A Servant Is Not Greater Than His Master

John 13:1-17

Immanuel – 4/6/23 - Maundy Thursday

Read John 13:1-17

The hour had come. You can feel that weight in every sentence. The hour had come. All of John’s gospel has been ticking towards this hour. For, from the very first moment Jesus appeared, John the Baptist declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36)

Now, 13 chapters later, the Lamb of God is preparing for the final Passover sacrifice. The hour had come.

And in those last moments before the storm clouds broke, Jesus did not try to steal away to take some time for Himself, He chose to once more humble Himself – some at the time might even have said, humiliate Himself. Already He was planning to demonstrate His love by washing the disciples’ feet.

It’s no coincidence that right off the bat, John highlights Judas’ betrayal.

Read vs 2

Jesus spent the last three years discipling Judas, loving him, teaching him, eating with him, doing all the things of life together. And here is Judas, with Satan in his heart, hungry to sell the Son of God for something like $500: about how much you would get for selling a slave in the first century.

But before Judas could sell Him for the price of a slave, Jesus desired to wash his feet. Like verse 3 says, all things had been placed in His hands. The disciples’ dirty feet – Judas included – He would take in His hands; and the nails, He would soon allow to pierce through them. All this is according to His will. All this by His hand.

Read vs 4-5

Jesus has so transformed our world, and society’s perception of things, that it is hard for us to understand just how humiliating is this act of foot washing.

It was a job for the lowest of slaves. In fact, according to some traditions, wealthy Jews wouldn’t even allow their Jewish slaves to wash feet, reserving foot washing only for the unclean Gentile slaves. In all of Jewish and Greco-Roman antiquity, there is not one historical record of a superior washing an inferior’s feet. Not one: except for Jesus in John 13.1

Yes, Jesus is making all things new.

But when Jesus stooped down to begin washing the street grime from the disciples feet, they are certainly feeling uncomfortable – likely even embarrassed. They probably felt like Jesus was embarrassing Himself.

Eventually Jesus gets to Peter, and Peter is clearly struggling to accept this stunning act of humiliation. Peter says, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”

Of course, Jesus was entirely aware of how His foot washing would be perceived. He knew that the disciples would fail to understand. That is, until they saw His crucified body, resurrected. Thus, He said, “afterwards you will understand.” Even at this Last Supper, do you think the disciples had any idea what Jesus meant by “afterwards?” Do you think they had any idea what was about to happen to the Messiah?

It’s likely that, by now, they had a vague awareness that something bad was about to happen. But its significance was still beyond their comprehension; for immediately, Peter incredulously declares, “You shall never wash my feet.”

Then with simultaneous authority and love, Jesus responds in verse 8, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”

Jesus’ foot washing was not about dirty feet, it was a symbol for a far deeper cleansing. Peter, and the disciples, and all of us, are morally filthy – selfish and proud sinners through and through. With our every breath we vainly attempt to scratch the image of God from our souls; wanting to replace it with our own image. We are trying to become our own gods, whether we realize it or not.

But all we end up doing is making aberrations out of ourselves. We become moral abominations deserving of an eternal separation from the holy, pure, and perfect Living God. We are born with a tremendous need, desperate to be cleansed of our moral filth. We don’t need Jesus to wash our bodies, we need Him to cleanse our souls.

We need a cleansing far deeper than foot washing; a cleansing that would take a far greater act of humiliation.

To the disciples, a superior washing the feet of an inferior was incredibly shocking. But it would not be nearly as shocking as the Messiah on a cross, dying the death of the damned – in the place of the damned. In both foot washing and crucifixion, the King of kings lowers Himself to the station of the despised, so that He could lift unclean sinners in righteousness.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. -Romans 5:8-11

Yes, when we come to Jesus in faith, turning from the unclean desires of the flesh and trusting in Christ’s cleansing work, we are reconciled unto God, justified, saved.

Read vs 10-11

Bodies, feet especially, need to be washed again and again. For some more than others. But the soul, once washed in the saving grace of Jesus Christ, is forever clean.

For by a single offering [Christ] has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. -Hebrews 10:14

Just as Christ spoke from the cross, “It is finished.” Hallelujah and amen!

And this whole act of foot washing was an example of these incredible glories: glories still veiled in the Upper Room but streaming towards us from the full brilliance of the cross.

But even in that Upper Room, as in this room, there are some still not cleansed – washed, but not cleansed. To you I say, see what Jesus has done. See what He has given. See His humility. Every other religious system would expect Jesus – the all-powerful Son of God – to obliterate the betrayer Judas. Instead, Jesus washes his feet. How great the kindness of Christ towards His enemies!

And for you who have gladly come to Jesus for washing, rejoicing in the cleansed soul He has purchased in blood, Christ has set an example for you.

Read vs 12-17

When Jesus says, “You ought to wash one another’s feet,” in verse 14, we are not to understand this as an ordinance of the church – like baptism and communion. Like, you literally need to wash people’s feet. Though some of us will participate in foot washing tonight, this is not a command, but a symbol.

We are not mandated to wash each other’s feet; just like we are not mandated to crucify ourselves even though Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Mark 8:34).” No. Foot washing is about following Christ’s example, laying aside our own rights, humbling ourselves, to honor and help one another. Jesus is giving us a posture of love we are to emulate towards one another.

And there is one Scripture that, perhaps more profoundly than anywhere else, shows us what this means.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. -Ephesians 5:25-27

Did you catch that? The way that Jesus cleanses us, His beloved bride and church, is by the washing of water with the word. It is His word that cleanses us; for faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

Then, at the same moment we have heard the gospel and believed, Christ cleanses us by giving us the water of His word. The work of the indwelling Holy Spirit is to write God’s word on our hearts. Once washed, we flow with these rivers of living water (John 7:38).

Christ has, therefore, equipped us to wash one other with the word. Seeking wisdom from heaven, we can humbly apply God’s word to one other, exhorting with gospel truths, confronting sin with Scripture, strengthening with God’s promises.

For the promises of God have a cleansing effect.

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

-2 Corinthians 7:1

Even though we are to wash one another with the word of God, Christ is the one who has cleansed us once and for all – like the writer of Hebrews said. But sometimes, brother and sisters, we fall into the mud. And more often than not, since we’ve already fallen in, we’ll take a little extra time to splash around.

Christ has given us to one another so that we can lift each other out of the muck and together clean off the grime. And when we lovingly, humbly do this for one another, it is Christ – in us – doing the washing.

Brothers and sisters, foot washing is a symbol: a symbol of Christ’s humility and a symbol of His love: a love He demonstrated not just with words, but with the deepest actions of self-sacrificial service. Foot washing was a symbol pointing towards the cross: the ultimate act of Christ’s humility and love.

This is exactly why John writes in verse 1.

Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Now, since it is true that a servant is not greater than his master, nor a messenger greater than the one who sent him (verse 16), let us exalt Christ with humble, self-sacrificial, love for one another.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.

-1 Peter 1:22-23

1Carson, D.A. (1991). The Gospel According to John. Footnote, Pg 462. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.