In this powerful scene from John 13, Jesus-fully aware that the Father had given all things into His hands-rises from supper, lays aside His garments, and kneels to wash His disciples’ feet. In this single, scandalous act of humility, the Sovereign King of creation becomes the servant of sinners.This sermon invites us to marvel at the love of Christ-“having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end”-and to see how His love redefines greatness, power, and joy. As we watch Him stoop low to serve, we’re confronted with the question: If the Master has done this for us, how can we not serve one another?John’s Gospel shifts here from the “Book of Signs” to the “Book of Glory,” and in this moment, the glory of Christ shines brightest-not in splendor, but in humility. Through His love, His example, and His charge to His disciples, Jesus shows us that the way of blessing is the way of the servant.
Transcript
Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments and, taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered him, What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.
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. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, The one who is bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean, and you 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. 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. 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. I am not speaking to all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. I am telling you this now before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. This is the word of the Lord.
— John 13
(ESV)
Please be seated, friends. Father, would you speak to us today?
The Shadow of the Cross
Would your word, would the picture that we have of Jesus from your word be clearest, be loudest? And Lord, if there is anything that I might say that comes from me, that distracts from him, Lord, I ask that you would shut my mouth, for we need to see Jesus this morning. It’s in his name we pray, amen. Well, as Jesus’ earthly ministry draws to a close, we come to this rather interesting scene. This is the day before he gives his life for his people. This is the day before he goes to the cross to be the sacrifice for the sins of those whom he will save. Just like we saw in the beginning of the last chapter, here he’s spending one of his last evenings with the people that he loves. This is a targeted choice on how he’s going to spend his time. This is a targeted choice on who he’s spending it with, on who he’s going to invest into.
And so we have this scene of Jesus on his way to the cross. As R.C. Sproul writes in his commentary on this text, this takes place in the shadow of the cross. In this chapter, we get a picture of humble love, a picture of serving others, a picture of lowering self in order to bless others, a picture of Jesus, the servant king. John gives us this incredible description of Jesus in verse 3 of our text. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God. Pay attention to that, because this is one of those things where we just, we pay attention to the foot washing, and we see the beauty of that scene, and we see the shocking nature of that scene, but there’s this phenomenally powerful and rich Christology which prefaces
this whole scene. Jesus, knowing that the Father has given all things into his hands, and he has come from God and he’s going back to God. Jesus is so majestic. If anyone, anyone is worthy of honor and praise and exaltation, it’s this one who has all things in his hands, who comes from God, who’s going back to God, by whose power everything that came to be, came to be, and who sustains every single thing in our universe. If anyone is worthy of praise, it’s him, and yet, what do we see him doing here? What do we see him doing? He’s washing the filthy feet of his disciples. There’s no one like him, and today we marvel at our Messiah once again as we get to see him doing something remarkably beautiful for those that he loves. You know, the world will give us a lot of different ideas of what love looks like, and
yet Jesus regularly and repeatedly showed that true love is sacrifice, it’s humility, it’s service, and it’s giving yourself for the good of another. It’s putting them ahead of yourself, putting their needs above your own. So as we begin our study of the 13th chapter of the Gospel of John, we’ve now wrapped up the portion, the first 12 chapters of this book that’s often referred to as the Book of Signs, and this refers to the seven miracles that would point to who Jesus is and why it is that he came. And so this wraps up the Book of Signs, and that brings us into the second half, where after we’ve gotten a picture of the Messiah, we come to the second half, which is often referred to as the Book of Glory. And this shows us, most importantly, the resurrected Jesus, but before that, it shows us his final
days of earthly ministry, leading to his death on the cross and ultimately his resurrection. And here what we see is predominantly his private ministry to his disciples, and that begins with this dinner, that begins with this evening. The last several months we’ve looked at who Jesus is, and now we’ll be seeing more specifically what it means to be his disciple, because this is where he’s pouring into his disciples. This is where he’s having these very intimate conversations, and he’s explaining to them what’s expected of them, what’s to come, and what it looks like to live as those who call themselves his disciples. And so as we consider the blessedness of being a servant, we’ll first look at the love that motivates and empowers us to live that way, then we’ll look at the example of Jesus and how he lived that way, and finally, the charge with which he leaves his disciples.
Love That Motivates
So first, let’s look at the love of Jesus. Before we can see this beautiful picture of humility and servanthood, we need to look closely at what John says in verse 1. Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Isn’t that beautiful? He’ll show them how he loves them in his prayer for them in John 17. He’ll give them the gift of the Holy Spirit as a gift of love, because this is the helper that will help them and move them along and encourage them and help them, help guide them in the way of truth. He’ll die on the cross in their place because he loves them, and it starts here with him humbling himself, with him stooping down to wash their feet.
Our text begins by telling us that Jesus’ hour had come, the time is here, the opposition is increasing, the temperature is being turned up, and it’s time for him to give himself for the sins of his people. And when Jesus’ time is coming to a close, when the end is near, what does he do? He serves his disciples. He finds yet another way to show them that he loves them, that he cares for them, that his kingdom looks very, very different from what they might have expected, that his way of moving through the world looks very, very different from what they may have wanted. We speak so much about the love of Jesus that I fear that we as Christians just read a text like this and gloss right over it. Jesus loves me. I love Jesus. It’s this great emotional kind of reciprocal thing we have going, I feel good, it changes
the way that I maybe kind of think about my Christianity, it makes me feel better about myself at times when I feel particularly low. But friend, does this guide your worship to know that the one who sustains all things with the power of his word, to whom all things were given, the one who knows every hair on your head and every tear you’ve ever shed, the one who knows every single star and the moment that it burns out, loves you? Does this guide your evangelism? Do you want to tell people about this one whom you love and who loves you? Does it change the way that you interact with the world, that you receive maybe opposition or pushback? Does it change the way you look at others, wanting for them to experience this love? We can’t just gloss over this because this shapes the whole of who we are as Christians.
If you’re a Christian, do you have any idea how much Jesus loves you? Like any idea? He loved them to the end, complete, total love all the way through. He knows you. He sees you as you are. He sees your faults and your failures. He sees when you fall short and yet he loves you to the end. Is this referring to the end of time, to the end of his plan to die for them on a cross? In the context of this passage, I think that, you know, we should consider that it’s certainly the former, but as we consider the whole picture of the life of the Christian, the latter applies too. He loves us to the end. Why did Jesus serve his disciples in the way that he did? How is it that he was able to humble himself this much? What is it that would ultimately lead him to the cross where he’ll give his life for
The Servant’s Example
those whom he will save? It’s love. We read in Ephesians 2, 4, and 5, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with God. He loved us when we had absolutely nothing to offer. When we were dead. And so when we talk about the love of God that motivates us to certain things that we might do, certain actions that we might take, certain behaviors that we might change, why do we love? Well, as we read in 1 John 4, 19, we love because he first loved us, and he loved us to the end. Jesus loves his people, and he calls us into a life of love. So let’s take a look at the example that he gives of such a life. Look with me at verses 2 through 13, where we see the example of Jesus.
When studying a text of scripture and seeking to apply it to our lives, we don’t want to be overly reductionistic or overly simplistic, but we also don’t want to miss what’s exactly in front of us, right? And one of the things that we see here is a model of the kind of person the Christian is to be, how we are to make Jesus known. If the picture we see is that the person who represents Jesus is meant to be received and welcomed, as we see in verse 20, this is the model that Jesus gives us. You know, you go out into the world, you engage with people, and ideally they receive you, they welcome you in, and by doing so, they welcome me in, is what Jesus is saying. And so this is the model. This is the ideal approach. And if this is how we’re supposed to move through the world, then we see that the bar
is set high, because the message that we bring to people is offensive. You’re dead in your trespasses and sins, and you need Jesus to save you. You can’t help yourself. You need something from outside of yourself. It’s a very difficult thing for a person to hear. It’s painful. It’s hard. And so Jesus is saying that the expectation is that when we bring that difficult message, we are welcomed and received. And so the Christian, then, must look a lot like this Christ, right? If they are to be received. And so we see the example of Jesus for just how that might look. John gives us an interesting detail about this scene, is that it happens during dinner. You see, in my mind, when I’ve read this story and when I’ve heard this story, I actually don’t picture it happening during the dinner. I kind of picture, you know, them walking into the house and Jesus sort of stopping
them at the door as they walk in. But John says that it’s happening during the dinner. It wasn’t before everyone got to the table. They already are laying at the table. He likely would have stepped away from the meal, as they’re all laying at the table. And in this time, the table was very low, and so you were laying down kind of on your side. You were eating with one hand and kind of leaning this way. And because, again, these folks in this time are wearing sandals and walking around outside, their feet are dirty, and so they likely would have positioned themselves in such a way as to move their legs and their feet away from the table so that their upper bodies are facing the table. And so they’re talking, they’re engaging with one another. And it says that it’s at this time that Jesus excuses himself.
Jesus stands up, and he moves around the table, and he quietly goes to do this humble act of service which only a slave would have done. Out of sight, out of the way, behind them, walking up to each one of them, walking up to each of their feet as they’re having their meal, and they’re confused. They’re moving their heads, and they’re like, what’s going on here? What’s happening? At this time in history, washing someone’s feet was a really lowly thing to do. This was a shameful task that was only reserved for slaves. Only a slave would be the one washing the feet, touching the feet of someone who was stepping into the house from outside. And not just that. But if a Jewish person happened to have a Jewish slave, that Jewish slave would not have been allowed to do this task.
See even for a Jewish slave, this was too low. And so it would have to be a Gentile slave. Lowly, menial, unpleasant work. No one wants to do this. The act of washing someone’s feet is seen in various portions of the Old and New Testament in different settings, but nowhere do you see someone of a higher rank washing the feet of someone of a lower rank. It’s only when you have an honored guest in your home as a sign of humility, as a sign of kind of esteeming them and showing them that you value them, maybe a non-slave would wash someone’s feet. But never, ever would you see someone of a higher rank washing the feet of someone of a lower rank in society. And the very person who shouldn’t do this does. Imagine this scene. It says that Jesus laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
I think what we’re imagining here is maybe like taking off an overcoat, taking off a jacket, but consider how little they were actually wearing. For us, this would be something like, you know, take off the jacket and then take off the shirt and then maybe even take off the pants so you don’t get any part of your clothing dirty or wet. Jesus strips down, completely stripped down with a towel around his waist. This is a shameful scene. This is the equivalent of a loincloth around the waist. He fully assumes not only the posture of the slave, but also the look of the slave. It would have been difficult to look at your teacher in this position. It would have been confusing, weird. Much like the way of Mary’s worship of Jesus with the pouring out of the expensive perfume and wiping his feet with her hair, Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, stripped down on his
knees, bent down, touching their dirty feet, is scandalous. It’s shocking. It’s so bizarre for them that they don’t know what to do with it. He stoops down to do something that only a slave would do for us and for our salvation. Jesus laid down his dignity as the Son of God and he took on the form of a slave. And I wonder if serving a person or going out of my way or maybe just keeping my mouth shut to not correct somebody is too far and I’m being a doormat. The one who deserves all praise, all honor, all worth, infinitely worthy, puts on the clothes of a slave and goes out of sight to wash people’s feet. Jesus will go on to show his disciples that if he, being who he is, is willing to subject himself to a low social standing and to do that which is only reserved for a slave, how
then could they not humble themselves? How could they not follow in his footsteps? He’s going away and he’s preparing to send out his disciples as his representatives. He’s telling them, there’s a way that you ought to live. There’s a way that you ought to represent me. There’s a way that you ought to show the world who I am. And what is the picture that he gives them? A slave. Christian, are you known as being a servant? Are you known as giving of yourself for the good of others? Are you known for going out of your way to bless the people that God places around you? Are you known for living a sacrificial life? If not, why? Do you maybe think it’s beneath you? Do you maybe think that you deserve better? Jesus says otherwise. When Peter notices what Jesus is doing, he says, you can’t do this, Lord.
No way. You’re not touching my feet. And right before he does that, right before he does his usual thing and flip-flops, he jumps to the other extreme when Jesus clarifies very briefly. He’s like, all right, Lord, just give me a bath then. Peter, I love Peter, he understands the significance of Jesus taking this low position and so he pushes back. He’s uncomfortable. He’s like, this is strange. Lord, this isn’t for you. This isn’t meant for you to be doing this. Someone else, maybe even one of us, I get that, but not you. But Jesus uses this to point to the reality that this gesture is meant to align them with him, what he’s doing, with how he operates, and he says, Peter, you’re already clean. You already belong to me. Let me do this thing for you. Let me serve you in this way to show you how you ought to serve others.
Let me provide you a picture of what it looks like to belong to me. When Peter says what he says and Jesus clarifies, what he’s pointing him to is that he’s already clean. And just like Peter, we are already clean because he’s already saved us and he’s already changed us. And so we do this, we follow this example of humble serving, not to be cleaned, not to assume a certain place in the kingdom, not to reserve our place, but because of what he’s already done for us. We serve and we humble ourselves because of who we are. And that’s what he’s telling Peter, Peter, you don’t need to be clean. You’re already clean. But because you’re already clean, because you’re already a part of this, because you’re already a part of what we’re doing here, here’s how you ought to be living that out.
And so Jesus says, anyone who isn’t washed by me has no share with me. He’s pointing to the coming and perfect cleansing that’ll be done at the cross. See, if all we get from this story is an example of humble service, we missed the mark of what Jesus is saying here to Peter. We do get humble service. We do get this example of lowering yourself and serving others and loving them. But what he’s telling them is that they need this cleansing that only he can offer them. They need first to be changed. And then once they are changed, as a result of having been changed, they then live in a way that is drastically different from what anyone might expect of a man. And certainly of anybody who wants to esteem themselves in any sense in society. Our text doesn’t explicitly tell us, but even with the warning issued, it seems like Jesus
would have even washed the feet of Judas, because it doesn’t exclude him here. He still cared for him. He still loved him. He still spent time with him. He still broke bread with him. Such is the kindness and the grace of our Lord, even to the one who would betray him. Jesus doesn’t remove the titles of teacher and Lord here in verse 13 as he washes his disciples’ feet, but he shows them what true humility would look like. He shows them what it looks like to be a different kind of teacher, a different kind of Lord than they might have expected. Philippians 2, we read the following. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in
The Blessed Way
human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You see, what Jesus did is he laid down his dignity and he emptied himself of the glory that he eternally enjoyed and is worthy of. Why? For his people, to save them, to show his love for them. His people, who he then calls to live like him and to follow his example. And that brings us to our last point, which is the charge of Jesus, the charge that he leaves with his people, what he points them to.
He not only offers them an example, but he tells them to live in a different way. Notice that Jesus’ lesson on humility and to follow in his example only comes after he explains salvation to them, after he explains what it takes to be saved, this cleansing that each of them needs. Jesus isn’t giving this instruction to everyone. This isn’t just good advice, just a good motto to live by, but for his own, those who have already been cleansed. This isn’t just like Jesus is kind of sharing broadly with the world anybody who might want to live a slightly better life, who might want to improve, you know, the way that they move through life, be a better husband, be a better dad, all that. No, this is for his people. And part of that instruction is to share the sad reality that not all who are near, not
all who look like they belong, are going to be part of this flock. We see mention here of Judas, and we’ll expand on this a little bit more next week, but Jesus is pointing to the reality that just proximity, just knowing the right stuff isn’t enough. Just look at Judas. He ministered alongside our Lord. He heard everything that Jesus ever said. He shared in every meal, he saw every miracle and yet remained unchanged and was willing to throw everything away for 30 measly coins. Proximity doesn’t do anything. Being close enough, knowing enough doesn’t do anything. You need to be cleansed is what Jesus is saying. If this person isn’t cleansed by Jesus, they have no life. If they don’t receive the purification that only he offers, they have no hope. It’s a very, very exclusive claim. Only one way. But for those who are cleansed by him, Jesus says, the way of the servant is the best way
to live. Jesus is saying, if you’re cleansed, if you’re mine, if you belong to me, if I’m yours, the happiest way that you can move through life is the way of the servant. In verse 17, Jesus says, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. And the word translated as blessed is the same one used in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, and so on. And that word can actually also be translated as happy. And so when you read the Beatitudes, what Jesus is showing is this is what a life of blessedness, a life of joy, a life of fulfillment actually looks like. And so what Jesus is saying in Matthew 5 and what he’s saying here is, do you want happiness? Do you want fulfillment? Do you want meaning in life?
Do you want satisfaction, blessing? It won’t come the way that the world tells you it will. You can’t grab hold of what you want. Power and esteem and status, they’re not the way. You have to go low. You have to give up status. You have to be a servant. You have to stop caring about how you look to the outside world. You have to stop fighting for power. You have to be able to give everything away for the good of others, even your own life. And the world tells us it’s the exact opposite. The world tells you to get what you can, to be served, to use others, to step over some people if need be, move up in life, but this is not the way of Jesus. This is not the life that he calls his people to live. The way his disciples are to live as his followers is a life of humble service.
It’s to live in light of the reality of what happens here in John chapter 13. What the disciples experienced that night and what we see in God’s word today, gladly going low for the sake of others, gladly going low to honor our God. If Jesus took the place of a Gentile slave to wash the dirty feet of his disciples, and I call myself his follower, I call him my Lord, how could I not serve the people that he places around me? What kind of absurd, backwards, fake religion is it that fights for my own status in the world if he gave up everything in order to get me out of the world? How could I continue to see myself as more important than others? How could I continue to elevate my desires, my comfort, as greater than their good? Why would I not trust him when he says that this is the blessed way?
This is the happy way. So how are we to follow in Jesus’ example, really? How can we possibly embody this kind of humility? In verse 19, our English translation says, I am he. But in the Greek, you know what it says? I am. It just says I am. This is in a long line of I am statements from Jesus all throughout John’s gospel. Beloved, we grow in humility. We obey his command to humble ourselves, to humbly serve others by looking regularly to him, by never taking our eyes off of him. If we’re looking inward for some strength or some power or some resolve to live in the way that Jesus is calling us to, you’re going to run out of steam real quick. If our eyes are regularly on ourselves, if our eyes are regularly on the world around us, the collapsing culture, the sins of others, it’s going to be very difficult, if not impossible,
to do that which Jesus is calling his disciples to do here. But if he is ever before us, if his glory is what we’re after, if the exaltation of his name is what we’re fighting for, it becomes easier with his help. As we sing in that wonderful hymn, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. We began our study of this text looking at the love of Jesus and that’s where we’ll end as well. We saw in the beginning of our text that Jesus loved his own who were in the world and that he loved them to the end. He did this knowing that in just a short time they would forsake him, they would betray him, they would deny him, leaving him completely alone, mocked on his way to the cross where
he would die for them. Their weakness, their lack of faith, their horrible friendship didn’t deter his love and his faithfulness. And so we serve them, humbly and quietly, pointing them to the reality that since they are in him, they too ought to live in this way, the blessed life of a servant. If Jesus does this for you and I, how should we live our lives? What should my life look like as a result of how loved I am by him? Beloved, as we go to the Lord in prayer, I want us to take a little bit of time in the quiet of our hearts for each of us to cry out to God, to reflect on our walk with him, to reflect on him, the person of Jesus, to thank him for his love, to thank him for his kindness to us. If we belong to him, to praise him for his goodness in saving us and to ask him to help
us to live in such a way as to be a picture of the kind of humility that we see here and having the heart that he calls us to have for the world around us. And friend, if you’re here this morning and you don’t know Jesus, if maybe what you’re hearing this morning is strange to you, sounds bizarre, a little bit jarring, if you haven’t been cleansed by Jesus, I invite you to cry out to him, plead with him. I invite you to ask him to forgive your sins, to cleanse you and to give you the gift of faith and life, because friend, it’s only available in him. Let’s take a couple of moments to pray to our King Jesus.
Our King Jesus, thank you for loving us when we were so very unlovely and unlovable. Thank you for giving yourself for us when we did nothing to receive your forgiveness and your grace. Thank you for being this example of humble love and faithfulness when we are regularly so very unfaithful and so proud. Thank you for never turning from us when we give you so many reasons to do so. Lord, we ask that you would strip away any self-reliance, any pride, anything in us that would push us away from the picture that we see in your word of humble service and love to those that you place around us. We want so badly to experience the joy and blessing of living in this way, but Lord, we need your help to do so. And so we cry out to you, our God, our King, our Savior, help us, amen.
Amen. Amen.