“Unless I Wash You, You Have No Part With Me”
Jesus spoke these words to Peter as He washed the disciples feet during the meal we call the Last Supper, recorded in John 13: 2 – 11. During the meal, Jesus picked up a basin filled with water, stripped off His outer clothing, wrapped a towel around His waist, and began to wash their feet, an action normally performed by slaves. Traditionally in the Church, this act symbolized Jesus’ call to humility and service. While this is true, I think there is more than that in this passage.
When Jesus reached Peter with the basin and towel, Peter protested. “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” To this Jesus replies, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” And then Peter gets really upset. “No. You shall never wash my feet”, Peter implies.
Jesus answers Peter with these cryptic words, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” Cryptic, that is, unless we see them within the context of repentance and the cross, and then, at least to me, they make perfect sense.
Peter, still perplexed, answers Jesus, “OK Jesus, then go ahead and wash all of me – my hands and my head as well”. “That will not be necessary, Peter”, Jesus replies to him: “A person who has had a bath need only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean, though not every one of you”. This last phrase, “although not every one of you”, refers to Judas, who also had his feet washed by Jesus.
I believe that Jesus’ foot washing is about repentance, and how repentance is related to humility – and humility to service, because there can be no service, at least the type of service that Jesus is modeling, without humility.
Here are some relevant passages from the Old Testament to back up what I am thinking:
In Psalm 51, David is lamenting his terrible sins of adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uriah. David wrote:
“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me . . . Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51: 5 – 7).
David cannot cleanse the stain on his soul in his own power. David is calling upon God, really the Holy Spirit, to cleanse him with water and wash away the stain of sin. David is repenting and trusting that God will respond to his cry, making him “whiter than snow”.
The prophet Ezekiel wrote about repentance and washing away sins by the Holy Spirit, symbolized by washing with water.
“Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!” (Ezekiel 18: 30 – 32).
And then, later in Ezekiel, the prophet describes in more detail the new heart and new spirit God is going to give Israel (and us):
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanliness” (Ezekiel 36: 25 – 29).
Jesus is fulfilling these prophesies and demonstrating something very important about our walk with Him.
When we intentionally and whole-heartedly confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead we are saved (Romans 10: 9). This, as I have written many times, means that I am confessing that Jesus is the Lord of my life, not me. And to do that, I must repent.
When I repent and confess Jesus is Lord, the Holy Spirit circumcises my heart and cuts away my ‘sinful nature’ (Colossians 2: 11, 12). As I have discussed in a previous post, this means that the Holy Spirit cuts away my pride.
Paul tells us that now, with my pride cut way, and because of Christ’s death on the cross, God presents me holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation (Colossians 1: 22).
In other words, circumcision by the Spirit is another way of saying that I have been washed by the Holy Spirit. I have been cleansed of all impurities and “from all idols”, especially the ‘idol’ of self, which is pride. God puts His spirit within me. I am clean, pure, holy, without blemish (thanks to the washing), without accusation. All of my sins are forgiven. I have a new heart. All of me has been washed clean.
And this needs only be done one time. Like in my last post, this washing “by water and the Spirit” is what it means to be born again. I can only be reborn one time, in the same way my heart can only be circumcised one time.
This is what, I believe, Jesus means when He tells Peter, that once he has a bath his whole body is clean. Once we have been saved, circumcised, and brought into the Kingdom of God, God from that time on sees us as ‘clean’. The work of the cross is perfect.
Yet I still sin every day. Which brings us to the need to “have our feet washed”.
Although Jesus didn’t say you need to have your feet washed daily, I think by choosing the feet Jesus signifies an everyday necessity. People walked in bare feet or sandals during the time of Jesus in ancient Palestine. The environment was dusty and dry. Feet were always dirty. Given that cleanliness was important to the Jews, foot washing was a daily ritual.
It is our feet that come most directly in contact with the world around us. Sometimes, they carry us into places we should not go. Our feet are metaphors for the parts of our hearts that can get corrupted or defiled by the world, either because of our own choices or because of what the world does to us. When our hearts become dirty or defiled, they need to be washed and cleansed – frequently. Our hearts are washed and cleansed by repentance.
Have you ever had your feet washed? If your feet are weary and sore, dirty and smelly, it is very soothing to have them rubbed, massaged, and cleansed especially if the water is warm. More than the dirt is washed away. Foot washing leaves you feeling good – refreshed, even relaxed. And in the Upper Room it was Jesus who washed their feet. Leaving aside for the moment this amazing message of humility, when we bring our ‘dirty feet’ to Jesus in an act of confession and repentance, it is Jesus who washes away the dirt and replaces the dirt (our sin) with refreshing and rest. We cannot clean our own hearts. We must be washed by Jesus. And amazingly, He is willing to do it. In fact, He died on the cross so that He could wash us. And I think allowing Him to wash away our sins blesses Him. All we have to do is let Him.
True repentance is more than saying, “I repent of . . . “. It is that, but it is also having Jesus wash our ‘feet’. For us to truly and completely repent, we must give whatever it is we are repenting of to Jesus. Then, for repentance to be complete, Jesus must wash it away from our heart – He must take away whatever it is. It could be anger, resentment, shame, unforgiveness, fear, sin, or our participation in the occult. Whatever it is, Jesus must release us from the effects of these things on our heart and set us free. And as I wrote, only Jesus can do this; I cannot wash myself. When Jesus tells Peter, “Unless I (that is, Jesus) wash you, you have no part with Me”, He means that repentance requires some work by Jesus.
But if we do not come to Jesus in repentance and do not let Him remove the dirt, we “have no part with Him”. Repentance is essential for a relationship with Jesus. First, we repent one time so every part of us can be washed and our hearts circumcised; second, we repent daily. In other words, we repent and we are repentant. Both are necessary for an intimate walk with Jesus.
My “whole body is clean” when I come to Jesus in humility and confess Him as Lord. I am justified – one time. My feet are washed daily when I come to Jesus, repenting in a spirit of humility. This is the process by which I become more like Jesus – sanctification. In both cases, washed and cleansed by Jesus. Like David wrote, cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow”.
“Jesus, cleanse me, wash me, and I will be whiter than snow”. Once and daily; being and becoming. We look back at the work on the cross and we look forward to the work of the Holy Spirit.
There is no doubt that when Jesus washed the disciple’s feet, He was giving them a lesson in humility and selfless service. As I wrote above, only slaves performed this menial task. But there can be no humility where pride is present. And to remove pride, we must be born again by water and the Spirit; our hearts must be circumcised by Jesus. So, while Jesus was demonstrating humility and service, His other point was that we all need to be washed by the power of repentance – once for our whole body to be clean and then every day for the heart to be cleansed by the Holy Spirit.
And if we are not, we have no part with Him. Repentance is a big deal to Jesus!
I found this quote in the commentary on John written by Bruce Milne in “The Bible Speaks Today” series edited by John Stott. Speaking of the foot-washing in John 13, Mile writes:
“In a world desperately searching for the secret of community this passage speaks most powerfully. The personal and communal applications, however, cannot be separated. It is those who have been humbled at the cross, and come to Christ as helpless sinners seeking His cleansing (i.e. repenting), who are the raw material of the community of humble servants. The cross is both the way of salvation and the key to community” (pg. 199).
Amazed at His gifts and blessed by His community,
John