John 13:12
So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
After He had washed their feet He resumed His place at the table and asked them if they understood what He had done to them, calling them to grasp its meaning. Though He was truly their Lord and Master He had girded Himself and performed a servant's office, and His supreme dignity gave grace and significance to that lowliest service. By serving them at the very time they were contending for the highest place He rebuked their pride and selfishness and taught that true greatness is becoming a servant who counts others better than himself. He thereby gave an example binding on all who believe in Him, that because their Lord served them they ought to serve one another with humble, loving service. He thus established foot washing as a sacred ordinance to be literally followed and kept understandingly together with the Lord's supper as preparation for it, leading to self-examination, mutual confession, forgiveness and unity before partaking of the emblems of His death.
Words and Historical Setting
After He had washed their feet He took His garments again and sat down again at the table and asked them whether they understood what He had done to them, calling them to grasp its meaning. Having put His garments back on and returned to His place, He directed them to consider the act and its lesson of humble service. His question belongs to His final week with the disciples, the last evening before His death spent instructing them in the upper chamber. It was the last Passover held with their Master, when He was near the end of His earthly ministry and about to return to the Father, preparing them for His coming suffering and their separation from Him, for His betrayal and rejection.
At that supper sorrow filled His heart as He saw them yielding to strife and disputing who should be greatest, coming with hearts filled with selfishness and tempers heated by contention, with whisperings and flushed faces, while Satan made a determined effort to arouse contention among them in the last hours they would have with their Master when very soon He was to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the world. Eating that Passover with His disciples, He put an end to the sacrifices offered for four thousand years and to the national festival observed by the Jewish people. For type was meeting antitype in Himself as the authority and foundation of all Jewish ordinances and the only efficacious offering for sin, so the disciples were discharged from ancient Jewish rites and ceremonies that no longer possessed virtue, to continue which would be an insult to Jehovah. In their place He instituted the memorial service of foot washing and the sacramental supper to be observed by His followers through all time and in every country.
He included Judas in the washing even though Judas had already pledged to betray Him. By revealing the traitor's purpose He showed His divinity, and the washing was a final appeal of love that Judas did not heed. The feet He had washed then went out to carry out the betrayal, after which Satan took control of his heart and mind. Though He knew Judas would betray Him and the disciples were erring and faulty, He washed their feet, and this example brought all but one of the twelve to repentance.
Lesson of Humility and Service
Though He was truly their Lord and Master, infinitely superior, the pure spotless Lamb of God and sin-offering, He girded Himself and performed a servant's office. His humble service did not lessen His dignity, but His supreme status gave grace and significance to it. He stooped to the lowliest service and made Himself one with every person whatever their station so He could share His gifts with His followers.
By taking the humblest form of service at the very time they were contending for the highest place in the promised kingdom, He rebuked their pride, selfishness and contention. His action opened their eyes to themselves in a new light, exposing their selfishness. They were filled with astonishment, shame, bitter humiliation and sorrow that they would remember as long as life lasted.
His example teaches that because their Lord served them they ought to serve one another with humility and love. They are to count others better than themselves rather than compete for honor and place in the kingdom. True greatness is becoming a servant, for one who serves humbles himself and is placed where he can be safely honored because he has the Spirit of Christ. True humility consists in loving service that kindles love and enables them to understand what He wished to teach.
He gave an example binding on all who believe in Him to follow. It is especially needful for gospel ministers. It teaches them to walk humbly before God, remember what God had done for them through His Son, and serve one another as He had served them. It keeps them mindful not to regard themselves as superior to even the lowliest believer.
Footwashing as Sacred Ordinance
After He had washed their feet He sat down again and asked whether they understood what He had done, affirming that He is Master and Lord and charging them to wash one another's feet by doing as He had done. The act institutes footwashing as an ordinance, His last established ordinance in connection with the last supper, a plain duty and example binding on all who believe and to be literally followed and copied as exactly as possible. Its real object is to teach humility, and those who know these things are happy if they do them, for the servant is not greater than his Lord. It was given in connection with the supper as a season of self-examination in which followers learn the true feelings of their hearts toward God and one another, exposing pride, selfishness and hatred through this humble duty. It was designed to lead to mutual confession and to increase forbearance, forgiveness of one another's errors and true love, preparing them to commemorate His sufferings and death.
It tests humility and faithfulness and keeps fresh in remembrance that redemption purchased by His dying love is on conditions of humility and continual obedience, flowing from His love and commanding them to love one another as He loved them. In Him type met antitype as the authority and foundation of all Jewish ordinances and the only efficacious offering for sin, so disciples were discharged from ancient Jewish rites which no longer possessed virtue and to continue them would insult Jehovah, while footwashing was made a special season in which He Himself is always present. It keeps God's people humble and separate from the world and keeps them from backsliding like the nominal churches. It is to be practiced more frequently together with the Lord's supper, with humble confession made first, and keeping it brings gladness and does a good work.
It was not merely an act of hospitality like the customary washing of guests' dusty feet but a consecrated religious service to recover man from sin, and washing one another's feet puts believers in Christ's place. It is not to be kept in a mechanical way as a mere form or made a tedious ceremony, but understandingly, speaking not largely to intellectual capacity but to the heart and to the moral and spiritual nature. He is present on the occasion as witness with watching angels and the surrounding atmosphere of heaven to impress hearts, while as a special season He leads participants to feel the pulse of conscience, awakens them to the lessons symbolized, revives memory, convicts of sin and receives penitential offerings. His whole life as the light from above and the way below guides into all truth every soul who comes to Him, unfolding His love and revealing the character of God whose Father is their Father, and doing exactly what He charged brings them into close relationship with the Lord. It serves as a test of loyalty and was to precede partaking of the emblems of His death, and He appointed it as preparation for the communion service because pride, disagreement and striving for supremacy keep the heart from fellowship with Him and readiness to receive the communion.
It is to be kept together with the sacrament of the Lord's supper, with the bread and the cup, for after washing their feet He gave broken bread to represent His broken body and juice of the vine to represent His spilled blood. It is celebrated after baptism and just before the supper, with the largest possible number of believers taking part, including youth and new converts, as a solemn and impressive service belonging to revival and settling into the work. Leaders set the example first, men for the men and women for the sisters, and then all take part heartily. The ordinance is interesting, solemn and profitable, producing humbling before God with weeping and rejoicing long remembered, and the breaking of bread connected with it calls for interesting and appropriate speaking that moves the congregation.
It is to be kept among believers only, apart from unbelievers, for He took them aside from unbelievers for this sacred service, and shepherds are to move understandingly in this because doing it among unbelievers brings reproach on God's cause. Even when kept separate a Judas may be present who eats and drinks to his own damnation, but God will quickly make him manifest and purge him out. It is to be practiced with separation of the sexes, men washing the feet of men and women washing the feet of women, and when a woman's feet are washed it is to be by a sister, for men and women washing each other's feet together is not right and a man has no business washing a woman's feet. Gospel order gives no example for brethren to wash sisters' feet but gives example for sisters to wash the feet of brethren. Where people are not informed about His example and teaching on this point or are prejudiced against it through former teachers, it is to be introduced with carefulness and wisdom, waiting for a proper time and manner.
Preparation for the Supper
Christ appointed footwashing as preparation for the communion service before partaking of the emblems of His death. It was not merely the customary washing of guests' dusty feet but a religious service and consecrated ordinance. Pride, disagreement and striving for supremacy keep the heart from fellowship with Him and from readiness to receive the communion, so the humble duty exposes what bars that fellowship. It serves as a test of loyalty and of humility and faithfulness.
The season is one of self-examination in which followers learn the true feelings of their hearts toward God and one another. Pride, selfishness and hatred are exposed, memory is revived, the pulse of conscience is felt, sin is convicted and penitential offerings are received. The appeal speaks not largely to intellectual capacity but to the heart and to the moral and spiritual nature. Observing it softens the heart, drives out selfishness, and fosters the Holy Spirit with love, grace and peace.
It is designed to lead to mutual confession, with humble confession made first. It increases patience, forbearance, forgiveness of one another's errors and true love. As an ordinance before the Lord's Supper it clears away misunderstandings and brings man out of selfishness and down from self-exaltation to the humility of spirit that washes his brother's feet. It brings them together in unity and makes their hearts one with Him, and keeping it brings gladness and does a good work.
The service is not to be deferred because someone is considered unworthy, and is not to be withheld from those who profess to be Christians. Christ washed the feet of Judas and gave him place at the table knowing he would leave to betray Him. Human beings cannot read the secrets of the soul or reliably distinguish the sincere from the insincere, cannot tell who is worthy and who is not, and must not refuse to attend because of who else is present or decide who may present themselves. Even when kept separate among believers, one like Judas may eat and drink to his own damnation, but God will make him manifest and purge him out. Unseen heavenly witnesses are present at the washing, while evil messengers attend those who refuse the Spirit's work.
Unity Witness and Daily Life
Living His teaching in practical life fosters unity with one another and with Christ, for the instruction about humility and practical service in washing feet and asking what He had done brings disciples together in unity and makes their hearts one with Him in oneness. The instruction of John 13 is a remedy for dissension.
The chapter plainly outlines God's will and calls for careful study, belief, and earnest practice before fellow ministers as a witness to the world. So observed, the ordinance keeps God's people humble and separate from the world and keeps them from backsliding like the nominal churches. It is to be done understandingly and not made a tedious ceremony, and to be introduced in new places with carefulness and wisdom where people are uninformed about the Lord's example and teaching on this point or are prejudiced against it through former teachers, waiting for a proper time and manner. Gospel order gives no example for brethren to wash sisters' feet but gives example for sisters to wash the feet of brethren.
His example bears on rejecting ambition for first place in order to become pure, humble, and consecrated in thought, spirit, and practice. Pride that esteems self above brother, working and serving for self, seeking the highest place, with evil surmisings and bitterness of spirit over trifles, must be put away, and brother is not to exalt himself above brother. The dangers of disunion and strife must be seen because the health and holy activity of the soul are involved.
His patient bearing with Judas though false-hearted, and His washing of erring and faulty disciples, teach patience toward fellow workers who are at fault and bearing with false brethren and perverse persons rather than hastily rejecting them. One believed to be in sin is not to be abandoned through careless separation, but patient opportunities to repent and be cleansed are to be offered. This example brought all but one of the twelve to repentance.
His words rebuke defiling talk, passing judgment, and self-assured conversation that hurts souls and spoils God's work. His counsel must be heeded through cleansing by the Holy Spirit, with lips touched as by a living coal, so that counsel and speech become a savor of life unto life instead of strange fire and a savor of death unto death.
Washing one another's feet puts believers in Christ's place for the humble service that recovers man from sin. Doing exactly what Christ charged brings them into close relationship with the Lord, who is present on the occasion as witness with watching angels and surrounding atmosphere of heaven to impress hearts. His whole life as the light from above and the way below guides into all truth every soul who comes to Him, unfolding His love and revealing the character of God, whose Father is their Father. Those who know these things are happy if they do them, for the servant is not greater than his Lord, and redemption purchased by His dying love is kept fresh in remembrance on conditions of humility and continual obedience, commanding them to love one another as He loved them. Eating His body and drinking His blood means not merely at the sacramental service but by daily partaking of the bread of life to satisfy soul-hunger by receiving His Word and doing His will.