John 13:1-15, a segment extending to verse 20, is the account, found only in John’s gospel, of Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet. Chapter 13 begins the second section of the Gospel of John, a shift from the public ministry of Jesus to his farewell discourse to the disciples and the passion narrative.
In his last days, Jesus became an isolated man. He was in Galilee, with crowds of people around him. Many wanted to follow him. He sat down with tax collectors and sinners and ate with them. People invited him to parties. People liked to have him around. Yet, he disagreed with some important people. He disagreed with the Pharisees and Scribes about the role of the Law. They believed it revealed the will of God. He simply disregarded it. The Law was not even important enough to debate, as far as Jesus was concerned. In addition, some people believed politics was everything. They wanted to overthrow the Roman government. They believed the Messiah must help them gain political liberation. However, what they considered so important, Jesus disregarded. Jesus had a way of disturbing people. He did unexpected things.
One of the most unexpected things Jesus did was to go to Jerusalem. When he arrived, he went to the Temple. He performed what many people consider a prophetic act to destroy the temple. He at least wanted a radical reform of what happened there. Now, even those who believed in the importance of Temple sacrifice were against him.
By Thursday night, the Passover meal, Jesus knew his time on earth was at a close. He shared a final meal with his disciples. Let us look at what happens.
Jesus was so isolated that one of his own disciples would betray him.
Jesus was so isolated that his disciples argued over which of them were the greatest. At least, however, we see our own sinfulness. We are too much like them. We become so petty, even as we seek to follow Jesus. We can allow our own little desires and wishes get in the way of what is most important in life.
The sacrifice of Jesus begins this night. He offered himself to his followers and to the world as the savior. That death opened a relationship with God that has spread throughout every generation and every culture. Our sins do not have to separate us forever from God. In fact, we know that God is not gleefully rejecting us because of our sins. This sacrifice gives us the most valuable information we need concerning God. Yet, we become accustomed to it, that we assume the truth of it. God wants us to have a friendship with God.
Jesus prayed alone in Gethsemane. My suspicion is that Jesus faced his impending death with some fear. He shared with his disciples the message of the kingdom of God. He proclaimed that message in story and action with the people of his day. Now, as he neared the end of his life, he knew he had so much more to say. Few of his people responded to him. He had not finished his work.
The guards arrested him. He went before the religious and political leaders. They judged him worthy of death. His disciples abandoned him.
The work of Jesus has not finished. We have the opportunity the join him in completing the work he set out to do. When we gather at the table of the Lord, we do so knowing our own sin and need for forgiveness. We are not here because we are perfect. We are here because we need the grace God offers here. We need the relationship with God that Jesus has made possible.
The washing of the feet of guests by the servants in a home has little significance for us modern readers. If anything, it seems like a strange and even disgusting custom. However, in the ancient world, it served its purpose. People walked on dusty, dirty, and smelly roads. If nothing else, washing the feet of guests helped the odor of the home. It was also an act of hospitality. The guest is welcome in this home.
Yet, even for us modern Christian readers, the visualization of Jesus stooping down at the feet of these disciples, one of whom would betray him, all of whom would desert him, with a towel and basin to wash their feet, is a powerful image. With the spirit of Peter, we might have the temptation to ask Jesus, “What are you doing, stooping before me? I need to stoop before you.” What makes the image so powerful?
I suspect the point of the story is not that every culture and every age should repeat this act, although communities can do this and receive great meaning. The point is the humility and service Jesus exhibited to those who ought to have served him.
1Now before the festival of the Passover, this would be Thursday. This would differ from Mark 14:12, 14, and 16, which refer to the first evening of Passover. The symbolism of the sacrificial death of Jesus coinciding with the Passover is one the reader ought not to miss. Jesus knew humanity well enough that (in contrast to 7:30 and 8:20 where his hour had not come) Jesus was fully aware that the way events around him were unfolding would lead to his sacrificial death. Yet, this knowledge did not dissuade him from his mission that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father, even as he had come from the Father. Having loved his own, a group larger than the disciples, who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The Greek word here is normally a temporal reference, referring to the end of an action. However, it could also refer to the goal or purpose of an action. In that case, the translation in the New English Bible as “the full extent of his love” becomes possible. For the first time, the life and death of Jesus are the expression of love. That love is total. 2 The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. Judas is a far more threatening figure than Pilate or the Jewish leaders. Think of it this way. One of Jesus’ own circle, one whom he had chosen, preferred the darkness. He not only understood something clearly at last; he basked in the light, and still he chose the darkness. And during supper 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that he tied around him. This was a sign of hospitality in the ancient world and was usually the role of the servant of the house. The humility of Christ is what stuns us. The King of Kings chose the servant’s role as an object lesson. Remember that in those days, foot washing was no more a symbolic ceremony than was breaking the bread and pouring the wine. It was practical. Dusty, muddy, and manure-strewn roads made sandaled feet a mealtime killer. The first-century household slave would always get the foot-washing task as it was one of the most demeaning and filthy tasks in their culture. I do not know if it was dirty enough to make Mike Rowe of Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs, but it was a dirty task. Since Jesus and the disciples held the meeting in secret, there was no slave to do the work. To further the irony of the Messiah washing feet, our minds lay onto this story Luke tells us that the Upper Room discourse included the favorite spat of the apostles — “Which of us is the greatest?” (Luke 22:24). The feet are the part of us that stay in contact with the earth. Jesus cleanses us by purifying us from that part of our humanity that the world taints. Granted, sin does not destroy the imago dei in each person; sin has marred that image in its expression within and to the world. Jesus cleanses the part of us that will continue to remain in contact with a soiled world, and that cleansing is enough for us to remain standing in the world, without corrupting the whole of us.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later, referring to the post-resurrection insight from the Holy Spirit,you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I 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!” This request likely reflects the practice of ritual washing in Judaism. 10 Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 Therefore, if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
The whole passage is about incarnating into a world of pain and brokenness on behalf of those in need. Into a world of darkness and death, followers of Jesus are to offer light and life. Jesus was commissioning the disciples to do this based on the command to imitate him (v. 15). He invited them to serve, but in ways that were unexpected by the person served.
Peter’s protest draws attention to the servant/master tension in the passage. What is Christ doing?! The command of verse 15 is staggering. The story is not just about feet. It is about life. Bring the kingdom down to the places of brokenness. “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (13:15). Jesus is calling us to leave higher safety for a lower, broken, dark, death-like world, asking us to enter the sorrow that is the incarnation of Maundy Thursday.
This passage is the biblical basis for the sacramental practice of foot washing. Jesus washed the feet of the disciples as a sign of cleansing and of servanthood. Apparently, in the churches of Asia Minor, present—day Turkey, the practice continued as a sacrament. Some churches through the centuries washed the feet of persons who had just received baptism. However, it was most common in the monasteries, where the head of the monastery would wash the feet of the newly admitted monks. Normally, they did this on Maundy Thursday as part of the Lenten observance. No less of a theologian than Bernard of Clairvaux (1091—1153) urged the acceptance of this practice as a sacrament. It became part of the practice of royalty, who would invite the poor to a banquet, and then the king would bow before them and wash their feet. Through some of this kind of practice, there would often be great public display of the action. This misuse caused Martin Luther to reject the practice, and most Protestant churches have followed him. However, the Church of Brethren has continued the practice as a sign of cleansing and servanthood. The practice is seeing a comeback in Protestant churches as part of the Maundy Thursday service.
This passage gives us an opportunity to reflect upon the theological meaning of Judas. Johannine scholar Adele Reinhartz interprets the gospel of John as three intertwining “tales,” and one can fruitfully interpret Judas through her framework. The “historical tale” is the plain reading of the gospel, as an account of Jesus of Nazareth in his time, place, and circumstances. In this tale, Judas is a real person, a close friend of Jesus, who betrays him into the hands of their political rulers, the Romans. The “cosmological tale” is more subtle and extends beyond the historical setting of the gospel to the entire cosmos and an eternal time frame. The hero of this tale is the Word who enters the world, defeats the cosmic ruler of this world (the devil), and returns home to the Father. In this tale, Judas is the agent of the “devil” (6:70) or “Satan” (13:27). The “ecclesiological tale” is even more subtle: It tells the story of the Johannine community at the time of the gospel’s composition. Scholars interpret the first-century community of John’s gospel as one in conflict with the synagogue of its day. Judas represents those Jews who have rejected the message of Jesus.
One challenge many readers, scholarly as well as laity, is a theological one. Simply stated, if Jesus foresees his betrayal by Judas (John 6:70-71; 13:26-27), then did Judas have free will in his betrayal? If the crucifixion was necessary for the salvation of humanity, was the betrayal by Judas betrayal a part of the plan of God? Is not Judas a participant in God’s plan of salvation? When one ponders Judas, one wrestles with weighty theological topics.
Furthermore, Judas manifests a practical challenge before all readers of John’s gospel. David Bartlett has preached on this practical challenge of Judas’ character. According to Bartlett, Judas is a far more threatening figure than is Pilate or the Jewish leaders. As believers, we watch Judas go into the night. What should terrify us is that one of his chosen followers preferred darkness to light. He was physically close to Jesus. He basked in the light, and yet, he preferred darkness.[1] Judas shares the same unclean feet as do the disciples. Judas simply embodies the uncleanness of all the disciples. The disciples embody obstinate Israel and therefore the obstinate world. When Jesus announced that one of them would betray him, all said, “Is it I?” The special cleansing mentioned in verse 18 is a condition of fellowship with Jesus. To understand this, we need to go back to verse 1, which stresses the love that embraced them as disciples. Jesus also knew the authority he had from the Father. At that moment, his loving disposition toward them led him to an action that was in response to the satanic indwelling of Judas. In this critical moment, Jesus washes the feet of the disciples.[2]
Prayer of Commitment
Servant Lord, in Scripture, you teach us how to love and serve, not just through words, but also through your life of servanthood. In the lives of other servants, you show us how to stand in a servant’s posture and live with love as our call. Thank you for all who live out your instruction, and in their actions show your teaching.
Lord and Teacher, may we also follow your example, serving you and others by sharing your love. Show us how to wear a servant’s towel. Use us to meet the deep needs of those near and far. Help us not to be afraid of getting messy, but to risk our own time and energy for the sake of following your call. When others serve us, may we accept their gifts with grace.
We commit ourselves to your service and ask all these things in your name. Amen.
[1] “Judas is a far more threatening figure than Pilate or the Jewish leaders to those of us Christians who read John’s gospel. ... What frightens us as we watch Judas go out into the night, what should terrify us had the story not grown so familiar, is that one of Jesus’ own circle, one whom he had chosen, preferred the darkness. What frightens us is this portrayal of one who was so close to Jesus as flesh to bone. He not only saw the light; he basked in the light, and still he chose the darkness.”
[2] Barth, Church Dogmatics II.2 [35.4] 472-3
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