Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;
Fully conscious that all authority had been placed in His hands and that He had come from God and was returning to God, Jesus knew His divine origin, mission and destiny in that hour. It was the last sacred gathering before His sacrifice, with supper ended and betrayal already in the heart of Judas, when He prepared the disciples for their separation from Him and the suffering they would see Him endure. With that full knowledge He rose from supper, laid aside His garments, girded Himself as a servant, and began to wash the disciples' feet, letting supreme authority lead to humble, loving service. His humility was His exaltation, rebuking selfish contention for greatness and giving His followers an example and ordinance of humility to follow, to be remembered and obeyed in uniting hearts and cleansing from self-seeking. Though knowing Judas would betray Him, He washed his feet first, kept him at the table and gave him no rebuke, holding out a last tender appeal to repent and be cleansed.
Setting and Divine Knowledge
The setting is the last sacred gathering before the crucifixion, in the last week together and the last hours before His sacrifice for the world. It was before the feast of the Passover, with supper ended and the devil having put betrayal into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son, and knowing His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own in the world and loving them to the end. His words then were to prepare the disciples for the coming trial, for their separation from Him, and for the suffering they would see Him endure.
The verse declares His full, conscious knowledge that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God. That knowledge means supreme divine authority entrusted to Him by the Father, together with divine origin and destiny and return to God. It is full consciousness of His exalted position, His divine standing, His divinity and mission, even while facing the cross.
With that full knowledge He rose from supper, laid aside His garments, His royal crown and kingly robes and royal status, girded Himself with a towel as a servant, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and wipe them. Supreme authority and divine origin and destiny led Him to humble, loving service, and with full knowledge of His divine authority and mission He performed that humble service. His humility was His exaltation, making foot-washing an occasion when God is sacredly near.
The nearer He came to the hour of ascending to the Father, the more conspicuous His humility became. Fully conscious of His divine standing and facing the cross, He put the disciples' needs before His own in this final act that evening. He laid aside His royal status and took the form of a servant to wash their feet.
His knowledge also included foreknowledge of the betrayer's purpose, while the other disciples knew nothing of it. He alone knew that Judas had allowed himself to become a channel of darkness, knew better yet was bracing his soul against light, had given up hope of temporal preferment, was fighting away from Jesus, and was becoming a traitor and betrayer, though the disciples still looked on him as a man of great capabilities. He knew Judas had sold Him for thirty pieces of silver and would leave to carry out his plan to betray Him. That knowledge of the betrayer's purpose demonstrated His divinity, and it frames His long patience with perverse human nature.
Humble Example and Ordinance
The washing of feet rebuked the dispute over who should be greatest, for the hearts of the twelve were filled with selfishness and their tempers heated by contention stirred up by Satan. He heard their whisperings and saw their flushed faces at a time when a right frame of mind would have brought them great blessing, yet without a word He laid aside His outer garment, girded Himself with a towel as a servant, and washed their feet. With full knowledge of divine authority and mission He rose from supper to perform this humble service, rebuking their strife for the highest place in the promised kingdom. At the last sacred gathering before the crucifixion the nearer He came to the hour of ascending to the Father the more conspicuous His humility became, in striking contrast to the twelve disputing which should be accounted greatest. Done as He ate the Passover with His disciples, the act most forcibly illustrates the necessity of true humility and that true service calls for unselfish ministry.
His humility was His exaltation, showing humility to be fitting even for those in the highest positions. Though fully aware of His exalted position with all things placed in His hands, He served His disciples by washing their feet. The menial service stands as a lesson of humility and loving ministration, and His meekness and humility will be seen in His followers. The more closely they resemble Him and the richer and more perfect their Christian character, the less disposition they will have to honor or exalt self, giving glory to God's name for mercy and truth. With His purity as the spotless Lamb presenting Himself as a sin-offering, He girded Himself and performed the office of a servant for those who called Him Lord.
His humble service is an example His followers are to follow, and through remembrance of what He did for them no exaltation of one above another would find place. Before the feast of the Passover, knowing His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own and loving them to the end, with supper ended and betrayal put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son, He rose, laid aside His garments, girded Himself with a towel, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and wipe them. Supreme authority and divine origin and destiny led Him to this humble service, and foot-washing is an occasion when God is sacredly near, where His words and example are to be remembered and obeyed. The ordinance of humility brings brother to an understanding of his brother's feelings. It was given to teach humility and to bring believers together in unity, joining their hearts in oneness with Him. The practice of washing one another's feet is followed as His example.
Done as He ate the Passover with His disciples, the act put an end to the sacrifices offered for four thousand years. In place of the national festival the Jewish people had observed He instituted feet washing and the sacramental supper as a memorial service to be observed by His followers through all time and in every country in continual repetition of His act. As His last established ordinance, type was meeting antitype in Himself, with all things given into His hands as the authority and foundation of all the Jewish ordinances that pointed to Him as the great and only efficacious offering for the sins of the world. He discharged His disciples from the cares and burdens of the ancient Jewish obligations in rites and ceremonies, which no longer possessed virtue or force after the reception of the Gospel, so that to continue them would be an insult to Jehovah. He gave this simple ordinance to disentangle them from those rites, to be a special season when He Himself will always be present to lead each participant to feel the pulse of conscience, awaken understanding of the lessons symbolized, revive memory, convict of sin, and receive penitential offerings. It speaks not so largely to intellectual capacity as to the heart, because the moral and spiritual nature needs it, teaching that brother is not to exalt himself above brother and showing the dangers of disunion and strife, for the health and holy activity of the soul are involved.
Footwashing and communion are to be observed among believers apart from unbelievers, for He took His disciples away alone separate from unbelievers and the wicked, first washed their feet and then gave broken bread to represent His broken body and juice of the vine to represent His spilled blood. Holding them among unbelievers brings reproach on God's cause, and even when kept private a Judas may appear with believers and eat and drink to his own damnation, but God will quickly make him manifest and purge him out. The example of breaking bread and washing the saints' feet is to be practiced together even where it has never been practiced before, with leaders setting the example first and then all joining heartily. The observance is solemn, profitable, and long to be remembered, bringing humbling before God with weeping and rejoicing, accompanied by speaking when breaking the bread that moves hearers to sobs and groans. It was observed together with the Lord's Supper. Women are to wash the feet of women and men the feet of men, not men and women together.
This humility calls man out of esteeming himself above his brother, out of selfishness, self-seeking, seeking the highest place and self-exaltation, to the humility of washing his brother's feet, clearing away misunderstandings, evil surmisings and bitterness of spirit over trifles before the Lord's supper. The ordinance must not be deferred because some are considered unworthy, for human beings cannot tell who is worthy and who is not and cannot read the secrets of the soul. Though knowing Judas was the betrayer, He washed his feet and allowed him to share in the sacrament, showing longsuffering mercy and holding out opportunity to receive Him, repent, and be cleansed from sin. His knowledge and divine authority did not keep Him from humbly washing the disciples' feet, including Judas's, and He tenderly gave Judas this last appeal of love, revealing that He knew the traitor's purpose. With full knowledge He humbled Himself to wash the feet of His disciples, and divine power, origin and destiny did not prevent lowly service, nor did foreknowledge of betrayal prevent love, for He washed the feet of Judas and kept him a place at the table knowing Judas would leave to betray Him.
He alone knew Judas had allowed himself to become a channel of darkness, knew better yet was bracing his soul against light, had given up hope of temporal preferment, was fighting away from Him, and was becoming traitor and betrayer, while the disciples knew nothing of his purposes and still looked on him as a man of great capabilities. Though knowing this secret, He gave Judas no word of rebuke and did not expose him, but with goodness, humility and love bathed his soiled feet and wiped them with the towel, making Judas the first one washed, and this treatment of poor deluded Judas was a sample of His treatment of them all through His association with them. Knowing the betrayer's heart from the beginning did not keep Him from washing his feet or offering him a place at the sacrament. With goodness, humility and love He tenderly gave this last appeal, showing longsuffering mercy and long patience with perverse human nature. He knew Judas had sold Him for thirty pieces of silver, yet He washed Judas's feet the same as the others, meaning no one is to be singled out for special favor, service, or honor, because all are His purchased possession and He died just as truly for the poor and uneducated as for the most learned and those who think themselves greatest.
His patience with Judas shows how His followers should patiently bear with those who are at fault. His example teaches not to abandon someone believed to be in error or sin, but to seek to help rather than leave that person exposed to temptation. Judas wrongly took His humility as evidence that He could not be Israel's King and abandoned hopes of worldly honor. Washing Judas's feet did not make him love Jesus, and when Judas left to carry out his plan the others were relieved and the shadow lifted from them. The chapter belongs to careful and prayerful study in rejecting desire for position and learning humility, repentance, and dependence on God, with warning not to act like Judas. His action opened their eyes, left them too astonished and ashamed to speak, filled their hearts with bitter shame and humiliation, showed them themselves in a new light, and gave them an experience they would remember as long as life lasted. The act is a lesson to be taken in in all its bearings, giving insight into the workings of God, whose ways and thoughts are not human ways and thoughts.
Fully conscious that all authority had been placed in His hands and that He had come from God and was returning to God, Jesus knew His divine origin, mission and destiny in that hour. It was the last sacred gathering before His sacrifice, with supper ended and betrayal already in the heart of Judas, when He prepared the disciples for their separation from Him and the suffering they would see Him endure. With that full knowledge He rose from supper, laid aside His garments, girded Himself as a servant, and began to wash the disciples' feet, letting supreme authority lead to humble, loving service. His humility was His exaltation, rebuking selfish contention for greatness and giving His followers an example and ordinance of humility to follow, to be remembered and obeyed in uniting hearts and cleansing from self-seeking. Though knowing Judas would betray Him, He washed his feet first, kept him at the table and gave him no rebuke, holding out a last tender appeal to repent and be cleansed.
Setting and Divine Knowledge
The setting is the last sacred gathering before the crucifixion, in the last week together and the last hours before His sacrifice for the world. It was before the feast of the Passover, with supper ended and the devil having put betrayal into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son, and knowing His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own in the world and loving them to the end. His words then were to prepare the disciples for the coming trial, for their separation from Him, and for the suffering they would see Him endure.
The verse declares His full, conscious knowledge that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God. That knowledge means supreme divine authority entrusted to Him by the Father, together with divine origin and destiny and return to God. It is full consciousness of His exalted position, His divine standing, His divinity and mission, even while facing the cross.
With that full knowledge He rose from supper, laid aside His garments, His royal crown and kingly robes and royal status, girded Himself with a towel as a servant, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and wipe them. Supreme authority and divine origin and destiny led Him to humble, loving service, and with full knowledge of His divine authority and mission He performed that humble service. His humility was His exaltation, making foot-washing an occasion when God is sacredly near.
The nearer He came to the hour of ascending to the Father, the more conspicuous His humility became. Fully conscious of His divine standing and facing the cross, He put the disciples' needs before His own in this final act that evening. He laid aside His royal status and took the form of a servant to wash their feet.
His knowledge also included foreknowledge of the betrayer's purpose, while the other disciples knew nothing of it. He alone knew that Judas had allowed himself to become a channel of darkness, knew better yet was bracing his soul against light, had given up hope of temporal preferment, was fighting away from Jesus, and was becoming a traitor and betrayer, though the disciples still looked on him as a man of great capabilities. He knew Judas had sold Him for thirty pieces of silver and would leave to carry out his plan to betray Him. That knowledge of the betrayer's purpose demonstrated His divinity, and it frames His long patience with perverse human nature.
Humble Example and Ordinance
The washing of feet rebuked the dispute over who should be greatest, for the hearts of the twelve were filled with selfishness and their tempers heated by contention stirred up by Satan. He heard their whisperings and saw their flushed faces at a time when a right frame of mind would have brought them great blessing, yet without a word He laid aside His outer garment, girded Himself with a towel as a servant, and washed their feet. With full knowledge of divine authority and mission He rose from supper to perform this humble service, rebuking their strife for the highest place in the promised kingdom. At the last sacred gathering before the crucifixion the nearer He came to the hour of ascending to the Father the more conspicuous His humility became, in striking contrast to the twelve disputing which should be accounted greatest. Done as He ate the Passover with His disciples, the act most forcibly illustrates the necessity of true humility and that true service calls for unselfish ministry.
His humility was His exaltation, showing humility to be fitting even for those in the highest positions. Though fully aware of His exalted position with all things placed in His hands, He served His disciples by washing their feet. The menial service stands as a lesson of humility and loving ministration, and His meekness and humility will be seen in His followers. The more closely they resemble Him and the richer and more perfect their Christian character, the less disposition they will have to honor or exalt self, giving glory to God's name for mercy and truth. With His purity as the spotless Lamb presenting Himself as a sin-offering, He girded Himself and performed the office of a servant for those who called Him Lord.
His humble service is an example His followers are to follow, and through remembrance of what He did for them no exaltation of one above another would find place. Before the feast of the Passover, knowing His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own and loving them to the end, with supper ended and betrayal put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son, He rose, laid aside His garments, girded Himself with a towel, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and wipe them. Supreme authority and divine origin and destiny led Him to this humble service, and foot-washing is an occasion when God is sacredly near, where His words and example are to be remembered and obeyed. The ordinance of humility brings brother to an understanding of his brother's feelings. It was given to teach humility and to bring believers together in unity, joining their hearts in oneness with Him. The practice of washing one another's feet is followed as His example.
Done as He ate the Passover with His disciples, the act put an end to the sacrifices offered for four thousand years. In place of the national festival the Jewish people had observed He instituted feet washing and the sacramental supper as a memorial service to be observed by His followers through all time and in every country in continual repetition of His act. As His last established ordinance, type was meeting antitype in Himself, with all things given into His hands as the authority and foundation of all the Jewish ordinances that pointed to Him as the great and only efficacious offering for the sins of the world. He discharged His disciples from the cares and burdens of the ancient Jewish obligations in rites and ceremonies, which no longer possessed virtue or force after the reception of the Gospel, so that to continue them would be an insult to Jehovah. He gave this simple ordinance to disentangle them from those rites, to be a special season when He Himself will always be present to lead each participant to feel the pulse of conscience, awaken understanding of the lessons symbolized, revive memory, convict of sin, and receive penitential offerings. It speaks not so largely to intellectual capacity as to the heart, because the moral and spiritual nature needs it, teaching that brother is not to exalt himself above brother and showing the dangers of disunion and strife, for the health and holy activity of the soul are involved.
Footwashing and communion are to be observed among believers apart from unbelievers, for He took His disciples away alone separate from unbelievers and the wicked, first washed their feet and then gave broken bread to represent His broken body and juice of the vine to represent His spilled blood. Holding them among unbelievers brings reproach on God's cause, and even when kept private a Judas may appear with believers and eat and drink to his own damnation, but God will quickly make him manifest and purge him out. The example of breaking bread and washing the saints' feet is to be practiced together even where it has never been practiced before, with leaders setting the example first and then all joining heartily. The observance is solemn, profitable, and long to be remembered, bringing humbling before God with weeping and rejoicing, accompanied by speaking when breaking the bread that moves hearers to sobs and groans. It was observed together with the Lord's Supper. Women are to wash the feet of women and men the feet of men, not men and women together.
This humility calls man out of esteeming himself above his brother, out of selfishness, self-seeking, seeking the highest place and self-exaltation, to the humility of washing his brother's feet, clearing away misunderstandings, evil surmisings and bitterness of spirit over trifles before the Lord's supper. The ordinance must not be deferred because some are considered unworthy, for human beings cannot tell who is worthy and who is not and cannot read the secrets of the soul. Though knowing Judas was the betrayer, He washed his feet and allowed him to share in the sacrament, showing longsuffering mercy and holding out opportunity to receive Him, repent, and be cleansed from sin. His knowledge and divine authority did not keep Him from humbly washing the disciples' feet, including Judas's, and He tenderly gave Judas this last appeal of love, revealing that He knew the traitor's purpose. With full knowledge He humbled Himself to wash the feet of His disciples, and divine power, origin and destiny did not prevent lowly service, nor did foreknowledge of betrayal prevent love, for He washed the feet of Judas and kept him a place at the table knowing Judas would leave to betray Him.
He alone knew Judas had allowed himself to become a channel of darkness, knew better yet was bracing his soul against light, had given up hope of temporal preferment, was fighting away from Him, and was becoming traitor and betrayer, while the disciples knew nothing of his purposes and still looked on him as a man of great capabilities. Though knowing this secret, He gave Judas no word of rebuke and did not expose him, but with goodness, humility and love bathed his soiled feet and wiped them with the towel, making Judas the first one washed, and this treatment of poor deluded Judas was a sample of His treatment of them all through His association with them. Knowing the betrayer's heart from the beginning did not keep Him from washing his feet or offering him a place at the sacrament. With goodness, humility and love He tenderly gave this last appeal, showing longsuffering mercy and long patience with perverse human nature. He knew Judas had sold Him for thirty pieces of silver, yet He washed Judas's feet the same as the others, meaning no one is to be singled out for special favor, service, or honor, because all are His purchased possession and He died just as truly for the poor and uneducated as for the most learned and those who think themselves greatest.
His patience with Judas shows how His followers should patiently bear with those who are at fault. His example teaches not to abandon someone believed to be in error or sin, but to seek to help rather than leave that person exposed to temptation. Judas wrongly took His humility as evidence that He could not be Israel's King and abandoned hopes of worldly honor. Washing Judas's feet did not make him love Jesus, and when Judas left to carry out his plan the others were relieved and the shadow lifted from them. The chapter belongs to careful and prayerful study in rejecting desire for position and learning humility, repentance, and dependence on God, with warning not to act like Judas. His action opened their eyes, left them too astonished and ashamed to speak, filled their hearts with bitter shame and humiliation, showed them themselves in a new light, and gave them an experience they would remember as long as life lasted. The act is a lesson to be taken in in all its bearings, giving insight into the workings of God, whose ways and thoughts are not human ways and thoughts.