Why did He do that? (Jesus washed the disciples feet)

I once preached about the story of Jesus washing the dirty feet of His disciples (John 13: 5-17) in the church where i am currently serving. As i was preparing the sermon, i felt very unworthy of myself. In fact i did mention that as i began to preach. I praise God that many were deeply touched and ministered through the preaching. Many reconciled with others who they were having difficulities with. So, i thought it will be a blessing for all of us if i would upload the sermon here.

Introduction:
Jesus washing the feet of the disciples is only mentioned in the Gospel of John. Washing feet in such a situation was the role of the most menial or unskilled of servants. Why was it necessary for feet washing before a meal? In understanding the context of the narrative, Jesus and His disciples lived in the Middle East. Geographically filled with deserts and sandy grounds. Thus, it is unavoidable for a person who walks in this situation to avoid collecting dust on their feet. So, when Jesus and His disciples sat down to dine (the dinning table was not as high as ours. The height of the table was only 1 feet from the ground.) Thus, the food that is served on the table is very much exposed to the dust that is collected on their feet. So, in such a situation it was the role of the most menial / unskilled of servants to wash clean the feet of the guest who are about to dine. Normally a servant would have been present to perform this task, but there were none present in the upper room since it was a secret meal. The disciples did not want to wash each other's feet since they had just been arguing about which of them was the greatest (Luke 22:24).Here Jesus reversed normal roles and assumed the place of a servant rather than that of a rabbi. He even dressed Himself as a slave (cf. Phil. 2:6-7).

Transition: When Jesus stooped to wash His disciples’ feet He showed us several important truths about serving others. The first thing that caught my attention is in the first verse, Jesus shows...

1. The Priority of Serving

v. 1 "It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love."

What would you do if you knew you would die a violent death in about 12 hours? Would you want to be alone in prayer? Record some final thoughts? Would you spend time with those you loved? What would you want to emphasize? Jesus, the Bible says knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and so he took off his cloak put a towel around His waist and washed the dirty feet of His disciples. Who’s going to waste time on that when the end is so near? Jesus. Why? Because He wanted to show them how important it is to humbly serve one another.

Philippians 2:3-5; Paul tells us that we should "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself..."

He humbled himself why? In order to demonstrate His love as verse 1 says He now showed them the full extent of His love. Jesus by His actions showed us that nothing indicates love more clearly than humble service to others. And note with me that the Scripture notes both before and after the description of Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet that of all people Judas was there. Judas, having decided already that He would betray the Lord, was among them and received the humble demonstration of Christ’s love.Lest we think that we have no responsibility to love and serve those who don’t reciprocate (respond) our efforts and love, Jesus washed the feet of Judas too. A person who never returned any good to Jesus but only caused harm to Him.

ILLUSTRATION: Mother Teresa visited Phoenix in 1989 to open a home for the poor. During that brief visit, she was interviewed by KTAR, the largest radio station in town. In a private moment, the announcer asked Mother Teresa if there was anything he could do for her. He was expecting her to request a contribution or media attention to help to raise money for the new home for the needy in Phoenix. Instead, she replied, "Yes, there is. Find somebody nobody else loves, and love them." Serving others, demonstrating our love in tangible ways is of first importance. Jesus considered it a priority.

The second thing Jesus showed us by washing his disciple’s feet is His...

2. Confidence in His Identity

vv. 3-5 "Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him".

The Scripture says that not just in spite of but because He understood who He was, that Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.It takes an understanding of our identity to be able to humble ourselves. The world tells us that we need to make ourselves look good in front of others, that we need to exalt ourselves, but Jesus said that "whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12)."If we don’t understand who we are in Jesus we will be unwilling to humble ourselves until the Lord Himself humbles us.Jesus, was the Lord of the Universe. If anyone didn’t have to humble himself to wash the feet of farmers and fishermen, He didn’t. But because he knew he was Lord of the Universe, because He knew He was not diminished by showing his love in humble service, he took up the towel and basin and stooped to serve.

The third thing Jesus showed us by washing feet is found in today’s conversation with Jesus, the exchange with Peter in which Jesus makes clear our...

3. Our Need to Be Served by Him

vv. 6-9 "He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.""No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.""Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"

Peter demonstrates a little false humility here. I don’t think it’s true humility but embarrassment that He hadn’t thought of it first that causes him to reject Jesus’ offer to serve Him. But when Jesus makes it clear that being served by Him is one of the conditions of having a relationship with Him then Peter has a change of heart.I think there is clearly some symbolism here. Jesus is saying not just that Peter must let Him wash his feet but the reference is to the more thorough washing that Jesus will perform the next day when His blood is shed for Peter’s sin and for ours.Just like Peter it is pride that often keeps us from letting Jesus cleanse us. We want to be self sufficient. It shames to admit that we can’t overcome sin in our lives. Truly unless we let Him cleanse us, we have no part with Him. Our resistance to Jesus’ intervention into our sinful ways simply shows of our wrong understanding about ourselves and about Christ Himself.
We must first understand that we are totally deprived by our sinfulness. Which means we can not help ourselves by any means or efforts to come into a right standing before God. Second, we must realize that it only takes the blood of Christ to wash us from the guilt of sin and lead us into the sanctification process. Even once we are saved we a desperate for His ‘prevenient grace’ that will help us to prevent from sinning. Unless we recognize the mistake of our pride--the mistake that says, "I’m good enough on my own" then we make no room for Jesus. Unless we confess our need, confess our sin and humbly ask his forgiveness, trusting that His death on the cross paid the price for our sins, we are doomed to an eternity without him. Just a moment’s thought about that prospect should be enough to make us like Peter to drop the false humility routine, to say, "then Lord, please clean me, make me acceptable to you"

There’s one final thing that we can see in Jesus’ foot washing object lesson...

4. Our Need to be Servants

vv. 12-17 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me ’Teacher’ and ’Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.Jesus says, if I your teacher, your Lord, your Master, found it necessary to serve you, then you should serve others.

In fact, to serve is what it means to lead. We cannot call ourselves followers of Christ and be unwilling to serve in humble ways. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have individual gifts and places of service, sometimes very public ones, roles of leadership, but each of us should be willing to humble ourselves, to demonstrate our love for those we serve. You see foot washing isn’t about foot washing, it’s about serving others at personal sacrifice, humbling ourselves when we don’t have to--because we don’t have to. Verse 17 tell us the end result of this command – we will be blessed if we do them. Our God is truly a God who honors our sacrifices. Thus as a result of obedience to God’s word, when we humble ourselves and serve others, when we consider others higher or greater than us, when we do good to those who even betrays us and wash their feet, indeed we will be blessed.