“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it 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 that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 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. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.””
On this Maundy Thursday, we read about Jesus’s well-known act of washing his disciples’ feet. At this point in Jesus’s life, he understood that he was about to be betrayed by Judas and that he would suffer. Jesus had been hated, envied, and trailed by the Jewish religious leaders, and now, his enemies were about to get their opportunity to try to silence and destroy Him. The disciples, meanwhile, could not understand or accept what Jesus had been telling them would happen to him.
Put yourself in Jesus’s position. If you knew that within a few hours you would experience the biggest trial of your life – a trial where you would feel abandoned by your closest friends and by God the Father Himself – could you think of your friends first?
In that very moment, our Good Shepherd thought of his helpless sheep. Jesus resisted the temptation to avoid what was coming or to despair about it. Even with this painful betrayal and suffering looming, Jesus thought of his disciples. Jesus counseled the disciples to prepare them to keep believing in him and to keep loving one. With hindsight, John stands in awe of this moment and writes: “[Jesus] loved them to the end.” (John 13:1.) If John had written in the first person, he could have said, “Jesus loved me to the end.” What an assurance that Jesus has never stopped loving his sheep! Even right now, Jesus continues to demonstrate his love for us by sending us comfort from the Holy Spirit and making intercession for us in heaven.
Consider also what Jesus did. Jesus humbled himself to the ground and modeled service by washing his disciples’ filthy feet. This made Peter (and probably everyone else) uncomfortable, but Jesus insisted it had to be this way (John 13:8) – much like our salvation required that Jesus be brought low and humiliated in our place. Jesus did not have to wash his disciples’ feet, or die for them, but he was willing. And further, he wanted his disciples to learn to do likewise, because they were not greater than Jesus.
Finally, remember that Judas was there. Jesus washed the feet of the man he knew was deceiving his friends and who would hand him over to the Romans and Pharisees. Was Jesus not living out his command to love your enemy and to bless those who persecute you?
As you think about the Last Supper and prepare for Good Friday, rest and rejoice in the strength and the certainty of Jesus’s self-denying, unending love for you.