And supper being ended, the devil having 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 to God,  rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.  After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.  Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him,”Lord, are You washing my feet?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”

Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”  For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”

John 13:2-11 NKJV

A little bit of cultural background is appropriate here, Palestine is a very dusty region, and because  the Jews wore open sandals, visitors would often arrive to the home with dusty feet and as a part of Jewish courtesy and hospitality, servants would wash the feet of visitors and anoint them with  oil to refresh them. There are so many important lessons to learn from this story, for example we learn humility and service, in Jewish culture the washing of the feet of visitors to the family home was a task reserved for the lowest of the servants,

When Jesus undertook to wash the feet of the disciples they understood what he was doing and the thought of it was offensive to Peter , however what was Jesus really trying to teach the disciples? Was he instituting a practice for the disciples to practice or was there some deeper symbolic meaning to this common Jewish custom he was trying to get across?

The key to understanding this scripture lies in the actual words of Jesus.

Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”  For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘you are clean’ this is what I believe Jesus was trying to teach, I believe he was teaching  the importance of staying clean before the Lord, clean here refers to a state of freedom from the things that defile, that would be sin and all kinds of ungodliness.

Jesus told the disciples

You are clean through the words I have spoken to you

Paul the apostle alluded to the same cleansing experience when he said

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,  that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish

Eph 5:25-27 NKJV

The act of salvation cleanses us from all unrighteousness; it is a whole body experience

Do not be deceived. Neither  fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,  nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Cor 6:9-11 NKJV

What body is this? Certainly not our physical body, but our spirit man, now just like a Jewish person would leave home after taking his birth and have to walk through dusty streets to get around so the believer though he has being cleansed from his sin will in the course of living and life activities have to navigate the streets of life that are filled with all kinds of muck and dirt, all around us are things that defile, things that pollute, and the truth is that try as we may sometimes the dirt will stick and we will need to wash our feet.

How do we as believers wash our feet today? Certainly  not with soap and water but by the water of the word and by the blood of Jesus Christ.

The water of the word cleanses s from all the defilement that seeks to clog our spirits, coming through our eye gates, ear gates, affecting our senses and minds. When believers fail to do this regularly, sooner or later they accumulate debris, dirt and pollutants in their lives and it begins to affect their desire for God and spiritual things.

If we are sensitive,  we sense a dullness in our lives, but most often we don’t know why this is so.

Jesus wants to wash our feet daily as we seat at his feet.

However that is not the only way we cleanse ourselves, sometimes we need to apply the blood of Jesus Christ to our lives to deal with sins and misdeeds that we pick up in the course of life.

Our lives here are a journey or walk of faith, we make mistakes, or we fail to do what we should do, we must develop such a sensitivity to sin that we do not gloss over sins and say ‘its not a big deal’. Many times we classify sins into big sins and small sins, we gloss over the ‘small’ sins and say it does not matter, beloved it matters, God is holy, His word says nothing unclean will come into his presence. We must allow the Holy Spirit show us where we have done wrong, so that we may correct it.

Please understand that nothing justifies your sin, people may have wronged you and done badly by you but it does not justify your sin, I remember something that happened some time ago, a brother friend took some decisions that seriously affected me and brought my integrity to question with some people, I was very upset about it and my reaction was less than ‘right’.  I was praying the following day when the Holy Spirit began to show me how my reaction was sinful, not only that I saw that unbelief was at the root of my reaction, I wasn’t trusting the Lord to deal with the situation and make things work for my good.

I got into the flesh and did not walk in love towards that brother, wow! I had to repent and apologize to the brother, I had to wash my feet, they had picked up dirt in my life walk, thank God for the blood of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said

Unless He washes our feet, we have no part in him.

Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”  For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”

Thank God, we can find cleansing by the blood of Jesus Christ

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

1 John 1:8-10 NKJV

Please understand this, God is love but He is holy, I fear we have over emphasized the love of God and refused to recognize His holiness. All heaven proclaims his holiness, no believer with dirty feet will enter into His presence, brethren wash your feet as much as you can, you cannot be too clean.

WASH YOUR FEET!

The Lord will help us all in Jesus Name!