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Sermon

When God Washed Our Feet, Part 2

Speaker
David Capoccia
Scripture
John 13:12-20

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

This passage from John 13:1-20 teaches us about the true meaning of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet — not as a church ordinance, but as a radical call to a lifestyle of humble, loving service. We are reminded that Jesus, though he is Lord, Teacher, and God, willingly took the lowest place to serve his own. Because he first washed our feet through his incarnation and the cross, we are now obligated to follow his example by serving one another in even the most menial ways.

Key Lessons:

  1. Foot washing in John 13 is not a commanded church ordinance but a call to an entirely new attitude and lifestyle of humble service toward fellow believers.
  2. No one — regardless of position, gifting, or inconvenience — is above humble service, because even Jesus, the Lord and Creator, gladly took the lowest place.
  3. True blessing and joy come not from knowing what we should do but from actually doing it — being doers of the word rather than mere hearers.
  4. Our loving service will sometimes be betrayed by false brethren, just as Jesus served Judas knowing full well Judas would betray him, yet we must not withdraw our service.

Application: We are called to stop focusing on serving ourselves and start actively, practically serving others in Christ’s church — whether through cleaning, caring for the vulnerable, befriending outcasts, having hard conversations, or any humble work the world avoids. We must move from knowledge to action and trust Jesus’ promise that obedient service brings his own joy.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What forms of humble service are you tempted to avoid because they seem beneath you or inconvenient, and how does Jesus’ example in John 13 challenge that reluctance?
  2. How does knowing who you are in Christ — saved, adopted, co-heir — free you to serve others without worrying about your own honor or recognition?
  3. How should the reality that our loving service may be betrayed (as Jesus experienced with Judas) affect the way we approach serving others in the church?

Scripture Focus: John 13:1-20, especially verses 12-20, where Jesus commands his disciples to follow his example of humble service; Philippians 2:1-11 on Christ’s incarnation as humble service; Galatians 6:10 on prioritizing service to the household of faith; James 1:22-25 on being doers of the word; 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 on all things belonging to believers in Christ.

Outline

Introduction

All right, let’s pray together one more time. Lord Jesus, we ask you to wash us now. The washing of sanctification is ultimately done by you, but you use your preached word.

You work through your spirit to wash your people and make us more like you. So we pray for that now. Give me, Lord, the words to speak. Grant them power for your own sake. Let those who are not yet washed be bathed unto salvation, and those who are clean have their feet taken care of so we may serve you better in this earth. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Please take your Bibles and open to the Gospel of John. We’re in chapter 13, page 177 if you’re using the Pew Bibles.

We’re returning to the passage that we began looking at last time, John 13:1-20, where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. Perhaps a question has come to your mind as we investigate this section of the Bible: Is foot washing also for today?

The answer to that question is easy. Feet have not stopped getting dirty. So please be sure, if able, to wash your own feet regularly. And please help wash your family’s feet too, especially your children.

Our little Jonathan is only five months old, and he isn’t even crawling yet. Yet somehow, even his feet managed to get quite stinky. So watch out for those smelly kid feet.

Is Foot Washing a Church Ordinance?

Okay, I know the question isn’t really whether we should still wash feet at all today, but whether Christians should wash feet in church. After washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus tells them in John 13:14-15 that following his example, his disciples ought to wash one another’s feet.

Some Christian denominations historically and even today see footwashing, or rather inaugurate footwashing, as a third ordinance for the church to practice. So you have the Lord’s table, baptism, and footwashing as commanded rites for the church.

“Some Christian denominations see footwashing as a third ordinance for the church to practice.”

Other denominations, while not raising footwashing to the level of an ordinance, nevertheless practice footwashing in yearly commemoration of Jesus’ Passion Week. We all know about Good Friday commemorating the original Friday in which Jesus was crucified and paid for our sins. But have you heard of Maundy Thursday?

A little bit of a funny title, I know, but the name Maundy comes from the Latin mandatum, meaning command or mandate. Why Maundy Thursday? Well, in the upper room of that original Thursday of Passion Week, in the evening at the beginning of Passover Friday in the Jewish calendar, Jesus gave his famous new mandate or command that his disciples should love one another just as he has loved them.

That’s where the name of the day comes from. As part of commemorating that original Thursday, many churches, including the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church, practice ritual footwashing on Maundy Thursday, usually with the bishop washing the feet of twelve junior clergy members.

Three Reasons It Is Not an Ordinance

Still other denominations include footwashing on a variety of occasions in the church simply to promote love, humility, and unity. But is regular literal footwashing in church really what Jesus is commanding for his people in this passage? Certainly, it is not wrong for a church to practice footwashing as part of a church service or gathering. But we should not see footwashing as a commanded ordinance for the church.

And why not? Three reasons. One, John 13 is the only passage in the New Testament that would seem to command footwashing. The other two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s table, are commanded multiple times in different New Testament books and even receive further clarifying instruction.

Something as important as a church ordinance should not be based on only one Bible passage that could itself be justly interpreted with a broader meaning and application. That’s one reason.

Two, footwashing is not treated as an ordinance in the earliest records that we have from church history. It’s not like in the early church they’re saying, “Oh yeah, make sure you do that footwashing ordinance.” They never mention it. Not in that sense.

And three, most importantly, understanding Jesus’ command to wash one another’s feet as a mere church ordinance makes Jesus’ otherwise radical example and command basically empty.

“Understanding Jesus’ command as a mere church ordinance makes his otherwise radical example basically empty.”

For how easy would it be to make a great show of humbly washing others’ feet in the church while in one’s life one proudly mistreats others and refuses to serve them. No, in John 13, Jesus is not commanding a new rite for his church, but instead a new attitude and lifestyle.

Reading the Passage: John 13:1-20

So let’s see what Jesus was really getting at in that command to wash one another’s feet as we investigate the passage today. This is when God washed our feet, part two.

Hopefully you’re already at the passage: John 13:1-20, focusing on verses 12 to 20 today. Let’s read the whole section again, and then we’ll get ourselves up to speed with some review.

Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour had come that he would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper and laid aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girded himself. Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with a towel with which he was girded.

So he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do, you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.”

Peter said to him, “You shall not wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”

Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew the one who was betraying him. For this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’”

So when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and reclined at the table again, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the teacher, wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you do these things, you are blessed if you do them.

I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen, but it is that the scripture may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. From now on, I’m telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.

Here we are again at the beginning of Jesus’ farewell discourse encompassing John 13-17. Our Lord Jesus, the night of his final Passover, he privately prepares his disciples for his departure by giving them special comfort and instruction.

Review: Jesus Confidently Washes Feet (vv. 1-5)

The first way Jesus does this is with what we see in our passage. The creator and God of the universe washes the disciples’ feet and then teaches them about it. Now, this opening to the farewell discourse didn’t just happen for the original disciples, but it was recorded for us and for good reason.

We noted the main idea of this section last time as the apostle John writes it. John records Jesus’ spectacular display of loving and humble service in footwashing so that you will believe in Jesus and obediently follow his example.

This beginning section of Jesus’ farewell discourse proceeds in four parts. We looked at the first two parts last time and we’ll look at the latter two parts today.

We saw first in verses 1 to 5. Number one: Jesus confidently, lovingly, and humbly washes feet. As Jesus enters his final Passover meal after sundown on Thursday, Jesus is supremely confident. And why? Because of what he continually knows.

We see this in the first few verses. He knows exactly what is happening, where he is going, and how the Father has already given Jesus complete possession and control of all things.

And how does this knowledge affect Jesus? In two ways: he continues loving his own to the full and to the end of his earthly life. Verse one. He demonstrates that love in radically humble service to his own. Verses 4 and 5.

For his disciples, Jesus does the unthinkable. Dawning the outfit of a slave, Jesus leaves the Passover banquet table to perform what was to the Jews one of the most, if not the most degrading yet necessary tasks. He washes the feet, the dirty feet of the guests.

“The creator and God of the universe washes the disciples’ feet and then teaches them about it.”

Review: Jesus Answers Peter About Cleansing (vv. 6-11)

Though the disciples should have already arranged the service for themselves and for Jesus, they apparently did not. Jesus, laying aside his own honor, performs the service for them. When Jesus gets to Peter’s feet, Peter cannot bear the scandal before him any longer and raises a protest.

Thus, we see the second movement through the passage in verses 6 to 11: Jesus answers Peter and teaches about cleansing.

In verse 7, Jesus assures Peter that Peter one day will fully understand what Jesus is doing. Peter at first is not willing to wait that long. In verse 8, Peter uses the strongest terms to forbid Jesus to wash Peter’s feet. Jesus then takes the opportunity to teach Peter and the other disciples about Jesus’s spiritual cleansing.

This is not the main point of the passage or Jesus’s footwashing. Rather, it is a mini lesson specifically born out of Jesus’s interaction with Peter and which again would not be fully understood until later, even after Jesus’s resurrection. Jesus first tells Peter at the end of verse 8, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me,” which is an allusion to Jesus’s soon-approaching saving and cleansing work of the cross.

If Peter was indignant at the thought of Jesus humbling himself to wash dirty feet, how much more would Peter have been aghast at Jesus humbling himself to die shamefully on a Roman cross as a criminal? Yet such was necessary because of God’s holiness and because of our sin and its true price.

To be forever saved, we need something much more than literal footwashing. We need a washing of life.

“To be forever saved, we need something much more than literal footwashing. We need a washing of life.”

We need a washing of our souls that only Jesus can provide at the cross. Taking on himself our sin and our deserved suffering, God’s hellish punishment for sin, and giving us Jesus’s own perfect righteousness—this is what we just sang about in the song “His Robes for Mine.” Without this salvation wholly washing us through the humiliation of Jesus, a person cannot have any part or portion with Jesus.

When Peter responds in verse 9 to Jesus’s word with a new invitation to wash Peter in even more places, Jesus teaches something else about Jesus’s spiritual cleansing in verse 10.

Just as a person who bathes and then shows up at a banquet is fundamentally clean, except for some dirty feet from travel, so the person washed by Jesus is holy and forever clean in reference to salvation and only in need of the ongoing footwashing of practical sanctification.

Both the washing of salvation and of sanctification are ultimately accomplished by Jesus himself for his own. This makes Jesus’s words in verse 9 true in another sense: if he is not spiritually washing your feet even now in your life, that means you have no part with him.

Finally, at the end of verse 10 and in verse 11, Jesus clarifies that not all of Jesus’s 12 professing disciples are spiritually clean and saved, demonstrating again that Jesus knows indeed all things, including the one who is betraying him.

Jesus Commands That We Follow His Example (vv. 12-15)

With Peter’s objection answered and the mini lesson and footwashing complete, Jesus prepares to rejoin the banquet table and explain the greater lesson of his own humble service. This brings us to the third part of our passage and the first new part today. In verses 12 to 15, we see number three: Jesus commands that we follow his example.

Look at verse 12. When he had washed their feet and taken his garments and reclined at the table again, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?”

Between the words of verse 4 and the words of verse 12, it’s hard not to see a picture of Jesus’ whole incarnation mission right here.

“Between verse 4 and verse 12, it’s hard not to see a picture of Jesus’ whole incarnation mission.”

In verse 4, Jesus leaves his position of honor at the table to embrace the position of slave and to perform radically humble and loving service for his own. But then in verse 12, having finished his mission of cleansing service, Jesus returns to his position of honor.

Jesus’ statement at the end of verse 12 could either be a rhetorical question or a statement like, “Understand what I have done to you.”

Either way, Jesus is about to explain what otherwise could only shame and baffle his disciples. Jesus begins his explanation in verse 13 with the following: “You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.”

You Call Me Teacher and Lord

Jesus points out here that both the disciples’ acclamations of Jesus, the titles they use for him, and the reality behind those titles and acclamations make what Jesus just did in washing feet completely unexpected. You call me teacher and lord, Jesus says, which is indeed what the disciples call Jesus as we ourselves can verify from this gospel.

As early as John 1:38, new disciples John and Andrew addressed Jesus as rabbi, which literally means my great one, but had the accepted sense among the Jews of teacher. Six other times in John’s gospel, Jesus’ disciples and others use this title of respected religious authority in reference to Jesus.

They call him rabbi. In becoming his disciples, a term that literally means learners or followers, the twelve have clearly accepted Jesus as their master teacher. Acknowledging Jesus as such, as the teacher, the disciples were confessing that Jesus is the one worthy of honor, authority, and service.

“As the teacher, the disciples were confessing that Jesus is the one worthy of honor, authority, and service.”

The Meaning of ‘Lord’

The other title Jesus says that his disciples call him is Lord. Kyrios in Greek. Now kyrios can be used merely as a polite title of respect akin to how we might say mister or sir. Some people address Jesus as Lord in this gospel only in that polite sense. But kyrios is also the term used to translate the name of God Yahweh in the Greek version of the Old Testament.

The translation of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint. Yahweh is translated as kyrios. Kyrios had also become a customary designation for God’s Messiah.

The one coming is the Lord. He is kyrios. So certainly this title could be used with much more significance than mere sir. And such is the way that many of those who come to believe in Jesus, including Jesus’s disciples, use the term with Jesus.

When Jesus asked the disciples, for instance, whether they want to leave him in John 6:68, Peter confesses for the whole group, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” Also twice earlier in our passage, you may notice Peter addresses Jesus as Lord. And the others would say the same.

Acknowledging Jesus as Lord or the Lord, therefore, the disciples were again confessing that Jesus is God’s Messiah, as the son of God himself. He is the one worthy of all honor and authority and service.

Now, have the disciples just inappropriately put Jesus on a high pedestal? Do they want to treat him as someone set apart and elevated when really he just needs to tell them, “You guys misunderstand. I’m just like you”?

“Acknowledging Jesus as Lord, the disciples were confessing he is God’s Messiah, worthy of all honor and service.”

And You Are Right, For So I Am

I’m just one of the guys. No need to treat me specially.” Could that be the case? Well, no. For notice how Jesus ends verse 13. He says, “And you are right, for so I am.” In other words, Jesus acknowledges that teacher and Lord are correct and fitting titles for him. For these are who he is.

He is the teacher, the teacher sent by God from heaven to deliver God’s final and climactic revelation.

He is the Lord and Messiah, even the eternal God, the creator, the son, the word who is one with the father. He is definitely the one worthy of all honor, authority, and service, and by rights should never need to stoop to any kind of dirty work, any kind of humble service, but instead have others do that for him.

“He is the Lord and Messiah, even the eternal God, the creator — by rights should never need to stoop to any dirty work.”

This the disciples already know, which is why Peter felt the need to oppose Jesus. So what is Jesus’ point in bringing up his infinitely superior position compared to the disciples? Well, look now at verses 14 and 15.

You Ought to Wash One Another’s Feet

Jesus says, “If I then, the Lord and the teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.”

Here we see the main point of Jesus’s footwashing. It was not simply to provide a kind service during one particular evening for the disciples, but to provide a striking revelation into who fundamentally the Son of God is and consequently what it means to be that Son’s true follower, his true disciple.

Notice how strongly Jesus presents his point in verse 14, which is even more emphatic in the original Greek. Jesus says, “Therefore, if I myself, the Lord and teacher, washed your feet.” That is, if contrary to your expectations as to what your exalted Lord and Teacher should do, yet consistent with my own humble and loving heart, I gladly lowered myself to do the most menial act of service to you, then you yourselves ought to wash one another’s feet.

Yes, even gladly perform the most menial acts of service for each other. And pay attention to the “ought” in the second half of verse 14. When someone tells us that we ought to do something, we sometimes understand that to mean you really should but technically don’t have to. You ought to exercise regularly. You ought to recycle. You ought to brush your teeth after every meal, etc.

That is not Jesus’s sense here. The verb behind “you ought” could also be translated “you are obligated” or “you owe.” Not only must you do it, but Jesus deserves for you to do it.

John 13:14: “If I then, the Lord and the teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

How? Why?

The answer to both those questions is the same. Jesus did it for you first.

Now, here someone might offer two objections. Why should only one humble act of service from Jesus obligate me to live a whole life of humble service to others from now on? Also, I wasn’t there when Jesus did this for his disciples. He didn’t wash my feet. So why should I be obligated to wash my brethren’s feet as Jesus says?

Well, again, both objections can be answered together. This isn’t simply one humble act from Jesus, but the epitome of what his heart is and what his entire life on earth has been and what the cross will be. We read from Philippians 2:1-11 earlier in our service. There we see that Jesus’s entire incarnation is really one long humble and loving act of slavelike service even to the point of death, death on a cross.

In a way, it was like Jesus was washing our feet the whole time. And in another way, he still is.

So whether you were there technically in the upper room with these disciples or not, if you believe in Jesus, your teacher and Lord has definitely washed your feet. Thus you now do owe it to Jesus to do the same for others.

Not in the sense of earning salvation or keeping God’s favor, but in the sense that Jesus is worthy of your responding to his grace in such a way. In short, we could say the words of verses 14 and 15 are essentially a command from Jesus to his true followers to obey. Follow my example, he says.

Indeed, Jesus says in verse 15 that this footwashing episode was given by him as an example for us to follow. Not necessarily in the same exact service, but in the same kind of service, you were to serve one another even in anything as low as literal footwashing.

Jesus’ Pattern: Knowing Who We Are in Christ

Really the pattern Jesus has set for us in this passage is very instructive and goes all the way back to verse one. We already observed from the beginning of this chapter that Jesus knew who he was, where he was going, and that God had already given him all things.

This knowledge in a sense freed up Jesus to love his brethren to the full and to serve them in the humblest way. He didn’t have to be worried about his own honor.

He knew it was all taken care of. It is the same with us, Jesus’s disciples. In Christ and in his gospel, we now know who we are: formerly doomed sinners, saved by grace, set free from sin, adopted into God’s family, made co-heirs with Jesus.

We therefore now know exactly where we are going. We are going down the good path God himself has set for us in this life and then arriving at a glorious kingdom that can never fade, to be with Jesus forever.

“This knowledge freed Jesus to love his brethren to the full and serve them in the humblest way. So it is with us.”

We even now know like Jesus that all things have been given into our hands. That fact may surprise you since your day-to-day experience seems to confirm that unlike Christ in verse three, you do not in fact have possession and control of all things.

How can you say all things have been given into my hands or our hands?

Well, the truth is in a certain way all those saved in Christ have in fact received all things. For if Christ has received all things and you have received Christ, then what is the outcome? You have received all things in and through Christ.

Listen to how the Apostle Paul articulates the same truth to needlessly divisive and covetous Christians in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23. Paul says: “So then let no one boast in men, for all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come. All things belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”

So do you see? The Christian, like his teacher and Lord, ought to know who he is, where he is going, and what he has received so that the Christian is freed up just like Jesus. Freed up to what? To love Jesus’s own to the end.

Service Starts with the Church

Expressed how in humble service we follow Jesus’ pattern. Now notice again in verse 14 that the service Jesus is obligating us—each of us—to is service to one another, that is to the brothers and sisters in Christ, to the church. Now believers should show similar service to those outside of Christ. But service starts with and should be greatest to those who are already in God’s family.

Paul says in Galatians 6:10, “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” Yes, let us love all people, but especially the brethren.

Galatians 6:10: “Let us do good to all people and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.”

What a command, what an example, what a heart Jesus desires for us to copy and cultivate in ourselves. We would never expect this of God. And yet this is who he is. This is his greatness expressed even in his amazing humility.

A New Lifestyle, Not a Ritual

He wants us to be just like him. Because Jesus has first washed our feet and because he has laid before us a clear example both in the upper room and in his entire life, we ought to wash one another’s feet.

Not in one ostentatious rite in the church. Not merely in an annual commemoration of the original passion week, but every day as a new lifestyle in a desire to please our Lord and love his people.

Now, what are some practical examples of what Jesus is talking about?

“Not in one ostentatious rite, not merely in annual commemoration, but every day as a new lifestyle.”

Practical Examples of Humble Service

Well, if you’re wondering what kind of service this might be, just think of any kind of hard or humbling work that the world avoids, even that you’re tempted to avoid, and do that. Do that for one another. You’ll fulfill what Jesus is talking about.

Some of this might include literal cleaning, cleaning up spaces, helping clean people or pets, taking care of children, taking care of the elderly, taking care of the handicapped, visiting the sick, visiting those in prison, doing yard work or home maintenance for others. Showing up to a church ministry just to encourage the leader and talk with the others who attend.

Befriending and spending time with social outcasts. Patiently teaching and encouraging people who are slow to learn or change. Praying with people. Praying for people. Having awkward or difficult conversations with people about the gospel and about sin and forgiving and seeking to do good to those who mistreat you. No, that’s not an exhaustive list.

“Think of any kind of hard or humbling work that the world avoids, even that you’re tempted to avoid, and do that.”

It’s just illustrative. It’s to get you thinking about the types of service that Jesus has in mind. Because, brethren, this is not abstract truth that we’re talking about this morning. This is highly practical.

As Jesus speaks to you today from this word, how might he be calling you to wash the feet of your brethren here at Calvary?

Jesus Clarifies and Encourages Obedience (vv. 16-20)

You’ve got ready application right here in this church. How might he be calling you this morning to obey in following his example?

Now, that might seem like a good place to end the sermon, but Jesus is not quite done. After giving us the command to follow his example, there’s still another part of Jesus’s teaching related to foot washing in verses 16 to 20.

So we come to the fourth and final part of this introductory session section to Jesus’s farewell discourse. Number four: Jesus clarifies and encourages his disciples’ obedience.

Now Jesus provides clarification and encouragement according to four different truths, and I’m going to give those to you as sermon subpoints so hopefully they’re easier to follow.

The first truth to bring about clarification and encouragement is in verse 16 where Jesus teaches: No one is above humble service.

Verse 16: “Truly, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master. Nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.”

Notice here the opening phrase. “Truly, truly I say to you”—we’ve seen this many times from Jesus. This is his favorite attention-grabbing phrase when he wants to emphasize the truth of something that is otherwise hard to believe.

Here though, what follows that opening statement doesn’t seem particularly hard to believe at all.

John 13:16: “A slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.”

Seems pretty obvious. A slave is not greater than his master. Okay, we get that. Nor is the person sent greater than the sender. Okay, that makes sense.

What’s so surprising about those proverbial statements?

No One Is Above Humble Service (v. 16)

The surprise is how Jesus applies them to what he has just said. Truly, truly Jesus says to us, “If he, our teacher, Lord, and God is glad to take the lowest place in loving service to us and to others, then none of us ever have an excuse when it comes to humble service.” As if anything could be too much beneath us.

We can never play a position card like, “But I’m the pastor, but I’m the teacher. But I’m the Bible study leader. But I’m the head of the family. But I’m the boss of this organization. Surely I’m exempt from humble service.” Excuse me. Are you greater than your Lord? Are you exempt when he wasn’t?

“If our Lord is glad to take the lowest place in loving service, then none of us ever have an excuse.”

No Excuse Cards

We also cannot play the inconvenience card like “but I’m tired,” “but I’m in the middle of something,” or “but I haven’t been treated very nicely lately.” Again, go back to Jesus’s pattern.

Even right here in this passage, Jesus is tired after a long day. He’s anticipating the agony of the cross. He’s in the middle of enjoying his Passover dinner. And he’s been neglected by the thoughtless treatment of his immature disciples, yet he gladly still gets up to serve.

Are you more inconvenienced than Jesus was? Not just here, but in his whole life. We also cannot play the inability card like “but it’s not my gifting,” “I don’t have enough experience,” or “I just don’t know how.”

Truly, some forms of service to one another do indeed need training or benefit from training, but not most forms. Most ways of humble service are basic or can be learned on the job. All that they really need is love and humility. I mean, again, look at Jesus.

Was footwashing Jesus’s gift? Was he particularly skilled or experienced at footwashing? Did he happen to take a seminary course on footwashing? No. It was basic service that, so to speak, was far beneath his pay grade.

Yet there was a need and an opportunity for Jesus to express his love and set an important example for others. So he did it.

“Most ways of humble service are basic. All they really need is love and humility.”

Are we above doing the same? No. We must instead confess that we slaves of Christ are not greater than our master. And we sent ones are not above the Lord who sends us.

We can have no excuses. We must follow his pattern. And he will also enable us to do so supernaturally by his same powerful spirit, about whom we’ll hear more soon in the book of John.

Blessing Comes by Obedience, Not Knowledge (v. 17)

A second truth bringing clarification and encouragement to follow Jesus’s example appears in verse 17. Blessing comes by obedience, not knowledge. Look at verse 17: “If these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

Lest we think that this call toward humble service is just a sentence of endless drudgery, Jesus clarifies for us that the opposite is the case. When in obedience you seek to bless others by your humble service, following Jesus’s example, Jesus promises that you yourself will end up blessed.

And how will you be blessed? With money raining down for you from heaven? Probably not. Though God certainly will provide for all your needs, rather you will be blessed as you experience the joy of the Lord because what you’re doing is pleasing to him and because you get to fellowship with him more deeply.

As you imitate him, you get to know him better. The Apostle Paul in the book of Acts quotes an otherwise unknown saying from Jesus along the same lines of what I’m talking about. In Acts 20:35, Paul says to the Ephesian elders, “And everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner, you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

In other words, who is it who ends up happiest in this life? Is it the one who gives or the one who receives? It’s the one who gives. Yes.

Even those who by faith lower themselves to serve others for Christ’s sake in even the humblest of ways experience this blessing. The key though is that you must actually give, you must actually serve.

John 13:17: “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

Are You Actually Doing It?

If you want to know the blessing of Jesus, Jesus says, “If these things, or better, since these things, these things that I’ve been telling and showing you, you are blessed if you do them.” And now I bet everybody here is ready to say, “Yeah, I ought to humbly serve those around me just like Jesus.” Or even, “Yeah, here’s the way to Jesus’ own joy, which is better than any joy in this world.” Yep, I agree with that.

But how many of you are actually doing what Jesus said? How many of you after this sermon today will actually make changes in your life so that you can put into practice what Jesus says? That’s where the rubber meets the road, isn’t it?

It’s not the knowers and the talkers who are blessed. It’s the doers. So, brethren, let me ask you, do you want to be happy? Do you want to be blessed? Do you even want to receive eternal reward from your Lord?

Then don’t settle for your knowledge of what you should do. Don’t become a mere expert on this passage, but actually do it. Stop focusing on serving yourself and focus on serving others for Christ’s sake.

And when you do this, what happens? You will be happy. You will have Jesus’ own joy. That term “blessed” can also be translated as “happy” or “fortunate.” That’s what Jesus is offering you, promising you.

And doesn’t the Apostle James say the same thing famously in James 1:22 and 25? James writes, “Prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” But he follows that with this in verse 25: “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

God wants to bless you.

“It’s not the knowers and the talkers who are blessed. It’s the doers.”

Your Loving Service Will Be Betrayed (vv. 18-19)

This is how it comes. Now, the next truth for clarification and encouragement may at first seem like it doesn’t fit with the rest. In verses 18 and 19, we see the fourth C.

Your loving service will be betrayed. Your loving service will be betrayed. Look at verses 18 and 19. I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen, but it is that the scripture may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. From now on, I’m telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he.

On one level, these two verses are another indicator that Jesus has complete knowledge and control over his imminent death. As Jesus says in verse 19, “The fact that Jesus can repeatedly point out his betrayer ahead of time only further vindicates Jesus’ claims to be the Messiah and son of God.” When I get betrayed, don’t think, “Oh, this is proof he’s not the Messiah.” No, it’s proof that I am the Messiah because I told you it would happen.

These verses function in one way to do that for us. But on another level or in another way, because these verses are part of Jesus’ exhortation to obediently follow his example of humble service, Jesus is clarifying for his disciples that their loving service for Jesus’ sake will at times be betrayed.

For after all, as many of you have probably noticed by now, Jesus washed Judas Iscariot’s feet too.

“Jesus is clarifying that our loving service for his sake will at times be betrayed. Jesus washed Judas’ feet too.”

That is Jesus extended the humblest loving service to the very one who Jesus knew was about to betray Jesus for a mere 30 pieces of silver to hand Jesus over to be murdered by the Jews’ hypocritical leaders.

So if we are commanded to follow Jesus’ pattern in John 13 and Jesus washed Judas’ feet, what’s the implication? That we at times will lovingly serve false brethren who will similarly turn against us.

But just as Jesus knew about the betrayal but did not therefore withdraw his loving service, so we also, facing the possibility of betrayal, must not withdraw our loving service for the Lord’s sake. And just as Jesus foretelling the betrayal ahead of time was to protect the disciples from becoming too destabilized when it happened, so also Jesus implicitly warns us of inevitable betrayals and disappointments ahead of time so that when they occur, we also might not be too destabilized.

It’s going to happen. We need to be prepared. Jesus begins in verse 18 by saying, “I do not speak of all of you.” Jesus knows that one who sits at his table, though knowing the things of verse 17, will not end up doing them.

He will not be a doer of what Jesus commands and thus he will not be blessed but he will be cursed. How does Jesus know? He says next, I know the ones I have chosen.

Jesus Chose Judas to Fulfill Scripture

Which is not to say I know everyone who truly belongs to me, though that is true for Jesus. Instead, I know the true state of everyone I have chosen as a close disciple.

Why should we take this latter sense? Well, consider what Jesus said already in the Gospel of John, back in John 6:70. Jesus says to his disciples, “Did I myself not choose you, the 12? And yet one of you is a devil.”

Jesus, as God, knew the hearts of the one he chose before he chose them, including Judas. But why would Jesus choose someone whom Jesus knew would betray him?

It is that Jesus says at the end of verse 18 to fulfill God’s plan and more specifically to fulfill scripture. The verse Jesus quotes is from Psalm 41:9, which is from David and it reads, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me.”

To share a meal with someone back then as today was a mark of fellowship and friendship. To share the very same bread or the same bowl for dipping that bread was a mark of close friendship.

David writes originally as part of a prayer for deliverance and vindication that such a close friend has lifted up his heel against David. Now what exactly is meant by lift up the heel is not known.

Some say it refers to someone suddenly running away when he’s needed. He lifted up the heel so he could scaddle. Others say this refers to someone suddenly extending his heel to trip another person, even to trip his friend.

Others say that this raising of the heel is like a horse raising his leg to suddenly kick the one behind him.

Whatever the specific meaning, we can gather that to raise the heel means to betray. David experienced such in his own time. And by citing this scripture, Jesus is indicating that as the messianic seed of David, even the greater David, Jesus must experience the same kind of betrayal in his own life.

Psalm 41:9: “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.”

Prepared for Betrayal

Judas Iscariot would indeed be the fulfillment of Psalm 41:9 for Jesus. A close friend and disciple, literally sharing Jesus’ same bread, yet raising up his heel to betray the one who bent down to wash his feet.

Because we follow the pattern of our betrayed Lord, we too will encounter those who claim to be Christians, who are even part of our churches, who not only will refuse to follow the Lord’s example of humble service, though they know they should, but they will also suddenly raise up their heel against us, even when we just wash that heel for Jesus’ sake.

“Because we follow the pattern of our betrayed Lord, we too will encounter those who raise up their heel against us.”

Jesus Identifies with Obedient Footwashers (v. 20)

As Jesus prepared his original disciples for such sad betrayals and disappointments, we too must be prepared. God will use it for good ultimately. It’s all part of God’s plan just as it was for Jesus. But we need to be ready.

Now Jesus gives one more truth for clarification and encouragement in verse 20. Our final subpoint: 4D. Jesus identifies with obedient footwashers.

This is verse 20: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.”

Here we have another surprising statement from Jesus that nevertheless deserves our attention and belief. You may notice that verse 20 sounds a bit familiar—if not in exact language, then certainly in concept.

At different times in John’s gospel, especially recently in John 12:44-50, Jesus has emphasized his oneness with the Father, an intimacy and unity that is so great that Jesus can say in John 12:44-45: “He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in him who sent me and he who sees me sees the one who sent me.”

In other words, because the Father and Son are so united and because their word is one and the same, Jesus can speak of the persons who receive the Son as receiving the Father and vice versa. But look again at our last verse. We do see that concept again, except there’s a startling addition.

Jesus doesn’t just say at the end of the verse, “He who receives me receives him who sent me”—that is, the Father. We’ve encountered that concept before. We get it now.

But Jesus begins with, “He who receives whomever I send receives me.” Whom is it that Jesus sends? Well, just go back to verses 16 and 17. He sends his disciples, his slaves, his messengers, even those who humbly wash feet like he does.

Jesus uses the same language to describe them now as he uses to describe himself and the Father. The one who receives Jesus’ disciples and their humble service receives Jesus himself and thus the Father. While the one who rejects Jesus’ disciples and betrays their humble service ultimately rejects Jesus himself and thus rejects the Father.

How can Jesus use the same kind of description for himself and his disciples as he uses for himself and his Father? Not merely because Jesus sees his disciples as his representatives. Not merely because Jesus chooses to associate with his disciples, but because of an amazing reality to be revealed later in John 13-17.

That is the coming of the Father’s and the Son’s Holy Spirit. Though Jesus is going away, the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell his disciples means that because of the salvation Jesus has already accomplished for his disciples, Jesus will be in his disciples and they will be in him.

Thus, in the most theologically accurate sense, rejecting Jesus’ disciples does mean the same as rejecting Jesus and the Father, because Jesus is in his disciples and they are in him.

“The one who receives Jesus’ disciples and their humble service receives Jesus himself and thus the Father.”

So brethren, this reality of verse 20 should be a further encouragement for us to obediently follow Jesus’ example of humble and loving service. For we know on the one hand that Jesus stands with us when we serve. Whether that service is received, rejected, or betrayed, Jesus says, “I’m right there with you. You’re doing exactly what I want you to do, what I’m doing through you.”

And on the other hand, we know that when we receive and serve any of Christ’s brethren, we are ultimately receiving and serving Christ himself and the Father, because Jesus identifies so closely with his people. He is in them.

Encouragement for the Faithful

For all of you who are already serving Christ humbly and diligently, take encouragement and comfort today. Though the world may not see it or may reject it, and though most in the church do not see it or seem to give much appreciation for it, the Lord sees it and he is pleased.

He has promised to bless you with a greater experience of his joy. Therefore, do not grow weary of doing good. Keep on keeping on.

For all of you who are not yet serving Christ in that way, not yet humbly and diligently serving Christ by serving his people, or you’ve been serving but have grown slack or sour in your service, let the Lord’s word move you today to change.

May you be moved by this word from your humble, gracious, loving Lord to embrace more of his heart and more of his kind of service. Again, he promises you will be blessed if you will do it. Take him at that promise. Receive his blessing.

In summary, we’ve seen this morning Jesus commands that we follow his example of loving and humble service. Jesus clarifies and encourages this obedience by revealing four truths.

“Though the world may not see it and the church may not appreciate it, the Lord sees it and he is pleased.”

No one, not even God, is above humble service. Blessing comes by obedience, not knowledge. Your loving service will be betrayed. But the Lord Jesus identifies with and will vindicate all obedient footwashers.

Let’s pray together.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, thank you for your word. I’m reminded now, Lord, of what we learned in Sunday school today. What a contrast. We trace the development of the papacy in the Middle Ages. What do we see? The opposite of this passage.

We see those claiming the name of Christ, claiming to be servants of Christ, actually abusing Christ’s flock for their own enrichment. What a far cry from who you are and what you’ve commanded. Oh Lord, let us never take the position of the great ones who are above service.

Oh, let us God never make a show of humble service when really all it serves is as a humble brag for the exaltation of ourselves still. Oh no, Lord, there is no blessing in that. Only your curse, only your condemnation.

But Lord, let us first believe in you as the amazing serving God, the Savior who bent down to wash our feet. And then Lord, let us truly imitate you. Not just externally, but in our hearts, knowing what you knew, who we are, where we’re going, what we have, and being freed up in our hearts therefore to love and take the lowest place for others.

Oh Jesus, let us indeed have that attitude which is your own. And Lord, may it be for the enriching of our own joy and for the building up of your church. Amen.

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