JOH 13:1 It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
2 The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.
3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God;
4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

As we come to our text this morning we have now entered into the last stages of the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus has departed from the crowds of people in Jerusalem. He has withdrawn to the comfort of His closest followers. And now, as Passover is approaching our Lord reclines at the table with the twelve.

This is the day before His crucifixion and this particular meal has come to be known as the last supper. And now He considers what lays ahead as verse one of our text points out.

Again, the time frame has been given in verse one as just before the Passover Feast. This is significant in that it shows how this meal that Jesus was celebrating was not the actual Passover meal. However, this does not mean that it was not a meal which actually did celebrate the Passover from this perspective, and that is that they were celebrating the upcoming Passover. It was a meal in preparation of the Passover as Matthew points out in his gospel.

MAT 26:17 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?"
18 He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.'"
19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.
20 When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve.

This has been somewhat of a confusing subject since there are passages which seem to suggest that Jesus did in fact celebrate the Passover meal while other passages clearly show that this meal in the upper room took place before the actual Passover. One such passage is in this gospel.

JOH 18:28 Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.

This particular incident took place the morning after the meal we have in our text. And yet, we see that the Jewish leaders had not as of yet celebrated the Passover, but were in fact anticipating celebrating it later that day, which is why they didn’t want to become ceremonially unclean by entering the palace of the Roman governor.

In fact, if we are to adhere to the law, which is found in Exodus where the first Passover took place in Egypt in preparation for Israel’s exodus from that country of bondage, then we must conclude that when Jesus, who is the lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world, was slaughtered or crucified for our sins, then His death must necessarily also be on the day of Passover.

Therefore, the day in our text which shows Jesus in the upper room celebrating a meal with His disciples must therefore be the day before the actual Passover, though they certainly would be celebrating a meal which was associated with Passover.

But the most important aspect of this entire passage is what follows in verse one.

JOH 13:1 ..... Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

Up to this point there are many references to where Jesus’ time had not yet come. But it is clear that the time for Him to redeem us by His blood was upon Him. The time had come for Him to leave this world, which is a reference to His death. And yet, He knew that this was not the end because in leaving this world He would return to His former place of glory and honor at the Father’s side.

And so, this is a bitter sweet time for Jesus. On the one hand He was to face death in its most cruel form while at the same time suffering the wrath of the Father on our behalf. And yet, it was only through this door that He would be able to return to the Father which is where our Lord belongs.

On a much different scale it is what our troops in Iraq have been saying for some time. The road home leads through Baghdad. No one wants to suffer the pain of having to go through such a place, but there is no other way to bring an end to the conflict. And so, in that sense it is welcomed.

And this is essentially what Jesus knew. The road home to the Father went through Calvary. But He welcomed this because He knew the outcome, not just for Himself, but for us as well.

HEB 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus knew what He was doing. None of this took Him by surprise. He knew He would have to die, and He knew that through His sacrifice He would return to the Father. Interestingly enough our text shows that it was His return to a person and not a place that He looked forward to.

In other words, it wasn’t heaven that Jesus longed for, but the One who resided there. And in the same way we should long for our return to a person and not just a place, as wonderful as heaven will be. Our prize is Jesus Christ and He secured that place with Himself because of His desire for us to be where He is because of His great love for us.

JOH 13:1 .... Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

True Godly love always shows itself. It isn’t just talked about. It’s a love which acts despite how we may feel. And John tells us here that Christ’s love was shown in its full extent.

In some of your translations it reads, He loved them to the end. And what this means is that His love went the distance. He loved them to the end of His life, to the end of their lives, but since His love never ends this phrase actually transcends any sort of end as it continues on for eternity.

This is why you and I should rejoice each day in Christ. The very love which He demonstrated on the cross is the very love He showers on us today. He loves us to the end and beyond.

And yet, it is precisely because of His love for us that should cause us to pause and consider that love in light of the fact that we are an unlovely people. Here we have the creator of the world, having come into the world He made, as He took on flesh, with the express purpose of loving us with His very life that we might have life in Him by faith as we can now share in His eternity.

And yet, it is quite clear that none of us deserve this love. How could we when God tells us that no evil can dwell in His presence? Why then did God love us in this way? The answers usually goes something like, since He created us He was obliged to save us when we sinned.

Well, using that logic God would have to apologize to Satan and the angels who followed him in his rebellion. God didn’t owe Satan a second chance. And we know that Satan will be lost forever along with all people who follow him.

Another answer goes, well, God knew the hearts of some people who really wanted to be with Him forever, and He looked down the corridors of time and saw them and responded by sending His Son to save those people.

And yet, as Paul points out in the book of Romans that simply isn’t the case since, as it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Rom.3:10-12)

So, why did God so love us that He sent His only begotten Son into the world so that all who believe on Him would not perish but have everlasting life?

Here’s the answer and it may surprise us because it’s the same answer God gave to Israel as He set His love upon them.

DEU 7:7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

What this means is that God loves us because He chose to love us when in fact we deserved His wrath. It was in spite of ourselves that He loved us which makes His love all that more amazing.

And as our text shows it is a love which goes beyond mere sentiment and words as Jesus shows this love with a demonstration of resolve which took Him to the cross as He loved us to the end.

This is why we never have to worry if His love for us will wane. We never have to wonder if His love for us will be affected if we sin against Him once we have embraced Him as Lord and Savior. This is not to suggest that we should ever use His love for us against Him as we choose sin while at the same time saying it doesn’t make any difference since He died for my sins.

That would be like saying that a wife’s love for her husband is total and therefore someone can cheat on his wife because she’ll forgive him. That’s a twisted approach to a marriage relationship. And yet, we know that our God does forgive us even when we do sin against Him.

1JO 2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins,

This is why Paul could say, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (ROM 8:39)

JOH 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

But just as Jesus loves us we should love Him as well as we give Him our all. He has purchased us and we no longer belong to ourselves. And as we meditate upon His love for us we in turn should love Him, not just with the sentiment the world associates with love, but with lives of love and obedience to His will.

But as we come back to our text John shows the contrast between a true love and a false love.

JOH 13:2 The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.

During the supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him. (NASB)

It’s amazing to me on one level that a man could follow Jesus Christ for some three plus years, being a first hand witness to His miracles and teachings, and yet could in the end betray Him.

We’re told that the devil or Satan had prompted Judas’ heart. This does not mean that the devil made him do it. Judas had made his own decision just as Adam and Eve made their own decision to rebel against God, even though Satan was involved in trying to motivate them all to rebel against God.

This doesn’t mean that Satan will not be held responsible for his involvement in the lives of all people over the ages as he tempts them to rebel. In fact, his judgment will be the worst of anyone who ever lived in one sense.

But despite Satan’s involvement with Judas, in the end it was Judas who was held responsible for betraying Christ at that last supper, not Satan. It would be Judas who would be lost forever because he never really trusted Jesus as the Messiah.

MAT 26:24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."

And of course, later in the gospel of John Jesus again makes it clear that the only one to be lost of the twelve will be the one who rejected Christ.

JOH 17:12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

Judas chose the way of destruction and unfortunately he will be lost forever. But this should be a message to the world, especially to those who consider themselves religious, as was Judas, that in the end simply being associated with the church is not what saves, being united and following the Master by faith does.

JOH 13:3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God;
4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

These verses essentially encapsulize the very motivation of the ministry of Jesus Christ. He is about to wash the feet of the disciples as only a servant could. This very act characterized our Lord’s entire life on earth, which was a demonstration of the His character in eternity.

It’s one thing to think of God as the King and Master and Lord, and yet we don’t often think of Him as a servant. And yet, what the Son of God shows here is that He is the perfect servant as He accomplishes the Father’s will on our behalf.

MAT 20:28 .... the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

PHI 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!

Here in our text we have the Son of God who has taken on the nature of man, which is why He is often also referred to as the Son of man, who knows exactly who He is, as He knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; and yet He now assumes the lowest form of servanthood as an example for His disciples.

I like the way James Montgomery Boice puts it in his commentary on this passage when he says, "We notice that it was not in forgetfulness of who He was and where He was going, then, that Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, but rather in full consciousness of it. It was not that He forgot that He was God and so humbled Himself. It was because He was God and wished to act as God that He did it."

This is the Creator; God in the flesh who is washing these men’s feet. And by the way, let me add that in those days it was not uncommon for people to wash the feet of other people. It was courtesy that was extended because there were no paved roads for the most part and as we’ve seen on the news recently in Iraq, there was dust everywhere.

Most people wore sandal type covering for their feet which was really no covering at all. And so, to walk down the street and enter someone’s house your feet would have been filthy. And so, out of courtesy the servant of the house, or the children would wash the feet of the adults.

The lesser would wash the greater. I find it interesting that up to this point no one has washed the feet of the disciples, let alone Christ’s. None of them seem to have humbled themselves for each other. And there may be a specific reason for this. You see, the disciples would have had no problem in washing the feet of Jesus. He was the Master.

But to wash each other’s feet would admit that one might be lesser than the next. You might remember that it was only a few weeks or possibly days before the event we have before us in our text that the disciples got into an argument. And guess what the argument was about? It was about which of them would be greatest in the kingdom.

LUK 9:46 An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest.
47 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him.
48 Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all - he is the greatest."

Well, evidently this argument carried on right into this last supper here because we’re told that at the end of the supper this argument broke out again.

LUK 22:20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
21 But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table.
22 The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him."
23 They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.
24 Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.

They couldn’t get past the idea that they had to be some special person high and lifted up since Jesus chose them to be a part of His Kingdom. And this argument broke out after He had washed their feet and clearly was teaching them that they must be servants to be the greatest in the Kingdom of God.

Well, anyhow, Jesus knowing that they will not wash each other’s feet in our text because of their attitudes toward one another takes the initiative as He gets ready to meet their immediate need before eating their food.

JOH 13:4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Now, you’ve got to picture this. They all know that it was the courteous thing to do to wash their feet before the meal and yet they weren’t willing to wash their own feet and they certainly weren’t going to wash their fellow brethren’s feet.

All of a sudden before they actually begin to dig in to the food Jesus gets up from the meal. And I’m sure this puzzled look comes over them especially when he begins to undress. He takes off His outer clothing. This would have been a one piece type of tunic which hung over His shoulders down to the ground.

Underneath of this tunic would have been a closer fitting garment which wrapped around the waist and was tied between the legs. It would be the equivalent of someone in our culture taking off their pants and walking around in their underwear. Have you got the picture of what Jesus has just done?

But then He takes a towel and wraps it around His waist. And each of these disciples would have known at this moment that Jesus was dressed as a servant to do servant’s work.

None of them were willing to do this, but their Master was. And now, He takes a basin and puts water in it and moves to the first disciple and bends down to the amazement of these men as He motions for the first one to give Him his foot. He then cradles the man’s foot in His hand and brings the water up to it and pours it over the foot as He moves His hand in a scrubbing motion on the top and bottom of the foot to remove the dirt.

After Jesus washes the first man’s feet He takes the towel which He has girded around His waist and then gently dries the feet off. And then He moves to the next man until He finally comes to Peter. And next week we’ll look at Peter’s response and our Lord’s rebuke of that response.

But suffice it to say that the body of Christ over the years has unfortunately taken on more of a country club approach to where people who come in to the church are more concerned with what they can get out of the church rather than how they might be servants in the body of Christ.

The idea of being a servant may not appeal to people, but it sure appeals to God. And I think we would all do well to consider how we might please God more often.

It’s not a coincidence that one of the most blessed and powerful men in all of church history didn’t consider himself as some sort of superstar, or celebrity whom everyone must recognize as such. In fact, he saw himself as a slave. I of course am referring to the apostle Paul.

In most of his letters addressed to the church he began them in a similar way as he does with the Romans for example.

ROM 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God -

The Greek word for servant is doulos which means a slave. You see Paul understood that once Christ brought him from the darkness to the light of the glorious gospel of salvation found in the Messiah, he knew that he no longer belonged to himself.

He was now the slave or servant of the Master, Jesus Christ, who purchased him with His blood.

Paul knew that he belonged to Christ and therefore gloried in being able to serve Christ as he served the body of Christ. In other words, he delighted to be a slave to Christ rather than a king of the world where he would be doomed.

I’ll end with this thought from Paul which actually characterized his entire life because of his gratitude toward his Savior, Jesus Christ who demonstrated this attitude toward the world.

PHI 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

May we as His children and servants declare Him Lord with lives of love and obedience.

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