1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
Jesus knew that this was the point in his life where everything was coming to a climax. It isn’t by coincidence that the time was just before the Passover. The Passover pointed or foreshadowed the events that would soon be happening to Jesus. Jesus knew exactly what the Passover represented. It was the time when God saved the people out of Egypt by killing the firstborn of Egypt. “At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock” (Ex 12:29 ESV). However, the people of Israel were saved because they had followed the Lord’s instruction and had killed their Passover lambs and spread the blood over their doors. Jesus knew that this was a picture of his death on the cross to save us from our sins and God’s wrath.
Jesus knew that his death was real. It wasn’t going to be sleight of hand that would make it look like he died. He knew that because he was going to depart from this world and be with the Father. Death is a departure from one realm to another. It is passing from the physical to the spiritual. We need to remember this for ourselves. Though Jesus still has a physical body, that body is well beyond what he had on earth. When we die, we will also go to the Father. We can’t go to him in our current physical bodies. They must be transformed to be like Jesus’ body, not exactly because he is still God in the flesh. But the point should be clear. Death is our transition from this world to the spiritual and we will be with the Father.
Facing this transition, Jesus loved his own. This doesn’t say that he loved everyone, it says he loved his own. I hear this from preachers or read about it almost weekly. God loves you unconditionally. The you is everyone that they are preaching to or writing to. They don’t discriminate between the saved, the ones who will be saved, or the lost. There is a big condition to Jesus’ love. His love is for his own. Of course, at some point in the lives of those who belong to Jesus, they will turn to him for salvation. But what about those who are not chosen, who are not elect? Does God/Jesus love them to the end or unconditionally?
I think of the rich ruler who asked Jesus what he must do to be saved in Mark 10:17-22. When he claimed to have kept all the commandments, the text says Jesus looked at him and loved him. It was evident that this man didn’t follow Jesus at that time. Did he come later or did this love that Jesus had for him express something different than the love he has for his own? Based on this and other verses that express God’s love for humanity, we can say that God loves everyone but he doesn’t love them in the same way that he loves those whom he foreknew (loved intimately) and are called to be conformed to the image of Jesus (Rom 8:29).
In the next few verses, we will see how Jesus expressed his love toward Judas. We will also see that the end may not mean the end of Jesus’ life, but the end when Judas departed.
2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him,
Supper was over. This is important to understand that they had eaten the Passover meal, but Jesus had not yet established the New Covenant. The most important aspect of the night was yet to come.
The devil is Satan. In this passage it is clear that John wasn’t speaking of an ordinary demon (if you can call any demon ordinary). He is speaking specifically about Satan. In verse 27, Satan is identified as entering Judas. However, this is the starting point. The devil puts a suggestion into the heart or mind of a person. Later, that thought turns into possession where it appears that a person doesn’t have a free will but must do as Satan directs. Because there is so much contradictory beliefs about what Satan can and can’t do, I wrote a booklet about Satan and Christians doing battle against him. I state the following in the preface:
I’ve written this booklet about Satan and how to deal with satanic forces because Satan has tricked many people into believing he isn’t as powerful as he is. He wants to stay under the radar so that he can continue to deceive the world and Christians. However, this in no way implies that he is omnipotent, omniscient, or worthy of our worship or adoration (from Battling Satan with the Armor of God).
Since this subject is too large to explore here, I will leave it up to you to get the book from Amazon and study how Satan works or doesn’t in the lives of Christians.
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
The introduction to these verses indicates that Jesus has a full comprehension of who he is and what is about to happen. Does he know this because he is omniscient or are we seeing Jesus’ human nature? It’s hard to tell at this point. After all, Jesus’ knowledge of Scripture could have fully informed him of this. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit must have also been at work illuminating the Scripture. This is one of the deep mysteries of the incarnation. We will never know exactly how Jesus knows these things from a human perspective or divine perspective. It just brings back the sheer inability of us to fathom how God is in and works through Jesus. And we are being told this only because John is narrating what he learned from Jesus after the fact.
Jesus is in essence demonstrating to us what he did when he came to the earth. He laid aside is outer garment (“But emptied himself”) took up a towel and washed the disciples’ feet (“By taking the form of a servant” Phil 2:7). There is much debate about what Jesus did when he took on human flesh. Some say he voided himself of his deity but that would mean he was no longer God and that is impossible. Some say that he willingly relinquished his right to use his power and that makes more sense. Yet being the Son of God, Paul tells us that “In him all things hold together” (Col 1:17). From a Trinitarian viewpoint, even though Jesus is the God-man, his divine nature continued to do what he did from the beginning of creation. If that doesn’t blow your mind, then the sheer demonstration of Jesus washing his disciple’s feet should point to how absurd we think it would be for the King of the Universe to wash sinner’s feet. Yet he did it.
The disciples watched as Jesus poured the water into a basin. They must have wondered what Jesus was doing. Like the prophets of old, they sometimes did some outlandish things to get the attention of the people and convey the Lord’s message. Aware of this, the disciples were watching and trying to interpret what Jesus was teaching them. Then suddenly, he starts washing their feet!
In Pakistan, I was in a crowded room with many younger men sitting on whatever was available. A drink was splashed on the shoes of a person across from me and I reached down to wipe it off. Before I could touch his shoe, my host’s hand stopped me. He told me in no uncertain terms that an elder (me) never touches the feet of a younger man. I can identify with the shock that the disciples must have felt as tradition and customs were thrown out the window.
6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, "Lord, are You washing my feet?" 7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this." 8 Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!"
Leave it to Peter. He wasn’t going to let traditions be thrown out the window. He protested and from every worldly perspective he should have. It’s a wonder that the previous disciples didn’t protest. Even after Jesus reassured him that this was a teaching moment, Peter protested.
God is at work in our lives at every moment of every day. If we count our blessings each day, we will see that he condescends to take care of us in a myriad of ways. Do we protest that the sovereign God of the Universe stoops to make sure our blood is circulating, our lungs are working, that we have what we need to bring glory and honor to him? Yet these things pale in comparison to what Jesus did when he gave up everything in heaven to come and die for us. Yet people protest and say that they need to do something to add to what Jesus has done. Or worse, they believe that God accepts them based on their own merits and goodness. We will only understand the fullness of what Jesus has done for us when we see him face to face.
8b Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." 9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!"
Peter’s reaction to Jesus’ reply is appropriate. If we were told that we would have no part with Jesus unless we had to let him do something for us, we should react the same. In fact, we are told exactly this when we are told we must trust in Jesus alone for our salvation. We have no part in Jesus if we think we bring anything to our salvation other than the faith that Jesus give us.
What is more important than having a part with Jesus. What is more important than knowing him? How would you react if Jesus suddenly showed up and said you no longer belonged to him? There could be no more grievous blow to our hearts than to contemplate alienation from Jesus. Peter is going all in to be with Jesus. Remember he is in the upper room, a place of safety and separation from the world. His resolve hasn’t been tested yet. Maybe, ours needs to be tested as well.
10 Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you." 11 For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, "You are not all clean."
Only Jesus can tell someone he is completely clean. This is the assurance that can be applied to everyone who has been born again. Everyone whom the Holy Spirit has regenerated is completely clean. We don’t do it, God does it. Yet, in this world we still sin. This is such a great picture of what it means to be a believer in Jesus. We are washed and have dirty feet, but we are completely clean in God’s sight. We are both saved and sinner. So we need to keep short accounts with the Lord. Confession and cleansing is what 1 John 1:9 is all about.
So here we are in the world, sanctified and being sanctified. All around us are people. Some are in the same condition as we were, yet not everyone is born again. Not everyone is sanctified. Some around us are still dirty and need a bath (we aren’t talking about baptism here). We don’t know who they are, but Jesus does. In essence, everyone who rejects Jesus as Lord and Savior are the ones who betray him. Our job is to offer the gift of eternal life to them.
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