Wash Feet

John 13 is familiar to many Bible readers. The account displays our Lord honoring His disciples by washing their feet, behaving as their servant. Traditionally this has been understood as an illustration concerning the way we ought to serve each other, and rightly so, but it seems to me there is another application of Jesus’ actions as well.

Peter is the only disciple who carries on a dialogue with his Lord, and that conversation pointed my thoughts in a different direction than simple service to my brethren. Examine it for yourself:

⁶ So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” ⁸ Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” ¹⁰ 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.” ¹¹ For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”  -John 13:6–11 (NASB95)

The physical side of this interaction is easily seen. Peter is distraught over Jesus’ actions, placing Himself beneath His disciples to wash their feet as a servant. But there is more to this interaction than Peter understands. Notice the spiritually centered statements:

• “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
• “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean…"
•  “You are clean, but not all of you.”

John applies the last statement for us, explaining that the cleanliness Jesus references is not only physical, but has to do with sin and the intentions of the heart. Judas was not clean, for he had decided to betray the Lord.

The actions of Jesus show us the attitude of a servant, but His words concern spiritual purity and the removal of the filth of sin. As His disciples walked with Him He cleaned them with His teaching (John 15:3), but there was one who remained entrenched in greed (John 12:6). Judas was not clean, but you will notice that even those who were clean needed to have their feet washed by the Lord.

As we walk with our Lord our feet get dirty. Even as we try to follow in His footsteps we wander into the territory of sin and need to be washed clean. He promises to cleanse us as we walk in the light (1 John 1:7), but we have a duty to each other, a duty which Jesus showed us in John 13. He said:

¹⁴ “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. -John 13:14-15 (NASB95)

 Jesus saw the filth of sin on the feet of the world, and knelt as a servant and washed it away in His blood. His sacrifice is eternally applicable to every set of filthy feet, and we ought to wash one another’s feet with it. It is the job of every Christian to wash feet when they see spiritual dirt. Wash feet with the blood of Christ, shed for that very purpose.

¹⁷ “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. -John 13:17 (NASB95)