Also My Hands and My Head

 

“Peter said to Him, ‘Never shall You wash my feet!’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part in Me.’ Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.’” John 13:8 – 9.

 

Are there times when we refuse to receive the ministry of Jesus Christ because it makes no sense to us? Are there times we gloss over Scripture because it is, we think, not practical or because it does not conform to our thinking and practice? Are there times we insist on adding to Christ’s ministry – that is, times when we insist on supplementing the things of the Spirit of God with our own common-sense approach to religion?

 

For his part, Peter stands in judgment on Jesus in two respects. First, he judges the action of Jesus in washing feet, that is, Peter superimposes his own image on Jesus of who Jesus is and how Jesus ought to act – Peter knows better than Jesus, just as Peter knew better than Jesus in Matthew 16:21-23 when Peter attempted to correct Jesus’ thinking about going to the Cross.

 

Then Peter decides that if he must allow Jesus to wash his feet, that Jesus ought to also wash Peter’s hands and head. First Peter wants to detract from what Jesus is doing, “Never shall you wash my feet!” Then Peter wants to add to what Jesus is doing, “…my hands and my head.”

 

Since Jesus Christ is the Word of God (John 1:1- 3), we can say that in our passage we see Peter sitting in judgment on the Word of God – and is this not what we do, is this not our tendency?

 

Someone recently sent me a Bible study lesson his small group is using, the passage is Matthew 15:21 – 28, the story of the Canaanite woman beseeching Jesus to deliver her daughter from the demonic. In response to the woman’s plea, “Lord, help me!” Jesus says, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Does Jesus’ response not take us aback?

 

The lesson material that was sent to me stands in judgment of Jesus, and its position is that “Jesus is still learning, he is still maturing, he is still progressing – just as God is still learning and growing.” That is, a more mature Jesus would not have spoken to the woman in such a harsh manner.

 

Leaving aside the moral, spiritual, metaphysical, and ethical chaos that is embedded in such thinking, here is an example of sitting in judgment on the Word of God – the Person of Jesus Christ and the Scripture of Jesus Christ. When we don’t understand something in the Bible we want to sit in judgment on it. I have seen this time and time again in small groups, in Sunday schools, in conversations with professing Christians, in commentaries, and in preaching.

 

We want to control Scripture; we do not want Scripture to control us. We want to judge Scripture; we do not want Scripture to judge us. How often do we want to transform Scripture into our image, rather than allow Scripture to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ? This is true of those who profess a high view of Scripture just as it is true of those who do not hold to a high view. Often those who shout Sola Scriptura! are just as judgmental of Scripture as those who make no pretensions to seeing Scripture as God breathed.

 

Our call is to seek Jesus Christ in Scripture, to submit to God’s Word, and to obey God’s Word. In God’s Word we will find communion, koinonia, with Him. In God’s Word we will partake of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4). In Christ, Scripture becomes Heavenly Manna; from the Rock of Scripture, we drink Living Water.

 

“He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean…” (John 13:10a).

 

What does Jesus mean, “but you are clean”?

 

As we think about this, let us consider that Jesus’ view of His followers is not what we would likely anticipate – after all, they are soon going to desert Him and one is going to vehemently deny Him, then they are going to hide in a locked room out of fear. And yet Jesus says, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” (John 17:6).

 

Jesus continues, “Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” (John 17:7 – 8).

 

How can Jesus say these things to the Father, knowing that within minutes these same men will desert Him and deny Him?

 

What can we learn from what Jesus is saying?

 

Perhaps Jesus says these things because Jesus sees the end from the beginning, and let’s remember that Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Jesus sees His accomplished and perfected work in the lives of His People, in you and in me…in us. Jesus sees us complete and perfected in Him (Colossians 2:10; Hebrews 10:10), we are the “joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2). I write “perhaps” for how can I possibly understand these things? We may get glimpses, but I fear to be presumptuous – I am still a child in many respects…too many respects I imagine.

 

What can we learn? At the least we can learn that we do not see things as Jesus sees things, God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8 – 9), and while we can learn to “see” the unseen rather than the seen, to focus on the eternal and not the temporal (2 Cor. 4:18; 5:7; Hebrews Chapter 11), I think this pilgrimage of “seeing” is just that, a pilgrimage…at least (hopefully) for most of us…always learning to “see” just a little bit better.

 

Jesus was not overlooking what was about to happen, but He was seeing that His work and grace in these men was far greater than their desertion and denial and fear – and isn’t that the way we should learn to see one another? Is there not a Treasure within us that transcends our foolishness and meanness and pettiness and sin? Do we not belong to Jesus?

 

Does not Christ live within us? (John 14:23; Gal. 2:20; Col. 1:27).

 

 

Not Understanding Everything

  

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” John 13:7.

 

What does Jesus mean? What does His washing of the disciples’ feet mean? What is the message Jesus is portraying?

 

Could it be that our familiarity with this passage blinds us to the possibilities of its meaning? Could it be that its meaning is not as straightforward as we may think?

 

When we ask, “What is the meaning behind Jesus washing the disciples’ feet?” it is well and good to begin our answer with what Jesus says in John 13:13 – 17:

 

“You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

 

Does Jesus tell us the meaning of what He is doing in verses 13 – 17? He tells us that we ought to follow His example by washing one another’s feet, He tells us that we should do so because He is our Lord and Teacher and Master and that we should therefore do as He does – but is Jesus telling us the meaning of what He is doing?

 

Consider what Jesus says to Peter, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will realize hereafter.” Now then, what about the idea “hereafter”? Does this mean “After I’ve washed your feet you will understand”? Does it mean after the Resurrection? After Pentecost? Might it mean “after a while”? If it means “after a while” does it mean a short while or a good long while?

 

Also, when we look at Jesus and feet washing, do we limit our vision to John 13:5 – 20? Is this a standalone scene that contains its own interpretation within it? That is, do we need context for this passage? Do we need the interplay of other Scripture to begin to “see” this passage? Do we need the unfolding of John chapters 13 – 17? Do we need the entire Gospel of John? Do we need the entire Bible to plumb the depths of Jesus and feet washing?

 

And, if we do indeed need expanding context for seeing this passage, then can we not say that Jesus washing the disciples’ feet contains more than meets the natural eye? Perhaps feet washing contains more than we think it does? After all, Jesus does say to Peter, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.”

 

We know from Luke 22:24 – 27 that the apostles (sensitive and perceptive boys that they were!) got into a dispute in the Upper Room about which of them was the greatest, and that Jesus once again spoke to them about greatness and leadership in the Kingdom.

 

“For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.” (Luke 22:27; see also Matthew 20:20 – 28).

 

Jesus has just served the Bread and the Cup, or as some friends would point out in Luke’s account, He has just served two cups and bread. Jesus is pointing to what He has just done, serving the bread and wine, as an example of leadership in the Kingdom. Jesus is not saying, “What I have just done you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” Far from it, Jesus is, in effect, saying, “Do you see how I have just served you? Well then, serve one another in the same way.”

 

(Now I want to point out that there is still more than meets the natural eye in Luke 22:24 – 27, and there are elements in it that the disciples cannot possibly see until later – nor can we unless we grow in Him together. For as Jesus gave Himself for us, we are to give ourselves for one another (1 John 3:16). As Chambers said, we are to be broken bread and poured out wine for others. Our life with one another, in Christ, is sacred and sacramental.)

 

One of the things I am saying is that Jesus’ washing of feet is more than an example of servant leadership, that it has more meaning than as a demonstration of what Jesus is saying in Luke 22:24 – 27. After all, Jesus says, “…you will understand hereafter.”

 

And then we have John 13:10, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”

 

If we read the washing of feet simply as an example of servant leadership, we gloss over John 13:10. (We also gloss over “you will understand hereafter.”) What is the bathing that Jesus speaks of? What does Jesus mean, “….and you are clean…”? What does “clean” mean? And whatever “clean” means, it means that we ought to be participating in not only receiving cleansing, but also in providing cleansing – for does not Jesus say, “You also ought to wash one another’s feet”?

 

Certainly Jesus is speaking of more than natural water and physical feet – just as there is more in Luke 22 than natural bread and wine.

 

And consider the similarity between the Bread and the Cup and the Feet Washing, we receive both from Jesus Christ and we serve both to others in Jesus Christ. That is, we sacramentally receive Christ, and we sacramentally give Christ.

 

Sometimes we just don’t understand everything, perhaps most times we don’t understand everything…but perhaps that’s a good and liberating realization…for then we can get excited about more of Jesus Christ – our Bread from Heaven.

 

To be continued…