1/ Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
2/ During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,
3/ 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.
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.”
8/ Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9/ Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
10/ Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”
11/ For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12/ So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?
13/ “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.
14/ “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15/ “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.
16/ “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
17/ “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
18/ “I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘HE WHO EATS MY BREAD HAS LIFTED UP HIS HEEL AGAINST ME.’
19/ “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.
20/ “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me."
22/ The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking.
23/ There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.
24/ So Simon Peter gestured to him, and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.”
25/ He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”
26/ Jesus then answered, “That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
27/ After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”
28/ Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him.
29/ For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, “Buy the things we have need of for the feast”; or else, that he should give something to the poor.
30/ So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.
31/ Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;
32/ if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.
33/ “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
34/ “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35/ “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
37/ Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.”
38/ Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.
Our Lord Jesus has a people in the world that are his own; he has purchased them, and paid dear for them, and he has set them apart for himself; they devote themselves to him as a peculiar people. Those whom Christ loves, he loves to the end. Nothing can separate a true believer from the love of Christ.
We know not when our hour will come, therefore what we have to do in constant preparation for it, ought never to be undone. What way of access the devil has to men's hearts we cannot tell. But some sins are so exceedingly sinful, and there is so little temptation to them from the world and the flesh, that it is plain they are directly from Satan. Jesus washed his disciples' feet, that he might teach us to think nothing below us, wherein we may promote God's glory, and the good of our brethren. We must address ourselves to duty, and must lay aside every thing that would hinder us in what we have to do.
Christ washed his disciples' feet, that he might signify to them the value of spiritual washing, and the cleansing of the soul from the pollutions of sin. Our Lord Jesus does many things of which even his own disciples do not for the present know the meaning, but they shall know afterward. We see in the end what was the kindness from events which seemed most cross.
And it is not humility, but unbelief, to put away the offers of the gospel, as if too rich to be made to us, or too good news to be true. All those, and those only, who are spiritually washed by Christ, have a part in Christ. All whom Christ owns and saves, he justifies and sanctifies.
Peter more than submits; he begs to be washed by Christ. How earnest he is for the purifying grace of the Lord Jesus, and the full effect of it, even upon his hands and head! Those who truly desire to be sanctified, desire to be sanctified throughout, to have the whole man, with all its parts and powers, made pure. The true believer is thus washed when he receives Christ for his salvation. See then what ought to be the daily care of those who through grace are in a justified state, and that is, to wash their feet; to cleanse themselves from daily guilt, and to watch against everything defiling. This should make us the more cautious. From yesterday's pardon, we should be strengthened against this day's temptation.
And when hypocrites are discovered, it should be no surprise or cause of stumbling to us. Observe the lesson Christ here taught. Duties are mutual; we must both accept help from our brethren, and afford help to our brethren. When we see our Master serving, we cannot but see how ill it becomes us to domineer. And the same love which led Christ to ransom and reconcile his disciples when enemies, still influences him.
Our Lord had often spoken of his own sufferings and death, without such trouble of spirit as he now discovered when he spake of Judas. The sins of Christians are the grief of Christ. We are not to confine our attention to Judas. The prophecy of his treachery may apply to all who partake of God's mercies, and meet them with ingratitude. See the infidel, who only looks at the Scriptures with a desire to do away their authority and destroy their influence; the hypocrite, who professes to believe the Scriptures, but will not govern himself by them; and the apostate, who turns aside from Christ for a thing of naught. Thus mankind, supported by God's providence, after eating bread with Him, lift up the heel against Him! Judas went out as one weary of Jesus and his apostles. Those whose deeds are evil, love darkness rather than light.
Christ had been glorified in many miracles he wrought, yet he speaks of his being glorified now in his sufferings, as if that were more than all his other glories in his humbled state. Satisfaction was thereby made for the wrong done to God by the sin of man.
We cannot now follow our Lord to his heavenly happiness, but if we truly believe in him, we shall follow him hereafter; meanwhile we must wait his time, and do his work.
Before Christ left the disciples, he would give them a new commandment. They were to love each other for Christ's sake, and according to his example, seeking what might benefit others, and promoting the cause of the gospel, as one body, animated by one soul. But this commandment still appears new to many professors. Men in general notice any of Christ's words rather than these. By this it appears, that if the followers of Christ do not show love one to another, they give cause to suspect their sincerity.
More to come, as the hours pass...
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