“The Humility of Love”
[John 13:1-17; 31-35]
March 29, 2018 Second Reformed Church
The Lectionary text is far too large for
me to cover this evening, so I would like to have us look at the theme of “the
humility of love” in this evening’s text and just point a few things out to us.
Let us begin with the question: have you
ever had guests in your home? Have you ever taken off their shoes and washed
their feet?
It helps us to understand our text to know
that in Jesus’ day, people wore sandals, or just walked in their bare feet, so
their feet would become filthy. For the sake of a guest being comfortable, and
to keep the guest from traipsing dirt all over the house, the host would
instruct the lowest of his servants to wash his visitor’s feet. It would be the
lowest servant who would be commanded to wash the visitor’s feet because...,
well, no one wants to wash feet.
With that in mind, let us look at our
text:
Jesus gathers His disciples to have
a meal before the Feast of the Passover. It is at this time that Jesus knows His
time has come – He is ready to die and return to the Father. This is the time
that the author of Hebrews writes about: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin
which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set
before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is
seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV). Jesus knows
it is His time, and He looks forward to it with joy, while despising the
suffering He will endure, because of the greatness of the joy of completing the
salvation of His people and glorifying His Father as He returns from the world
of sin and death to His throne at the right hand of God.
And because He has loved all those
that the Father has given Him, and because He has loved them until the end.
Jesus is ready to die and return to the Father, because He has completed – and is
completing His Mission – which is one of humbled love – that God would humble
Himself in love of His elect to come to earth in human flesh, live, die for our
sin according to the Scripture, and rise, ascend back to the Father. He loves
us enough to purchase us with Himself: “You are not your own, for you were
bought with a price” (I Corinthians 6:19b-20a, ESV).
And He loves us until then end. What
does that mean? It means that Jesus loves us throughout our lives until the end
of our lives, but it also means that He loves us to the furthest extent and to
the depths of our need. Jesus loves us from sinful destitution to glory in the
Kingdom. Jesus loves us from before the Creation. He loves us when we hated
Him. He loves us when we receive Him. He loves us when we continue to sin
against Him. And He will love us until He receives us into glory to sin no
more.
This love for all those who will
believe in Jesus Alone is not diminished by Judas’ betrayal – Jesus knew that
Judas was going to betray Him – it had been prophesied and is necessary.
Jesus knew that the Father had given
Him everything: He had come from the Father – He is God, Himself, and He was
returning to the Father, rejoicing with the Other Persons of the Trinity in
Glory.
Knowing all these things – that His
time had come, that Judas was betraying Him, that He is God, the Son, Who is
with the Father from before the Creation and was returning to Him – therefore,
He stands up, takes off His outer garments, ties a towel around His waist, pours
water into a basin, and begins to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with
the towel.
We don’t have to imagine what the
disciples thought – Peter gives us the answer: “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
“What I am doing you do not understand
now, but afterward you will understand.”
“You shall never wash my feet.”
The washing of feet was the duty of
the lowest of the servants – not their Rabbi, not their Teacher, not the
Savior, not God Incarnate. It was not the place of God to wash the feet of
humans. It was beneath Jesus. Wasn’t it?
Jesus answers Him, “If I do not wash
you, you have no share with me.”
Peter responds characteristically,
“Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
Jesus tells Peter that if Peter does
not allow Him to wash his feet, there would be a break in the bond between
them, and Peter, assuming that more is better, tells Jesus if washing his feet
strengthened the bond between them, then, if Jesus gives him a complete bath –
that would even be better.
But Jesus corrects him, “The one who
has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean.
And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
What is Jesus talking about? This is
more than a discussion about bathing habits and hospitality, isn’t it?
In what way were the disciples clean
that Judas was not clean? John explains in his first letter, “But if we walk in
the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7, ESV). The other
disciples had believed in Jesus savingly: they had “confess[ed] with their
mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe[d] in their heart that God [would] raise[]
Him from the dead, [and they were] saved” (Romans 10:9, ESV). The other
disciples believe that Jesus is the God, the Promised Savior – Judas does not.
And through the blood that Jesus would shed, they had all been cleansed of
their sin. They had been delivered from their slavery to sin. But, as we have
just said, even if you were to bathe and be clean, if you were to walk through
the dusty, muddy roads in sandals, or barefoot, your feet would get dirty,
right?
So, if we are righteous before God,
if our sins have been cleansed through the Blood of Jesus, if we are clean –
what does it mean to say that our feet still get dirty? Our dirty feet that
still need to be cleansed every day are the sins that we commit every day.
Jesus has cleansed all those who will ever believe, and Jesus cleanses the feet
of everyone who will ever believe until we are brought into Glory.
A. W. Pink explains (708) that their
persons were clean – they had received salvation through Christ Alone – but
their walk – their day-to-day living – was still dirty – they still sinned,
just as you and I do until Jesus returns. That is why we need to repent of our
sin daily – if not more often.
Paul explains, “Christ loved the
church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed
her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church
to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she
might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25b-27, ESV).
So then through the hearing of the
Word of God, we receive Jesus – we are cleansed of our sin, all of our sins are
forgiven and we are no longer inclined towards sin – we are made righteous.
However, becoming holy – sanctified – is a process that continues until Jesus
returns to bring us into Glory. God the Holy Spirit is working in us now to remove
those “spots and wrinkles” that still remain in us – to wash our feet from the
sin we daily pick up and track around in our walk.
The disciples were already
Christians – believers in Jesus Alone for salvation – they were righteous
through the Sacrifice Jesus was going to offer on Good Friday – their bodies
were clean. But they were not holy – they continued to sin – so it was
necessary for them to wash their feet every day – for the Holy Spirit to work
repentance in them each day. And the same is true for each one of us. We are
forgiven – justified; Jesus has paid the debt for all of the sin of everyone
who will ever believe, yet we still turn away and sin, and we do not lose our
salvation in sinning, but we are called to repent of our sin and to continue by
the Power of God, the Holy Spirit, working in us to become holy.
Then Jesus asks the disciples if
they understood what He has just done – that He has symbolically shown them
that though they are righteous through Jesus, becoming holy is a process of God
working in us.
Then Jesus says, “You call me
Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.” Jesus could have received
the death penalty for saying that: Jesus says, “You call me didaskolos and
kurios, and you are right for so I am.” “You call me master rabbi and...” The
word kurios is used in the New Testament as the Greek translation of the Hebrew
word Adonai, and the Jews used the word Adonai for YHWH, the most holy and
personal of God’s Names that God told to Moses. The disciples would have understood
the words – if not the entire meaning, Jesus says, “You call me master rabbi
and Almighty God, and you are right, for so I am.”
We can imagine them in stunned
silence as Jesus continues, “If I then, [the Almighty God and master rabbi],
have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have
given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a
messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed
are you if you do them.”
Jesus says, a servant is not greater
than his master. If the master does x, it is not below the servant to do x. In
fact, the servant ought to follow the good example of his master and do x.
Jesus, the master rabbi and Almighty
God, had done something that would have been scandalous for a mere human master
to do – He has washed His disciples’ feet. He is showing them that becoming
holy is a process, although we are instantly justified through Jesus’
Sacrifice, becoming holy is a process that God works in us.
Is Jesus teaching them that they
ought to literally wash each others’ feet? Most scholars and denominations say
He is not. So what is Jesus teaching them – and us? Is there something that we
can do to help each other progress in holiness? Is there anything we can do to
help each other refrain from sin?
Although He is God Who restores the
Image of God in us and makes us holy like His Son, God works through us to
accomplish His Will. So we are to watch out for each other’s feet. In love, we
ought to do everything we can to help lead each other away from sin and to
follow after good. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves.
If we know someone is tempted to sin
in certain circumstances, we ought to do all we can to keep that person from
being tempted and falling into temptation. Don’t offer an alcoholic a drink or
bring him to a bar. Don’t give a glutton a whole cake. Don’t tell a gossip a
juicy piece of news. If someone starts to badmouth someone, tell them you’re
not interested in hearing it. Invite people to give food to the poor, to attend
worship, to see the good in another person, to take better care of his body.
And so forth.
We ought to do all we can to keep
each others’ feet clean – to turn each other away from sin and to lead each
other towards the good.
After Judas leaves, Jesus tells the
rest of the disciples that He is now glorified and God is glorified in Him, and
that since God is glorified in Jesus, Jesus will also be glorified, and He is
glorified in that moment. Jesus is revealed for Who He is – God’s Plan is
revealed, and God is better seen by the disciples in that moment.
And He tells them again that they could
not go where He is going; Jesus has to face the Wrath of God alone – as the One
Sacrifice for everyone who would ever believe savingly in Him.
And Jesus says, “A new commandment I
give you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to
love one another. By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you
have love for one another.”
Well, how much did Jesus love them?
Jesus explains how to be great to the disciples: “You know that the rulers of
the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over
them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must
be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even
as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25b-28, ESV).
And Paul writes: “Have this mind
among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, thought he was in the
form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made
himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to
the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8, ESV).
How much does Jesus love? Enough
that the Almighty God would humble Himself by sending the Son to take on a
human person, serve His Creation, and allow Himself to be put to death for
those He came to save.
This is not masochism. Jesus does
not call us to learn to enjoy being abused by people.
This is not being a doormat. Jesus
stood up for what is right and He spoke the Truth and exposed sin.
This is the humility of love that
says, “I’m going to refrain from doing something because Peter is here, and I
know if I do this or say this, it will lead Peter into sin.” This is the
humility of love which says – privately, “Peter, I’m concerned that you are
sinning and don’t even realize it, could we talk about what you’re doing?” This
is the humility of love that says, “If I do this or say this, it will help
Peter, he may become a more faithful Christian, and it will glorify God.”
This is the humility of love which
says – ultimately, as we see in the book of Acts, when Peter and the apostles
had been let out of prison with the warning that they were not to teach about
Jesus again, “But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather
than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him
on a tree. God exalted him at the right hand as Leader and Savior, to give
repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these
things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him’”
(Acts 5:29-32, ESV).
This is the humility of love which
says, with Paul in prison, “Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through
your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for
my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be
ashamed, but with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body,
whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet, which I
shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to
depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh
is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain
and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in
me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, Because of my coming to
you again” (Philippians 1:18b-26, ESV).
God has called us to a life of
service in glorifying Him, and by serving Him, we receive joy. Jesus has shown
us that we are not above doing anything for anyone for the sake of the Gospel.
And in washing the disciples’ feet, He has shown us that we are to humble
ourselves in love to help each other progress in holiness – to the Glory of
God.
Shortly, we will receive the Lord’s
Supper. In the elements of the bread and the cup, this same Jesus Who
physically walked on this earth two thousand years ago, will meet with us
spiritually and give us the grace that we need to be able to do all that God
calls us to do. Let us trust Him, and follow after Him in humility, showing
love, that the whole world will know that we are His disciples.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, You sent our Master Rabbi, when
we hear that He washed the disciples’ feet, we respond with disgust, not
wanting to do likewise. Humble us and let us see that if God, the Son, was
willing to come to earth to save us from Your Wrath for our sin, we ought to be
willing to do anything You call us to do in love and to Your Glory. Strengthen
us now for the work You have given us to do, mature us and make us holy, after
the Image of Your Son, for it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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