Christ-like Service:Ministry That Honors God

if God’s people would take their
Bibles and turn to John chapter 13. John chapter 13, we have turned
the corner, having come out of chapter 12. Only the briefest
of review, really that an overview. John chapter 13 is in the midst
of the Passion Week Jesus has made his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem. There, in the very poignant scene,
Mary anoints Jesus’ feet. Jesus enters into a variety of
different instructional opportunities, and John, the apostle himself,
closes out John chapter 12 with an appeal, really, to come to
Christ. One of the most profound and
poignant moments in the entire history of mankind is recorded
here in John chapter 13. And I don’t mean to embellish
it beyond what is even appropriate. In John chapter 13, we come up
right to the very edge of the culmination of God’s plan of
redemption. Within hours, Christ, Jesus Christ,
will take sinners’ burden as he is taken to the cross. But
now, in these solemn hours that precede his crucifixion, John
records as Jesus closes out his earthly ministry, in as profound
a manner as he introduced him. As you, in your mind’s eye, hold
the synoptic gospels in relief, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you
discover that this section is one of the most fascinating in
that great discipline of comparing the four gospels, a harmony,
if you will, of the gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke walk
deliberately through every detail of Christ’s journey from Bethany
to Jerusalem, a second temple cleansing, many different parables,
the Olivet Discourse, the exposure of Judas’ crime, the grand capstone
of this entire section, the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Just for perspective, these details
are presented in six chapters in Matthew’s gospel. Chapters
21 through 26. And you almost feel as if in
comparing the two that John’s gospel is somehow inferior because
it doesn’t record all of those details. Six chapters of what
is recorded only here in sparse detail or in many cases complete
silence. But John almost seems in a hurry
to get to the upper room. To begin to provide his own five
chapters of his own perspective of intimate details that the
synoptic writers never address. We have in John’s gospel a very
unique perspective. Here’s some additional detail.
John’s first 12 chapters, as I’ve shared with you in the past,
they detail almost three years of Christ’s ministry, His public
ministry. Whereas in chapters 13 through
17, they’re concentrated on one evening, one evening. In addition to this particular
chapter, John chapter 13, Consider the richness of what God has
added to the gospel report in these chapters. Discourses about the Trinity,
John chapter 14. The vine and the branches and
the opposition of the world, John chapter 15. The ministry
of the Holy Spirit and the resurrection, John chapter 16. Capped with
the high priestly prayer in John chapter 17. No wonder that, as J.C. Ryle put it, in every age the
contents of these chapters have been justly regarded as one of
the most precious parts of the Bible. Well, as John 13 opens,
Jesus Christ, God’s provision for man’s sinfulness, is preparing
for the culmination of God’s great plan of redemption and
his key role in it. In just hours, Jesus Christ will
face the injustice, the hypocrisy, the degradation of arrest, pardon
me, false accusation, trial, and ultimately, crucifixion.
But for now, In these few and fleeting moments, there is this
last quiet evening with his most ardent followers, his disciples,
the apostles themselves. They are gathered together for
what we now commonly refer to as the Last Supper. But the disciples
don’t know that. They don’t know the significance
of this night. And that is what makes this scene
all the more dramatic. Here is Christ together with
them, but largely alone in his thoughts as he prepares to face
his passion. And even in this last moment,
Christ’s focus is on his disciples. Because Jesus Christ is preparing
in this final hour of ministry, he’s preparing to deal with a
crisis among his own disciples. The same crisis that really still
daily affects the church, including this church. Jesus Christ is
confronting the same challenge, the same sinful tendency, the
sin of pride. And the church now, just as then,
is still suffering because of it. If you would, consider John
chapter 13, beginning in verses one, going down all the way through
verse 17. Now, before the feast of the
Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come, that He should
depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own
who were in the world, 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 hands and that he had come forth from God and was going
back to God rose from supper and laid aside his garments and
taking a towel he girded himself about then he poured water into
the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, to wipe them
with the towel with which he was girded. So he came to Simon
Peter. He said to him, Lord, do you
wash my feet? Jesus answered and said to him,
what I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand
hereafter. Peter said to him, never shall
you wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not
wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said to him,
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said
to him, he who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is
completely clean. And all of you are clean, and
you are all clean, but not all of you. For he knew the one who
was betraying him. For this reason he said, not
all of you are clean. And so when he had washed their
feet and taken his garments and reclined at the table again,
he said to them, do you know what I have done to you? You
call me teacher. and Lord, and you were right,
for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the teacher,
washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that
you should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a
slave is not greater than his master. Neither is one who is
sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things,
you are blessed if you do them. There is a crisis in the midst,
and it’s not a new crisis. We’ll come across that crisis
in a moment, but the fact that Jesus has to deal with a crisis
is not only sad, It really is par for the course, isn’t it?
As Jesus deals constantly with people just like us. Consider, if you would, back
in verse one. Now, before the feast of the
Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he should
depart out of this world to the Father, Having loved his own
who were in the world, he loved them to the end. If you know
my habit, it’s to zero in on the simple sentence, and the
simple sentence is just profound. Now, Jesus loved them. Jesus loved them. And what John
13, 1 tells us is that Jesus, who had always loved them, and
had exhibited love for them ever since he first met them. Now is going to model love in
a profound way once again. What we get much of in verse
1 is context. We get a lot of detail. Look
at the first phrase there, now before the
feast of the Passover. And so you have this big question
that develops among the commentators on whether this is days before
the Passover or even the night before the Passover or just moments
just prior to the particular Passover. John just mentions
here that it’s before. the Passover. John 18-28, we
know that as Jesus is arrested, the Jews have not yet even celebrated
the Passover, so it’s quite likely that this is the night before
the Passover. But they are in a Passover frame
of mind. They are in the upper room, they
are gathered for the celebration of what will become a more important
supper than even the Passover was to the Jews, the last supper. I would suggest that this comment
here is speaking of a dinner that was held just prior to the
Passover feast, immediately before. John chapter 12 verse 1 That
chapter opened with this simple context. Jesus, therefore, six
days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was.
It’s as if John is just repositioning us and telling us the Passover
still hasn’t happened. We’re still working our way in
the Passion Week. One thing is absolutely clear,
as one commentator said, the Lord’s Supper which John, by
the way, does not mention, appears to come after the 12th verse.
So we’re in the upper room. They are preparing to celebrate
what is the Last Supper, where Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper,
but first he has to deal with a crisis. Back to verse one,
if you would. Now, before the feast of the
Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come, that He should
depart and go out of this world to the Father. In other words,
the Lord Jesus was fully aware of the significance of this hour.
It is His hour. It is the time marked out by
God Himself for the fulfillment of His mission as the Redeemer
of sinners. It is that point in time at which
God sovereignly marked out as the precise moment of man’s redemption. Remember, there have been many
attempts to seize Christ, even to make him king, or to kill
him. God is in complete control over
this moment. hundreds of years in that unfolding
plan of redemption now come down to the ticking of a clock. It
is the final moments. And Jesus Christ is not caught
off guard here. He’s not caught by surprise.
He knows not only the timing of this mission, but the sure
success of it. He is assured His return to His
Father. And it was exactly because he
knew that he would return to glory, return to heavenly glory,
that he gave this last lesson. A sign of his love for his disciples,
but also a call to them to humility. Look at verse 1 once again. Now,
before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour
had come, that he should depart out of this world to the Father,
having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to
the end. That was his motivating force
here. That’s what prompted him to move
in this regard. Jesus couldn’t ignore their sinful
behavior, their wretched hearts. And the form of the verb here,
He paints it as such a, it’s an act, this love. It’s not just
a feeling, it’s not just an emotion. Jesus Christ lived out His love
for His disciples. We love the way it says this,
don’t we? Knowing that His hour had come,
that He should depart out of the world to the Father, having
love, it was already enough. having loved his own who were
in the world and they knew it. He loved them to the end. A little phrase paints a picture
of a word that has a couple of different nuances to it. One says, one would be at last,
at the very last or utterly or completely another nuance. To the uttermost, is kind of
how I would take it. To the very end of His earthly
presence, to the very last moment, Jesus is not going to overlook
an opportunity. Out of love for His disciples,
He’s not going to pass this by as unimportant. He loved them
with a perfect love. And He shows them here just how
much He loves them. But just think of what stands
ahead of us in John’s gospel. Not only this passage with the
foot washing, but the entire farewell address, his high priestly
prayer, and then the passion, the arrest, the mocking, the
beating, the crucifixion, his death. R.C. Sproul said, here it is important,
to understand that Jesus washing his disciples’ feet was done
in the shadow of the cross. We cannot simply, we cannot properly
understand the significance of the foot-washing episode apart
from this proximity to the crucifixion, the ultimate act of love. Having loved his own who were
in the world, he loved them to the end. Paul says it very straightforwardly,
doesn’t he? God demonstrates. It’s not just
a feeling to God Almighty. God demonstrates His own love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. I wonder how many of us, if we
knew the hearts of the disciples like Jesus knew the hearts of
the disciples, How many of us would have said, forget it. I’m
not going to die for these. One Puritan said, the love of
Christ to sinners is the very essence and marrow of the gospel. That he should love us at all
and care for our souls. That he should love us before
we love him. that He should love us so much
as to come into the world to save us, to take our nature on
Him, to bear our sins, to die for us on the cross. All this
is wonderful indeed. Jesus loved them to the end. How? Verse 2. And 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 hands and that he had come forth from God
and was going back to God. Okay, I want you to notice something. Verses two and three are all
context. It’s all context. There isn’t
even a subject, nothing like a pronoun, even until verse 4,
he rose. Now we know, you can tell by
looking at it, you know that John is referring to Christ here. It’s not like he had to tell
us the New American Standard. If you’re reading that particular
version, you see Jesus there in italics. It’s supplied. It’s
as if the new American standard decided we better tell them who
he’s talking about. John just assumes that we know. We know that John is referring
to Christ here, but note the context. This context comes at
us in waves. The first contextual note, that
he rose, that is Jesus, during supper. Well, that’s odd. King James
incorrectly translates this here as supper being ended. It isn’t
over, it’s just starting. Supper had arrived, the supper
was in the act of being served. Later verses make this absolutely
clear that this is the beginning of the dinner, not the end. John
13, 26, glance down if it’s on that page. the one for whom I
shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” This is how he identifies
Judas, remember? So when he had dipped the morsel,
he took it and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. They’re
in the very beginning of dinner here. The second contextual note, not
only during supper, but the context about Judas. The devil having
already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon,
to betray him. It was at that very moment. Judas
is already sold out. And John is just painting the
picture by the Holy Spirit’s guidance here of what all was
transpiring there at that table. The table of the Last Supper.
The table, the Lord’s table. We learn from the Synoptic Gospel
writers about Judas’s deed, his nefarious plan. Luke paints a
short picture of it. Satan entered into Judas, who
was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve,
and he went away and discussed with the chief priests and officers
how he might betray him to them. This was a conspiracy. It was
a plot. They were cooking up plans on
how to make sure that it was a convenient moment to identify
Christ and to get Him alone, to get Him into a position where
He could be arrested. They were glad and agreed to
give Him money, so He consented and began seeking a good opportunity
to betray Him apart from the crowd. But there’s another contextual
note you’ll notice in this passage. It’s all context. The third contextual
note just says that knowing that the Father had given all things
into his hands. This is the sovereign Savior
who is omniscient, all-knowing. He has known this plan from the
very beginning. He knows exactly where his disciples
heart, especially and including Judas. And he’s acting completely in
line with what he already knows of God’s great plan of redemption. There’s a fourth contextual note
that closes it out. Not knowing not only that the
father had given all things into his hands, but also that he had
come forth from God and was going back to God. Jesus knew the success. He knew not only the plan of
redemption, he knew the success of God’s plan of redemption. It was exactly because he knew
that he was going back to his heavenly father that he seized
this opportunity for one more instructional lesson to his beloved
disciples. And then we come to verse four. And you know, sometimes when
I read Scripture, sometimes when I hear people read Scripture.
I think you know in your own heart,
sometimes the way that we read Scripture completely obscures
the meaning, the significance of the passage. We miss so much
if we’re not careful, intentional about what we read. Verse 4 begins
with what one referred to as the natural language of an astonished
and admiring eyewitness. He says, look, John places himself
in this room and he paints the picture as it happened. I think that here, John even
gives us a hint of the powerfulness of this moment. in these short
pithy sentences of verses four and five delivered probably with
a pause at the end of each, likely just as each aspect was processed
by those who were hearing him. Bear with me for an interpretational
reading of verses four and five. He, that is Jesus, rose from
supper. What is this? Is he leaving? And he laid aside his garments. What is he doing? And taking
a towel, a towel, he girded himself about. Well, this is strange. Then he poured water into the
basin. And I believe here, There was likely a silent sigh in the
heart of his disciples because they began to figure out what
Jesus was doing. And he began to wash the disciples’
feet. And I wouldn’t be a bit surprised
that by now there was evident, even audible, weeping. He began
to wash the disciples’ feet and to wash them with the towel with
which he was girded. Can you imagine the shame? Look at verse four, he rose from
supper. Let me explain this just a bit
about these dinners such as we’re considering. There were these
low tables, not like our typical 34-inch dining room tables. These
were low tables, low to the ground, surrounded on three sides by
couches or pillows. And guests would gather around
the table and usually lie on one side or the other, leaning
on their elbow. And so you’re in very close proximity
to each other as you took and ate, even as some of the details
as we’ll proceed become evident. And so it’s time for dinner. And the preparations are all
made and everyone is present. It’s time. Perhaps the food was
already being presented to the table. But no sooner they all
settled around the table, Jesus rises to his feet and he proceeds
to do what should have been done when they first came into the
house or the room. He proceeds to wash his friend’s
feet. Let me say just a word or two
about that practice. It was not a religious ritual.
It never has been. It was practical. For the most
part, in that day, people wore a very open sandal, covering
only the soles of their feet. The roads were rarely paved,
so any kind of foot travel would involve a lot of walking on dry,
dusty roads. And that led to dirty feet. Foot
washing was a very practical practice. It wasn’t religious.
For anyone who was hosting a party, or in this case, a dinner, it
was a mark of basic hospitality to provide for this need. A host
would provide water, basins, towels, and depending on The
status of the host, his economic standing, many times he would
provide a servant to assist with the task. On some occasions,
a host would even assist his guests personally, for his family,
for his close friends. The problem, obviously, on this
night, is there was no particular host. Remember, they had secured
this room. This was a private dinner. So
there was no servant. Jesus and his disciples were
on their own, and so John records that Jesus rose from supper and
he laid aside his garments. This is an utterly inconceivable
scene, and I don’t mean to be crass, but if you will, Jesus
laid aside his outer garment, like his dress shirt, He pulled
off this long, loose outer garment down to the equivalent of a t-shirt. And it says that he took a towel
and girded himself about. He tied or secured this towel
around his waist. He put on, literally, the attire
of a slave. He was fully dressed now to do
slave’s work. And you know what, I think this
image of Jesus in what is essentially the garb, the attire of a slave,
in his underclothes and a towel is one of the most powerful images
that captures the humility of Jesus Christ. Being born in a
stable, that starts us off on a picture of his humility. riding
into Jerusalem on a donkey instead of this handsome white steed,
what a conquering king would have rode in on. That’s another
image of his humility, but this one is above them all. He rose
from supper, laid aside his garments, taking a towel he girded himself
about. Then he poured water into the
basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet. Now, as I understand the practice,
they would not put their feet in the basin itself, but water
would be poured. The basin would capture the overflow. Jesus then would wipe his disciples
feet with the towel. The process was continued guest
by guest until all had been served in this way. And so Jesus is
proceeding with this necessary and practical task, disciple
by disciple, likely moving along on his knees, washing feet, until
there was a problem. Why does it surprise us? The
problem is Peter. Verse 6, he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, Lord, do you
wash my feet? It’s quite evident here that
Peter wasn’t the first to have his feet washed. We’re not told
any information at all about who was first or who was last
or what order. But this sentence in the original,
it’s the position of the pronouns that are placed in an emphatic
position. There’s an important nuance here.
It’s literally you of me Wash the feet? You’re going to
wash my feet? I don’t think so. As we saw only in the most intimate
family circles would a superior, a father say, a patriarch ever
wash someone else’s feet. So the basic question to be asked
here is Peter now, is he basically expressing his humility? That’s
what it seems. But as Jesus will go on to address,
humility, if we only show humility to the Lord, that’s not really
humility. Peter may not be too keen on
the idea of the Lord washing his feet, but where was his humility
when he came into the room? Peter, ever the one who’s impetuous,
ever the one saying what we’re all thinking, right? He’s humble
enough to see how outlandish that is that the Lord would wash
his feet, but he’s proud enough to challenge the Savior. In essence,
he says, are you crazy? You think you’re going to wash
my feet? Jesus replies, what I, and said
to him, verse seven, what I do to you, you do not realize now,
but you shall understand hereafter. Some people suggested here that
Jesus is referring to some point in the near future. Years down
the road, Peter will suddenly dawn on him, oh, now I get what
Jesus meant. A month, years from now. The
word is very indefinite. And I would suggest to you that
not only Peter, but all of the disciples are going to have a
much clearer understanding of what Jesus is doing in about
seven minutes. And so Jesus insists that Peter
exercise patience until he provides this additional perspective,
but Peter can’t do it. He just can’t do it. He can’t
wait. So verse eight, Peter says to
him, never shall you wash my feet. Never! Strong language and it’s even
stronger considering who he’s talking to here. Never, he tells
the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s no way this is gonna
happen. Jesus answered him, if I do not
wash you, you have no part in me. Jesus is washing literal feet
and feet that are literally dirty. And he’s doing so because no
one else has been willing to humble themselves to do it. Jesus
is going to do this. It is a rebuke to all in the
room. What he’s doing is correcting.
He’s instructing those in the midst He’s even rebuking His
beloved disciples. They cannot possibly be above
that kind of correction. Jesus is not for a minute here
saying that foot washing is some new institution or that it’s
like baptism or that it’s in the place of baptism here. He’s absolutely not saying that
having one’s feet washed is essential for salvation. Instead, what
Jesus points to here is the ongoing work of God that a saved man
craves. Sanctification. If I don’t correct
you here, if you don’t humble yourselves and repent of your
selfishness here, you have no part in me, Jesus says to Peter. And Peter and all of his disciples
have been revealed here in significant sin, the sin of pride. And unless
Jesus has the freedom to reveal that sin and call us to repentance,
until the day we’re glorified, not only Peter, but we have no
part in Christ. A man who thinks that he has
arrived, thinking that there’s no more work to be done in his
life, who thinks that not even God can call him into account,
is not a saved man. He’s not regenerate. And so Simon
Peter, I think, catches a glimpse of that. The only thing I’m surprised
in here is that he didn’t throw himself headlong into the basin
in his impetuosity. Simon Peter said to him, Lord,
not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. If he must be included in this
washing, then let’s make it completely thorough. And that’s Peter, right? Verse 10, Jesus corrects him
again. Jesus said to him, he who has bathed needs only to
wash his feet, but it’s completely clean. I want you to listen very
carefully. Jesus is washing literal feet. I told you that. And the feet
are literally dirty. And he’s doing this because no
one else has been willing to humble themselves to do it. But
now here, Jesus makes a metaphorical application to the process of
salvation. Basically, what he says is this. Once a man has been saved, once
he has placed his faith in Christ alone for salvation, he is justified
before God, he’s saved. But he’s not yet perfectly sanctified. That work of God is a process
in a believer’s life. It’s akin to the foot washing.
He says to Peter, look, you’ve already repented of your sin.
You’ve already placed your faith in me, Jesus Christ. You have
bathed. You now stand before a holy God,
righteous and forgiven. It’s not because your sins were
washed away by some water. but you still have need of dealing
with sin on a daily basis through confession. He effectively says
that every time you sin, you don’t need to rush home and take
a bath. You don’t need to be saved all
over again every time you sin. A saved man who then sins doesn’t
lose his salvation. He says you need a spiritual
foot washing. You need to repent of your sinful
attitudes. You need to repent of your pride.
You need to repent of your inaction. And the question with which Peter
must now wrestle is, is Jesus allowed to address his sin? Is he allowed to address ours? Jesus said to him, look at verse
10, needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean, and
you are all clean, you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew
who was betraying him, for this reason he said, not all of you
are clean. This is astounding. This is one of the most remarkable
points of this whole episode. Do you realize what this means? Jesus Christ, the creator of
the universe, who came down and took on human flesh, is now on
his knees washing his disciples’ feet, including Judas. And the amazing, absolutely astounding
thing is that Judas didn’t repent. Remember, Judas has already struck
a deal. Why would Judas not immediately
be led to repentance here? Because he has a heart of stone. Look at verse 12, when he had
washed their feet, taken his garments and reclined at the
table again, he said to them, do you know what I have done
to you? And you know, if there was ever
a time for Peter to do his thing, here’s a time where Peter, yes,
Lord, let me recite the lesson for you. But even Peter, even
Peter is dead silent. There is utter, stunned, abject
silence here. Jesus intentionally and effectively
calls them to consider what he has just done. They know it. And then he reminds them, look
at verse 15, or 13, pardon me. You call me teacher and Lord,
you are right, for so I am. Ordinary titles of respect, the
title of not just dignity, but the title of the master, Christ
himself, the Savior. If I then, the Lord and the teacher,
washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that
you should do as I did to you. Please note what Jesus does here. He doesn’t He doesn’t issue,
He doesn’t downplay the titles that they have applied to Him. They’re appropriate. He is the
Lord. He doesn’t rebuke them for that. If He wasn’t Almighty
God, this was the place to take care of that. But He’s not the Lord because
they’ve determined Him as such. He’s the Lord He’s divine by
his eternal nature, and if the Lord was willing to humble himself
to wash their feet, they ought to be willing to do likewise. But we can’t just reduce it to
this challenge to their petty, proud behavior. This is significant what Christ
does. In fact, what he does is he lays
the groundwork for everything that will continue right up to
his crucifixion. But he does tell them they ought. It’s not a word we use a whole
lot anymore, is it? You also ought to wash one another’s
feet. It’s a powerful word, this word
ought. It speaks of an obligation. He’s
not just saying, hey, if you guys get around to it, would
you mind, you know, if it isn’t too much trouble for you, the
next time you’re in this situation, could you take turns? Form a
committee. He says you ought. This is a moral obligation. This
word was used of financial obligations, debts. personal responsibility on their
part. And Jesus basically says here
that because of our salvation, we owe a debt of gratitude, a
debt of humble service to others. And in case this isn’t already
enough, Jesus provides one last piece of motivation. Look at
verse 16. Truly, truly, I say to you, a
slave is not greater than his master, neither is one who is
sent greater than the one who sent him. It’s used four times
in the Synoptic Gospels in the same way. It’s used of the disciple
of Christ who will, like Christ, be hated and maligned. He’s not
above his master. Luke 640, it’s used of the disciple
who will grow by grace in Christ’s likeness. He’s not greater than
his master. Luke 22, 27, John 15, 20. Slave is not greater than his
master. You can’t possibly think that you’re above kneeling down
and washing feet like I have done. So what example does Jesus provide
in this washing of feet? To what end? Why? For what purpose? Is it a kind of a perpetual institution,
an ordinance like baptism in the Lord’s Supper? You know what
you ought to do is every third Sunday, you ought to have a foot
washing service and you ought to come in and you ought to just
for humility’s sake, wash each other’s feet. Well, should we start a ritual
of literal foot washing? It has been historically practiced
by the church. very sparingly, not until the
fourth century. A few denominations carried this
over the course of their entire church history. I’ve seen it
used very appropriately at a wedding where the husband and wife modeled
humility. I think that’s appropriate. If
a unity candle is appropriate, if sand in a bottle is appropriate. The apostles and the rest of
the New Testament writers never endorsed this practice. They
never even mentioned the practice. So I don’t believe Jesus was
ordaining a new ritual here, but he is giving them an example. I think what he gives us here
is a living parable. The whole scene was meant to
instruct and correct. It was supposed to extol the
need of humble service. It’s the essence, not so much
the act that he urges upon them. And I want to give you one this
morning. In closing, I’ll give you one
of the examples and Lord willing, we’ll take up the rest next Lord’s
Day. What Jesus gives here is an example
of Christ-like service. And he paints a picture of ministry
that really and truly honors God, because what the disciples
had done was very displeasing, not only to the Lord himself,
but obviously to God. Go back, if you would, to verse
2. I want to give you four particulars, one this morning, and we’ll come
back. Particulars of ministry that
honors God. First of all, Christ-like service
is self-sacrificing. Christ-like service is self-sacrifice,
pardon me, self-sacrificing. Verse two, 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 hands, and that he had come forth
from God and was going back to God, rose from supper, laid aside
his garments, taking a towel, girded himself about, poured
water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet. And it’s absolutely crucial here
that we savor this detail. during supper. During supper? In our house, we don’t even answer
the phone during supper. And that was the point of this
little detail. It’s meant to be shocking. Jesus certainly could have done
this service and made the same point before or after supper,
but during supper, it drives home the point to a painful detail. And he did this for two reasons.
One was to wait until the last possible moment to show the disciples
their proud oversight of this simple duty. This is something
that the host would do as the guest walked into the home. For
obvious reasons, he didn’t want to get his new carpet dirty,
right? At least he would provide for
it. But now it’s long past the time when the disciples should
have done this. Now their pride is absolutely
confirmed. And that’s not my judgment, that’s
the Lord’s. Christ’s rebuke was not of their
slovenliness or their bad manners. Why didn’t you wash your own
feet before dinner? It was of their proud refusal
to serve one another. One pastor said, no sin is so
offensive to God and so injurious to the soul as pride. None of
them showed any effort because they had no intention of serving
anyone, including the Lord. When Jesus rose from the table
and knelt to wash their feet, what a severe rebuke this was.
The other reason that Jesus did this was that he wanted to provide
an enduring example that service is by nature inconvenient. It was supposed to be done before
the meal, not during the meal. In our Western mind, we can hardly
wrap our minds around this practice. But especially in the context
of a formal dinner, The very idea of deliberately moving from
guest to guest, on your knees, washing feet, and then returning
to dinner? People, ministry is hard. Ministry is hard, and it’s dirty,
and it’s painful, and it’s challenging, and it’s frustrating, and much
of the time, it is just plain inconvenience. The opportunities come at difficult
times. They involve difficult circumstances. May I say it? They involve difficult
people. But if Jesus Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the King of kings, if Jesus Christ was willing to
fall on His knees and drag a basin around and wash His disciples’
dirty feet, Is there something that’s beneath us? Christ-like service, first of
all, is self-sacrificing. It is by nature inconvenient.
And so you have to examine your heart. Is there some ministry,
some service, some task, some duty that you are neglecting? that to you seems beneath you, too difficult, maybe it seems
too gross, too obscure, nobody will notice, I won’t get any
credit, too demeaning, too difficult, too laborious. Ministry is by nature inconvenient. It is by nature inopportune. It is most often difficult and
disruptive to our life, to our schedule. Ministry is a displacement
of self. It’s a displacement of our plans.
It’s a displacement of our time. It’s a displacement of our resources. It’s a displacement of our dignity. That’s what Jesus saw first and
foremost. His own disciples lacked. Do
we? Let’s examine our hearts. Our
merciful King, we humble ourselves before you. And Lord, we know
that You exhibited such humility on
that occasion. And because of that, we just
see how proud we are, how reluctant we are to serve, how proud we
are when we do, how demanding we can be in the service of others,
how half-heartedly we do what we’re called to do, Lord God,
grant us the grace to examine our hearts fully and completely
before this passage. We plead with you, change us
by your grace. Lord God, we pray that that begins,
as we know, with repentance, as Peter had experienced. Peter
had need of confession, a foot washing, Lord, we know that there is need
of faith and salvation. So we pray that you would have
your way with every sinner. Not only those who need their
feet washed of their pride, but also those who need salvation.
Lord, we lay all these things before you. We plead them in
Christ’s name, amen.