Why did Jesus wash His disciples’ feet?

In John 13:1-17, the Lord of all kneels down to wash the dirty feet of His disciples. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt explains the stunning humility — and the deeper meaning — of that act.

Foot-washing was the lowest job in that culture, reserved for the lowliest servant. Yet Jesus, the Teacher and Lord, takes the towel and basin Himself. When Peter protests, Jesus answers, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me” — pointing past the feet to the deeper cleansing only He can give. Then He tells them to follow His example and serve one another. Dr. Holt notes the sobering detail that even Judas’s feet were washed, moments before he left to betray his Master.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why did Jesus wash the disciples’ feet? To show that true greatness is humble service, and to picture the deeper cleansing from sin that only He provides.

2. What did Jesus mean when He told Peter “you have no part with Me”? He was pointing beyond dirty feet to the spiritual washing every person needs — to be cleansed by Christ.

3. How does this apply to us? Jesus calls His followers to serve one another humbly, just as He served them.

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” — John 13:14 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the John Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.

[gentle music] In John 13, with the cross on his immediate horizon, Jesus gathered with his disciples for one last meal. And at that time, Jesus did the unthinkable. He began to wash his disciples' feet. So what was the significance of this action, and why were the disciples so shocked that he did it? That will be the focus of today's study.

When you picture a CEO of, say, a Fortune 500 company, what do you picture him doing? When you think of a titan of industry, when you think of a CEO, something really important, someone really powerful, what do you picture them doing? Perhaps they're sitting in a boardroom. Perhaps they're dressed to the nine, and they're ordering people around, and they're making the big decisions and the like. Perhaps that's what you picture. With that said, what if you were to encounter a CEO, but you encounter him in the most unlikely place? You don't encounter him in the boardroom. Rather, you encounter him in the bathroom, and he's got a plunger in his hand. And the CEO of a massive business is there plunging the restrooms. Now, if you were to see such a thing, you would say, "Boy, this is odd. You don't see this every day." It might seem slightly degrading, frankly, to the individual, or at least to the position they hold. I mean, CEOs shouldn't be doing this sort of thing, should they? Well, in today's text, we're going to see, I guess, the first-century equivalent. Specifically, in this text, someone with what you would say is the highest social standing that you could have, the rabbi. Someone with the highest social standing is going to undertake not just the lowest work, but the lowest of the lowest work in the midst of the people. The most menial and degrading act you could do in Jewish society was to wash someone's feet. Now, why [chuckles] is that? Well, A, because feet are just gross. There's that. It doesn't matter what century you're in. But B, because in the first century, feet were especially gross. Why were they especially gross? Well, they didn't have Nike. They didn't have Adidas. They didn't have socks. They went on these dusty trails with essentially their leathery sandals and their bare feet, and they went from one place to another. And when they got to the other place, their feet were gross and stinky and sweaty and dirty and the like. And if they came in to have a meal, which meant often they were reclining. Remember, they're not necessarily sitting at a table where all the feet are hidden. They're reclining at a meal where they're all visible. So they got these gross feet. What are you going to do? You have people over the Last Supper. You have people sitting, dining together. What needs to happen? Well, somebody's got to wash them feet. So who? Who should wash the feet in that culture? I mean, you would think everyone would wash their own feet, but that's not what they did. What would happen is that, especially if you were the host, that you had to make some sort of provision of people in your house that their feet would be washed clean. But as a host, you wouldn't do it. Oh, dear heavens, no. You wouldn't do that if you were the host. So who'd you look to? Well, if you're a Jewish individual, and let's say you had servants, you might look to them. But here's the thing, there was a rabbinical law that said you could not compel a fellow Jew, even if he was your slave, to wash somebody's feet. It was that gross. It was that low. So what were your options then? If the servant wouldn't do it, if he says, "Nope, not for me," what do you have left? Well, the one person you could compel, the lowest person in any house in Israel, the lowest of the lowest of the low, was not necessarily the slaves and the servants, but rather, it was what you might call the slaves of the slaves, the servants of the servants. What it was was Gentiles. If you had a Gentile servant, that was the only person in Israel you could compel to wash the feet of others. With that said, given how far afield you had to go to find someone to designate as the foot washer, how astonishing would it be in this context in John chapter 13 for the rabbi, the one with the highest social standing at the meal that day, to say, "I'll do it. I'll be the one," and to gird himself with a towel and to take on the clothing of a servant in order to wash the feet of his disciples. In that context, as the disciples looked on, their whole world was thrown upside down once again by Jesus. He was good at that. He was good at turning topsy-turvy the priorities of the world on its head in order to demonstrate the principles and the priorities of the kingdom, much more important. So today's text, that's what he's doing. Jesus is teaching, he's demonstrating, and he's showing the greatest humility this world has ever seen coming from a throne on high in order to wash the feet of that which he has created. The Creator washing the feet of the created. That's what we're seeing in today's text. So let's return to the first portion of this and then work our way through. Let's start with verses one through four. Now, verses one through four deal with the Last Supper. In fact, there's going to be about four or five chapters in John that deal with the Last Supper, more than any of the other Gospels. Looking at verse one. "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come that he should depart from the 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 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 he had come from God and was going to God, he arose from supper. He laid aside his garments, he took on a towel, and he girded himself." All right, verses one through four, they ring with finality. They ring with finality. The supper had ended, the text says. The supper had ended, and furthermore, it says that the hour had come. Jesus was entering the last lap, so to speak, of his earthly ministry. But as we said, as he looks at this last lap, he didn't say to himself, "Boy, there's a lot of things I want to go experience. I want to scuba, I want to snorkel, I want to ski, I want to do stuff like that." No. As he faced down his last hour, he says, "I'm going to glorify God," but in this context, he says, "I'm going to do it in the most unusual way. I'm going to do it by demonstrating to God's children what true servanthood looks like, so that in the future, they'll glorify God all the more." So verse four says that after supper, he changed into the servant's wardrobe, which had to look a little odd. I mean, everyone's kind of watching him do this and thinking, "Boy, this is unusual. What's Jesus doing over here?" But he changes into the servant's wardrobeAnd he begins to wash their feet. Now, there's a detail that's not in John's Gospel, but you do find it in the Gospel of Luke, that adds context to what's going on in this reading. In Luke chapter 22, Christ's disciples, they're talking here at this meal. They're talking. Now what are they talking about? Are they talking about the news, weather, sports? Are they talking about all the good ministry they hope to do, all the service, all the acts of service they want to engage in? Are they talking about these sort of things? Not so much. They're talking about what? They're talking about in the Kingdom of God, in the Kingdom of Heaven, which one of them is greatest. Which one of us is most important? We got 11, 12 of these guys running around, and they're all probably vying for certain positions, status with the rabbi, status with fellow men, status in the kingdom to come. They had to think about this at times. Which one of us is most valuable to this whole expedition? If one of us had to depart, who would we miss the least? If one of us had to depart, who would we miss the most? Maybe it's me. So they talked about these sort of things, and if you're Jesus, you're going just, "Ay, ay, ay." What is going on here? You listen to them talking at the Last Supper. You're about to die. Your passion week has begun. The end is coming. You've been laboring over these knuckleheads for three years, teaching them what humility looks like. And now at the Last Supper, they're sitting there talking about which one of them is going to be greatest, which one of them is most important. At some level, if you're Jesus, you have to be saying, "Did they not learn anything?" How ironic this was that these individuals were desirous of such worldly esteem, worldly greatness, in the presence of a king who washed feet. They were arguing about status in the presence of one who set aside his status in order just to sit there with them. That was their grand plan. But you know something encouraging, although they were knuckleheads, so to speak, verse one says, you know what? Jesus loved these knuckleheads. He loved them to the end, it says. Even though he knew the end was coming, he knew his own death was approaching. What did we read in verse one? Jesus knew his hour come that he should depart from the world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, and he loved them to the end.

He didn't love them because they were so lovable. Oftentimes, he loved them in spite of who they were, not because of who they were, and yet he loved them still. There's hope for knuckleheads. Jesus came to save and love and disciple men and women who just get a whole lot of stuff wrong, and whose priorities sometimes are topsy-turvy, as yours and mine may be at times. Now, he does want to correct and he does want to teach, and he does want to help us to stand aright and follow the path that he has trod, but he does it with grace and kindness. He does it with patience, long-suffering. So here in this text, he hears them arguing about this, who's going to be the greatest. And somewhere in the divine mind of God, somewhere in the divine mind of Jesus, he says, "You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to show them. I'm going to do something right now to teach them and to show them what greatness looks like, and it's going to be the exact opposite of what they think and what they expect." Let's look at our next verses. Let's look at verses five through 11. So after that, he poured water into a basin and he began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he himself was girded. Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, "Lord, are you washing my feet?" And Jesus answered and said to him, "What I'm doing now, you don't understand now, but you will know after this." And Peter said to him, "You shall never, you shall never wash my feet." And Jesus answered him and said, "If I do not wash you, then you have no part with me." And so Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head." You see how he turns that around there. Verse 10. Then Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you." For he knew who would betray him, and therefore he said, "You are not all clean." All right. What are these verses about? At face value, stand back from that and go, "All right. I know what that's about, and that's servanthood, humility, right?" That's all about servanthood. What Jesus is doing here in this context, these verses in particular, verses five through 11, are about servanthood. It's about how God came from a throne to wash stinky feet, and if he did something like that, then surely we could do the 21st-century equivalent, whatever that is, to our peers and those in our own midst. Surely, that's what this teaches. It's about servanthood, right? Well, yes and no. Is it about servanthood? Yeah, but we're going to see that more in the verses to follow. We're going to see that more in verses 12 through 17. But verses five through 11 that I just read, they're less about the servanthood and more about what it means to be clean, more about what it means to be washed. See, Jesus goes around, he girds himself up. He gets the basin, gets the water, starts to wash the feet, comes across Peter. Peter's been watching him wash the feet of other people and just says, "Nope, not for me. Not for me." Now, it's not because he had a high view of himself so much as he had a view of God that said, "Jesus, the rabbi, the Messiah, the Christ, he would never do such a thing." Remember how often they misunderstood Jesus? Even his own disciples really, truly never got him until after he descended into heaven. So Peter says, "Nope. No, no, no. You shall never wash me. Never." Take it to the bank Jesus. And Jesus [sighs] once again, he just has to exercise that patience. Remember that we talked about that patience? And he says, "Peter, come on, man. If I don't do this and you don't submit to it, you have no part with me." If you aren't washed by Jesus, which has a bigger meaning than just feet washing, if you aren't washed by Jesus, you have no part with Jesus. Now, Peter didn't get the symbolism initially. He didn't fully understand that. All he looked at was the menial task at hand, but Jesus was doing something much bigger than the menial task. You see, you never want to turn down being washed by Jesus. You never want to turn down being washed by Jesus because being washed by Jesus is about something more than just literally having dirt rubbed off your skin. You and I, when we understand what it means to be saved, and when we understand the gospel, when we understand the washing of the blood of Christ, when we understand baptism and these sort of things, how do we understand them? We understand them spiritually. We understand that we are dirty, wretched, scarlet-stained individuals, and because of that, we need to be made clean if we're to dwell with himWe're dirty. He's not. We need to be cleaned up if we're going to dwell with Him in the time yet to come. We understand that washing is essential to our hope and to our salvation, and Jesus taught that across his ministry. But here, he gives an example, a very specific example, this menial task. He attempts to wash feet, and Peter misses the symbolic point. Well, Jesus brings him back to it, says, "Hey, Peter. Peter, come on. If you are not washed by me, you have no part with me." And it's almost like that trick, the switch in Peter's mind. He's like, "Oh, wait. Okay. Then not only my feet, but all of me. Just the head, the hands, all of me." It's like he understood something at that moment that he didn't previously get. With that said, interestingly, towards the end of those verses, in verse 10, 11, Jesus said, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet and is completely clean. And you are clean." He's speaking to the disciples. "You are clean. You have been washed in the blood and the faith and all that. You are clean, but not all of you." For He knew who would betray Him, therefore He said, "You are not all clean." One of them, no matter how often Jesus washed his feet, and it's probable, well, in fact, it's likely Jesus washed the feet of Judas here. The challenge, though, was that washing Judas' feet accomplished nothing for Judas because the washing Judas really needed was in here. And Jesus understood that. He understood the heart of Judas, even as he washed Judas' feet. Now, as an aside note, in about two Wednesdays, three Wednesdays from now, I'm going to teach a Wednesday night study just on Judas Iscariot so we can understand this character, understand this individual, the son of perdition. If you've ever had questions about Judas Iscariot and what was really going on with this guy and what his history was and what his backstory was and what ultimately happened to him, we'll talk about that on a Wednesday night. All right. Let's, though, look at our last verses for this morning. Let's now look at verses 12 through 17. "So when He had washed their feet and taken His garments and sat back down again, He said to them, 'Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. But if I then, if I am the Lord, if I am your teacher, and I have washed your feet, then you also should wash the feet of one another. For I've given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly,' it's like truly, truly, take it to the bank, 'most assuredly, I say to you, a servant's not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you who do them.'" There's an old story. I forget where I picked it up. It's a story about a Russian king from years and years and years past, the Middle Ages. You have this Russian king, and he's going through the forest, and with the Russian king in this chariot that they're riding is a servant. So you have the Russian king, you have a servant, they're in a chariot, they're going through a dark forest, and behind them, lo and behold, wolves. Wolves start approaching. So you have this chariot's going through the forest, it's dark. You have the king, you have the servant, the wolves are coming, they're getting closer, they're getting closer, and it's clear they're going to overtake the chariot. What to do? What to do? These two men must have thought. Well, what do you think should have happened in this regard? The wolves were clearly not going to be satisfied till they got someone. What to do? What to do? Well, we would think at face value that what should happen is that in order to sustain the life of the king, that the servant should throw himself to the wolves with the idea that that would satisfy the wolves and that the king, therefore, can escape their assault, escape their harm. We would understand that to be what should happen. The love of the servant for the king should be sacrificial, and the servant should lay down his life for the king.

Here's the thing,

the gospel's the exact opposite of that.

In the gospel, it is not the servant who lays down their life to save the king.

It's the king who lays down his life to save the servant.

In these verses, we see this. It's a different anecdote, it's a different story, it's a different example. This is about foot washing, but it's the same principle. If God is willing to send His own Son to lay down His life to buy you back from sin and death, then what are you too good to do for your fellow man? If the Creator was willing to give up His life, go to Calvary, go to the cross, breathe out His last in order to purchase you back from sin and death, if the Creator did that for you, the created, then why would we withhold grace and help and assistance and care and foot washing or what have you from fellow individuals in the created realm? Well, Jesus, in effect, asked that question. What'd that last verse say? He says, "If you know these things," if you understand this and you accept it, and if you nod your head and say amen and believe this is true, "if you know these things, then blessed are you if you do them." And oftentimes, one of the greatest distinctions, false distinctions, bad distinctions that existed in Christendom back in the days of Christ and Paul and in the 21st century in Gulfport is this idea that we can recognize propositional truth, nod our head to propositional truth, say amen to propositional truth, and then neglect to do it.

Well, Jesus says it's not just so much whether you recognize that it's good to be humble. It's not just so much whether you recognize it's good to be a servant. It's what are you going to do about it? "I did this as an example to you," He says to His disciples. I did the one thing you never would expect I would have done, and you have some inkling who I am, and I have some inkling who you are, and I have done this for you. Why would you withhold this sort of grace from anyone else? One of the things I love about God's providence as I've gone through various books of Scripture and preaching is that oftentimes through the work of God, the text lines up perfect with the day in which it's preached. What are we going to do after today's worship service? We're going to have a congregational meeting to elect officers or servants?

Servants. In God's providence, today's text is perfect for the day that we elect servants,

under-shepherds, those called of God to serve God's people with the heart we see here. Church officers, like the disciples, are to lead principally through love and grace and humility and tenderness with care and heart and compassion and empathy.Not just by edict and judgment and sitting as the CEO at the table, something different. In verses 12 through 17, the king and the high priest of not just the church, but the universe, stooped down to wash the feet of the people that he had made. The one who whispers galaxies into existence stopped what he was doing to put on a towel and wash people's feet. And he says in verses 12 through 17, it's meant to be instructive to his disciples there in the upper room in the first century, but also to us in the 21st century, all these years later. As we look to wrap up this morning, let me suggest this. What we might dismiss as menial work in the kingdom is oftentimes the most valuable and the most important. I had the privilege of visiting with someone this week who had undergone a hardship, a health hardship, and someone else in the congregation had taken time to write this individual a note, a note of encouragement, a note of prayer, a note I'm thinking of you.

No one knows that this person wrote it, no one but God and the person that received it. You might call that menial work to write cards to people who are hurting. You might call it menial work to engage in mercy ministry and the like. You might call it menial work to hold someone's hand in hospice. I assure you that the greatest work that we can engage in pastors, elders, deacons, congregation,

can be caring for those in need, whether anyone recognizes it or not, and deliberately stooping down to situations that we otherwise wouldn't go. Hospice is one of those. Situations that we otherwise wouldn't go to do things that we otherwise wouldn't do. The eyes and heart of God looks upon that and says, "That guy gets it. That woman understands something critical to what kingdom work is all about." This morning, Christianity is not only about heads and hearts, but hands. It's not only about what we ascent to and recognize as propositional truth, and it's not only that which we believe in, in the heart, but it's also how that which we believe works itself out using these hands, your hands, to be a blessing to the people to your left, to your right, and outside in the community this day, this week, this year. What we know in the head and believe in the heart should be expressed in our service, and that's the lasting message from John 13. Let's pray.