John 13:3-7 NASB95
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, [4] got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. [5] Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. [6] So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” [7] Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.”
John was 95 years old when he wrote his gospel. Matthew Mark and Luke had been written many years earlier. Mark is considered Peter’s gospel, but it is fascinating to me that this story of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet, and especially the dialogue between Christ and Peter is not recorded in the Gospel of Mark.
When it was Peter’s turn for Jesus to wash his feet, Peter was troubled about it. It was common at that time whenever a guest entered someone’s home, servants would wash the guest’s feet. It was a menial task performed by someone whose rank was lower than the one whose feet were being washed. Philippians 2:3 says, “.. With humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.” This is what Jesus was doing by washing the disciple’s feet, and it troubled Peter that his Lord would do such a thing. Jesus’s answer to Peter was that even though he did not understand at that moment what Jesus was doing, later he would understand
Symbolically, by washing their feet, Jesus was saying to them that there will be times when, though they were spiritually “clean” in Him, their “walk” with the Lord would need to be cleansed. Jesus knew there would be times when they would fall, and it would be important to them to appropriate forgiveness so they could he get up and keep walking. Within the next 24 hours of Jesus washing their feet, Peter would deny Him three times in great humiliation. He would understand at that point his deep need for mercy and the cleansing of his walk. Why was it important to John to tell this story about Jesus and Peter? You have to remember that John referred to himself as “The disciple whom Jesus is always loving.” Somewhere in John’s relationship with Christ, he had come to accept his belovedness, and I’m convinced that’s why the gospel of John is so unique. He simply saw things through a totally different lens of identity and reality. This is why John penned the most important theological statement ever made about God; “God is love,” and I believe that John felt it was his assignment to implore every Christian to embrace the fact that they too are “the disciple whom Jesus is always loving.” Revelation 1:5. John wanted others to know that even though God never wants us to fail, there are some things about God’s love that we will never understand until we have. Again, God never wants us to fail (it is never His will), but He is big enough, and His love is profound enough to transcend our failures and even redeem them. We are His Beloved, and nothing can change that. Later, after washing their feet, Jesus told Peter that Satan had obtained permission to sift him like wheat, but that Jesus would be praying for him that his faith wouldn’t fail, and when he turned again and started walking again, he would strengthen his brothers because Jesus knew that Peter would not be the last Christian to stumble. It is sometimes in the stumbling that we finally discover that we to our “The disciple whom Jesus is always loving.” A.W. Tozer was right when he said, “What you believe about God is the most important thing about you.”