Having loved his own who were in the world, Jesus loved them to the finish. So John begins this major section of his gospel where Jesus instructs and comforts his disciples. The love of Jesus is evident throughout these chapters, culminating in the cross. In fact, these chapters are full of talk of love – it is a significant theme in Jesus’ dealings with his disciples.
1. Facing the darkness
In v.2, John tells us that the shocking reality of the defection of Judas is now complete - Satan has prompted him to betray Jesus. Quite how Judas got to this pitch we aren't told - clearly he was disappointed with the agenda of Jesus, perhaps longing for a more violent revolution. But, however it has happened, the reality is that this is the hour of darkness; Satan is exerting himself and the most dreadful evil will be worked out.
But what we must notice is that, even as John tells us this about Judas, he goes on to say that "Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power". Evil is a terrible reality; it is sheer folly to minimise or dismiss it. But Jesus knows that the power of God - the power that he has been given - is ultimate.
The cosmic battle between God and evil is not even; evil is real and terrible but its power is limited; the power of God, which is given to Jesus as Messiah, is unlimited. Jesus knows that and so he isn’t thrown into a blind panic by what is now unfolding before his eyes. Never does he minimise or trivialise the reality of evil; nowhere does he ever allow that evil is greater than God. “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (1:5)
And that is how we are to see the cosmic battle in which we’re also engaged. It is the case in our own lives, that where sin abounds, grace super-abounds. No temptation is too severe for Jesus to help us with it. It is true with respect to the church and it is true with respect to the world. The days are dark and difficult; to deny that would be more than simply burying our heads in the sand, it would be wilful denial of the truth. But however dark and troubled the days are, there is no cause for panic and anxiety because the Father has indeed put all things under the power of Jesus.
2. Overcoming evil with good
Now, John tells us that in this hour of darkness, when Satan had entered Judas’ heart, Jesus knew all power was his and, in the light of that, he takes action. But his action is not to destroy Judas with a look and unleash the power of ten thousand angels against the forces of evil. No, Jesus does something far more radical and far more powerful. Very deliberately, “he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet.”
Can you feel the stunned silence in which a pin could be heard to drop? Here is the eternal Word, the one through whom all things were made, the one who was with God and was God, the light that gives light to all people, the living embodiment of the glory of God, radiating grace and truth – and he deliberately takes the role and position of the most menial servant, of the lowliest slave.
The radical nature of what Jesus did is underscored by the fact that, for some Jews, this was a task reserved for Gentiles and children – never someone of equal worth or value. And it was unthinkable for a respected and revered teacher to do so. But Jesus did it.
As we know, Paul expressed this reality in truly memorable words: the one who was “in very nature God…made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.” In all probability, the disciples would never have thought to wash each others’ feet but here is their master doing that for them! As much as the blazing bush, this scene demanded that the disciples take off their shoes, not only to be washed but in holy awe.
But it doesn’t stop there. The humility with which Jesus clothed himself in the incarnation and in his life of service was completed, even eclipsed, by the shattering moment when his obedience extended to the death of the cross. That is the fuller reality to which this foot-washing is pointing. It is a staggering, humbling reality before which we should be shattered and silent.
This is how Jesus responds to, and engages, the malignant power of evil – he doesn’t fight fire with fire, he doesn’t return evil for evil, but he overcomes evil with good, with the power of love.
Evil can not be defeated by legislation, nor political or military power. God overcomes unfettered evil through the loving and sacrificial service which reached its summit on the hill called Calvary. There are important implications there for our lives as believers and churches, as Paul notes in Rom. 13 and Jesus in Mt. 5:38ff.
3. Cleansing: full and ongoing
If we feel in any way stunned into silence by this amazing act of servant love, imagine what the reaction must have been in the room. Maybe it was embarrassed silence on the part of the most but, for one disciple, something had to be said. Peter can’t let this moment simply happen; as Jesus comes to wash his feet, he protests and then misunderstands. The way Jesus deals with him allows us to see the true significance of the event that is taking place.
i) Peter is indignant: “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus tries to help him by explaining that what now seems so confusing will become plain later. Peter strongly rejects that: “No; you shall never wash my feet”. But there is a deeper significance to this scene than he is aware of and so Jesus says to him, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
Now, in handling this point, we need to realise that Jesus is, of course, speaking figuratively: it isn’t the act of foot-washing itself that makes a person clean and united to Jesus; after all, Judas is present and also has his feet washed by Jesus. The foot-washing prefigures the cross and it is that to which Jesus refers.
It is by his cross that Jesus decisively deals with sin and makes it possible for people besmirched by sin to be made clean and right before God. Nothing less than the death of the Son of God in our place could ever have secured our true, spiritual cleansing. And it is only by that cleansing that we can have a part with Jesus. That phrase speaks of inheritance and in some Jewish thought was related to sharing in the blessings God would unveil in the last days.
When Jesus tells Peter that without being washed, he can have no part with him, he is telling him that only through spiritual cleansing by the death of Jesus can he, Peter, share in the reality of life with God in all its fullness.
All that the Father promised in his covenant with Abraham (“I will be their God and they will be my people”) can only be realised by being united to Jesus in his death through faith and, so, knowing that deep and true cleansing from sin we so much need.
For any and all of us this morning, this is where we need to go for peace with God. It is not obtained in any other way but through being joined to Jesus and having his death applied in power to us.
ii) But Peter doesn’t quite get it yet. His response is to ask Jesus to wash the whole of him! Here Jesus teaches another vital lesson: “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean.” (v.10)
Let me say two things about that. Firstly, Jesus is saying that the cleansing we receive when we come to faith in him is full and decisive: “And you are clean” he adds. When we come to faith in Jesus and are justified by the grace of God, we are put right with God because of Jesus and that will never change. We are clean.
Yes, we change and our love ebbs and flows and our peace is variable; Jesus will deal with that here. But however much we change, whatever our faults and failures, whatever sins we are overcome by, the reality still stands: “And you are clean”.
But because we still live in this fallen world and still await the redemption of our bodies and the fullness of what Jesus achieved, we fail our Lord and come short of his glory. In Jesus’ terms, we get our feet dirty. And we know through bitter personal experience that such things disrupt our relationship with God, threatening to rob us of our peace and diminish our service and witness. What are we to do?
The person who has had a bath, says Jesus, only needs to have his feet washed. When, as Christians, we sin, we aren’t back at the very beginning, in need of being saved all over the again. The decisive act of cleansing has taken place and the verdict of God will not be reversed. But we do need to be restored, we do need to know again our sins are forgiven for the sake of Jesus. And, so, Jesus washes our feet, too, in saving and restoring love.
