For Lent, one year, our worship committee planned to focus on a different name or title given to Jesus in scripture. When we read the story of Nicodemus, I was immediately drawn to Jesus as Savior, sent by God not to judge the world, but to save it. For Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, my sermon highlighted Jesus as king. When it came to the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, I first thought of Jesus as servant.
That’s definitely part of our reading for today, which tells the story of Jesus serving his disciples by washing their feet. In the world of the New Testament, foot washing was a daily practice. In that warm climate with the dusty dirt roads and dusty dirt pathways, where people wore sandals - without socks - it was customary for people to wash their feet whenever they entered a home, whether their own or someone else’s.
It was surprising - maybe even shocking - that Jesus, as the leader of the group, would wash his disciples’ feet. Leadership meant taking charge, not washing feet. Leadership meant giving orders, not kneeling down to serve others. Foot washing was a lowly task left mainly to servants. So yes, in this text, there is good reason to think immediately of Jesus as servant.
But that’s not how the reading starts. Instead of moving too quickly to Jesus as servant, our reading begins with Jesus as Lord. At the start of John 13, “Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father” (verse 1), and he knew “that the Father had given all things into his hands” (verse 3). Jesus knew he was the Lord with all things under his power. But instead of acting like some kind of celebrity and announcing his power with flashing lights and fireworks, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet to demonstrate what it meant for him to be Lord. This is the kind of Lord that Jesus was and is - not the one who lords it over his followers by trying to look and act superior. Instead, we might say that Jesus lords it under them.
Peter was so shocked that he blurted out, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” (verse 6). In the absence of servants, Peter would have expected to wash his own feet. In a group of disciples with their Teacher, one of the disciples might have washed Jesus’ feet. But how unseemly for the teacher and Lord of the group to wash everybody else’s feet!
Peter protested even more strongly: “You will never wash my feet” (verse 8). The force of the original Greek language here is conveyed by the New Living Translation: “you will never ever wash my feet!”
Jesus responded to Peter just as forcefully: “Unless I wash you, you will have no share with me” (verse 8). One day Peter would understand, but for now, he seemed satisfied to take Jesus at his word: “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (verse 9).
Peter wanted to belong to Jesus. Often impetuous, head-strong, talking before anyone else, interrupting even Jesus’ conversation with Moses and Elijah on the mountain top, Peter was a rushing-in-where-angels-fear- to-tread kind of guy. But when it came to following Jesus, Peter was all in. His later denial of Jesus would be all that more devastating, perhaps most of all to himself. At this point, Peter wanted to be completely covered.
Once again, Jesus corrected him: “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you” (verse 10). Jesus knew that Judas would betray him, yet still he washed the feet of Judas. Jesus knew that Peter would later deny him, yet still he washed Peter’s feet. He washed the feet of all the disciples even though he knew they would fall asleep when he asked them to keep watch, and they would all flee when he was arrested.
The gospel of John notes that Jesus “[h]aving loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (verse 1). There’s a double meaning here. How long did Jesus love his disciples? He loved them to the end — all the way to the cross, all the way to the end of his life and beyond. And in what way did Jesus love his disciples? He loved them to the end, or to the highest degree possible. I love you, and I wash your feet, even though you betray me and deny me and run away and leave me to die alone. That’s the great extent of Jesus’ love for his disciples, and the great extent of God’s love for us.
Our reading describes how Jesus “got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself” (verse 4). We might almost skip over these practical details, assuming that Jesus removed his outer robe and wrapped a towel around him, so he wouldn’t get his robe wet or dirty. But the word choice here is literally that Jesus “laid aside” his robe, and this same expression is used repeatedly when Jesus speaks about his coming death. “I am the good shepherd,” said Jesus, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). “I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15), “I lay down my life in order to take it up again” (John 10:17). “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.” (John 10:18). “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
This similarity in wording between Jesus’ laying aside his outer robe and laying down his life connected the two acts. Jesus washing his disciples’ feet was a sign of his coming death. So when Peter protested, “You will never wash my feet,” it was as if he refused to accept Jesus’ death. Peter seemed offended by the very idea that his teacher and lord would wash his feet. In much the same way, today some might be offended by the very idea of Jesus dying on a cross. How un-lord-like. How gruesome. How repulsive. We’d rather think of Jesus teaching or preaching or performing miracles or even serving, instead of dying.
But Jesus said to Peter, “Unless I wash you, you will have no share with me.” As a disciple of Jesus, Peter needed to accept Jesus washing his feet, and he needed to accept his death too. Accepting Jesus’ death is part of what it means for Jesus to be Lord: the one who saves us from sin and makes us clean, the one who transforms our lives. Peter didn’t get it at first. He wasn’t willing to accept Jesus as that kind of Lord in his life. He protested. He didn’t want Jesus to wash him clean. He wanted to tell Jesus what to do. But Peter had it backward.
We may or may not be quite as impetuous as Peter, but I wonder, do we sometimes protest as he did? Do we sometimes have things backward, where we want to tell God what to do and how to do it? Do we expect a celebrity Savior instead of a servant Lord? By washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus challenged Peter and challenges all of us. “For the son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
We call on you as teacher and Lord, and just like Peter, we think we know what that means. But you go on to surprise us again and again. As Lord of all, you took the role of servant to wash your disciples’ feet, to lay down your life for the world. Continue to teach us, continue to surprise us, as we follow in your way. Amen.