The God who will Love You to the End and Wash Your Feet

—John 13 (Part 18)

Andrew Fountain – Feb 23, 2020

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John 13 – The Last Supper

Goal:

To sit with Jesus during these last hours
and to allow him to wash your feet

Overview

Intro
Three Short Stories
What it means to allow Jesus to wash your feet

Structure of John

1–12 ”Book of Signs”	13–21 ”Book of Glory”

John 1–12 “Book of Signs”

1 Prolog

Wedding

Nicodemus

Woman at well

Child healed

5 Sabbath Healing: Take up your bed and walk

Teaching: the Son gives life

6 Feeds 5000, I am the Bread of life
7 I am the Living Water (after walks on water)
8 I am the Light of the World

9 Sabbath Healing: Man born blind

10 Teaching: I am the good Shepherd

11 Lazarus raised from the dead

12 Epilog

John 13–21 “Book of Glory”

13 A meal with the disciples

14–17 New Teaching
from Jesus
to the disciples

18–20 Arrest
Crucifixion
Resurrection

21 A meal with the disciples

John 13. Three Stories at the Last Supper

Summary of “the Book of Glory” [1]
Washing the feet of the disciples [2–17]
“One of you will betray me” [18–30]
Peter boasts he’ll die for Jesus [31–38]

Summary of “the Book of Glory”

Just before the Passover Feast
Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father.
Having loved his own who were in the world,
to the end he loved them.

Could spend a whole sermon on just this.
One of the deepest needs of human beings is to be attached
In ancient societies, if you were not attached, you didn’t survive
Babies survival depends on deep commitment from their mothers
In old age, we also become very dependent
Sue Johnson, who started a revolution in marriage therapy, watched 1000’s of hours of video of couples arguing
Under the surface “Will you ultimately be there for me?”
Do you have people in your life who are so committed to you, they would be with you to the bitter end
- Nothing can shake their love for you.
This is the kind of love Jesus has for “his own”
- Can you take a moment to take that in?
One more thing: Imagine your grandmother is in a retirement home, and you visit her, and she is very frail.
- But she says, “don’t forget I am always there for your, whatever trouble you are in!”
- Is that comforting? (Yes and no)
Yesterday I was talking to a friend who had just got back from vacation.
- On the last day he was arrested on some pretext by a corrupt police and locked in a tiny cell with 30 other men.
- “If my brother had not known where I was, I don’t know what would have happened to me...”
But for the Son of God to say it!!! I will never, ever abandon you, no matter what it cost me
- Let’s just sit with this verse for a moment and take it in.

1. Washing the feet of the disciples [2–17]

Some context:

Dirty Feet

Many ancient Eastern streets must have been “unpaved, narrow, badly crowded,” and some “would have been choked with refuse and frequented” by dogs and other sources of excrement.

Keener, p.903

Shocking!

The footwashing was shocking to Jesus’ disciples, but not half as shocking as the notion of a Messiah who would die the hideous and shameful death of crucifiction, the death of the damned. But these two events—the footwashing and the crucifixion—are truly of a piece...

Carson, p.467

v.10 – A Difficult Verse

He came to Simon Peter who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus replied, “You do not understand what I am doing now, but you will understand after these things.”
Peter said to him, “You will never ever wash my feet!”
Jesus replied, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”
Jesus replied, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you disciples are clean…

How do we allow Jesus to wash our feet and this is going to be one of the key take-aways today
- A top up?
- It is about the act of receiving
- We come to him when we are filthy, and don’t hide in shame, but allow him to wash it
- I’ll return to this at the end.

2. “One of you will betray me” [18–30]

Jesus distressed!
Such a shock!!!
What does that mean?

My response to this is just to sit with what it was like for Jesus
- Jesus had just washed Judas’ feet!!
There, all along
Why make Jesus go through with this?
One of the worst of human experiences: Abandoned and turned against by those whom you trust!
Has that ever happened to you?
John was there—he saw what it was like for Jesus.
- He recorded it because we need to know
But actually all of them did in the end.
Let’s just sit with Jesus for a moment and take in what this betrayal was like for him.

3. Peter boasts he’ll die for Jesus [31–38]

Look at the shape—a preview of the next 4 chapters
the context of Jesus’ leaving, and something NEW beginning (He’ll talk about the Spirit)
- The central place of the New Commandment
Now a return to Peter
To really get this, we have to go back to the foot-washing:
- We come to him when we are filthy, and don’t hide in shame, but allow him to wash it
Parallels with the closing chapter:
- Jesus serves them at a meal
- Calls them children
- Several other neat connections put in by John
- But most of all, it resolves Peter’s denial
Chapter 21: Peter experiences the shame, but is washed by Jesus

Allow Jesus to wash your feet

We come to him when we are filthy, and don’t hide in shame, but allow him to wash it

If you understand these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Sit with him in his broken-heart from betryal
Take in that if you are his, you will never, ever, ever be abandoned:
Having loved his own... to the end he loved them.