JESUS’ EXAMPLE

John 13:1-17

Key Verse: 15

“I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”

John Chapters 13 to 17 are called the upper room dialogues. In these chapters, Jesus has an intimate conversation with his disciples, teaching them many spiritual instructions. In today’s passage, Jesus washes his disciples’ feet and asks them to wash one another’s feet. Today’s passage shows Jesus’ love so profoundly and teaches us how to love Jesus back and to love others practically. May we accept Jesus’ love for us and follow his example.

Look at verse 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.” It was a few hours before Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. Jesus knew that his time of departure out of this world to the Father was at hand. What did Jesus do at this tense and anxious hour? Look at verse 1b again. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.” Jesus had loved his disciples until now. With love, he had called them as his disciples and taught the words of God to them. With love he had encouraged them, rebuked them and served them. Jesus had done enough for his disciples. Now Jesus was facing the most difficult hour, the hour to be crucified. But at this difficult hour, Jesus loved them evermore. Did Jesus love them this much because they were so lovable, spiritual and faultless? No. As a matter of fact, the disciples at that time were having a fierce hegemony struggle between them. They disputed as to who was the greatest among themselves (Lk 22:24). They were full of worldly desires and dreams. What’s worse, Judas decided to betray Jesus. But regardless of the disciples’ spiritual reality, Jesus showed them the full extent of his love. What does “the full extent of his love” mean? Does it mean to say, “I love you,” countless times? Not at all. Let’s observe how Jesus showed them the full extent of his love?

Look at verse 2. “The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.” This was the Passover meal. To Jesus, it was the last Passover meal. So it is called “the Last Supper.” The disciples were in a private upper room all by themselves. They were happy with Jesus exclusively and with the hot Passover meal. The smell of roasted lamb made their mouths water and their stomachs growl. Judas was also in the room with Jesus and other disciples. But now he was an agent of the devil that had already prompted him to betray Jesus. According to Luke’s gospel account, Judas had met the religious leaders a day before Passover meal, discussed the business of betraying Jesus. What made Judas turn out this way? The truth is that Jesus called him as one of disciples, loved him and shared the life together for 3 years. Out of Love Jesus gave him chances to repent of his sin and experience the love of God. But Judas never accepted Jesus’ love. He never repented of his sin. He kept his own idea how to run his own life. He heard Jesus’ powerful teaching, but refused to accept it in his heart. He thought that he was his own man that was a sinful man. However, when he rejected Jesus’ love, he didn’t become his own man. He became the devil’s man. We must know that the devil is real and looks for his prey. The tragedy was that Judas didn’t know that he was the victim of the devil. Seeing Judas, Jesus’ heart must have been broken over and over again. Now Judas was looking for an opportune time to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders. He was sitting among the disciples, hiding his evil intent and pretending to enjoy the meal together with Jesus. All these Jesus knew so well.

Knowing what was going on in Judas, what did Jesus do? Did Jesus reveal Judas’ evil plot to the other disciples and ask the muscle men Peter and Simon the zealot to deal with Judas’ betrayal by taking him out for a lesson? No. Look at verse 3. “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God…” Jesus saw things beyond Judas’ evil plan and subsequent action. He knew that God had put all things under his power. Humanly, Jesus’ ministry was falling apart, but Jesus knew he was the one in charge of all these events. Jesus was not a victim of a “Passover plot.” He also knew that he was now returning to God and would sit down on the heavenly throne as the judge of the living and the dead and as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. With his divine power in his hand what did Jesus do?

Look at verses 4-5. “…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.” Why did Jesus get up from the meal all of a sudden, took off his outer clothing and wash the disciples’ feet? The picture that these verses show us is exactly the picture of a servant. It was because the disciples’ feet were so dirty and smelly after walking around the hot dusty road. I don’t know why they reclined at the meal table without washing their feet, disregarding the custom. Maybe, they were so hungry that they forgot about their dirty and smelly feet. Maybe there was no feet-washing-servant in the house. There was no one among the disciples who offered to do the foot washing. So Jesus waited until they were all reclining at the table with their unwashed feet. He rose without a word and took off his outer clothing. He wrapped a towel around his waist. He poured water into a basin. Then he knelt in front of each disciple in turn and washed their dirty and smelly feet. After that he dried them with the towel. In this way, Jesus became a feet-washing servant, washing 24 dirty feet, 120 toes. It was a big job. The disciples must have been shocked by what Jesus did. They felt so awkward and embarrassed to bring out their dirty feet with uncut gross toe nails.

Here we learn about the full extent of Jesus’ love. Jesus loved the disciples not because they were spiritually superb and admirable. In reality, the disciples were still full of worldly dreams and desires. Jesus washed their feet not because their feet were very beautiful and clean, but because their feet were so dirty and smelly. In the same way, Jesus loved them unconditionally regardless of their smelly sins, faults and mistakes, forgiving their sins. Jesus loved even Judas the betrayer by eating the Passover meal together with him and by washing his feet with which Judas would walk away and betray him. We all are full of mistakes and sins. Seeing them in us, we are often disgusted by ourselves and fall into despair and fatalism. When we see others’ sins and faults, our love grows cold quickly, and we begin to dislike them, instead of loving them to the end unconditionally. So we all need unconditional love. But the problem is that human love is very conditional and changeable. That is why everyone is hurt by others and hurting others. However, Jesus loves us unconditionally, covering multitudes of our sins. Jesus didn’t come to the world to see our clean and washed feet. He came to love us unconditionally washing our dirty and smelly feet like sins as we come to him. After Peter disowned Jesus three times, Peter cried bitterly. He couldn’t believe what he had done. He could not forgive himself. But the risen Jesus visited him, forgave him and loved him just as he had done before. Because of Jesus’ unconditional love, Peter could get up from his fall and give his heart to Jesus again. Jesus’ love is unfathomable. That is why John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world…” John could not fathom the depth and height of God’s love. He just said, “God s--o-- loved the world…” Jesus so loves us. We praise Jesus who came to love sinners like us unconditionally.

Now look at verse 6. When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Peter didn’t know why Jesus was doing that. It was totally against the social custom. He was angry at the other disciples who put their feet into the basin shamelessly and let Jesus wash them. He felt like screaming at Bartholomew who should have washed other disciples’ feet. Jesus knew what was going through Peter’s mind and helped him by saying, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” But Peter did not accept Jesus’ words. He said, “No, you shall never wash my feet” (8a). Peter flatly and unconditionally refused. He was so sure he was right. Then Jesus answered in verse 8b, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” Hearing Jesus’ words, “You have no part with me,” Peter was greatly alarmed and swung to the other extreme. He said, “Then Lord, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well” (9). Peter’s desire to have part with Jesus was remarkable. But he didn’t need his hands and his head to be washed by Jesus in order to have part with Jesus.

Look at verse 10. “Jesus 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.’” Jesus was simply indicating what was true in the culture of the day. Everyone took baths in the morning, and thus was “clean.” But as they went about the dusty streets their feet became dirty. So they needed to get just their feet washed. In this symbolic teaching, Jesus meant that the disciples with the exception of Judas were “clean.” In other words, they were all born again and became God’s children as they repented of their sins and accepted Jesus as their Savior. But they would not become instantly sinless and faultless saints. Even saints commit sins and mistakes. Even after being born again, the disciples would still commit sins, living in the sinful world. So they needed daily cleansing from Jesus. This is exactly the Christian life. The Christian life is to bring our dirty and smelly sins daily to Jesus to be forgiven and to maintain a deeper love relationship with Jesus. Without daily washing of our feet by Jesus, we have no part with Jesus. Without daily forgiveness of our sins from Jesus, we cannot have a love relationship with Jesus. As we experience Jesus’ forgiving love, our relationship with Jesus gets stronger and deeper. We can truly understand Jesus’ unconditional love through his forgiveness. Moreover when we receive Jesus’ forgiving love, we can truly love others.

When Jesus finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. As he had promised Peter, he explained the meaning of his action so they could understand. Look at verses 14-15. “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.” Jesus first washed his disciples’ dirty feet. Now Jesus commanded them to wash one another’s feet. Jesus wanted them to be humble enough to lower their eye level to the level of others’ feet. Jesus showed them practically by kneeling in front of all his disciples including Judas Iscariot. Most people think that to be humble before others is to be humiliated. They feel that their feet are cleaner than others feet and look down on others. But as we look at Jesus who humbly washed the disciples’ feet, we don’t think that Jesus was humiliated. Moreover, when we ponder on Jesus, the Son of God who humbled himself to the level of sinners and mingled with them, we don’t think that he was humiliated. Rather, we are deeply moved by his humble servantship. We honor Jesus because of his humble coming to sinners giving up his honor and glory. We revere Jesus because he humbly served sinners. Being humble is never being humiliated. Everyone likes to be around humble people. No one likes to be with proud people. When we first kneel before others and wash others’ feet, others will also kneel before us and wash our feet as well. We must imitate Jesus who set an example for us to become humble and to serve others.

What does it mean to wash others’ feet practically? Firstly, it means to bear with others by forgiving their weaknesses and sins. Jesus forgave the disciples’ sins and weaknesses to the end. Although he rebuked them from time to time to help them to recognize their problems and come back to God, he had been primarily bearing with them to the end. The disciples experienced Jesus’ love through his endless forgiveness. We have also experienced Jesus’ amazing love through his forgiveness, not through his holy and righteous life and teachings. The true love is forgiving love. That is God’s unconditional love. We all need love that forgives our sins. As Jesus’ people, we must imitate Jesus’ forgiving love for others.

Secondly, washing others’ feet practically means to do the most menial and even dirty jobs to establish the bond of love with our coworkers. Jesus did the servant’s work, although he was the Master. Spiritual leaders are those who are willing to do the things that no one else wants to do without complaint. They must be willing to serve without receiving any kind of human honor or position. When spiritual leaders have this kind of attitude they can form a vessel of love that God can use for his world salvation work around the world. Jesus said in verse 17, “…you will be blessed if you do them.”

Today, we learned about Jesus’ practical love. Jesus loves us humbly forgiving our sins and serving us. Jesus humbled himself to the lowest place to serve us. It is not so difficult to point out others’ weaknesses and faults, and then do nothing to help them. But it is difficult to love others and to wash their dirty feet. Yet, this is what our Lord Jesus did for each of us. And this is what our Lord Jesus commanded us to do. Let us follow Jesus’ example by washing others’ feet. May we love Jesus and love others following Jesus’ example.