People of the Towel
John 13:12-20
It was turning out to be a bad night at the Marin County shelter for the homeless in San Rafael, California. With rain pouring down and a temperature in the 40s, the gym-sized armory was nearing its capacity of 125 people. All the cots and sleeping mats had been assigned, but people were still coming. In no time there were complaints about the shortage.
Rodney Roberson was working at the shelter as a full-time counselor and like most of the staff, he was white. Soon some of the homeless blacks and Latinos started accusing them of racial favoritism. When the arguments started, Rodney knew they were in trouble. The armory echoed with shouts and profanity. Some of the street people were trying to take sleeping mats away from others.
In the midst of all this, a Latino man named Jose, who had received one of the last sleeping mats, made his bed in the middle of the armory. He threw down his mat, fell on it, removed his tattered boots and collapsed in a drunken stupor.
The stench of Jose’s feet filled the air. The street people, ordinarily not picky about odors, now began to raise a ruckus. The obvious solution was to persuade Jose to take a shower, but when they tried to wake him, it was no use. He was breathing, but nothing would rouse him.
They discussed carrying him to the shower, but he weighed more than 200 pounds, deadweight, and they could hardly move him. When someone suggested they drag him back out to the sidewalk, a howl of protest came from the other Latinos.
Rodney prayed in desperation, “God, how am I supposed to handle this situation? I don’t know what to do!” Only a few nights earlier one of his fellow workers had been attacked and choked. Then a thought occurred to him: “If we can’t get Jose into the shower, maybe we can bring the shower to him.”
They didn’t have a washbasin, but in the kitchen he found a large bowl and some lemon-scented dishwashing liquid. Armed with a washcloth, towel and the bowl full of warm soapy water, Rodney headed back toward Jose. From all over the armory, stares of anger and suspicion followed him.
Back at Jose’s mat, he knelt and began to remove his filthy socks. They were soggy on the bottom but dried to cardboard stiffness on top. Rodney finally managed to tug them off, leaving the weave of the fabric imprinted on Jose’s skin. The stench would have been overwhelming if it had not been for the scent of the lemon bubbles in the bowl. It took some persuasion, but one of the men who helped with the mats finally agreed to throw the socks away and take Jose’s boots outside to air.
Then Rodney went to work with the lemon soap and washcloth. For several minutes he carefully cleaned Jose’s calves and ankles, feet and toes. In no time the water was black. He took the towel and dried the area, then, still on his knees, turned to pick up the bowl. As he did, he saw a forest of legs and knees surrounding him. Slowly, warily, he stood up. His eyes came to rest on the face of one of the black men who had been protesting the loudest. And he was grinning! Rodney had never seen him smile before! He looked from face to face and was stunned. Everyone was smiling — men and women of all races.
The words of Jesus in Matthew 20:26-27 seemed to come alive that night – “Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave.”
The highest title in the kingdom of God is not chairman, or pastor, or president—it’s servant. Because that is the role your Master chose, the Ruler of the galaxies, the Prince of glory, the One who washes dirty feet, touches those no one will touch, loves those who can ruin His reputation, lays down His life for those who have no use for Him.
As we come to our text beginning in John 13:12, Jesus has just washed the feet of His apostles. It was a demonstration of His love (John 13:1). The act of washing the disciples’ feet was representative of everything Jesus had done in His life. It was a parable in action. He laid aside His garments (leaving the spiritual glory of heaven); He girded Himself with a towel as a servant (coming to earth and taking on the form of a man); He washed His disciples’ feet (provided cleansing from sin by His death); He put back on His garments (being raised from the dead); and He sat down (ascending to the right hand of the Father in heaven).
Now Jesus is going to teach the disciples what they are to learn from this amazing act of serving love because He not only wants them to see Him as a servant (a man of the towel), Jesus also wants them to become a people of the towel.
Listen to the teaching of Jesus as He explains what He has done and what He expects His followers to do, John 13:12-20,
12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
18 I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.’19 Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He. 20 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
Jesus begins His teaching about the foot-washing with a question, “Do you know what I have done to you?” (John 13:12). The question shows that what Jesus has done is far more than just cleaning the disciples’ dirty feet. The point is more than just the washing of feet. Otherwise, this question is unnecessary. They all knew what Jesus had done. He wants them to grasp the meaning of what He has done. They need to understand the meaning of what He has done because He will instruct them “to wash one another’s feet,” (John 13:14). He says that they should follow Him (John 13:15), “For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”
That raises some questions for us to consider today: What does Jesus mean when He says, “to wash one another’s feet”? How do we do it? And, why should we do it?
1. What does it mean to wash one another’s feet?
Some churches take Jesus’ words literally by conducting a foot-washing service. I have no argument against those who want to take the Lord’s words literally and do literal foot-washing. There’s nothing wrong with having such a ceremony, but I don’t believe that is what Jesus was instructing us to do. Jesus does not simply say that we should do what He has done, but that we should do as He has done. The washing of the disciples’ feet is an example to be followed, and not just as an act to imitate as a ritual.
So what kind of example did Jesus set for us? What does the foot-washing mean? What kind of service is He asking us to do?
(I am indebted to Steven Cole for this part of the outline)
When we wash one another’s feet,
A. It is a ministry of forgiveness.
As we saw last time in John 13:7-11, foot-washing illustrates a truth about holiness. Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet pictured the relational forgiveness between each of them and Himself. Those who believe in Jesus Christ for salvation are like those who have taken a bathe and are “completely clean” (John 13:10). But even those who are bathed need a daily cleansing of the feet. We still need a spiritual foot-washing from the Lord every day.
If we are to know the joy of close fellowship with Christ then we need to continually apply 1 John 1:7, “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This refers to a repeated application of God’s once-and-for-all forgiveness to our ongoing sins. We apply that forgiveness and cleansing from sin as we confess our sins. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Now, if that is one thing that foot-washing symbolizes, what then does it mean to wash one another’s feet? It must mean that we also should forgive one another.
Ephesians 4:32 commands, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Because we have been freely forgiven by God in Christ Jesus, we must be forgiving toward one another. In that way we symbolically “wash their feet.”
And notice that Jesus washed the feet of those who did not deserve it. Here they were, those who would desert Him, who would deny Him, who would betray Him, and Jesus washed the feet of all. We must forgive one another from the heart (Matthew 18:35). When you forgive, you wash the feet of those who have wronged you.
It is a ministry of forgiveness. Secondly, when we wash one another’s feet,
B. It is a ministry of cleansing.
Jesus washed His disciples’ feet as an act of love (John 13:1, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end). In Ephesians 5, Paul talks about how Christ “loved the church and gave Himself for her,” (Eph. 5:25), in order “that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,” (Eph. 5:26).
How many of you know that the word of Christ has a cleansing effect on you? Psalm 119:9 says, “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.” When we share the Word with one another, we help each other wash off the sin and crud of this world.
But as H.A. Ironside pointed out, when you wash someone’s feet with the water of the Word, make sure that the temperature is right! Some go with boiling hot water. They are so angry, so upset, that they come to the other person and say, “Here, stick your feet in here!” It usually does more harm than good to go with scalding water. Some go to the other extreme and come with ice water. They are so righteously holier-than-thou, so above it all. They come with this frigid, freezing water and they want to wash your feet. Not very loving, is it? And some, unfortunately, try to do it without water at all! They come try to scrape your feet clean without any water. Have you ever had anyone do that to you? They come and give you a piece of their mind, just tear into you. What they say may be true, but there is no water of God’s Word and no love in it.
So Paul exhorts us (Galatians 6:1-2), “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
It is a ministry of cleansing. And when we wash one another’s feet,
C. It is a ministry of refreshment.
In those days, when you came in off the dusty roads with dirty feet, it was refreshing to get them washed. In Luke 7 Jesus was invited to a dinner in the house of Simon the Pharisee. A sinful woman interrupted meal when weeping she brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, washed Jesus feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, and anointed His feet with the oil. When the Pharisees objected Jesus said to Simon (Luke 7:44-46), “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.”
Out of love, this woman brought the needed refreshment to Jesus that Simon had neglected. Washing feet is a ministry of refreshing. In 1 Corinthians, Paul mentions three men who had come to him from the Corinthian church. He adds (1 Cor. 16:18), “For they refreshed my spirit and yours.” He tells Philemon (1:7), “For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother.” Have you ever known someone like that?
It is a refreshing ministry of hospitality. When Paul is giving qualification of those widows who are deserving of honor (1 Tim 5:10), He says to support and honor her if she is “well reported for good works: if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work,” (1 Tim 5:10). Paul reminds us in Romans 12:13 to be those who are “distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.”
So, washing one another’s feet is a ministry of forgiveness, cleansing, and refreshment. But most importantly when we washing one another’s feet,
D. It is a ministry of humility.
Jesus asks them, “Do you know what I have done to you?” And knowing that they surely did not yet understand it, He explains the lesson to them by emphasizing His humble service.
13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
Jesus uses the foot-washing incident as an object lesson in humility. Jesus— our Lord and Master—never set Himself above serving us. In fact He said in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” And in serving as He did, He forever established our pattern to one another. He was saying to them, in essence, “You’ve been arguing and pouting over which of you is the most important, the most prominent; but I’ve just now shown you what a disciple’s attitude ought to be. Just as I have humbled Myself and taken the servant’s role in washing your feet, so you ought to have that same attitude toward one another.”
Humility is one of God’s primary prerequisites for His richest blessings. D. L. Moody once said, “If we only get down low enough, God will use us to his glory.” Another time Moody said, “The measure of a man is not how many servants he has, but how many he serves.” Allan Moseley said, “In the kingdom of God, the way up is down.”
By giving that object lesson in humility, Jesus was–by clear implication–warning us against the sin of pride. Peter’s initial refusing to be washed by Jesus looked like humility, but it was simply another face of pride. It embarrassed him to think of Jesus washing his feet. It would have served Peter’s pride much more if he had washed Jesus’ feet. Yes, we can even have sinful pride about our humility.
In C.S. Lewis’ classic, The Screwtape Letters the senior demon writes to his subordinate demon about how to tempt a Christian he has been charged with, “Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility.”
Peter learned the lesson well. So he encourages us in 1 Peter 5:5 writing, “Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.””
That is what it means to washing one another’s feet.
This brings us to :
2. How do we wash one another’s feet?
Here is the simple answer to which I have just alluded: We wash one another’s feet by being humble servants of Christ.
In verse 16, Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.” Clearly, Jesus is the master (this is the word κύριος, “Lord,” John 13:13, 14, 16). He is so much greater than us we can hardly even comprehend His majesty. Paul writes in Colossians 1:15-18
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
He is the Lord, the Master. We are His servants, His δοῦλος, bond-slaves. He gives the commands and we are to obey without questioning or grumbling. No task was beneath a slave’s dignity to do.
So here Jesus states (John 13:17), “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” “These things” refers back to the example and commandment that He has just given, that we are to wash one another’s feet. We are humbly to serve one another in ways that may be unpleasant to us. Foot washing is “dirty work,” work which required our Lord to “get His hands dirty.” Jesus did the menial job that no one else was willing to do. He met a need that no one else was willing to meet. It was not glamorous or profitable. Foot-washing is mundane, everyday, garden-variety service. When is the last time you did that for someone?
True foot-washing requires more than just doing it while you grumble under your breath. Servanthood in Christ requires doing it cheerfully and thankfully, out of love for Christ, who gave Himself on the cross for you. It’s all about your mindset and your motivation.
We don’t wash feet hoping that people will reciprocate or express their deep gratitude. Often they don’t. Jesus washed Judas’ feet, but he went out and betrayed Jesus. He washed Peter’s feet, but he denied Him that night. He washed Thomas’ feet, but he doubted Jesus’ resurrection. He washed all the disciples’ feet, but they all deserted Him and ran when He got arrested. Jesus served humbly.
If you humbly serve Christ in any capacity, I can guarantee that you will not receive the appreciation you deserve from those you serve. In fact sometimes you will be criticized by others. So you have to keep your focus on your Master. It is the Lord Jesus you are serving. So serve humbly. It’s how Jesus served.
Graham Kendrick captured this a point beautifully in the verse,
Meekness and majesty, manhood and Deity,
In perfect harmony, the Man who is God.
Lord of eternity, dwells in humanity;
Kneels in humility and washes our feet.
Oh what a mystery,
meekness and majesty
Bow down and worship,
for this is your God.
3. Why should we wash one another’s feet?
Jesus said (John 13:14), “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” In other words, because Jesus has cleansed your sins, because He is the Lord of all, and because He is the Teacher from whom you learn how to live, you serve others in love because He commanded you to do so. Your salvation is the reason why you serve Jesus Christ. He bought me with His blood. Now I am His slave.
But notice in John 13:18, Jesus makes an exception for His commandment, “I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.’” Jesus quotes from Psalm 41:9 referring to Judas. Although Jesus had chosen Judas as an apostle, Judas had never submitted to Jesus as Lord. He had heard His teaching and seen His miracles. He had preached to others about Jesus. He even had his feet washed outwardly. But Judas wasn’t clean all over (John 13:10). Jesus hadn’t cleansed Judas inwardly. So Jesus warns the other disciples of Judas’ defection in advance so that it wouldn’t shake their faith (John 13:19-20):
“19 Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He. 20 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
Jesus is saying, “Don’t despair when Judas betrays Me and I am crucified. Remember that I told you this in advance. Keep believing that I am He (John 14:19). You will be My ambassadors and whoever receives you receives Me; and “he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me” (John 13:20).
But Judas’ example is a warning: You can be closely associated with Jesus and His followers and you can even serve in ministry, and yet you’ve never had Jesus cleanse your sins. You’ve never come to Him with your dirty heart and said, “Lord, I need You to wash me! I trust in You as God in human flesh who died on the cross for my sins.” He is not your Lord and your Teacher. The only basis for serving Christ is to know that He, your Lord and Teacher, has truly washed your feet.
Has Jesus washed your feet?
If so, are you washing the feet of others?
Are we people of the towel?
