THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Small Group Discussion Guide Text: John 13:1-16

Theme/ Big Idea: The Son of Man self-sacrificially serves.

Context/ Background Information: In John 12:23, Jesus announced his hour had come, and then he turned towards the cross. John 13-17 comprise what is known as the farewell discourse. John 13:1-30 serves as the introduction to Jesus’ farewell, while John 13:1-16 and the foot washing scene serve as a symbolic parable and summary of what is to come. Knowing his hour had come, just before the Feast of Passover, Jesus stooped to serve sacrificially. By doing so, he displayed the extent of his love and gave a foretaste of his coming humiliation on the cross. John 13:1-16 can be divided in three parts: 1) Jesus’ astonishing and symbolic action, 2) Peter’s strong reaction, and 3) Jesus’ gracious instruction to all who wish to follow him.

JESUS’ ASTONISHING AND SYMBOLIC ACTION In John 12:23, Jesus announced, “his hour had come.” As has been discussed, Jesus’ hour is a clear reference to the hour of Jesus’ death. As Jesus turns to private instruction with his disciples, “knowing that his hour had come,” John says, Jesus “loved his own…to the end.” This has a double meaning. It certainly means he loved them faithfully to the end of his death. But it can also be translated as Jesus “showed them the full extent of his love.” This means this famous scene with Jesus washing his disciples' feet has a larger purpose and meaning.

Indeed, Jesus washing the disciples' feet is both an example and a parable. It certainly teaches us about the humility of our Savior and the humility Jesus’ followers are expected to display, but it first points us to something greater. The micro-moment of the foot-washing anticipates the macro moment of the cross. The foot washing is a remarkable display of Jesus’ love for dirty, flawed individuals. And it points us to the greater story of the cross and Jesus’ display of love for dirty, flawed sinners. It is then that we have a firm foundation from which to humble ourselves and do the same.

Many have become so accustomed to the foot-washing story that it does not shock us. John is intent on his readers seeing, feeling, and knowing how astounding Jesus’ actions were. John says Jesus, “rose from supper…laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist…poured water in a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet.” The entire language of verses 4 and 5 is slow and deliberate. It is written from an eye witness perspective and intentionally draws the reader into the details of what is happening. Two specific things are shocking about Jesus’ actions. First, it is that he stooped to serve, and second it is who he stooped to serve. Both of these astonishing actions reveal that the foot washing is intended to point us to something greater.

First, consider that Jesus stooped to serve. As Craig Keener notes, Near Eastern “hospitality included providing water for guests to wash their feet (Gen 18:4; 19:2; 24:32; Luke 7:44) or providing servants to wash their feet.”(1) It was extremely rare, however, for hosts or people of prominence to actually wash the feet of their guests. Keener continues, “The most demeaning tasks performed by a household servant involved the master’s feet (washing the feet, carrying sandals, or unfastening thongs of sandals); to do such work was to be a slave.”(2) In fact, washing someone’s feet was believed to be beneath even Jewish slaves, and therefore it was a task reserved only for Gentile slaves.(3)

This is why Jesus’ stooping to wash his disciples’ feet in John 13:5 was so astounding. John notes that Jesus knew “that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God, and he was going back to God” (John 13:3). Jesus had just raised a dead man to life. He gave sight to the blind. He walked on water, calmed storms, healed a paralyzed man, and fed thousands. Jesus knows fully who he is, the authority he has, and the power he wields. He knows he is from the Father and returning to the Father. And yet, rather than wield his power and demand to be served, Jesus stoops to wash his disciples' feet.

But notice, secondly, who Jesus serves. These are not just any feet he is washing. These are the feet of men who will falter in their faith, who will struggle to pray through the night for Jesus, who will deny him three times, and who will scatter at his death. Even more astonishing is that one pair of feet belong to Judas, who already plans to betray Jesus. John makes clear that prior to anyone’s feet being washed, “the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas…to betray [Jesus]” (John 13:2). In other words, Satan fanned the embers of a heart that was already set against Jesus.(4) And yet Jesus humbled himself before Judas and washed Judas’ feet.

Although we might want to understand more about why and how Judas could betray Jesus, Judas is not the point. Jesus is the point. Jesus “knew who was to betray him” (John 13:10-11), and he still loved him. Jesus knew the disciples were jockeying for position (Matt 10:37) and that they would scatter and deny him, and he still loved them. Jesus humbled himself and served fallible, flawed, selfish men, and even his betrayer. This says far more about Jesus than it does about Judas or his disciples. It also says far more about the good news of the gospel than it does about Jesus’ ability to clean feet. This is the most astonishing thing about the foot- washing scene. Everything Jesus is doing in this scene anticipates Jesus’ greater humiliation on the cross. Jesus stooped to cleanse the disciples physically and rose to take his seat. On the cross, Jesus stooped to secure spiritual cleansing, and then he rose to take his throne. The washing of the disciples' feet was first intended to be a parable of Jesus’ great humiliation and the cleansing he offers in the cross.

PETER’S REACTION As is so often the case, Peter speaks up and says what everyone else is thinking, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” (John 13:6). “You” and “my” are placed next to one another in the original language adding extra emphasis; “Lord, do you my feet wash?” Peter is astonished. Rabbis, teachers, and masters were supposed to be served by their disciples, not the other way around. How much more ought the Messiah be served by his disciples rather than he serve them. Peter’s reaction confirms the shock that Jesus would stoop to take on such a menial task as cleaning dirty feet.

John says, “Jesus answered him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.’” (John 13:7). This is one of the primary clues that the foot-washing was a symbol that served as a prelude to the cross. Peter, however, will not have it. Like he did when Jesus announced his coming death on the cross (Mark 8:31), Peter rebuked Jesus sternly, saying, “You shall never wash my feet” (John 13:8). Peter’s response is an emphatic negative. Some scholars suggest the language Peter used was even more akin to an oath or promise. In other words, Peter emphatically declared, “I will never let you wash my feet!”

Peter’s reaction reflects the common human reaction to extraordinary grace. Peter is humble enough to recognize that the Messiah should not stoop to serve him. But Peter is prideful enough to rebuke him.(5) Peter recognizes the sovereignty of Jesus but seeks to retain some of his own authority. Like so many throughout history, it is easy to recognize Jesus’ great authority but difficult to receive his great sacrifice. The world’s pattern of receiving grace is to try and payback, to try and earn, to try and work, to try to climb up to God, to set the terms of the agreement. The Bible makes clear, however, and Jesus says in verse 8, we cannot climb up to God, he has come to us.

Peter’s rebuke receives the strong words of Jesus, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me” (John 13:8). Again we see that Jesus is first trying to communicate something spiritual. If Jesus does not humble himself to the point of a servant and rise to take his seat, then Peter has no inheritance in the kingdom of God (“share” or “part” are terms that mean inheritance). Jesus’ self-humiliation is the means through which Peter can be cleansed from sin. If Peter does not receive this free, unmerited, and sacrificial grace, then he cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Bruce Milne notes, “Like Peter, as long as we imagine we can get by without Christ’s cleansing we cannot be saved. Pride must perish. We are helpless sinners for whom no amount of good works, religious exercises, or Christian ministries can atone.”(6) The implications are profound. Unless Jesus willfully weakens himself to the point of death on a cross, there is no hope for Peter to find peace, hope, and life. And unless Peter humbles himself and accepts Jesus’ gracious, sacrificial death on Peter’s behalf, Peter will remain in sin.

In his zeal, Peter wrongly goes overboard, offering his whole body to be cleansed. “Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’”(John 13:9). Jesus uses this opportunity to turn the teaching and symbolism of the foot washing in order to make it clear that the cleansing he offers is once and for all. Jesus said, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean”(John 13:10). In this sense, Jesus is distinguishing between the once-for-all cleansing he secures on the cross and the ongoing life of repentance and sanctification of the believer. As D.A. Carson notes, “Individuals who have been cleansed by Christ’s atoning work will doubtless need to have subsequent sins washed away, but the fundamental cleansing can never be repeated.”(7)

JESUS’ INSTRUCTION This is not simply a parable of the cross and our way into the kingdom of God. It is also an example of how we are intended to live in the kingdom of God. Jesus asked the disciples, “do you understand what I have done for you?”(John 13:12). And then he says, “I have given you an example that you should do just as I have done to you?” Does this mean we ought to wash every person’s feet literally and physically? No, Paul says humble, self-sacrificial living ought to be the regular pattern and lifestyle of the follower of Christ.

In Philippians 2, Paul says, the act of stooping to serve ought to be our daily pattern of living. He says we ought to be "of the same mind, having the same love” as Jesus (Phil 2:2). This means in everything we ought to “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than [ourselves]”…looking “not only to [our] own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil 2:3-4). And then what does Paul point to in order to help us understand what this daily living looks like? He points to Jesus “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:6–8).

Jesus says all of this in John 13:13-17. He uses the disciples' own words to instruct them, saying, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet”(John 13:13–14). In other words, if the greatest among you, even the Messiah, stooped to serve so too must his disciples. Jesus instructs them by his life, actions, and now words that even the greatest humble themselves and serve. If Jesus does this, how much more ought we who are his servants and followers? Then Jesus teaches them that it is not enough to see and know they must humble themselves and serve; they must also “do” it. And he promised, “blessed are you if you do them.” This certainly does not mean they will receive payment for their actions. It means they will experience the life they were created and intended to live. For on the other side of death to self is life, and on the other side of humbling ourselves is joy.

Quotes To Consider: “Where there’s humility, there’s majesty; where there’s weakness, there’s might; where there’s death, there’s life. If you want to get these things, don’t disdain those.” —Augustine • “Thankfully, the gospel teaches me that dying is not an end, but a beginning. Indeed, on the other side of each layer of dying lie experiences of a life with God that are far richer, far higher, and far more intimate than anything I would have otherwise known.” — Milton Vincent • "Humility is freedom from the need to prove you are superior all the time…” — David Brooks • “The essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.” —Timothy Keller

Discussion Questions: 1. How does Jesus washing the disciples feet symbolize the coming humiliation of the cross? What similarities are there between Jesus descending to wash the dirty feet of flawed men and his descent to death on the cross for flawed sinners? 2. Jesus’ disciples faltered in their faith, struggled to serve him consistently, denied him, abandoned him at his death, and one even betrayed him. What hope and encouragement do you find in that Jesus graciously and sacrificially stooped to love and serve disciples who were undeserving? Read the good news of Romans 5:8. 3. How does Peter respond? Is it difficult for you to receive grace? Peter’s words are emphatic and can be translated as a promise, “I will never let you wash my feet!” What does Jesus’ response in verse 8 teach us about salvation by grace? 4. It is often difficult to serve people that are different, difficult, or that we feel are undeserving? What is our source of strength and power to love others regardless of circumstances? What does Paul say in Philippians 2:2-8? 5. How is humble, sacrificial service a picture of the gospel to the world?

Footnotes: 1. Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of John, Volume One & Volume Two, Reprint edition. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010). 903. 2. Ibid. 3. Colin G. Kruse, John, Revised edition. (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, 2017). 276; D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, (Leicester, England: Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1990). 462; George R. Beasley-Murray, John, Volume 36: Revised Edition, (Zondervan Academic, 2015). 233. 4. A. Schlatter, Der Evanglist Johannes (Stuttgart: Calwer, 1975). 279, quoted in D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, (Leicester, England : Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1990). 462 5. Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, ed. F. F. Bruce (Grand Rapids, Mich: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1971). 548. 6. Bruce Milne, The Message of John, Assumed First edition. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic, 1993). 198. 7. Carson, The Gospel According To John, 465.