, you know, slides and swings and that kind of stuff. And at the time, there was there was no ground cover, no mulch, no nothing, just sand.

Bunch of sand. Well, as any good 18-month-old, two-year-old child is going to do, he goes out, he’s playing, and of course, there’s sand. Well, sand is the greatest play toy that’s ever been invented because sand can go everywhere. And so, of course, Ethan begins to just throw the sand. And of course, me as a responsible parent, I’m saying, no, Ethan, don’t throw the sand. You know, I don’t want it to get in Jared’s eyes. I don’t want it to get in my eyes or any other little kid’s eyes that’s there in the park. So, Ethan, don’t throw the sand. Well, one minute, not even a minute later, Ethan’s throwing sand again, so I go over and do what a good parent’s supposed to do, and I take the hand and I say, Ethan, don’t throw the sand.

And we repeat this exercise five or six times, and the slaps on the hand are getting harder and harder. Until one time he goes over to where there’s a slide. Something he can kind of get under and be shielded a little bit from me. And I know, Valerie, you’re already laughing at me because when I got here, I had no kids. And so I had to learn all this. So he he’s he’s got the sand, and he’s just letting it run through his fingers. And I know he’s, I know he’s getting there. Until finally, you know, out from underneath the sly, here comes the sand. And so I go over, and I don’t even hardly get the word Ethan out of my mouth when out from underneath the sly comes a hand.

And this is that child saying, Dad, do what you got to do, man. Now, why do I care? Now, I we were talking about this, you know. Jared’s the child that melts when you look at him. Ethan is our stubborn bull. Why do I care? I don’t care if other kids are at the park throwing sand up in the air, unless they’re getting in my kid’s eyes. It doesn’t bother me. But I want my kids to act in a certain way. I love my kids much more than I do other kids. And I want them to behave in a certain way. And so, because of that, it hurts for dad to love them. It hurts to be loved so much by God. It hurts to be loved so much by Christ.

That Christ would look at us as good and as moral people as you and I might be, and yet he still might look in his word and say, have you done this? Have you gotten rid of this moral fault?

3. Serving Doesn’t Come Naturally

Jesus, having loved them and loved them to the end, is why he tells them to do what he has told for them to do. Serving doesn’t come naturally.

Like all good things, it’s going to take some training. Most of us, we kind of come a little bit selfish, and we tend to have mom and dad looking after us, so we stay a little bit selfish until we’re told we’re instructed, we’re trained. Here’s what it means to put the needs of others first. The disciples had been through a three-year training program with the Lord. And you even just take the book of John. And the book of John has far fewer miraculous actions by Jesus than the other gospel accounts do. You know, John will record these notable seven signs. The other gospel accounts will record many other miracles. But even just in the book of John, you consider all the things that the disciples had witnessed Jesus doing for other people.

You know, even going back to chapter 4, and this isn’t in a miracle. And yet Jesus taking the time to sit and to talk with this Samaritan woman by the well. And being so engrossed in this and so engaged in her.

And he said, I’m fine. Well, who gave him food? I have food to eat of which you do not know. What’s he talking about? My food is due to the will of my Father who sent me. And that will was talking to this woman that none of them would have ever talked to. They had seen that. And they had also seen as a result of that that woman having gone back to her village, and that entire village coming out to hear and to see Jesus. Staying even in the fourth chapter. There was this nobleman’s son in Cana. That Jesus goes, and even doesn’t even have to go, but he heals this young man from a distance. They have seen that. They have seen the healing at Bethesda in chapter 5.

They have seen Jesus taking the time out of his very busy and very demanding schedule. And as the multitudes have come to him in chapter 6, and even though Jesus is tired and Jesus has not eaten himself, yet he has compassion on the people, and he feeds them. You have Jesus when the woman was brought to him in chapter 8, who had been found guilty and committing adultery. And yet they had been there and see Jesus act with grace and mercy and compassion for her. Example after example of Jesus serving others. And yet, what else do we know about the disciples? For three years, they had been thinking the wrong things about the kingdom. For three years, even though Jesus, whom they proclaimed to be the Messiah, Jesus, the one whom they proclaimed, we’re going to follow him, and he’s going to rule over us, even though they’ve seen him serving others constantly, they among themselves are always arguing, which one of us is going to be the greatest.

Or maybe even when you take in Matthew chapter 20 in account, they even get their relatives in on the act when James and John’s mom comes and says, Hey, I want you to do me a favor. You know, put one of my sons on your right hand, put one of my sons on your left hand. And even according to Luke chapter 22, on this very night, the very night when Jesus is looking at his betrayer at the table, and knowing that just in a short time from now, he is going to go and he is going to be crucified. And yet, according to Luke’s account, that what’s happening around that table is the disciples are arguing about greatness again. And which one of them is going to be really, truly great in the kingdom.

I don’t know if there is necessarily significance here or not. When you go to verses 13 and 14 of John 13 again, Jesus makes this point. He says, You call me teacher and Lord. And you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the teacher, wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. He cast himself here again as their Lord, their master, and as their teacher. You have called me Lord, and you have called me teacher. You’re right. And I’m trying to teach you yet again an important lesson. You need to learn what it means to serve each other. This may very well be one of those lessons that the Apostle Paul had in mind. You remember, of course, in the Apostle Paul in Philippians, the third chapter.

After he has made mention of all the things that he left behind, all the things that he counted as nothing for the sake of the gospel. But then he says in verse 12, not that I have already obtained it, or I’ve already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude, and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you.

That fascinating statement. That if you are perfect, then you recognize your imperfections. That if you are perfect, you recognize just how incomplete you are yet. And then if you are perfect, you are still striving ahead. I don’t know what all lessons Paul still need to learn. I know for me, and for the disciples that Jesus is talking about in John 13, this lesson of serving each other was one that they needed drilled in them time and time and time again.

You’ve got a good representation of age, gender, sex. You’ve got a good representation of those who have been in Christ for a long time, and those who are still very new in their walk with Christ. But a passage which we referenced yesterday would speak to all of us. Regardless of where we find ourselves in life, regardless of where we find ourselves in our walk with Christ, we are part of a body. And that body, according to Paul in Ephesians 4 and verse 16, is being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causing the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. When you talk about service, we could, and you know, there’s probably a better spot for the eldership, but we could talk about all the different service opportunities that are available at this congregation.

And there are many. But the point is, and the point that Jesus would have for us is every last one of us is still learning about how to do those things. Now you might find yourself as being young and maybe not as experienced and not as able to do some of the things you would like to.

I’ll tell you.

And it’s encouraging when you consider that these young men and women have come to us in Tampa from really across the country, sometimes even from other places around the world. And what they come into the congregation wanting to do is not just be served by the congregation. And we tell them that up front. We say, listen, this congregation does exist to serve you because that’s a part of what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to serve everybody. But you in turn have a role and a responsibility to serve this congregation. And they do that. They’re teaching kids Bible classes, they’re helping to teach teenage Bible classes. They go out and they sit by, I don’t know if the older people, you know, necessarily care that these young kids are sitting by them, but they go out and they they sit by the older members of the congregation.

And they get to know them. They go to the teen devotionals to help lead the singing and to help give the talks and just to be with the teenagers. I don’t have to tell them to do all that. They do it because they were told by somebody, if you’re in Christ, then you are a servant.

And that starts as soon as you’re in Christ. And it doesn’t end. Some of you know Brother Harold Comer. And you would have known his first wife, and maybe you know his second wife, Miss Bobby. My kids get cards from Miss Bobby at the drop of a hat. Now, Miss Bobby is, I’m not going to go exactly to where her age is. She’s not young. But you go into Miss Bobby’s house, there’s a stack of cards already with stamps on them and her return address. She doesn’t know who she’s writing them to yet. But I know if there’s a holiday coming along, my kids are getting a card from Miss Bobby. If my kids miss church because they were sick with whatever ailment was going around school that week, there’s a card coming in the mail from Miss Bobby.

I didn’t get one when I had the flu, but my kids would get one if they had the sniffles.

And we’ve got, I don’t know how many kids at church, how’s she doing all that? I don’t know. But she’s a servant. And there’s other people who live right down the street from her, and they’re not as old as she is, but they’re not as a good help. She’s always over there. She’s helping take care of them. He’s talking about someone I want to be like when I grow up. If I ever do grow up, I guess. But that doesn’t come. That doesn’t just appear. We have to be trained. And Jesus spent three years training his disciples. I’ll say it again. One of the best things that any congregation can do, particularly if you’re interested in the youth. Have devotionals. Have teen weekends. Have things you do for them.

4. Serving Is in Its Nature Humbling

But put them to work. And that doesn’t always have to be the elders having set out a plan. That may just be, I’m going to visit this couple, or I’m going to take food to this person that was sick. Then take them with you. Let them help in the preparation. Whatever it is. Train them for service. Because if we’re not training for service, we’re not trained to be Christians. We’re not trained to be the people that God wants us to be. But the final point in this lesson, and you look at what Jesus did here, serving is in its nature humbling. It says of Jesus in verse 4 of John 13. That when he got up from supper and laid aside his garments and taking a towel, he girded himself.

That’s for a reason. That’s not just Jesus being concerned with what he was wearing, might get a little wet in this process. No, he is literally taking the part of a slave. He is dressing himself in the way that a slave would have dressed himself to serve his master. The Jews thought this was so humiliating that they would not allow another Jewish slave to do this. They might allow a Gentile slave to wash their feet. But if they had a slave and that slave was Jewish, that was something that was off the table. No, we’re not going to make our Jewish kinsman, even though he may be our slave, we’re not going to make him wash our feet. And there’s a reason why when Jesus gets to Peter and Peter says, No, Lord, no, you’ll not wash my feet.

Peter can’t handle that. That Jesus had adopted this menial form of servitude. Well, of course he did. Because we’ve already read yesterday back in Philippians chapter 2, the whole purpose of Jesus’ coming. The whole process was one of humiliation. Have this attitude in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, although he exists in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. The whole process was humiliation. And when Jesus, in this very visceral form, serves his disciples, he does it in a way which shows abject humiliation.

And then it encourages them, you do likewise. Service has got to be humbling. You think of all the things on that night that Jesus could have asked his disciples to do that they would have done gladly. If Jesus had said, okay, go back out like you did before, and I want you to go and preach the gospel. Now, the disciples have already done this once. They would have said, sure, okay, let’s go. We’re going back out, we’re going on a preaching tour. We’re going to go from city to city and we’re going to preach about Jesus. Done. We’ll do that. If Jesus said, go out, and I’m going to give you my power, and you’re going to go out and you’re going to cast out demons again.

Disciples would have said, sign me up. Let’s go. We’re going back out there. We’re going to go cast out more demons. Or we’re going to go heal the sick. We’re going to go show the power of God. We’re going to go serve our God in that way. But if Jesus said, wash each other’s feet, I ain’t signing up for that. I’ll do a lot of things you want me to, Lord. I’ll go out and preach. Later on this evening, they’re all going to say, let’s go out and die. Jesus’ going to go out and die. We’ll go out and die with them. We’ll do that. Wash his feet. No. Do what’s humbling. I want you to understand, I’m not trying to belittle any form of service.

There are things, though, that you and I are very comfortable with when it comes to serving. I might be very comfortable in writing a card. And again, certainly not downplaying that and its importance. Or I might even be comfortable enough to host somebody into my house from time to time to maybe get to know some people that. I know that’s a big step for people, though. Maybe that’s what’s humbling for you. Well, you might need to get over that. Or I might, I wouldn’t make my cooking, but my wife’s good enough cooked. Now, you know, we we would be of service and we would prepare meals and we’d take meals to our sick brethren, and we would go and we’d do that. Okay? All good. All things that need to be done.

But there are other forms of service that are downright humiliating. That takes some getting used to. They’re downright humbling. Going to a brother or sister whom you love.

And it shows some concern in love about what’s going on in their life, you will be humbled. And that’s not a pleasant or a pretty job. Card’s not going to do it. Meal, while appreciated, it’s not going to do it. Or maybe it’s the brother or sister who they did mess up. And now they’re trying to get back on the right path. And so what they need, yes, they need you to give them a hug, and they need to just tell them that you love them. But they’re also going to need a lot of your time. And it might be frequent. I need to talk. And I need someone I can talk to, and I need to talk to you now, and I might need to call you later on tonight.

We’re going to talk some more then. And I’ll tell them, you know, I’m not a therapist. I got ears, but not a counselor. That’s humbling. That’s not something I enjoy. But it’s the service they need. It’s the service they need in that moment. In this moment, Jesus’ disciples needed to wash feet. There were going to be times coming up when they needed to go out and they need to preach the gospel. And they need to do miracles. But right now, Jesus said, what you need and what you all need from each other is washing each other’s feet.

And that’s what we have to be looking out amongst ourselves for. What is it, my brethren need right now? It may be they need the card. It may be they need the meal or just the friendly visit. But there’s going to be those other things they need too. The time, the support, the not rushing to judgment as you listen to them. The maybe just pointing them in a direction of someone who might be able to help if you’re unable to. And that’s going to be very, very humbling. Jesus, having loved his disciples and loved them to the end, got up from the table, put his garment aside, adorned himself in a towel, and washed his disciples’ feet. And then told them, if you call me master and Lord, then you also wash one another’s feet.

Conclusion

It’s a great privilege to be a part of the Lord’s body, to be a part of the Lord’s church. To be a part of people that love and care, and so many that have washed my feet in that figurative sense over the years. But that’s what God says we’re supposed to be. You can be a part of a body like that. The Lord came to render service to you, a service you could not perform on your own. But it was a service you needed more than anything, even if you didn’t know it. And that service was to allow you to be forgiven of your sins and to be cleansed and to be able to stand holy in the presence of God. He came, humbled himself, abased himself, and served you and served me in that way.

But he did so not simply to forgive us. That’s not the end goal here. He came to perfect us. And that’s where we come back again to that point. Jesus loving us that much hurts. Because to perfect us means everything about us that God says is not what it needs to be. That has to change. And for many of us, me included, is that really serving each other, really loving each other in that way is what needs to change. Well, then take Jesus’ exhortation this evening. You count him as Lord and teacher, then you make those changes. You serve one another. You wash one another’s feet. Allow Jesus’ perfecting of you to continue and his love for you to continue. If we can aid you in some way, though, this evening, we’d invite you to come as we stand and as we sing.