Upon having washed the feet of His disciples, Jesus took up the garments He had doffed and sat down. Sitting was the posture of a teacher and Jesus had a lesson to impart. He begins by asking them a question, “Do you know what I have done to you?” (John 13:12).
Evidently, His question was a rhetorical device to get their attention and get them thinking about what has just taken place. The classroom for His lesson is particularly striking because it is the anteroom for the holy drama of His betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion. He is communicating what messianic mission looks like and how the kingdom of God operates, and it is nothing like people might expect.
Having gotten their attention, Jesus says, “You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am” (John 13:13). He is affirming their understanding of Him. He is the Christ of God. He is the Messiah who was to come. He is all those things that we have learned about Him in the first half of John’s Gospel.
In seeing Jesus taking up the mantle of a servant and engaging Himself in the basest of tasks, He is not sending a contrary message to who He is. Nor is He sending a mixed message. Rather, He is communicating a message consistent with biblical revelation.
He is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. In fact, the extent of His ignominy is yet to be seen. This Servant (Is. 42:1; 49:5) “is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Is. 53:3–4).
Jesus lays out the pattern for greatness in the kingdom. “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him” (John 13:14–16).
Foot washing is not a ritual to be copied but an attitude to be adopted. Contrary to worldly wisdom and contrary to prideful sensibilities, we find peace and joy in our Savior’s steps. “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:17).
Our Lord highlights two things for our kingdom conduct in this world. One, we need to know things. We need to know the principles and precepts of the kingdom, to know that it operates according to the wisdom of God rather than the wisdom of man. Two, we need to do these things. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, putting into practice what we have been taught, living out the lordship of Jesus Christ.
How is Psalm 1 an ode to joy for those who belong to Jesus?
