John 13:4-11

⁴So He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. ⁵After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, "Lord, are You going to wash my feet?" ⁷Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." ⁸"No," said Peter, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me." ⁹"Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!" ¹⁰Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." ¹¹For He knew who was going to betray Him, and that was why He said not every one was clean.

So what exactly was Jesus demonstrating in this act of humility and service? To answer this question, we must remember both the timing of this event and John’s pattern of joining to the accounts of Jesus’ great acts passages that draw out the true meaning and significance of those acts. If Jesus wanted to demonstrate just what He would be doing that next day by going to the cross, He could not have chosen a better example than this. He, their master, stooped to undeserving men, and humbled Himself in order that they might be cleansed. Tomorrow, He would stoop from His throne of glory to the gruesome and humiliating death on the cross, so that we might be cleansed. Of course, as we have noticed before, the disciples would not understand the depth of these truths until after Jesus had been raised from the dead. But Jesus, when he told Peter, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand” (v7), was indicating that there was more to this act than first met the eye. It was not merely an example of humility – because that much was obvious, and Peter would have understood it immediately. But what he did not yet understand was how this event pictured what Jesus was about to do that next day, when He humbled Himself and so washed away the sins of His people forevermore.

In v8, Peter makes his famous objection, “You shall never wash my feet!” and so gives opportunity for a second point of instruction. Jesus responds to his objection, which may have seemed modest and humble if it were not disobedient, by saying that, unless He washes someone, that person will have no share with Him. By this, He is indicating that one must accept the humble cleansing work of Jesus if he would share in the gospel-inheritance. But when Peter responds in v9 with misdirected enthusiasm, “Then wash my hands and my head as well!” Understanding that he was ruined apart from this washing, Peter wanted as much washing as he could get. But he failed to trust that Jesus would give him exactly what was needed – not more and not less. Thus Jesus, in v10, takes the opportunity for further instruction, explaining that the disciples are already clean – except one of them, Judas, as John tells us in v11 – and must only wash their feet. There is the hint to examine yourself in this declaration.

When one has once been cleansed by the humble cross-work of Christ, he is fully and finally clean, and will never again need that cleansing to be repeated. And yet, Christians often stumble and fall into besetting sin, and dirty their feet, as it were, on their journey home. For these wayward but repentant believers, the promise has been given, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The true believer is positionally clean now and forevermore, and Jesus’ once-for-all act of cleansing may never be repeated – but Jesus is ever in the process of cleaning off the day-to-day grime of indwelling sin in His people, through His Spirit who indwells them. This was not the primary point that Christ was making on the occasion of His foot washing, but He took the opportunity that Peter’s ignorance provided to give His disciples added instruction, which they would understand later, after they had seen the resurrected Jesus.