(Part 1)
“After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”
Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”
Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”-John 13:5-11
It never fails does it? You work hard to get your kids bathed, their hair done, and dressed ready for church and one of them manages to locate and step in the only mud puddle in a five mile area. Or you dress to impress for a big meeting and manage to spill coffee down the front of your church while driving to work. When these thing happen as annoying as they may be, you don’t start the whole process of cleansing over again. You don’t put the kids back in the tub, rewash their hair, and buy them new outfits. You change their clothes, yes, but just because their shoes are dirty, doesn’t warrant restarting the entire process.
Jesus washing the disciples feet was more than just a grand gesture but a message of hope to those, who although they love Jesus, would certainly one day end up stepping in something that would dirty their feet.
At first Peter objected to Jesus washing him, but in vs. 8, Jesus declared: “If I do not wash you, you have no part in Me.” Jesus made it clear that we all need cleansed and if we think we can come to Him without being washed, we are mistaken. Peter responded in classic Peter fashion: “Then Lord, not just my feet, but my hands and head as well!”
Jesus’ loving response to Peter is for us as well today. Jesus said, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” In Jesus day, there was not indoor plumbing. So it they wanted to bath they went to the river or the bath house. After washing, however, they still had to walk home, which inevitably meant that their feet became dirty again. Once arriving home, they did not need a bath to get clean again, they simply needed to wash their feet.
Jesus was telling Peter, that he didn’t need to bath all over again, he didn’t need his “hands and head” washed again, just his feet. He told his disciples in John 15:3: “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”
Years ago, I had a young man that would come to church and every time we gave the invitation to receive Christ, he would come forward for salvation. We all knew his heart and that what he needed was discipled, but his outward response was not too different from many of our inward responses to the sin we seem to step in as we are trying to walk with Jesus.
Somehow we have bought into the idea that if we sin that we immediately forfeit the cleansing we receive from Christ and the only way forward is to give our lives to Christ all over again and start over. It is almost as if we have forgotten that we have been cleansed from our old sin and that simply because we have soiled ourselves with something new that the work Jesus did in our lives has somehow been nullified.
Pastor Scott Burr
Dayspring Community Church
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