Psalm 131:1 Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven ...

Sing before the service: Psalm 131:1
Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ through the
mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Psalm of praise: 103:2
Prayer
Psalm 25:9
Scripture reading: John 13
Scripture text: John 13:1, 15; Catechism Lord’s Day 51
It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come
for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who
were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. (John
13:1 NIV-UK)
I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John
13:15 NIV-UK)
Jesus Christ’s disciples were people just like us – with the same kind of weaknesses:
• Arrogance
• Malice
• Quarrelsome
Hence the Lord Jesus Christ delivered a touching sermon to them.
• Not the kind of sermon we are used to.
• In this sermon the Lord Jesus Christ also demonstrated how the principles of his sermon
should be put into practice.
The theme of his sermon: You must love your neighbour and make sacrifices reflecting your love.
It was the night before the crucifixion.
• Tension prevailed – the charged atmosphere was becoming more and more intense, because
it was a time of severe tension for the Lord Jesus Christ.
• But there was also tension in heaven.
• And also in hell.
For Satan the tension was surely the worst.
• This was going to be his final effort to annihilate the Lord Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
• He had already planned the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus.
• To make sure that he succeeded in destroying the Lord Jesus and that the disciples would not
be able to spread the gospel, he also tried in these final moments to annihilate the work of the
Lord Jesus.
• He wanted to utilise the human weaknesses and sins of the disciples to annihilate the Lord’s
work and his legacy.
Judas was also among the disciples.
• The devil had already persuaded him to hand Jesus over to the Sanhedrin.
• The Lord Jesus Christ knew all this.
o He also knew that He was going to die.
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o And He knew that it was going to be terrible – so much so that He would cry out that
even God had forsaken Him.
In this passage the apostle John emphasised the fact that Jesus had foreknowledge of everything
that was going to happen to Him.
• He did it with a reason, because he wants us to understand that whatever Jesus did during
that particular night had been planned in the finest detail.
• Nothing happened by chance.
o Everything was designed in detail.
o The Lord Jesus could go through the entire process of his crucifixion in one way only,
as well as confirming his legacy, because He knew beforehand what was coming.
This is where our Scripture text comes up. If we had foreknowledge of all this we would certainly
have tried to escape from it.
• But the Lord Jesus approached it differently.
• He loves us – and because of his love He wanted to free us from Satan and his power over
us.
Hence He bore the results of his love for us.
• Out of love for us He died.
• On this evening He was making the final preparations.
Look at this love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• This is not passive love.
• In the process of love the Lord Jesus is at work.
• He went to the cross because his love for us had driven Him there.
Let’s now have a look at the disciples.
• They could also sense that something important was going to happen.
• They must have realised that things were moving towards a culmination-point.
• But how did they respond?
They misunderstood it all, and everything that happened then they also handled in the wrong way.
• Apparently they were of the same opinion as the Jews in general, namely that the Lord Jesus
would be a Messiah who would free them from the Romans and make them world rulers.
Hence they were expecting the Lord Jesus to establish his kingdom right there.
• Everyone already envisaged a certain position for himself.
• Inevitably it resulted in a dispute as to who was considered to be the greatest.
• We read about it in the Gospel according to Luke (Luke 22:24):
Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.
The Lord Jesus did not take part in the conversation.
• He did not partake in the dispute.
• Then, suddenly, He wanted to teach them the answer to this point of dispute.
• He responded by washing their feet.
Let’s look at the background of this act. In those days people wore sandals.
• They had to walk to reach their destination – no other means of transport unless they had a
donkey.
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• This is why their feet were always quite dirty from sweat and dust.
• Also, their feet hurt after having walked some distance.
o This is probably why their host arranged to have their feet washed when they came to
visit.
o The host had a slave who was responsible for washing the guests’ feet.
Another reason for this custom was that people did not sit down at a table to eat.
• The “table” was set on a carpet or on a table with very short legs so that everything on the
table was within easy reach for the people lying on their sides next to the table.
• It would therefore be quite unpleasant to have your fellow guest’s dirty feet close to your face
while you were eating.
Now back to the night before the crucifixion.
• The Lord Jesus Christ was the Host at this meal – the last Passover that became the first Holy
Communion (Lord’s Supper).
• But He had no slave to wash the feet of his guests.
It was not a matter of course that the Lord Jesus Himself had to wash the feet of his guests.
• The custom was that, in the absence of a slave to do the job, the least among the guests had
to wash the others’ feet.
Let us again look at the disciples.
• None of them even considered to take the basin and wash the other disciples’ feet – not even
the Lord Jesus’ feet.
• Their point of dispute is also significant.
o It was about who was considered the greatest/most important/highest in rank among
them.
o It was not about who was the least or the most humble.
In this setting Jesus Christ, the Host of the meal, got up from the meal. Obviously they had already
started eating without having their feet washed!
• The Lord Jesus started washing everyone’s feet.
• He had taken off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel round his waist.
So the Lord Jesus Christ made Himself a slave.
This being a slave means two things to us.
• First it shows where we stand in relation to God.
• By his example of being a slave the Lord Jesus Christ requires you and me to love our
neighbour with a sacrificial love.
Do not, however, judge the disciples too harshly.
• They were just like we are – it could just as well have been you or me being present that
evening.
• That evening they – just like us so often – did not quite understand why the Lord Jesus Christ
had come to the earth and what exactly his kingdom implied.
When the Lord Jesus got up, poured water in the basin and washed their feet, He made them
understand that He loved his own so much that He Himself wanted to cleanse them.
• So clean that they could stop hating, being arrogant and stop quarrelling.
• So clean that they could join Him at his Holy Supper.
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• So clean that they would eventually join Him at his eternal banquet in heaven.
Hence the disciples received a place in the kingdom of heaven.
• However, not because they achieved it through their dispute,
• but because the Lord Jesus Christ had secured it for them.
• The place they received in the kingdom of God is not where they thought it would be.
The disciples did not understand it and this is why Peter said,
No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet. (John 13:8 NIV-UK)
Then the Lord Jesus answered Peter:
Jesus answered, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.
(John 13:8 NIV-UK)
The Lord Jesus wanted them to think vertically.
• It’s not about your feet – it’s about heaven.
• It’s all about your disposition – the condition of your soul.
• Unless the Lord Jesus Christ cleans us, we can never enter heaven.
In fact, God’s love reaches us through this Jesus who went down on his knees before Peter.
• This is the meaning of John 3:16:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in
him shall not perish but have eternal life.
• And John 14:6:
Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father
except through me.
• It all means that Jesus Christ had to die to restore the bond of love between God and man.
• This is possible only because the Lord Jesus first loved us (1 John 4:19):
We love because he first loved us.
and also our Scripture text (John 13:1b):
Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his
love.
• This love is not like our love – we are still able to forsake another.
Nothing can change the love of Jesus Christ, because his love for us is everlasting.
• His love for us has never stopped. This is why He was crucified together with two murderers.
• This is why He had to be buried and why He later also rose from the dead.
• This is why He ascended to heaven so that, because of his love for us, He can prepare a
place for us in heaven where we can live in the hereafter.
The act of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet symbolises what is said in the previous paragraph.
As Christ loved his disciples up to the end of his life on earth, He loves us beyond the time on earth –
for eternity.
• The Lord Jesus washed the only the feet of the disciples, but in so doing He showed that he
washes away the sins of everyone who belongs to Him so that they will be clean with Him.
• And so Christ restored the relationship between God and us – the relationship that was
destroyed because of the fall of man.
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The love of God expressed by this deed is so great that He even washed Judas’s feet before he was
allowed to betray Jesus.
We must also remember that we are under an obligation because of this love of Christ.
• We must serve our neighbour with our love.
• We should therefore get rid of our arrogance and no longer think that we are better than
others.
The Lord Jesus then said to the arrogant, quarrelsome disciples at his Holy Supper:
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one
another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John
13:14-15 NIV-UK)
Christ’s message is after all so clear.
• We must serve each other in humility and in love.
• If we want to be one with Christ we must also be one with one another.
Have you ever noticed how we love our neighbour?
• We find it so much easier to speak evil of somebody than protecting his reputation.
• Living a life of love with your neighbour does not mean that you should only keep the peace.
• It does not imply that you should not fight or quarrel.
• That is not sufficient!
The correct loving relationship with your neighbour is a relationship that requires sacrifice.
• In other words: washing feet.
• You must reach out to satisfy the needs of your neighbour.
And it’s not up to you to decide who is good enough to share your love. The Lord already decided!
• Just remember that Jesus also washed Judas’s feet – although Judas betrayed Him.
• Jesus also washed the feet of the other disciples, although He knew that they were going to
desert Him that same night.
He wanted to die for his people – this is true love.
We can only serve the Lord if we can follow his example. He said so Himself.
• He renounced his kingship in heaven to come to the earth to wash his disciples’ feet so that
they could sit down at his first Holy Supper with clean feet.
• He left heaven to come and die for every one of us so that we can go to heaven through his
redemptive sacrifice.
Let us then live a life characterised by “washing feet”. Remember what the Scriptures say:
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
(Matthew 23:12 NIV-UK)
Will it be worth while considering yourself too important to make sacrifices for others and eventually
lose eternal life?
Follow the Lord Jesus Christ in your life of love.
Let us see what we confess about remission of sins in the Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 51.
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126. Q. What is the fifth petition?
A. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. That is: For the sake of
Christ's blood, do not impute to us, wretched sinners; any of our transgressions, nor the evil
which still clings to us,[1] as we also find this evidence of Thy grace in us that we are fully
determined wholeheartedly to forgive our neighbour.[2]
[1] Ps. 51:1-7; 143:2; Rom. 8:1; I John 2:1, 2. [2] Matt. 6:14, 15; 18:21-35.
Amen
Closing prayer
Closing hymn: Psalm 32:1
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with
you all.
Amen.
Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
Date: 26 October 2008
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