João 13

1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world He loved them to the end.*This appears to be a cover statement, introducing the rest of the book. What Jesus would do in the upper room, in the garden, on the cross, after the resurrection, were expressions of His love for His own. His love took Him through to ‘the end’, the last consequence—nothing was left undone. How could He return to the Father if He didn’t do all that had to be done? He had been sent to recover all that the first Adam had lost, and He did!

Jesus washes the disciples' feet

2 And after supper*Less than 0.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, read ‘during’ supper (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.), which confuses the account. There was an ordinary meal, and then the Passover ritual itself. The meal was basically over, but they couldn’t proceed with the ritual because they were ceremonially unclean—their feet hadn’t been washed (they were dirty from the dust of the road). (the devil already having put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him),*This editorial aside seems to interrupt the flow of the narrative, but John does this sort of thing in other places as well. However, it furnishes important background information for verse 27 below. 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given everything into His hands,*The Plan depended on Him, was "in His hands". For Him to know that He was "going to God" (end of verse) meant that He knew He was going to win. and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 He gets up from the meal and lays aside His garments,*The Text has ‘garments’, plural, so the rendering ‘robe’ doesn’t seem to fit. I gather that Jesus stripped down to a loincloth, or basic underclothing, which is what a servant might wear. Since He was about to perform the duty of a servant (that should have been there, but wasn’t), it was a graphic symbolism. and taking a towel He tied it around Himself. 5 Then He poured water into the basin*Yes, ‘the’ basin. When the Lord sent some disciples to prepare the room, they would not only have to be sure that there were thirteen couches, properly arranged [they did not sit on chairs, they reclined on couches, with their heads in toward the table, and so their feet would stick out—just right for washing], but also see to a basin, water and a towel, so that the necessary ceremonial washing could be performed. So this was ‘the’ basin that had been placed there on purpose. and began to wash the disciples' feet and to dry them with the towel with which He was wrapped.*Normally there would have been a servant there to perform the duty of washing feet, but I assume that the Lord had given instructions not to have one. There was an ongoing dispute among them as to who was the greatest (Luke 22:24), so naturally none of them was prepared to take the place of the servant. They could eat the meal with dirty feet, as they did, but not the Passover. I imagine that the situation began to get uncomfortable—it was time to proceed with the ritual, but first someone had to wash feet, and no one was offering. So finally Jesus Himself gets up.

Simon Peter

6 So He comes to Simon Peter, and he*The pronoun is emphatic. The picture seems to be that Jesus had already done several pairs of feet, whose owners had submitted in silence. But now it is Peter’s turn and he cannot take it (maybe he had a more tender conscience than the others). says to Him, "Lord, you wash my feet?!" 7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know [by experience] after this."*The Lord makes an important distinction here—He advises Peter that he doesn’t understand what is going on, as Peter proves the next time he opens his mouth, but in the future his knowledge on this subject will have been gained by experience. 8 Peter says to Him, "You will never ever wash my feet!!"*Peter loses it; his answer is totally without restraint. Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with me." 9 Simon Peter says to Him, "Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!"*Peter continues to demonstrate that he is not understanding, but his heart is in the right place. Faced with the possibility of being cut off from the Lord, he swings to the other extreme—now he wants a bath. 10 Jesus says to him: "One who is bathed has no need except to wash his feet, but is clean all over. And you (pl) are clean, but not all of you." 11 (He knew who was betraying Him; that is why He said, "Not all of you are clean.")

Jesus explains His action

12 So when Jesus had washed their feet and put His garments back on, He reclined again and said to them: "Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’, and you speak correctly, because I am. 14 So then, if I, Lord and Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 Because I have given you an example, so that you also should do just as I did to you.*First, we have the physical example of washing feet—those communities that practice foot washing have more basis for doing so than the rest of us have for not doing so (foot washing can be an important spiritual exercise). Second, we have the spiritual reality behind the example. The crucial point is in verse 10, "One who is bathed has no need except to wash his feet". Anyone who has been ‘washed in the blood of the Lamb’ has had his bath. But walking on the paths of life we get our feet dirty, we sin, and sin breaks our fellowship with God—you can’t go into the living room with dirty feet. We need the blood of Christ for our daily cleansing, upon which depends our fellowship and communion with Him—as He said to Peter, "If I do not wash [not ‘bathe’] you, you have no part with me". I regard Philippians 2:5-8 as a parallel passage: He took the form of a slave (verse 7), and His ‘work’ took Him to the cross, where He shed His blood, upon which both our salvation [bath] and daily walk [washing] depend.

16 "Most assuredly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his owner, neither is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you understand these things, you are blessed if you do them.*We have here a condition of fact—the Lord is assuming that they understand; it follows that it is not enough to understand—we must do, in order to be blessed.