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. And supper being ended the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God. . .
John 13: 1-3
Jesus’ public ministry had come to an end. On Palm Sunday he triumphantly entered the Holy City, surrounded by an adoring crowd. Then-- that same fickle crowd would turn against Him. It was the Feast of the Passover. Jesus wanted to have this Last Supper with His disciples before His humiliation began. Nowhere else in the Bible do we see so clearly the heart of Jesus.
Jesus had no doubts about who He was (the only begotten Son of God), why He had come into the (to redeem the people that His Father had given to Him) or what was expected of Him (to die on the Cross for the sins of those people). He also knew that His Father would glorify Him (by raising Him up from the dead and placing all creation in His hands).
Look at this phrase again: “. . . having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” Jesus wants to convey a message to all of us for whom He was about to suffer. The Disciples were just like us, struggling to understand. They too had doubts. He was assuring us that He loves us as well. He knows we struggle. He knows we have doubts from time to time. He wants us to know that those things do not count against us. He loves us to the end.
On that evening, in that Upper Room, knowing that all power and glory were His -- and knowing the struggles of His Disciples -- what did Jesus do?
[He] got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. John 13: 4-5
Rather than holding a pep rally or rallying there spirits, He washed their feet.
Jesus knew that He had come from and was returning to God. His earthly ordeal was over. His time was immediately at hand. Human nature might dictate that react to that reality with denial or escapism. But -- He washed the disciples’ feet.
What Jesus knew and wanted His disciples to understand, is that no one is closer to God than when he is serving suffering humanity.
Remember this as well. He was about to be betrayed by one of is own. Human nature would dictate resentment, anger, bitter disappointment. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. . .including Judas’.
Pastor Jim
