Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
At the last supper Jesus rose to wash His disciples' feet, and Peter first refused to allow it, then when warned that without this washing he would have no part with Christ, he surrendered pride and begged to be washed entirely in hands and head, though he did not yet understand the lesson. Jesus answered that one already bathed needs only to wash his feet but is clean throughout, adding that the disciples were clean but not all, because He knew His betrayer. The request shows a heart that, once seeing the washing as spiritual cleansing, desires to be cleansed completely rather than risk separation from Him. Though already cleansed through Him, His followers still need His continuing grace to cleanse pride, jealousy and alienation from the heart, for inward purity matters far more than outward water. That washing brought all but one to broken, loving repentance, while Judas remained inwardly corrupt, and in stooping as Lord to a servant's office Christ made humility and unselfish ministry forever binding on His followers.
Words and Setting
The words belong to the last Passover supper the Lord held with His disciples in the upper chamber during His last week, on His final evening with them before His death. He was preparing them with words of comfort for the coming trial, for His separation from them, and for the suffering and rejection He would endure. The footwashing and the communion bread and cup were shared with the disciples apart from unbelievers, after Jesus took them away from the wicked.
At that supper the devil had put betrayal into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and went to God, rose from supper, laid aside His garments, girded Himself with a towel, poured water into a basin, and began to wash and wipe the disciples' feet. He began with Judas, bathing those soiled feet with His own precious hands and wiping them with the towel, giving no word of rebuke or exposure though He alone could read Judas's secret purpose as channel of darkness and coming traitor and betrayer.
The disciples had come to the supper in a wrong frame of mind, with hearts filled with selfishness and tempers heated by contention for the highest place in the promised kingdom, disputing who should be greatest. Satan made a determined effort at that time to arouse contention among them, and Christ sorrowed to see them yielding to strife, so that they missed the great blessing they might have received. Christ heard their whisperings and saw their flushed faces, and without a word laid aside His outer garment and girded Himself with a towel as if He had been a servant and proceeded to wash their feet. His action as a servant opened their eyes and left them too astonished and ashamed to speak, filling their hearts with bitter shame and humiliation and showing them themselves in altogether a new light, an experience they would remember as long as life lasted.
Peter first shrank from bringing his soiled feet into touch with the hands of his Lord and Master and refused to let Jesus wash him. After Jesus warned that unless Jesus washed him he would have no part with Him, Peter surrendered pride and self-will because he could not bear separation from Christ. Broken at the thought of separation, he eagerly asked to be washed entirely, not his feet only but also his hands and head, though he did not yet understand the lesson Jesus was giving and did not yet see that foot washing pointed to a higher cleansing. Jesus answered the request by teaching that he that is washed needs only to wash his feet but is clean every whit, and that the disciples are clean but not all, because He knew who would betray Him.
Cleansing Christ Offers
When Peter grasped that the washing of his feet signified spiritual cleansing, he asked to be cleansed completely rather than risk having no part with Christ. Having first refused and then been warned that refusal would separate him from Christ, he surrendered pride and self-will because he could not bear that separation, and his plea for hands and head as well as feet expressed his desire to receive the cleansing the foot-washing represented. The disciples had already been cleansed through Christ, yet temptation had led them into pride, jealousy, and alienation, so they still needed His continuing grace to cleanse their hearts and restore humility and love. Foot-washing pointed to a higher cleansing, for bodily washing represents cleansing from moral pollution and the washing away of sin and purifying of the heart. A clean heart cleansed from every defilement matters far more than outward water on dusty feet, and humility and affection free from alienation, dissension, jealousy and pride are needed to receive Christ's teaching and to love one another.
The washing was offered to erring disciples as cleansing and repentance, and all but one of the twelve were brought to repentance. Judas's inward corruption remained despite his feet being washed, even though Christ patiently washed the betrayer despite knowing him and gave him opportunity to repent and be cleansed. The other disciples were ashamed, mortified, conscience-stricken, subdued and broken, their hearts going out to Jesus with deep earnest faith which works by love and purifies the soul. Judas himself thrilled with an impulse to confess and then turned the wrong way, bracing against light and fighting away from Jesus. The setting shows Jesus' patient care for faulty disciples, for Peter with his faults and repeated reproofs later lived a life of service and sacrifice through God's grace, a pattern for treating others who are at fault. So too His experience with Judas, who was numbered among the apostles though He knew he would betray Him, stands as an example of long patience toward false disciples.
Humility Ordinance Established
The washing of feet was made a consecrated religious ordinance, not merely an act of hospitality for cleaning travelers' feet. It was the last ordinance established in connection with the last supper, given as a religious service to test and prove loyalty and to precede the sharing of the emblems of death. As He ate the Passover He put an end to the sacrifices offered for four thousand years, and in place of the national festival instituted foot washing together with the sacramental supper as a memorial to be observed by followers through all time and in every country. In this He discharged the cares and burdens of ancient Jewish rites and ceremonies, which no longer possessed virtue because type was meeting antitype in Himself as the authority and foundation and only efficacious offering for sin. The circumstances of that celebration still recall the time when the ordinances were instituted.
Though called Lord and Master, the pure, spotless Lamb presenting Himself as a sin-offering humbled Himself to perform the office of a servant, with His own precious hands bathing soiled feet. That act most forcibly illustrates the necessity of true humility and calls for unselfish ministry. It teaches disciples not to consider themselves superior to even the humblest believer, but to follow His example of service. Through remembering what Christ did for them they are led into a state where no one exalts himself above another and where each understands his brother's feelings.
The rite is a simple act whose meaning can be overlooked, yet following Christ's example in it softens the heart, expels selfishness, and fosters the Holy Spirit, love, grace, and peace. It was given to teach humility and to bring hearts together in unity and oneness with Him. Humility and affection free from alienation, dissension, jealousy and pride are needed to receive His teaching and to love one another. The words of John 13 with John 14 and 15 and 17 require the Holy Spirit to cleanse away the defilement of unkind talk and passing judgment, to place the living coal upon the lips to cleanse away self-assured conversation that hurts souls and spoils God's work, so that counsels become a savor of life unto life.
Jesus tenderly included Judas among those whose feet He washed even though He knew Judas would betray Him. The washing was a final appeal of love and a final effort to reach him, giving him opportunity to repent and be cleansed while still bearing with him. Unseen heavenly witnesses were present at the washing. Yet the act did not make Judas love Him more, and Judas rejected it and went to betray Him.
The service is therefore not to be deferred or refused because someone present is counted unworthy. Christ washed the feet of Judas and left him a place at the table and allowed him to share the sacrament though knowing he would leave to betray Him. No one claiming to be a Christian should be excluded, since human beings cannot read the secrets of the soul or reliably distinguish the tares from the wheat and the unfaithful from the faithful.
Practice and Preparation Today
The washing of feet is a plain duty laid down to keep His people humble and separate from the world and from backsliding like the nominal churches, to be followed as exactly as possible and practiced more frequently together with the Lord's supper. It is a precious religious service and a Christian service shared in humility before God, administered with the Lord's Supper as one of the Lord's ordinances, celebrated before the Supper in circumstances that recall the time when the ordinances were instituted. It is to be practiced literally by the saints together with breaking bread, and the breaking of bread is joined with interesting and appropriate speaking.
The observance is to be introduced in new places with carefulness and wisdom at a proper time and manner where people are uninformed about the Lord's example and teachings on this point or prejudiced against it through former teachers, and with judgment to avoid confusion. Believers are to wash one another's feet, with men following the example set for men and women following the example set for women until all heartily take part, the service to be done understandingly and not made a tedious ceremony. Sisters washing the feet of brethren is according to gospel order, while there is no example for brethren to wash sisters' feet, sisters are to wash sisters' feet and not men washing women's feet, and men and women washing each other's feet together is not right.
At every service of feet-washing God is sacredly near, and Christ Himself is always present to lead everyone participating to feel the pulse of conscience, to awaken understanding of the lessons symbolized, to revive memory, to convict of sin, and to receive penitential offerings. The observance is solemn, interesting and profitable, a humbling before God marked by weeping and rejoicing and long remembered. It clears away misunderstandings, evil surmisings and bitterness over trifles and brings people out of selfishness and self-exaltation into lowliness that will wash a brother's feet, remembering what Christ had done so that no one exalts himself above another and each understands his brother's feelings. It teaches that brother is not to exalt himself above brother, and that the dangers of disunion and strife must be seen because the health and holy activity of the soul are involved.
No one is prepared to appreciate holy communion with Christ and with one another unless cleansed by His efficacy. Preparation requires close investigation of life and character, true contrition of soul, fellowship with Jesus Christ and fellowship with brethren, the breaking down of pride and self-sufficiency, a humble heart clean and purified from all defilement, consciousness of sins forgiven, the love of Jesus abounding in the heart, and the sunshine of Christ's righteousness filling the mind, so that disciples are softened and subdued as the first disciples were. This stands in contrast to bringing sinful, polluted souls into contact with the heart of Christ, who hates nothing but sin, and grieving His pure, holy Spirit with defiling sins. Eating His body and drinking His blood means not merely partaking at the sacramental service but daily partaking of the bread of life that alone satisfies soul-hunger by receiving His Word and doing His will. This speaks not so largely to intellectual capacity as to the heart, and the moral and spiritual nature need it.
At the last supper Jesus rose to wash His disciples' feet, and Peter first refused to allow it, then when warned that without this washing he would have no part with Christ, he surrendered pride and begged to be washed entirely in hands and head, though he did not yet understand the lesson. Jesus answered that one already bathed needs only to wash his feet but is clean throughout, adding that the disciples were clean but not all, because He knew His betrayer. The request shows a heart that, once seeing the washing as spiritual cleansing, desires to be cleansed completely rather than risk separation from Him. Though already cleansed through Him, His followers still need His continuing grace to cleanse pride, jealousy and alienation from the heart, for inward purity matters far more than outward water. That washing brought all but one to broken, loving repentance, while Judas remained inwardly corrupt, and in stooping as Lord to a servant's office Christ made humility and unselfish ministry forever binding on His followers.
Words and Setting
The words belong to the last Passover supper the Lord held with His disciples in the upper chamber during His last week, on His final evening with them before His death. He was preparing them with words of comfort for the coming trial, for His separation from them, and for the suffering and rejection He would endure. The footwashing and the communion bread and cup were shared with the disciples apart from unbelievers, after Jesus took them away from the wicked.
At that supper the devil had put betrayal into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and went to God, rose from supper, laid aside His garments, girded Himself with a towel, poured water into a basin, and began to wash and wipe the disciples' feet. He began with Judas, bathing those soiled feet with His own precious hands and wiping them with the towel, giving no word of rebuke or exposure though He alone could read Judas's secret purpose as channel of darkness and coming traitor and betrayer.
The disciples had come to the supper in a wrong frame of mind, with hearts filled with selfishness and tempers heated by contention for the highest place in the promised kingdom, disputing who should be greatest. Satan made a determined effort at that time to arouse contention among them, and Christ sorrowed to see them yielding to strife, so that they missed the great blessing they might have received. Christ heard their whisperings and saw their flushed faces, and without a word laid aside His outer garment and girded Himself with a towel as if He had been a servant and proceeded to wash their feet. His action as a servant opened their eyes and left them too astonished and ashamed to speak, filling their hearts with bitter shame and humiliation and showing them themselves in altogether a new light, an experience they would remember as long as life lasted.
Peter first shrank from bringing his soiled feet into touch with the hands of his Lord and Master and refused to let Jesus wash him. After Jesus warned that unless Jesus washed him he would have no part with Him, Peter surrendered pride and self-will because he could not bear separation from Christ. Broken at the thought of separation, he eagerly asked to be washed entirely, not his feet only but also his hands and head, though he did not yet understand the lesson Jesus was giving and did not yet see that foot washing pointed to a higher cleansing. Jesus answered the request by teaching that he that is washed needs only to wash his feet but is clean every whit, and that the disciples are clean but not all, because He knew who would betray Him.
Cleansing Christ Offers
When Peter grasped that the washing of his feet signified spiritual cleansing, he asked to be cleansed completely rather than risk having no part with Christ. Having first refused and then been warned that refusal would separate him from Christ, he surrendered pride and self-will because he could not bear that separation, and his plea for hands and head as well as feet expressed his desire to receive the cleansing the foot-washing represented. The disciples had already been cleansed through Christ, yet temptation had led them into pride, jealousy, and alienation, so they still needed His continuing grace to cleanse their hearts and restore humility and love. Foot-washing pointed to a higher cleansing, for bodily washing represents cleansing from moral pollution and the washing away of sin and purifying of the heart. A clean heart cleansed from every defilement matters far more than outward water on dusty feet, and humility and affection free from alienation, dissension, jealousy and pride are needed to receive Christ's teaching and to love one another.
The washing was offered to erring disciples as cleansing and repentance, and all but one of the twelve were brought to repentance. Judas's inward corruption remained despite his feet being washed, even though Christ patiently washed the betrayer despite knowing him and gave him opportunity to repent and be cleansed. The other disciples were ashamed, mortified, conscience-stricken, subdued and broken, their hearts going out to Jesus with deep earnest faith which works by love and purifies the soul. Judas himself thrilled with an impulse to confess and then turned the wrong way, bracing against light and fighting away from Jesus. The setting shows Jesus' patient care for faulty disciples, for Peter with his faults and repeated reproofs later lived a life of service and sacrifice through God's grace, a pattern for treating others who are at fault. So too His experience with Judas, who was numbered among the apostles though He knew he would betray Him, stands as an example of long patience toward false disciples.
Humility Ordinance Established
The washing of feet was made a consecrated religious ordinance, not merely an act of hospitality for cleaning travelers' feet. It was the last ordinance established in connection with the last supper, given as a religious service to test and prove loyalty and to precede the sharing of the emblems of death. As He ate the Passover He put an end to the sacrifices offered for four thousand years, and in place of the national festival instituted foot washing together with the sacramental supper as a memorial to be observed by followers through all time and in every country. In this He discharged the cares and burdens of ancient Jewish rites and ceremonies, which no longer possessed virtue because type was meeting antitype in Himself as the authority and foundation and only efficacious offering for sin. The circumstances of that celebration still recall the time when the ordinances were instituted.
Though called Lord and Master, the pure, spotless Lamb presenting Himself as a sin-offering humbled Himself to perform the office of a servant, with His own precious hands bathing soiled feet. That act most forcibly illustrates the necessity of true humility and calls for unselfish ministry. It teaches disciples not to consider themselves superior to even the humblest believer, but to follow His example of service. Through remembering what Christ did for them they are led into a state where no one exalts himself above another and where each understands his brother's feelings.
The rite is a simple act whose meaning can be overlooked, yet following Christ's example in it softens the heart, expels selfishness, and fosters the Holy Spirit, love, grace, and peace. It was given to teach humility and to bring hearts together in unity and oneness with Him. Humility and affection free from alienation, dissension, jealousy and pride are needed to receive His teaching and to love one another. The words of John 13 with John 14 and 15 and 17 require the Holy Spirit to cleanse away the defilement of unkind talk and passing judgment, to place the living coal upon the lips to cleanse away self-assured conversation that hurts souls and spoils God's work, so that counsels become a savor of life unto life.
Jesus tenderly included Judas among those whose feet He washed even though He knew Judas would betray Him. The washing was a final appeal of love and a final effort to reach him, giving him opportunity to repent and be cleansed while still bearing with him. Unseen heavenly witnesses were present at the washing. Yet the act did not make Judas love Him more, and Judas rejected it and went to betray Him.
The service is therefore not to be deferred or refused because someone present is counted unworthy. Christ washed the feet of Judas and left him a place at the table and allowed him to share the sacrament though knowing he would leave to betray Him. No one claiming to be a Christian should be excluded, since human beings cannot read the secrets of the soul or reliably distinguish the tares from the wheat and the unfaithful from the faithful.
Practice and Preparation Today
The washing of feet is a plain duty laid down to keep His people humble and separate from the world and from backsliding like the nominal churches, to be followed as exactly as possible and practiced more frequently together with the Lord's supper. It is a precious religious service and a Christian service shared in humility before God, administered with the Lord's Supper as one of the Lord's ordinances, celebrated before the Supper in circumstances that recall the time when the ordinances were instituted. It is to be practiced literally by the saints together with breaking bread, and the breaking of bread is joined with interesting and appropriate speaking.
The observance is to be introduced in new places with carefulness and wisdom at a proper time and manner where people are uninformed about the Lord's example and teachings on this point or prejudiced against it through former teachers, and with judgment to avoid confusion. Believers are to wash one another's feet, with men following the example set for men and women following the example set for women until all heartily take part, the service to be done understandingly and not made a tedious ceremony. Sisters washing the feet of brethren is according to gospel order, while there is no example for brethren to wash sisters' feet, sisters are to wash sisters' feet and not men washing women's feet, and men and women washing each other's feet together is not right.
At every service of feet-washing God is sacredly near, and Christ Himself is always present to lead everyone participating to feel the pulse of conscience, to awaken understanding of the lessons symbolized, to revive memory, to convict of sin, and to receive penitential offerings. The observance is solemn, interesting and profitable, a humbling before God marked by weeping and rejoicing and long remembered. It clears away misunderstandings, evil surmisings and bitterness over trifles and brings people out of selfishness and self-exaltation into lowliness that will wash a brother's feet, remembering what Christ had done so that no one exalts himself above another and each understands his brother's feelings. It teaches that brother is not to exalt himself above brother, and that the dangers of disunion and strife must be seen because the health and holy activity of the soul are involved.
No one is prepared to appreciate holy communion with Christ and with one another unless cleansed by His efficacy. Preparation requires close investigation of life and character, true contrition of soul, fellowship with Jesus Christ and fellowship with brethren, the breaking down of pride and self-sufficiency, a humble heart clean and purified from all defilement, consciousness of sins forgiven, the love of Jesus abounding in the heart, and the sunshine of Christ's righteousness filling the mind, so that disciples are softened and subdued as the first disciples were. This stands in contrast to bringing sinful, polluted souls into contact with the heart of Christ, who hates nothing but sin, and grieving His pure, holy Spirit with defiling sins. Eating His body and drinking His blood means not merely partaking at the sacramental service but daily partaking of the bread of life that alone satisfies soul-hunger by receiving His Word and doing His will. This speaks not so largely to intellectual capacity as to the heart, and the moral and spiritual nature need it.