In the hours preceding the greatest act in human and angelic history (the death of Christ and the consummation of the Gospel), man makes prideful efforts to be exalted above the moment. This is typical of a creation who seeks self exaltation above the glorification of Jesus Christ.
Here’s a little snack: We find ourselves journeying into and through the 13th chapter of John’s Gospel. Shortly after Mary pours costly ointment on the feet of Christ and wipes His feet with her hair (chapter 12), Jesus does the very same thing to the feet of His disciples with water and a towel. Mary's was a moment of worship, Jesus' a moment of service. Both were birthed from a heart of utter humiliation.
We learn from the introductory verses that Satan had entered into the heart of Judas for the purpose of betrayal. Christ’s stripping Himself of His outer garments and the adorning Himself with rags made for cleaning was more than Judas could take. In his mind, no king worth serving would stoop to such humble degrees of service. The washing of dirty feet was the icing on the cake. All Judas needed was an excuse to leave and this was it.
John tells us, in verses 6–10, of the conversation that Jesus had with Peter. Not surprisingly, Peter would make the moment about him. Oh how we need to make every moment in Christ's presence about Him! Notice the language used by Peter as Jesus made His way around the room washing away the dirt, grime and sweat collected by the feet of these tired men after a day’s journeying with their Rabbi: “Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash ‘my’ feet?” (emphasis added).
Peter struggled with the fact that Jesus placed him in the same category as the rest of the dirty disciples. He had always struggled with this level of pride. Peter had engaged in conversations with the others about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom… only to have Jesus rebuke him along with the others. Peter thought little of exercising his authority over gravity in an attempt to walk on water to be with the Lord. Only to have Jesus rescue him and put him back into the same boat with the others. Peter was a legend in his own mind and Jesus saw to it to humble him quickly.
The Lord’s response to Peter’s self exaltation came in the form of an ultimatum. Verse 8 says, “Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”Oh how deflating this was to Peter. First he had to admit that he was dirty and secondly he had to submit to being served by the Lord. The same is said of each sinner today: we must admit that we are dirty and submit to the cleansing of Christ’s serving us on Calvary as an act of obedience to the Father.
Peter responded as we must respond today, “Lord, not my feet only, but also [my] hands and [my] head." Here we see the humble submission to a complete washing of ourselves that is necessary if ever we are to know the Lord completely. First, we see the cleaning of the feet, which is symbolic of the deep depravity of the soul of man. Secondly we see the washing of his head which is the cleansing of the mind (earthly wisdom and logic of man). Finally we see the washing of the hands, symbolic of any effort that we might have to offer for our own righteousness.
May we know today that we cannot clean ourselves, but rather, we must resolve to know and submit ourselves to the fact that God in the flesh has humbled Himself to cleanse us wholly, when we wouldn’t- nor couldn’t wash ourselves.
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