The First PediCURE

Jesus' famous foot washing of His disciples is a love-story of the way disciples should live and treat one another.

Read John 13: 1-20

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

13Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.[a] 2It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas,[b] son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.

6When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”

8“No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!”

Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.”

9Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”

10Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet,[c] to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” 11For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? 13You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. 17Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them. 18“I am not saying these things to all of you; I know the ones I have chosen. But this fulfills the Scripture that says, ‘The one who eats my food has turned against me.’[d] 19I tell you this beforehand, so that when it happens you will believe that I am the Messiah.[e] 20I tell you the truth, anyone who welcomes my messenger is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me.”

I have a confession to make. I spent $30 yesterday to get my feet washed. Yes, I got myself a pedicure. And let me tell you it was wonderful.

John’s story in chapter 13 of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet came to mind as I was sitting in the chair. Having already a topic planned for today’s message, God made it clear to me that this was what I was to share with you today.

I.E. Title “The First PediCURE”

The cross is near for Jesus.

Verse 1.

“Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.”

(What a beautiful verse! God certainly loves the world and sinners in the world, but Jesus loves His own, His chosen ones who choose to follow Him; He loves them with His perfect self-sacrificial and self-denying, saving, eternal love!)

Let’s examine verses 2-5.

2It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas,[b] son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.

Judas had already made his decision to betray Jesus: His heart desired what the devil desired, namely, the death of Jesus. This would be how Jesus would be handed over to His executioners, and although it was the will of God to be done this way, Judas is in no way excused for his actions.

Knowing all these things, Jesus rises from the table and begins to wash the disciples’ feet, wrapping a towel around Himself, as if He were a household servant. Foot washing was commonplace because of the dusty and dirty conditions in the region, but it would be unheard of for the Teacher, the Rabbi, to stoop to such a menial and degrading task. It is a picture of a Love-Parable in Action.

The Love of Jesus would not be stopped by the power of evil. His love knows no barriers, social, or otherwise. Jesus, God in the flesh, stoops to wash the feet of sinners. His love is active and joyful, even in the tasks that are menial and lowly. Jesus shows by his love that the greatest is the one who serves others and He will soon demonstrate that fact in the greatest possible degree in the cleansing power of the cross. There He would wash the hearts of sinners, not with water, but with the shedding of His Blood.

The disciples may have been more than happy to wash the feet of Jesus, but they would hardly consider washing each other’s feet; that would be a task for the lowest menial servants-yet Jesus does not waiver from such service. In Luke 22:24 the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest, so they were no doubt shocked when Jesus moved from the table to wash their feet, and the furthest thing from their minds would have been to humbly wash each other’s feet.

We continue with verse 6 – 11

Dirty Feet

6When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”

8“No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!”

Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.”

9Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”

10Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet,[c] to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” 11For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

Jesus was not merely being polite or responding to a dirty feet problem. As shocked as the disciples were by Jesus’ action, and as upset as Peter appears, Jesus’ actions were serving as a symbolic and spiritual lesson. The selfless and humble service which Jesus was exemplifying through their foot washing was only the prelude which would be displayed by his death on the cross.

Peter as well as the other disciples failed to grasp this humble service as symbolic of spiritual cleansing which only Jesus could provide, indicative of Jesus’ reply in verse 7: "You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will." What the disciples would later learn is that unless the Lamb of God cleanses a person’s sin, a person would have no part with the Lord Jesus. (Jesus’ response in the last part of vs. 8: "Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.")

When Peter hears these words he reacts with uncontrolled excitement: “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet.” But Peter misses the point. Jesus, however, is not speaking of areas of the body that need to be washed, but of the washing away of sin which only He could provide.

Verse 10 is a difficult verse: "A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you."

“The cleansing that Christ does at salvation never needs to be repeated-atonement is complete at that point. But all who have been cleansed by God’s gracious justification need constant washing in the experiential sense as they battle sin in the flesh. Believers are justified and granted imputed righteousness, but still need sanctification and personal righteousness.” (Footnote, MacArthur Study Bible, p.1569).

Continuing in verse 12 – 17

A Pattern for Living

12After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? 13You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. 17Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

The word, “example”, that Jesus uses, also means “PATTERN”. Jesus isn’t instructing His disciples to conduct regular foot washing ceremonies but rather to establish a model of living and loving one another in the same way that He stooped in humility to wash the feet of those for whom He would die.

In the Christian community, no one is exempt from humble tasks; how could a servant of the Lord Jesus exempt themselves from serving others when the Lord Jesus, Himself, stooped to, not only washing the feet of His followers, but carrying a cross and being subjected to all of the suffering and death that it included for sinful mankind. We as His disciples should exhibit a passion for humble serving of the Savior and each other; it is a privilege to follow the Savior’s example, but only those who truly know the Lord Jesus will follow His example.

Look at verses 18-19:

God’s Fulfillment in Judas

18“I am not saying these things to all of you; I know the ones I have chosen. But this fulfills the Scripture that says, ‘The one who eats my food has turned against me.’[d] 19I tell you this beforehand, so that when it happens you will believe that I am the Messiah.

Again Jesus makes the contrast between His Chosen Ones and Judas. Jesus chose Judas as well as the others, but He chose Judas for a different purpose than the rest: Eleven will bring honor to God by carrying the Gospel message to the World; Judas will betray Him. (This is a clear example of Romans 9:21: “Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?”)

In addition, the reason Jesus chose Judas was to fulfill Scripture. Psalm 41:9, quoted in verse 18, concerns David, the man of God portrayed as a type or model of the Christ to come. David, when he was very sick and being assaulted by his enemies, finds that his closest friends betray him. We read there: “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.”

Friends, according to scripture, we are to stand by each other in difficult times; Proverbs 17:17 says: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” The point in verse 18 is that the actions of Judas were unnatural because betrayal by an intimate friend is not the normal expected behavior. Allegiance and support would be the norm…Still, in a sinful world, betrayal happens more often than we would like, even among Christians. The norm in the Church should be forgiveness, reconciliation, and allegiance, and humble serving, not betrayal.

Jesus explains this beforehand to impress upon the disciples that He is not a victim who has been overtaken by surprise; the events at hand have been known in advance and are a divine part of the purpose for which Jesus was sent. There is an urgency again in verse 19 to believe in Jesus as the One sent from God to redeem: “I tell you beforehand, so that when it happens you will believe that I am the Messiah.” Jesus clearly declares His deity.

Jesus is the undeniable object of our faith. Jesus is the I AM of the Old and comes in the flesh as Savior in the New: the “I AM WHO I AM” of Exodus 3:14, the Everlasting, self-existent, timeless One who is God and God alone.

( John 8:24: “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.") Saving faith is having the very highest esteem and regard for the person of Jesus Christ. Unless we believe that Jesus is more than a man, we can never trust him with the kind of faith which will SAVE us! Only HOLY God is able to save sinful man and Jesus wants His Disciples and US to understand that Jesus is sovereign over all of the circumstances of His betrayal and crucifixion, and we can be assured that He is Sovereign over all the circumstances in our lives as well.

And lastly verse 20

Representing the I AM

20I tell you the truth, anyone who welcomes my messenger is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me.”

What a statement! Here Jesus binds His mission and the mission of His commissioned disciples to the highest authority in Heaven and on Earth-to that of the Eternal God Himself. The actions of Judas do not thwart the plan of God but precisely fulfill His plan as Judas becomes an instrument to accomplish God’s plan of Salvation for sinners.

There is a lot to consider in these verses: There is the model of humility in serving each other according to the pattern of the Lord Jesus. There is the teaching of God’s Perfect Sovereignty in salvation…and in your own life. Then there is the power and the presence of the Living God in the lives of those who are the Chosen Ones of God.

“Do you need a renewed confidence to share the Gospel to friends and family who are lost in sin? Contemplate this fact: God has saved you by His grace through His Son so that you might represent Jesus to those people in your world, those around you in your daily life. We have been saved to serve the Everlasting One, our Savior God. What a marvelous mission…to serve in the same way as our Loving Savior. May God grant us all that we need in order to serve Him in joyful and Holy obedience. To God alone be the Glory! Amen!”

Credit; Ron Tuit