John 13 depicts Jesus’ final moments with His disciples before the crucifixion, emphasizing humility, love, and service. He washes the disciples’ feet, teaching them that true greatness lies in serving others, and illustrates the ongoing spiritual cleansing and restoration through His blood and the Word of God. The chapter highlights the role of Christ as both Priest and Advocate, guiding believers in confession, forgiveness, and communion with God. Peter’s impulsive reactions and questions reveal the human struggle to grasp divine grace, demonstrating how Jesus patiently instructs and restores His followers. Believers are called to emulate Christ’s humility and love by supporting one another, applying the Word in grace, and walking faithfully in His ways.
This chapter occupies a peculiar place in the Gospel. The Lord's earthly history is over, one might say, and He anticipates in this chapter, and the four that follow, the cross, and what were to be the legitimate results of the cross, on which He glorifies God fully. Here, when about to leave the earth, He introduces the disciples into association with Himself, into the new and heavenly place that, as man, He is about to take.
They had thought of Him as the Messiah, about to set up the kingdom on earth: He the King, and they profoundly blessed with Him. That is now all over, and here in the thirteenth chapter, as passing out of the scene, He intimates to the disciples what He would be to them, and what they were to be for Him. On earth He had been their companion; He could be it in this sense on earth no longer. He is going to show them how He can take them where He is going, and fit them to be there.
Jesus here takes on Himself peculiarly the place of a servant. He is perfectly their servant; He who was Lord of all. He is never going to cease to be the servant of His people. "Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end" (John 13:1). There is no end to the love of the blessed Lord; His circumstances may change, but there is no change in His love.
We have the Lord here as the perfect antitype of the Hebrew servant in Exodus 21. He might have gone out free, but then must have left his wife and children behind. "If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: … then his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever" (Ex. 21:5-6). He will not be separated from those He loves, and that really is the meaning of John 13.
Jesus is going to take His loved ones, to be with Himself, in the place to which He is going, on the ground of redemption. There is a noticeable point in connection with this paschal supper, and the feet-washing viz., those who prepared it. Matthew informs us (Matt. 26:17-19) that the disciples inquired of the Lord where they should prepare for Him to eat, and He told them, but none are named. Mark, in relating the same occurrence (Mark 14:12-16), says, "He sends forth two of his disciples." Luke supplies their names: "And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat" (Luke 22:8).
John, who had been associated with Peter in this sweet service, with his accustomed diffidence and hiding of himself, makes no allusion to the preparation of the supper, in which he had had a hand, but records the touching fact — and he is the only evangelist that does — that ere they partook, the blessed Lord Himself washed their feet, soiled doubtless in this very service, and, thus refreshed, rendered them the better able to enjoy it. Little doubt have I that Peter greatly enjoyed thus serving His Lord, though he shrank, as we shall see, from His lowly grace that sought to wash his defiled, and possibly wearied feet.
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This supper scene is replete with the grace and love of Jesus. It is the evening before His death, and "supper being ended" everything was ready: even the base turpitude of Judas was consummated. Jesus knew He was going to depart out of this world, so rising from supper He performs an action most blessed and instructive.
"He rises from supper and laid aside his garments; and took a towel and girded himself," — i.e., He assumes the place of the servant, — "After that he pours water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded" (John 13:4-5). It was the habit of the country that if a man bade you to his house, the first thing he would do was to provide water for the feet. In Gen. 18:3-4, Abraham did; in Luke 7 the Lord reproaches Simon that he did not.
The Lord takes here the place of host, and provides the water, and He takes also the slave's post, and washes their feet. The Lord of glory stoops down and washes the feet of these twelve men. It was perfect grace; He who was God stooping down and becoming a man, and then as man stooping to do an action few of us would have grace to do. Then, refreshed and comforted, He desired that His own should partake of the feast to which He had invited them. He ever desires to make His people profoundly restful.
Peter, true to his character, comes forward, and, speaking after the manner of men, says, "Lord, dost thou wash my feet?" It was incomprehensible to him. It was lowering Himself on the Lord's part: that was Peter's thought, the thought of man, for we do not know how to stoop naturally — only grace, only real loftiness can do it.
But Peter's speaking out what was in his heart, becomes the means of developing, from the Lord, precious blessed truth. "Jesus answered and said to him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter" (John 13:7). It was not till the Holy Ghost came down that there was the spiritual intelligence to learn the meaning of this action. All through the Lord's life His words were misunderstood. Until there be the possession of the Holy Ghost there will never be the knowledge of the mind and ways of God. The possession of life does not mean power, and intelligence — it is the possession of the Holy Ghost that marks the difference between saints now, and those of bye-gone times.
The answer of Jesus discloses the spiritual meaning of what He was doing, a meaning Peter could not then understand, hence he says, "Thou shalt never wash my feet;" but "Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." You see man was in a condition of sin and ruin here, with which Christ could have no part. You must be dependent on me, He therefore says, to fit you to be in the place to which I am going.
Unless I am cleansed by the blood of Christ in the first instance, and know the cleansing power of the water, I have no part with Christ. He died to make me clean, and He lives to keep me clean. Unless washed in His blood. first of all, there can be no link with Him, and unless there be the maintenance of this state, by the washing of the water, there can be no part with Him.
Peter then says, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head," He is like many Christians now, they have been washed in the Saviour's blood, and know it: are forgiven, and know it; but if the conscience gets defiled, then they think they must go back and be washed again in the blood; but that would reduce the blood of Christ to a level with the blood of bulls and goats in Old Testament history.
Now the blessed truth is that, "This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb. 10:12). The efficacy of that blood always abides before God, and the possibility of the soul being re-washed in that blood is for ever precluded. It was the imperfection of the Old Testament sacrifice that made its repetition necessary. It is the perfection of Jesus' sacrifice that makes its repetition impossible.
You say, What about the daily failure? That is what this chapter speaks of: that is the cleansing by water, not blood, and is by the Word of God. Water gives the sense of purification. Peter says, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit," etc. (1 Peter 1:22). I do not doubt that water is the Word of God applied by the Spirit; it carries the thought of purification by the Word of God, which comes to, and judges me thoroughly.
This is brought out in the Lord's reply to Peter. "Jesus says to him, He that is washed needs not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean" (vers. 10, 11).
There are two different words used by the Lord here for "wash." The first word carries with it the thought of cleansing by immersion in the great Roman bath, used in the morning for the whole body; but then, through the day, it was a constant and common thing to have the feet refreshed by being washed, and here the word used is that which applied to anything small.
The water itself, employed here or elsewhere as a figure, signifies purification by the Word, applied in the power of the Spirit. When one is "born of water, and of the Spirit" (John 3:5), then the whole body is washed. There is a purification of thoughts, and of the actions likewise, by means of an object which forms and governs the heart. This is necessarily connected with the work of Christ on the cross, and the blood of atonement.
If a believer at all, you are cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, — and you start "clean every whit," — whiter than the driven snow by the Saviour's precious blood. You have been bathed by that which has removed every trace of defilement, so that Christ can say "clean every whit"; but since we walk through a defiled, and defiling world, "he that is washed needs not save to wash his feet."
What do you understand by the feet? It is the walk. As we pass through this scene we do contract defilement. This does not suit God's house, and must therefore be remedied. The love of the Lord supplies the remedy. He washes our feet. He uses only water to do it too. Once the soul has been converted it cannot be repeated; once the Word has been applied by the Holy Ghost, the work is done, and it cannot be undone, any more than the sprinkling of the blood can be repeated, or renewed. I cannot be born again twice, or be washed from my sins in the blood of Christ twice. "Once" is the word Scripture uses in this respect: but I may sin and defile my feet, and my communion with God may be interrupted. Then it is that the Saviour's tender love is seen in restoration. He uses the basin and the towel now, although He is in glory.
How does He effect this? Always by the Word of God — water. How that Word may reach us is quite another matter. It may have been in private, when no eye was upon us but His own, and no voice heard but His, through the written page of Scripture; or, on the other hand, we may have been refreshed or comforted, or our consciences reached, through the public exercise of a brother's ministry. Where has the word come from that has touched our hearts? From the Lord; it is the present ministry of Christ. We are more inclined to look at the vessel He uses, — so to speak, that which holds the water, — the basin, but it is really the Lord who is ministering to us. He has his eye on each sheep, and He knows just what each sheep wants, and he knows how to speak the word which shall refresh the heart, and remove defilement.
But perhaps some one will ask, "What is this thirteenth of John — this feet-washing — is it priesthood or advocacy?" The difference is important! Both offices have to do with Christ's intercession for us. Priesthood is exercised that we may not sin, advocacy is for sins that have been committed, that communion may be restored. Here it is more the character of advocacy. It is the ministry of His perfect love that cannot rest unless He has His people near Him, and unless He removes every thing that could keep them at a distance. Those you love you like to have near you, and your love is never more gratified that when those you love count on your love, and more, use it! For love likes to serve, and selfishness likes to be served. Love that serves always gets refreshed, and he that waters others gets refreshed himself.
The difference between the priesthood and advocacy of the Lord Jesus is very important to be clear about. Priesthood maintains the soul before God. It does not contemplate failure. I am maintained in all the strength of His shoulder, and the affections of His heart before God, in all the efficacy of the work that He did before He became a Priest, for he was not a Priest upon earth.
In 1 John 2: you find what an advocate is. It is the same word as is rendered Comforter in John 14, 15, 16. The Christian has two Comforters, one in heaven, and one in earth. In heaven the Comforter, the Lord Jesus, is before the Father. On earth the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, dwells in the body of the believer in the Lord Jesus. The Lord never ceases to love, and the Holy Ghost never leaves the believer. If I think of the Lord on high, or of the Spirit on earth, both are busy with the interests and blessing of those whom they serve.
In John's first epistle we read that we are not to sin: "My little children, these things write I to you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). In the seventh verse of the first chapter, it says, "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin." That is the continuously abiding character of the blood, that has made you clean, and keeps you clean. It is the blood that keeps you clean before God, in divine righteousness; it is the water that keeps you clean as to your conscience, and fits you for communion.
"If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." If I say I have no sins, it is true, because Christ bore them and put them away; but if I say I have no sin, the truth is not in me, for that is my nature as a child of Adam, and the flesh is still in me. If it acts I at once have sins, of which God and the conscience are cognisant. How then do we as believers get rid of these daily sins? "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). That supposes the possibility of a Christian sinning, which necessarily interrupts his communion.
What is the way for him to get rid of his sin? How can he get back? If he endeavors to go back to God, saying, as of old, "I am a lost sinner," he will never get restoration that way. Why? Because he is not a lost sinner, he is a defiled child, a naughty child. That soul never gets right till it comes back in the acknowledgment of its true relationship, which, thank God, its sinful ways have not destroyed, and says, Father, I have been a naughty child. The man that is right before God confesses his sin, and then he learns what forgiveness is.
Merely asking for forgiveness, and the confession of sins, are two different things. Confession involves real exercise, and brings with it blessing. The mere asking for forgiveness is often only skin-deep. Confession must be individual. It is the individual who has failed, and he confesses his sin to his Father. The man who says he has "no sin," has not the truth in him. This should cause some latter-day perfectionists to call a halt, and see the solemn ground they are really on.
The man who says he has "not sinned" makes God "a liar" (1 John 1:10), for He asserts that "all have sinned" (Rom. 3:23), and every person would do well to ponder this statement. But there is perfect relief here for the erring or backsliding saint, the one who has been a naughty child. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." He is faithful and just to Christ, who has died for these sins. The man who really seeks this relief says, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord;" and what did he find? "Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin" (Ps. 32:5).
But there is something further than this. We ought not to sin, and there is no reason that we should sin. The flesh in you does not give you a bad conscience, but if you let it act, it gives you a bad conscience. "He that says he abides in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" (1 John 2:6). The Christian's life is Christ, and his power is the Holy Ghost, and Paul says, "I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13).
If I sin, the blessed Advocate on high does His intercessory work that I may be restored. He takes the initiative in grace, as we see in Peter's own case later on. The result of His advocacy I believe is that the Holy Ghost puts the sin on my conscience, communion is interrupted, and not restored, until I confess it to the Father, and thus get my conscience relieved, and cleansed through the purifying effect of the Word. Communion with God is then restored.
Before Peter sinned Jesus prayed, and when Peter sinned and denied his Master, the Lord turned and looked on Peter. The procuring cause of Peter's restoration was the Lord's prayer, but the producing means of Peter's restoration was the Lord's look on him in Pilate's hall.
The washing of the feet therefore is a service with which Christ is now occupied for us. If negligent — for which there is no cause, or excuse, or need — we defile our feet, are thereby rendered spiritually unfit to enter into God's presence; Christ thereupon cleanses us by the Word, so that our communion with our God and Father may be re-established.
Having resumed His garments, we find the Lord urging on His disciples to "do as I have done to you." "If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet" (John 13:14). That is, we ought to be able and willing to help each other. It is not feet-washing to point out the fault of another. If you are going to wash another's feet, you must get down low enough yourself. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" (John 13:17).
I think the secret of a good deal of want of happiness lies in this. We are not doing this. If we were more desirous, in the spirit of meekness, to take the spot off some erring child of God, we should know more what this means. We are still called to wash one another's feet, to apply the Word in grace to the conscience of an erring brother or sister who needs it. But to really do this we must be in the humility of Christ, so blessedly shown in this heart-touching scene.
I am much struck with the way in which the history of Peter fills up the gospels, and how much of instruction, deep and blessed instruction, we owe to him. His questions, his mistakes, his assertions, and his varied impulsive actions, are all marked and striking means of drawing out from the Lord much that is blessed and profitable for us.
Some of these questions appear in John 13, but these, with others scattered through the Gospel narratives, we will reserve for our next chapter.