In John 13:1-5 we realize that Jesus washing His disciples feet happens the evening before His death and He isn’t thinking of Himself , He is thinking of His disciples. Jesus just didn’t want to appear as a servant, NO, He gave himself completely to the work.
According to the traditions regarding a relationship between a teacher and his disciples a teacher could never ask a follower to wash his feet and here we see a teacher washing the feet of His disciples.
“With all things in His hands” friends, Jesus was no to preoccupied to still “lay aside His garments and take a towel”! Have you ever become preoccupied with your own stuff feeling that all things are in your hands and yet you notice that there is a need? Well here is what Jesus did. He laid aside His garments and took a towel of servant hood.
In Luke 22:24 as they entered the room we are told that “there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest” and by this action Jesus forever demonstrated true greatness. Did these fellows get the message? Well it appears so decades later, when Peter wrote to Christians about humility, he put it like this: “be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility” (1 Peter 5:5). Literally, that is “wrap the apron of humility around yourself.”
Jesus had said to His disciples recorded in Matthew’s gospel, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18), and here in verse 3 “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands.” What does He do with all that power and knowing that all things had been given into His hands? The power of the universe vested in Him? He goes over and He takes a towel and girds Himself.
In the span of five days two foot washings are mentioned, the first one took place at the house of Simon the leper where Mary took expensive fragrant oil and poured it over Jesus wiping what dripped off Him onto His feet with her hair. Now five days later Jesus who had been anointed by Mary is the one that washes the dirt off of His disciple’s feet just prior to teaching them. Remember that Luke tells us that just as they were coming into the upper room they were arguing which one of them was the greatest and yet Jesus still calls them His own.
Oh dear friends, aren’t you glad of that fact today, that as you came in here you may have been bickering and fighting behaving in a way that suggested that you are the greatest but Jesus still calls you His own even if we don’t always act as if we belong to Him? Not only does He call us His own today we are told that He also loves us “without limit” as that is what the words “He loved them to the end”.
So right off the bat today you have two great things to remember that even though these disciples came into that room with stinky feet and stingy hearts:
•He calls you His own
•He loves you without limit