John 13:1 - Meaning and Application

It has usually been assumed by commentators that Christ’s washing of his disciples’ feet, and the teaching that followed, happened on the same night he was betrayed. Many also think it took place at the same meal when he ate the Passover and instituted the Lord’s Supper. Yet they do not all agree whether it was before the meal began, after it ended, or between the Passover meal and the Lord’s Supper.

This Gospel writer often gathers up events the other writers left out, and leaves out things they included. That is why it can be hard to fit the accounts together. If this was the same night, then Judas likely went out at that point (John 13:30) to gather the men who would arrest Jesus in the garden. But Dr. Lightfoot thinks this whole action and teaching, all the way through John 14, happened not at the Passover supper itself, since John 13:1 says it was before the feast of the Passover, but at the supper in Bethany two days before the Passover (Matthew 26:2-6), when Mary anointed Christ’s head again with the rest of her ointment.

Or it may have been at some other supper on the night before the Passover, not in Simon the leper’s house, but in Jesus’ own lodgings, where he was alone with his disciples and could speak more freely with them. Here we have the account of Christ washing his disciples’ feet. It was a remarkable act, and no miracle unless we call it a miracle of humility. Mary had just anointed his head, and to keep that honor from seeming like pride, he at once balances it with this lowly act.

Why would Christ do this? If the disciples’ feet needed washing, they could wash them themselves. A wise man does not do anything strange or unusual without good reason. We can be sure this was not done on a whim or in playfulness. It was a serious action, carried out with great solemnity. The passage suggests four reasons for it: to show his love for his disciples (John 13:1, 2), to give an example of his own willing humility, to point to spiritual washing in his conversation with Peter (John 13:6-11), and to set them an example (John 13:12-17). These four reasons help explain the whole story.

Christ washed his disciples’ feet first to show the great love with which he loved them, and loved them to the end (John 13:1, 2). This is true of his immediate followers, especially the twelve. They were his own in the world, his family, his school, and his close friends. He had no children of his own, so he adopted them and took them as his own. He had his own in the other world, but he left them for a time to care for his own in this world. He loved these men, brought them into fellowship with himself, spoke with them freely, and was always tender toward them and their good name.

He allowed them great freedom with him and patiently bore with their weaknesses. He loved them to the end, keeping his love as long as he lived and even after his resurrection. He never withdrew his kindness. Even if some important people took up his cause, he did not abandon his old friends to make room for new ones. He stayed with his poor fishermen. They were weak, lacking in knowledge and grace, dull and forgetful. Yet though he corrected them often, he never stopped loving them and caring for them.

This is also true of all believers. Those twelve men stood for all the tribes of God’s spiritual Israel. Our Lord Jesus has people in the world who belong to him. They are his own because the Father gave them to him, because he bought them at a great price, and because he has set them apart for himself. They are also his own because they have given themselves to him as a special people. When Scripture says his own did not receive him, the phrase means his own people, in the same way a man’s wife and children are his own, with whom he has a lasting bond.

Christ has a warm love for his own people in the world. He loved them with a love of goodwill when he gave himself for their rescue. He loves them with a love of delight when he brings them into close fellowship with himself. Even though they live in this world, a place of darkness, distance, sin, and corruption, he still loves them. He was soon to go to his own in heaven, the spirits of the righteous made perfect there, but he seems most concerned for his own on earth, because they need his care most. The weaker child is usually shown the most tenderness.

Those whom Christ loves, he loves to the end. He is steady in his love for his people, and he rests in that love. He loves with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3), from everlasting in its purpose to everlasting in its results. Nothing can separate a believer from the love of Christ. He loves his own completely, and he will finish what he has begun for them, bringing them into that world where love is made perfect.

Christ showed his love to them by washing their feet, just as the good woman showed her love to Christ by washing his feet and wiping them with her hair (Luke 7:38). In this way he showed that his love was not only constant, but also humble. He was willing to lower himself in carrying out his loving purpose. Even the glory of his coming exaltation would not block his kindness to those chosen by him. He was also confirming the promise he had made to all the saints, that he would make them sit down to eat and would come out and serve them (Luke 12:37). That would be an honor as great and surprising as a lord serving his servants.

The disciples had just shown how weak their love for him was, by complaining about the ointment poured on his head (Matthew 26:8). Yet right after that, he gives them this proof of his love. Our weaknesses only make Christ’s kindness stand out more clearly.

He chose this time, just before his final Passover, for two reasons. First, because he knew his hour had come, the time he had long expected, when he would leave this world and go to the Father. Notice the change that was coming over our Lord Jesus. He had to depart. That began at his death and was completed at his ascension. As Christ himself departed this world, so all believers, through their union with him, when they leave the world are absent from the body, go to the Father, and are with the Lord.

It was a departure from this world, this unkind and harmful world, this faithless and treacherous world, this world of labor, toil, and temptation, this valley of tears. It was a going to the Father, to see the Father of spirits, and to enjoy him as his own. Christ was leaving the world of suffering and returning to the Father in glory.

The time for this change had come. It is sometimes called his enemies’ hour (Luke 22:53), the hour of their victory. Here it is called his hour, the hour of his triumph, the hour he had kept in view all along. The time of his sufferings was set to an hour, and their whole length was only for an hour. Christ’s suffering was appointed, limited, and never out of God’s control.

He knew that his hour had come. He had known from the beginning that it would come, and when it would come, but now he knew the time was here. We do not know when our hour will come, so we should never stop preparing for it in our daily life. But when warning signs show that our hour is near, we must work hard to prepare at once, as our Master did (2 Peter 3:14).

In this immediate view of his departure, he washed his disciples’ feet. As his own head had just been anointed in view of his burial, so their feet were washed in view of their being set apart by the Holy Spirit fifty days later, as the priests were washed (Leviticus 8:6). When we see our day approaching, we should do as much good as we can for those we are leaving behind.

He did this also because the devil had now put it into Judas’s heart to betray him (John 13:2). These words in the parenthesis show where Judas’s treason came from. It was a sin that plainly bore the devil’s mark. We cannot fully explain how the devil gets access to human hearts, or how he slips his suggestions into our thoughts. But some sins are so wicked in themselves, and so little encouraged by the world or the flesh, that it is clear Satan himself planted them in a heart ready to grow them. For Judas to betray such a Master, and to do it so cheaply and without cause, was such open hatred of God that only Satan could have formed it. He meant to destroy the Redeemer’s kingdom, but in fact he ruined his own.

This also helps explain why Christ washed his disciples’ feet now. First, Judas had already decided to betray him, so the time of Christ’s departure could not be far off. When a matter is settled, we can say with Paul, “I am now ready to be offered.” The more openly our enemies show malice against us, the more carefully we should prepare for whatever may come.

Second, since Judas was already caught in the snare, and the devil was aiming at Peter and the others too (Luke 22:31), Christ wanted to strengthen his own against him. If the wolf has seized one sheep, the shepherd must watch the rest closely. Once an infection has begun, remedies must be used at once. Dr. Lightfoot notes that the disciples had learned from Judas to complain about the anointing of Christ, compare John 12:4 and Matthew 26:8. So now, before they could learn something worse from him, Christ guarded them with a lesson in humility against the devil’s most dangerous attacks.

Third, Judas, who was planning to betray him, was one of the twelve. By this, Christ showed that he did not mean to cast them all off because of one man’s fault. Even though one member of their group had a devil and was a traitor, the others would not suffer for that. Christ loves his church even when hypocrites are in it, and he still cared for his disciples even though Judas was among them and he knew it.

Christ washed his disciples’ feet to give an example of his own amazing humility. He wanted to show how low he could stoop in love for his own people, and to let the whole world see his deep condescension. This is shown in John 13:3-5. Jesus knew, and was now fully considering, his honors as Mediator, that is, as the one who stands between God and man, and he said to his friends that the Father had given all things into his hands. Then he rose from supper, and to the great surprise of the company, washed his disciples’ feet.

Here we see the rightful greatness of the Lord Jesus. Wonderful things are said here about Christ as Mediator. The Father had given all things into his hands. He had been given ownership of all things and authority over all things, as the possessor of heaven and earth, in line with the great work he had taken on. See Matthew 11:27. The settling of every dispute between God and man was put into his hands as the great judge and referee. The rule of God’s kingdom among people, in all its parts, was also placed under him, so that every act of rule and judgment passed through him. He is heir of all things.

He came from God. This means that he was with God from the beginning, and had life and glory before he was born into this world, indeed before the world itself existed. It also means that when he came into the world, he came as God’s messenger, with God’s commission. He came from God as the Son of God and the one sent by God. The prophets of the Old Testament were raised up and used by God, but Christ came directly from him.

He went to God, to be glorified with him in the same glory he had with God from eternity. What comes from God goes back to God. Those who are born from heaven are on their way to heaven. Just as Christ came from God to act for him on earth, so he went to God to act for us in heaven. It is a comfort to think how welcome he was there. He was brought near to the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:13), and it was said to him, “Sit at my right hand” (Psalm 110:1).

He knew all this. He was not like a child in a cradle who knows nothing of the honor he is born to, or like Moses, who did not know that his face shone. No, he had a full view of all the honors of his exalted state, and yet he stooped so low. But why is this mentioned here? First, it encouraged him to quickly leave with his disciples whatever lessons and final words he had for them, because his hour had come and he must now take leave of them and rise above the close fellowship he had with them (John 13:1). Second, it may also show what supported him through his sufferings and carried him cheerfully through this hard trial. Judas was betraying him, and he knew it, and he knew what would come of it. Yet, knowing also that he came from God and was going to God, he did not turn back, but went forward with courage.

Third, it seems to be placed here to make his humility shine even more clearly. Scripture sometimes presents the reasons for divine grace in a surprising way, as in Isaiah 57:17-18 and Hosea 2:13-14. So here, what should have made Christ take high rank is given as a reason for his stooping low. God’s thoughts are not like ours.

Compare this with the passages that introduce the most remarkable acts of humble grace by showing God’s glory first, such as Psalm 68:4-5, Isaiah 57:15, and Isaiah 66:1-2.

Here we see the willing lowering of our Lord Jesus, even with all this glory in view. Jesus knew his own glory as God and his own authority and power as Mediator, his role as the one who brings God and people together. One might think that would lead him to rise from supper, take off his ordinary clothes, put on royal robes, and command everyone to step back and honor him. But the opposite happened. When he considered his glory, he gave the greatest example of humility. A strong and settled hope of heaven does not make a person proud, it keeps them humble. Those who want to be like Christ and share his Spirit must learn to stay low, even when they are highly honored.

What Christ humbled himself to do was wash his disciples’ feet. The act itself was lowly and serving, the kind of work done by the lowest servants. Abigail said, “Let me be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord” (1 Samuel 25:41). If he had washed their hands or faces, that would already have been a great lowering of himself, as when Elisha poured water on Elijah’s hands (2 Kings 3:11). But for Christ to stoop to this kind of hard and dirty work should fill us with wonder. He was teaching us to think nothing beneath us if it can serve God’s glory or help our brothers and sisters.

His humility was even greater because he did this for his own disciples. In themselves they were of humble and plain standing, not especially concerned with bodily neatness, and their feet were likely very dirty. Yet in relation to him, they were his students, his servants, and the ones who should have washed his feet. Their support came from him, and their hope was in him. Many proud people will do a lowly thing to win favor with those above them, climbing by bowing and rising by bending. Christ did none of that. What he did for his disciples was not strategy or politeness, but pure humility.

He also rose from supper to do it. The wording can mean that the meal was in progress, not that it was fully over, because he sat down again later (John 13:12), and he was still taking a piece of bread after that (John 13:26). So he did this in the middle of the meal, which teaches us two things. First, we should not see it as a burden to be called away from a meal to do real service for God or for a neighbor. Our duty matters more than our necessary food (John 4:34). Christ would not leave his preaching to please his close relatives (Mark 3:33), but he did leave his supper to show love to his disciples. Second, we should not be overly fussy about food. Many sensitive people would have been upset to wash dirty feet at supper, but Christ did it. That does not mean we should be rude or dirty, because cleanliness and godliness can go together. It does mean we should not be ruled by a delicate appetite. We should keep good manners in their place, but not let comfort become master.

He also put on the posture of a servant to do it. He laid aside his outer garments so he could move more freely in this work. We too must prepare for duty like people who are ready to work hard, not like people seeking status. We should put aside anything that feeds pride or gets in the way, and we should “gird up” our minds, meaning we should brace ourselves and get ready for serious work.

He carried out the whole task with humble care. He did every part of the service, leaving none of it out. He did it as if he were used to serving in this way, and he did it alone, with no one waiting on him. He wrapped the towel around himself the way servants would throw a cloth over their arm or tie on an apron. He poured water into the basin from the water jars that were standing there (John 2:6), washed their feet, and then wiped them dry. Some think he did not wash all of them, but only a few, since that would have been enough for the lesson. Yet there is nothing here to support that idea. When Scripture means to show a difference, it usually says so. His washing all of them, without exception, teaches us broad and generous love toward all Christ’s disciples, even the least of them.

Nothing suggests that he left Judas out, and Judas was present (John 13:26). There is comfort in the fact that a true widow is known as one who has washed the saints’ feet (1 Timothy 5:10), but here the blessed Jesus washed the feet of a sinner, the worst kind of sinner, and one who at that very time was plotting to betray him. Many interpreters think Christ’s washing of the disciples’ feet also pointed to his whole saving work. He knew that he was equal with God, and that all things belonged to him. Yet he rose from the table of glory, laid aside his robes of light, wrapped himself in our human nature, took the form of a servant, came not to be served but to serve, poured out his blood, and gave his soul to death. In doing so, he prepared a cleansing bath for our sins (Revelation 1:5).

Christ washed his disciples’ feet to show them the deeper washing, the cleansing of the soul from the stain of sin. This is made clear in his conversation with Peter in John 13:6-11. When Jesus came to Simon Peter with towel and basin and told him to hold out his feet, Peter was taken aback by the lowly act. Some think Jesus first washed Judas’s feet, since Judas would have accepted the honor easily and liked seeing his Master lower himself. More likely, Jesus began with Peter, and the others would not have allowed it if they had not first heard Peter’s exchange with Christ explained. Whether or not Peter was first, when Jesus came to him, Peter was startled. He said, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” The emphasis falls on the words “you” and “my.” The surprise is, “You, my Lord, wash my feet?” As Augustine said, such a thing is better thought on than spoken. What, you, our Lord and Master, whom we know and believe to be the Son of God, the Savior, and ruler of the world, do this for me, a worthless sinner and a mere creature of earth? Should the hands that healed lepers with a touch, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead wash my feet?

Peter would gladly have taken the basin and towel, washed his Master’s feet, and counted it an honor, like a servant waiting on his lord (Luke 17:7, 17:8). That would have seemed natural to him. But for his Master to wash his feet felt impossible, a strange reversal he could not make sense of.

Christ’s humble actions, especially his humble care for us, are rightly a cause for wonder (John 14:22). Peter’s reaction is like saying, “Who am I, Lord God? What is my father’s house?” When grace singles us out, we should be amazed.

Christ then answered Peter’s surprise in a way that was enough to quiet his objections (John 13:7): “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter had to submit for two reasons. First, he was in the dark and should not resist what he did not understand, but should trust the wisdom of the One who does all things well.

Christ was teaching Peter a simple obedience based on trust. “You do not understand what I am doing now, so you are not in a place to judge it. Believe it is right because I am the one doing it.” When we know our own ignorance and see how limited our judgment is, we should be careful in criticizing God’s works (Hebrews 11:8).

Second, there was real meaning in this act, though Peter would only understand it later. Some think Christ was pointing ahead to Peter’s need for cleansing after his serious sin of denying him. Others think it pointed to Peter’s later ministry, when he would help wash away, in a spiritual sense, the sins and worldly impurities of those under his care. Either way, Christ often does things his disciples do not understand at first, but they understand afterward.

That was true of what Christ did when he became man for us, and when he lived our life and laid it down for us. People could not fully understand those things until later, and then it became clear that he had to do them (Hebrews 2:17). Later events often explain earlier ones. What looked painful or wrong at first often proves to have been the right path all along.

Christ’s washing of the disciples’ feet also had a deeper meaning they did not grasp until later, when Christ explained it as a picture of the washing of new birth, and when the Holy Spirit was poured out on them from above. We must let Christ take his own way, both in worship and in providence, and in the end we will find it was best.

Peter still refused in strong language: “You shall never wash my feet.” This showed a fixed resolve. At first, it seems humble and modest. Peter meant to show great respect for his Master, just as he had in Luke 5:8. Many people are misled by a kind of self-chosen humility, a religious self-denial that Christ does not command and does not accept (Colossians 2:18, 23).

But under this appearance of humility, Peter was really opposing the will of Jesus. Christ said, “I will wash your feet,” and Peter answered, “Never.” In that way, Peter was acting as if he knew better than Christ. It is not humility, but unbelief, to refuse the gospel’s gifts as if they were too rich for us or too good to be true.

Christ then pressed the matter and gave Peter a serious reason to accept it: “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” This can be understood as a strong warning against disobedience. If Peter would not submit even in this small matter, he would show himself unfit to be owned as Christ’s disciple. Some of the early writers understood it this way: if Peter set himself above his Master and argued against commands he should obey, he would in effect renounce his loyalty and lose his place with Christ. To obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22).

But it is better understood as a statement of the need for spiritual washing. If Christ does not wash the soul from sin’s pollution, then a person has no part in him, no share in him, no fellowship with him, and no benefit from him. Only those whom Christ washes in this way truly have a part in Christ.

To have a part in Christ is the great blessedness of a Christian. It means sharing in the priceless gifts that come from being joined to him and related to him. It is that “good part” that is the one necessary thing. And to have a part in Christ, we must be washed by him. All whom Christ receives and saves he also justifies, which means he declares them right with God, and sanctifies, which means he makes them holy. Both are included in his washing of them.

We cannot share in his glory unless we also share in his merit, righteousness, Spirit, and grace. Peter then went beyond simple submission and earnestly asked to be washed fully by Christ (John 13:9): “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” How quickly Peter’s mind changed! Once his misunderstanding was corrected, his stubborn will soon changed too.

We should not be too fixed in our own plans, except in our resolve to follow Christ, because we may soon see that we were wrong. Still, we should be careful before forming a purpose we will later cling to. Peter was quick to back away from what he had said. In effect, he was saying, “Lord, how foolish I was to speak so quickly.” Once he saw that Christ’s washing was an act of authority and grace, he welcomed it. He had only resisted when it seemed like a mere act of lowering himself.

Good people are not slow to admit error when they see it. In time, Christ brings his people to think as he does. Peter also showed eagerness for the cleansing grace of the Lord Jesus, and for that grace to work through him completely, even on his hands and head. For anyone who is enlightened, being cut off from Christ and having no part in him is the worst possible evil. In fear of that loss, they will agree to anything.

So we should pray earnestly that God will wash us, justify us, and sanctify us. “Lord, if I am not to be cut off from you, make me fit for you by the washing of new birth.”

“Lord, wash not my feet only from the gross dirt that clings to them, but also my hands and my head from the stains they have picked up, and from the unnoticed uncleanness that comes from the body itself.” Those who truly want to be made holy want to be holy in every part. They want the whole person, with all its parts and powers, to be made pure (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Christ then explains this sign further, as a picture of spiritual washing. For his faithful disciples (John 13:10), the one who has been bathed all over, as people often did in that land, does not need to wash again except for his feet when he comes home. His hands and head are already clean, and only his feet have picked up dirt on the way. Peter had moved from one extreme to the other. At first he would not let Christ wash his feet, and now he seems to forget what Christ had already done for him in baptism, and what that washing meant, and he asks for his hands and head to be washed too. Christ corrects him by showing the meaning: he must have his feet washed, but not his hands and head.

See here the comfort and privilege of those who are in a justified state, that is, accepted as righteous before God. They are washed by Christ and are clean every bit, meaning God graciously accepts them as if they were fully clean. Even though they sin, when they repent they do not need to be put into a justified state all over again, as if they had to be baptized again and again. The proof of their justified state may be clouded, and the comfort of it may be hidden for a time, yet the standing itself is not canceled or taken away. Though we need to repent every day, God’s gifts and calling do not change their mind. The heart can be swept and put in order, and still remain the devil’s house. But if it has been washed, it belongs to Christ, and he will not lose it.

See also the daily duty of those who, by grace, are in a justified state. They must wash their feet, that is, they must cleanse themselves from the guilt they pick up each day through weakness and carelessness, by renewed repentance and by trusting again in the power of Christ’s blood. We must also wash our feet by staying constantly watchful against anything that defiles us. We must cleanse our way, and cleanse our feet, by paying careful attention to it (Psalm 119:9). When the priests were set apart for God’s service, they were washed with water. And although they did not need to be washed all over again afterward, whenever they went in to serve, they still had to wash their feet and hands at the basin, or else they would die (Exodus 30:19-20). The fact that God has provided for our cleansing should not make us careless, but more careful. “I have washed my feet,” in other words, I have been pardoned and cleansed, so how could I defile them again? Yesterday’s forgiveness should give us a strong reason to resist today’s temptation.

Christ also speaks with reference to Judas. “You are clean, but not all” (John 13:10-11). He says his disciples are clean, made clean through the word he had spoken to them (John 15:3). He washed them himself, and then said, “You are clean,” but he leaves Judas out: “not all.” They had all been baptized, including Judas, yet not all were clean. Many have the outward sign without the reality it points to. Even among those who are called Christ’s disciples and claim a close relationship with him, some are not clean (Proverbs 30:12). The Lord knows those who belong to him and those who do not (2 Timothy 2:19). Christ’s eye can tell the difference between the precious and the worthless, the clean and the unclean. When people who have called themselves disciples later prove to be traitors, their final falling away shows they were hypocrites from the start.

Christ also thought it necessary to tell his disciples that they are not all clean. This should make us watch ourselves closely. We should ask, “Is it I, Lord? Is it I who may be among the clean, yet still not clean?” And when hypocrites are exposed, it should not shock us or make us stumble.

Christ washed his disciples’ feet to set an example for us. He explained what he had done after he had finished it (John 13:12-17). Notice with what seriousness he gave the meaning of his action: after he had washed their feet, he said, “Do you know what I have done?” He waited to explain until the act was completed, partly to test their submission.