Footwashing, cleansing, redeeming Lord and Saviour. John 13: 1-15.

1 Before the Passover, leads to the famed Exodus 12. Christ’s sufferings were always in view. He is and was ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.’

‘Jesus knew that His hour was come’ leads us to see Him preparing for His Grand final.

‘His hour is the climax of history ; it is the labour of a woman having waited 280 days for the delivery of the babe; the culmination of years of research and sacrifice as Hilary conquered Everest. ‘Father , the hour is come, glorify Your Son…" ( john 17:1 )

The Lord of glory showed His omniscience ‘ that He should depart out of this world" . Heaven was His home. He was God incarnate. The cross loomed. The resurrection must follow. Ascension to glory was His death-right. Enthronement inevitable as His resurrection-right.

He loved His disciples ( still does ) with such invariable constancy. He loved them to the end’. His love was heavenly, for ‘as the Father loved me even so have I loved you’ ( John 15:9 ). His love was inseparable ‘ for who shall separate us from the love of God?’ ( Rom 8:35 ). How compelling is His love ‘for the love of Christ constrains us ‘ ( 2 Cor 5:14 ).

More than that, His love was supremely sacrificial , " The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me" ( Gal 2:20 ) and ( 1 John3:16 ).

Supper finally concluded after the total reliving of Exodus 12, concentrating on the power of the blood of the Passover Lamb, His indwelling as ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory", concluding triumphantly with the Hallel from Psalms 113-118. Yes, it was like the Hallelujah Chorus the summit of Handel’s ‘ Messiah". (v2)

What a moment for the insensitive Devil to inject his venom into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son ( full name identifies.). The Hellish venom would empower Judas to betray His faithful, ever-loving Lord. Don’t let him try an intra-cardiac injection on you! Resist. He’ll run. This is one of the saddest moments in the life of our beloved Lord.

Our Lord was calm, ‘Knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God and went to God.’ ( v3). Our Lord is all-knowing, or omniscient ( possessing full knowledge ), so comforting to us His children. There is no limit to our crass ignorance nor of His unchallengeable wisdom.

The Lord ‘did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men’ ( John 2:24 ) under similar circumstances, having firstly cleansed the temple, and then referred to His death and resurrection. When the Lord Jesus prepared His followers for His death and promotion to heaven, they responded, ‘ Now we are sure that You know all things, and You do not need that any man should ask You ‘. ( John 16:30 )

Peter certainly had grasped that ‘ You know all things. You know that I love You’, when the risen Lord of glory had asked 3 times whether Peter was ‘fond of’ ( that is, liked or was drawn to Christ; but could not claim that he loved Him and was prepared to die for Him). ( John 21:17 )

The Lord of glory showed His omniscience in some of these mighty hours..

WE believers must rest in His supreme knowledge. The reservoir is always full.

‘ The Father had given all things into His hands ‘ ( v3 ) showed the unvarying confidence of the heavenly Father and His unrestrained gifts to His beloved Son. Did you note in Isaiah 9:7, that ‘the government shall be on His shoulders ‘, while Matthew writes in 8:7,’what manner of Man is this that the winds and waves obey Him’ commenting on His omnipotent control of Galilee’s boisterous disturbances. Paul tells how the Father had ‘put all things under His feet ( Ephesians 1:22 ) and gave Him to be Head of all things to the church.’

Isaiah 63:1 shows the power of our beloved Lord 650 years before He was born of the virgin as’glorious in His attire, travelling in the greatness of His strength, speaking in righteousness and mighty to save’. Remember these are His attributes.

When our Lord was awakened in the boisterous Galilean storm, He revealed His supernatural power as ‘He rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm’. (Matt 8:26. The scripture tells how ’the men marvelled, saying ’What manner of MAN is this that even the winds and the waves obey Him" ( v27).

After Christ Jesus had risen from the dead, He further disclosed that ‘All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth.’ That’s why he selected us ‘to Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every created being.’

Understandably, our Lord reasserted His preeminent position before the meaningful washing of His disciples’ feet. That’s not all as He told how ’He had come from God and went to God’. He reminded them of the miracle of the incarnation and after Calvary the resurrection and the glorious- escorted ascension t o the Throne room. If we don’t pause and reflect on His magnificence we will miss the beauty and majesty of the footwashing of the Lord of glory. No one drives through the Rockies with blinkers on! Should we?

‘He rises from supper’ ( v4 ). No one expected the honoured Guest to leave the dignity and celebration of the Passover feast. Christ did. He showed how ‘He had risen from the feast of Heaven and ‘was born of the virgin’. This rehearsed the moment when millions of angels gasped as the eternal Son of the eternal Father left heaven’s glory and was hidden in Mary’s womb for 280 days. Until then, the Son had never left the Father’s bosom, but Eternity moved into time in the incarnation’. Now the disciples gasped.

‘He laid aside His garments’ as He prepared for foot-washing, and reminded the twelve that He had laid aside all the heavenly regalia and Shekinah glory of the Trinity. Paul writes in Philippians 2:5 ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God But made Himself of no reputation, and took on Him the form of a servant,

And was made in the likeness of men,

And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death,

Even the death of the cross. ( v8)

This Scripture encapsulates our Lord’s condescending. This is the spiritual secret of foot-washing of the Lord of glory.

He took a towel and girded Himself". (v4) Only the meanest slave would volunteer for such menial task as washing the disciples’ feet. Contrast the Lord of glory with those who were recipients. The Redeemer with the redeemed. The Creator with His creatures.

The holy One with the stained ones. The perfect One with the fallen. The Saviour with the lost. Peter’s objection is valid, ‘You will never wash my feet."

The linen towel was made from flax, which has been cleansed of burrs, heated in the oven, thrashed or bruised, heated further in the fire, beaten again until it softly moulds into a woven thread. This also speaks of our Lord’s wounding and bruising, culminating in His cross-sufferings. ( Gwenda has written of this process insightly observed during a Swiss fair).

After that, He poured water into a bason’ (v5) The pouring of the valuable water reminded them of King David’s request for the water of the well of Bethlehem. Three valiant men had risked their lives to meet their sovereign’s plea. . David poured out the water as a love offering. Some say, ‘waste’. However, the Lord of glory disclosed that soon His life was to be offered as a sin offering. He added that ‘this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed ( deliberately, not incidentally, poured out) for you’. The event is clear; the spiritual force is strong. The atmosphere was intense, hence the Holy Spirit has recorded the details. At Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit was poured forth and the church was born.

Why was the water poured out into a bason? The whole of our Lord’s earthly ministry was confined as water in a container. He was conceived in the womb of Mary, and developed in the confines of her uterus. He spent 30 years of His life as a boy, an apprentice carpenter, and carpenter in Nazareth, where I spent 6 glorious months during the WW11.. Then He ( the Creator of the universe ) limited Himself to Capernaum of Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem, Jericho and Samaria en route to Galilee. He confined Himself to the use of Hebrew and Aramaic, whereas at Babel, He had dispersed the nations with 5000 languages at least. He often confined His preaching to individuals , while speaking without PA system to above 5000 men plus women and children. He cleansed the temple of its corrupt practices at the beginning and end of His ministry. Today He is not ‘basoned’, for He cleanses and cleanses and cleanses; in every language, every culture, every place where His Name is named.

Every Word of Scripture is given by the Holy Spirit. Meditate–don’t rush into His Presence.

He began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded" (v5). He washed them one by one. Who would be next? When would my turn come? Their Lord and Master knelt at the feet of His fallen disciples as He washed and dried them. He looked into their face, catching their gaze, and showing His eternal love ( agapeo ) .They carried the memory of His intense, holy, penetrating look until the day they too were caught up into heaven, martyred, excepting the venerable John.

Possibly the final patient was the evangelist of the Pentecostal outpouring. Peter. ‘Then He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to Him,"Lord, do you wash my feet "? Our dear Lord was recognised by the impulsive one. His heart must have skipped with joy to hear His title ‘kurios’ or Lord from the one who would vigourously deny that He knew Him. Amazed, Peter asked ‘ Do you wash my feet?’. He was unworthy to receive such attention, even as we are. He knew the treachery in his heart, with its utter deceitfulness and desperate wickedness. He knew the cleansing from the Lord of glory would cleanse His conscience from all defilement, prepare him for service on earth and equip him for eternity.

Lord Jesus, thank you for washing me from all the defilement of the way- and cleansing me in your most precious blood.