The Washing of the Feet

Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. ²And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him; ³Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; ⁴He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. ⁵After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. ⁶Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? ⁷Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. ⁸Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. ⁹Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. ¹⁰Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. ¹¹For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. ¹²So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? ¹³Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. ¹⁴If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. ¹⁷If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

John 13:1-17

The portion of Scripture I have selected for consideration brings before our notice one of the most important subjects in the word of God; the intercession of Christ and its blessed results to the children of God. By many it is overlooked, by others it is not understood. In these cases two striking features of character are manifested. In those who overlook it, there is carelessness of walk; in those who do not understand it, there is often no abiding peace, no unhindered fellowship with the Father and the Son.

The sacrifice of Christ on the cross and its precious results is one thing, the priesthood of Christ is quite another. It is the nature and operations of the latter which so many fail to apprehend and to which we would now call the reader’s attention.

We must always bear in mind that the great effect of the sacrifice of Christ, the one offering once offered for sin, is to place the believer in a relation to God that nothing can change. By it he becomes a son of God. That is hence­forth the relation in which he stands and from which no­thing can remove him. Let us not suppose that when he is overtaken by sin, I say overtaken, he is no longer a child of God; that the relationship in which he stood is altered. You may as well say that when a child does some­thing wrong he ceases to be the father’s natural child. No, the relationship remains the same under all circumstances. So is it with God’s people. Nothing can change their relationship. It is this that invests that relationship with such a solemn responsibility. It lays the believer under a responsibility from which he is never free. If that relationship could be changed, then would his responsibility cease; then would he be free to act as he pleased; to serve the devil or God. It is the knowledge of this relationship that lays him under an obligation to live at all times and under all circumstances to the glory of God. We cannot insist too strongly on this, for all the blessings, all the promises and all the commands of God’s word are based upon it. We dwell upon it here because it is the key to the interpretation of the portion of Scripture on which we have entered.

But if nothing, not even being overtaken in sin, can change the relationship in which the child of God stands to his heavenly Father, what is the effect of sin? May he go on in sin? Is he to have nothing to say to it? Is nothing to be done with it?

Reader, rest assured that if we have nothing to do with our daily sins and shortcoming, they will very soon have something to do with us. Ah! the man who can say or think such a thing is very far gone from God. What should we think of a child who would say, ‘It does not matter what I do to my father?’ Should we not say it was an unnatural child; that it was in a profane state of affection? Would not all the feelings of a child in relation to its parent be gone? Would not the absence of such feelings be the ultimate cause of its ruin? If it had nothing to say to sin, would not sin very soon have something to say to it, either in the prison or on the gallows? Yes, reader, these sins have a great deal to say to us and we have a great deal to say to them. But this we must bear in mind, that it is just in proportion as we apprehend our unchanging relationship to God, that we shall know what we have to do with them. The more clearly we see and enter into that relationship the more sinful will they appear, the more grievous will they  be. It is the child who knows its relationship to its father and values it that will feel every wrong done to him most keenly. We come to feel the heinous character of sin so little because we see not the relationship in which we stand to Him against whom it is committed. What then is done with these sins and what do they with us? The portion of Scripture under consideration will, under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, teach us.

There are two prominent subjects which are the burden of this portion of Scripture, namely, the believer’s completeness in the finished work of Jesus and the trespasses of his daily life; and they are presented to our notice under a very expressive symbol or figure. They are both comprehended in one verse; “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.” Our blessed Lord evidently compared His finished work on Calvary to having been washed in the bath. It has made the child of God clean every whit. It has made him a child; placed him in that relationship which nothing can change. Henceforward, all that can contract defilement is—not his person—but his feet. Henceforth, he is pardoned, forgiven, accepted, “complete in Him.”¹ But he is represented while going through this world as coming up out of the bath. In his passage, the feet come into necessary contact with the world and thus contract defilement. His daily walk, symbolized by the feet, contracts defilement. These must be washed. For this purpose Christ is now in heaven. It is this that is brought before us in the portion of Scripture we are considering.

“Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end.” The very fact of the Lord washing the disciples’ feet was another evidence of His love to them. It is here set before us as such. The expression “to the end” signifies not only to the end of all time, precious as that thought is; it means more. It has reference to the washing of the feet. It means that He loved them through everything. “Having loved“ them when they were sinners, rebels, haters of God, He loved them through all this and as sinning, wandering, back­sliding children. He loved them with a full view of what they were and also with a full view of what they would be—“to the end”—as far as love could go. The evidence of this was the act in which He was about to engage; the washing of their feet and what it symbolized. He saw what they were, yet He would die for them. He saw what they would be afterwards, yet He would live for them. This was love—“to the end”—love through every­thing. Oh, wondrous, perfect love of Jesus! Who can estimate it here? Who can measure its height or depth, its length or breadth? Not here shall we ever know its perfection and fullness. Not here, but there—

“When I stand before the throne
Dressed in beauty not my own;
When I see thee as thou art,
Love thee with unsinning heart;
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.”

But we learn from the Lord’s words the necessity for this washing of the feet. He says to Peter, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me;” that is to say, all those for whom He has died have a part with Him and must have their feet washed. If therefore He does not wash your feet, you are not one of those for whom He has died, you have not been in the bath, you are not His, you have “no part with me,” you are still dead in trespasses and sins. Here we perceive the great end for which He came into the world, that all His people should have a part with Him; and the great evidence that they had that part with Him was the fact of His washing their feet, inter­ceding for them in heaven, removing from them all their daily defilements. This He was going to show them by this very act. This is the reason it is said, “When Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world to the Father,” and “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end.” He was going away, and before He went He must show them that He not only came to die for them, but that He was going to live for them; their great High Priest in heaven.

He was going away, but before He went He must show them by this symbolic act that He not only loved them as sinners, by dying for them, but that He loved them with a full view of what they would be; sinful, wandering children. We see this more clearly by the following words, “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself,” He was about to enter into His Father’s glory. He knew He was. For this cause He rose up and began this significant act. What does this show us? That doing it as He was about to enter that glory, and with a full view of that glory before Him, He would continue it when He had entered into it. Combining this with His own words to Peter, it becomes clearer still—“What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” Let us not resolve this act into a mere example of humility. It was that doubt­less, but it was much more than that. As an example of humility, Peter evidently understood it, from his indignant remonstrance, “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” As an example of humility only, it would not have been correct to say, “thou knowest not now.” Peter did know that. But he did not know the far deeper meaning; the inter­cession in heaven. The Lord says to him, “thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter,” that is, so soon as the Spirit should come down in the Lord’s place and teach it him. Besides, as a mere example of humility, see what a strange anomaly we are reduced to; “If I wash thee not,” if I do not set before you this example of humility, “thou hast no part with me,” no inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. Is it the Saviour’s example of humility that is our title to heaven? Surely it was an example of humility, but who can read the Lord’s words here and not see a clear allusion to something deeper?

Reader, meditate on this portion of Scripture with an unbiased mind and after earnest prayer for the teaching of God’s Holy Spirit. Take not up my judgment here, but listen to what God says, then you will not go wrong.

“Jesus answered him, if Iwash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” The idea of not having a part in Christ fills the disciple with horror. To miss this evidence of it from the Saviour himself, he cannot endure. Anything rather than this. But at the same time, his words show very plainly what the Lord had told him, “What I do thou knowest not now.” He did not see what the Lord meant by this act. He should know it after the Spirit had descended; “he shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.”² He did not need a renewal of the Sacrifice to wash away his defilements; he did not need to go into the bath again. His trespasses, whatever they might be, could not change his relationship to God. They could not unChristianize him. All he required was the feet to be washed by the great High Priest. This the Lord now shows him: “he that cometh up out of the bath is clean every whit, and needeth not save to wash his feet.” “You stand in the position of one who has come out of the bath. You are clean every whit, by virtue of the efficacy of my one offering for sin; but you must have your daily defilements removed from you by my intercession as the great High Priest.” This is what the Lord seems to say.

The truth of our relationship to God being unchanged by our daily defilements, is beautifully shadowed forth by the priests under the Jewish dispensation. When they were prepared for their holy office and arrayed in their priestly garments, they were never removed from their holy place of service. They were priests there at all times and under all circumstances. Their hands and feet, how­ever, were continually defiled by the blood of the sacrifices. What were they to do? Were they unpriested? By no means. There was placed, between the brazen altar and the most holy place where they were serving, the laver. In this they washed their hands and feet and returned again to their place of service within the veil. So is it now, dear Christian reader. You are washed. You are a priest unto God. Nothing can change your relationship to God as His child. All you need is that your daily life be washed in the true laver; the intercession of Christ Jesus on your behalf.

But how does Christ, as our great High Priest, cleanse our daily defilements? The necessary contact of the feet with the earth; of the soul with the world and the things of the world, tends to draw a veil between us and God. Besides this, we are continually overtaken in things positively evil. Evil thoughts, unholy tempers, unguarded expressions, crooked conduct, inordinate affections; perhaps worse than even these. These draw a cloud between the soul and God, disturb the peace of the conscience and place us at a distance from God. We are out of communion with Him, we have fallen and we feel it. We dare not look up, an unaccountable earthliness has come over the spirit. We feel as if we were dead to all spiritual life. These are the defilements of the feet upon us. Oh, how bitterly we feel them! Sorrow overwhelms us. We go to the feet of our great High Priest. “He ever liveth to make intercession” for us; to remove these defilements. How does He do it? He gives us a fresh view of His one offering—His precious, ever speaking blood on the altar on high. By this view we see our defilements removed. We see again that we are accepted, beloved, pardoned, forgiven. The sight restores us. We feel all our sins are gone. We feel, too, that all our defilements are gone. The great High Priest has restored our souls. We are again happy. We are again brought into communion with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ; all is changed now. All was cloud and darkness before; now all is sunshine. What has done it? The great High Priest has done it, by His Holy Spirit giving us a fresh view of that one offering that hath “perfected for ever.” Our sins obscured this view and made us unhappy. He has removed them and the cloud along with them—He has washed our feet.

One point more in this beautiful portion of Scripture. “So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said to them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord : and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them.” If Christ has washed our feet, and if He continues to wash them, surely, dear Christian reader, we should do the same. How can we do this? Exactly as He does it for us; by removing from the heart and conscience of His people anything that makes them unhappy; by removing, as far as we are able, all defilement from the mind and restoring it to communion with God; by comforting them in sorrow, by bearing with their infirmities, weaknesses, and failings; by gentle re­proof and loving rebuke and by praying for them. In these and many other ways we can comfort the heart, en­lighten the mind, restore the soul, rejoice the spirit; we can wash their feet. Let us not be like poor Peter here, and say to each other, “Thou shall never wash my feet.” Let us not think such offices too low. Let us bend, let us stoop, let us lay aside the garment, let us take the towel, bind it to us and carry it with us everywhere, as true followers and servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let no pride, or rank, or social distinction qualify this plain command. See the Lord of glory bending at the feet of the fishermen of Galilee! Let us keep the picture before us and remember that the “servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.” Let us remember His closing words, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”

And what will enable us to “do them?” Let us see what influenced the Saviour here: “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hand, and that He was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel and girded Himself.” There were two things before Him here, His high dignity and relationship, and the prospect of the glory into which He was about to enter. These made Him take this place as the servant of His people. Why is it that there is so little of this washing of one another’s feet now, so much disinclination on the part of the people of God towards it? Oh, it is because we realize so little of our high dignity and relationship to God as His sons and daughters and so feebly apprehend the glory that is before us. The more we enter into these blessed realities, the more ready shall we be to bind the towel about us and go forth as the Lord’s disciples and servants to this holy work. In the doing of that work we shall know what it is to be “happy,” to participate in His joy and shall understand and enter into the full meaning of His blessed word.

Christian reader, you have been called unto liberty. You see the exalted relationship into which the finished work of Jesus has brought you. But beware that you “use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh.”⁵ Take care that you have to do with your sins, or else they will very quickly have something to do with you. Beware of sin; take every film and stain and sin, the moment it is committed, to your great High Priest; then all will go well. If you do not, it will raise a cloud between you and God. It will blunt your spiritual sensitiveness to the heinous character of sin. It will make the slippery path more slippery still. It will encrust the heart. It will leave you without any visible mark on your daily life as a testimony for God. You will gradually lose your sense of pardon. You will begin to question God’s love to you. You will begin to doubt your acceptance with Him. Prayer, in its spirit, will yield; communion with God will yield; every outward and visible mark of heaven upon you will yield and you yourself will be a spiritual wreck on the shores of this soul blighting world. Oh, beware of sin! “Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.”⁶

I walk as one who knows that he is treading
A stranger soil;
As one round whom the world is spreading
Its subtle coil.
I walk as one but yesterday delivered
From a sharp chain;
Who trembles lest the bonds so newly severed
Be bound again.
I walk as one who feels that he is breathing
Ungenial air;
For whom, as wiles, the tempter still is wreathing
The bright and fair.
My steps, I know, are on the plains of danger,
For sin is near;
But looking up, I pass along, a stranger,
In haste and fear.
This earth has lost its power to drag me downward;
Its spell is gone;
My course is now right upward and right onward,
To yonder throne.
Hour after hour of time’s dark night is stealing
In gloom away;
Speed thy fair dawn of light, and joy, and healing,
Thou Star of Day!
For thee, its God, its King, the long-rejected,
Earth groans and cries;
For thee, the long-beloved, the long-expected,
Thy bride still sighs.

Rev. H. Bonar, D.D.

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