Seven Meanings of the Foot Washing

Well, greetings, everybody! Good to see you all. And it is very soon up until the Passover.

We just have a few more weeks, and of course, every year, whenever we have a few more weeks for Passover, you can count on the messages being geared around that great event. And this is no exception to that. I'd like to turn all over of you to John 13, Book of John, Chapter 13.

And of course, this is one of the main passages we go to on the Passover night, looking at what happened on that night before his death. And we'll just read the account here. It says, Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that it was our Ecom, that is what was just described before, that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own, who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And so now we get to the account of the Passover and supper being ended. 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 he had come from God and was going to God. So this is the momentous events that are being described here, and with all of that, with all that he knew was about to happen. He rose from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel, and girded himself.

After that, he poured water into a basin, began to wash the disciples' feet, to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. And then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? And Jesus answered and said to him, What I'm doing, you don't understand now, but you will know after this. Peter said to him, You will never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said, Well, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. I'm all in. Jesus said to him, He who's bathed need only to wash his feet, but it's completely clean. And you are all clean, but not all of you. Verse 11, For he knew who would betray him. Therefore he said, You are not all clean.

So when he had washed their feet, taken his garments, sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I've done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord, your master and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you do these things, blessed are you, or happy are you, could be translated, if you do them. What is this all about? Well, it's interesting. I learned a while back, and I wasn't aware of this for a number of years that I was in the church, but I finally realized that there's a lot of church groups that actually practice foot washing. I actually, when I first came to the church and do the foot washing, it seemed like a very strange thing. This was not something that was very common. But as I have looked into the subject, I found that it is quite a common thing in all manner of Christendom. If you look at the Roman Catholic Church, they have this among the eldership, especially. There is some question among some of whether this should be something that the laity practices or it's the ministry, because they think it's Christ and his apostles did this. Some people think it's the leadership. Some do it like the whole church. It's congregational. And that's in Catholicism. You'll have some of that. You have this in Orthodoxy. You have this in Protestantism, in many different denominations, even of the Baptists, which I used to be a Baptist, and I found out that even some Southern Baptists do this. I was very surprised that that was the case. And a lot of times this is done in association with communion of the Lord's Supper, when they thank the Lord's Supper. And many people do that just every week. So then they have a special time that they do it around Easter and Holy Week. A lot of times this is part of Holy Thursday. And in fact, they call this Maundy Thursday, this event. Now, why do they do that? Well, first of all, they think that Jesus was crucified on a Friday, a good Friday. And so the night before was Thursday night, in their view. And so that makes that Holy Thursday. And so Holy Thursday is when they're remembering the Last Supper. And it's called Maundy Thursday because the Maundy, M-A-U-N-D-Y, is the foot washing. Maundy comes from, well, there's two possibilities.

One has to do with the word for begging, and that doesn't seem to make any sense.

The one that does make sense is that it comes from the Mandatum. And in fact, the foot washing is also called the Mandatum, M-A-N-D-A-T-U-M, and that means the command. The Mandatum, the mandate, the command. And it also, that does not just come from this, it comes from that night. Jesus also said, a new commandment I give you, that you love one another, is I have loved you, that you also love one another. And actually, these two things tie together. We'll get to that here in a little bit, but that's the idea, that this was the mandate, was to do the foot washing. Because Jesus said, if I wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. And, you know, if you do these things, if you know these things, happier you if you do them. It's also called the Pedilavium, by the way. That's a Latin word. Pedilavium, pedi means foot, and levium means washing, like in a labor. So the Pedilavium is the foot washing. These are different terms that you'll see for this practice. And frankly, I found, you know, having gone into this subject, that I remember when I first went into this subject, I was just thinking, well, there's going to be just a little bit about, you know, what we talk about commonly, is the aspect of humility. And there's another aspect to this, of spiritual cleanliness and uncleanness here, that I think is very obvious in the account, that definitely comes into play here. And I'm going to get into that as we go through this.

But actually, I found out there was a great deal more to all of this. Now, I want to stress that God does command this service. It is a mandate. It is a command. He does command this service. That is what He's telling them to do here, that they ought to wash one another's feet, just as He set the example for them in washing their feet. And He said, Happy are you if you do them. Now, the happy are you, you know, blessed are you, you see in Matthew 5 and the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who do these things, blessed are... or how happy are those who do these things. How happy are those who follow all of the things that are stated there. And obviously, all of those things are things that are supposed to be done. And this is something that's supposed to be done. How happy are you if you do them? You know, we're told in the Bible that happy are those who keep the law of God. And it is the way of happiness. And this is part of the law of God. And there's a great deal of meaning in this ordinance that was given for us for this night of the Passover. So what does the foot washing ceremony picture? What does the foot washing ceremony picture? I have seven things or areas, each with sub points. And there's a lot here, so I hope I will get through this. I'll actually try to go through this. As some parts of this quickly, as some parts I will go slower because it's where I want to add more focus to.

But this is a big subject. I mean, sometimes you might not think it's such a big subject. Because it seems like this sort of this odd thing that we do that has a little bit of meaning and there wouldn't be much more to say about it. And often there's not very much that's said about it, you know, aside from the humility aspect. But I want to go into a lot more on this. I've titled the message, Seven Meanings of Foot Washing. Seven Meanings of Foot Washing.

So here we go. Number one. Number one. And what I'll do is, by the way, is I'll give you these as the seven points. I'll give you as numbers. And then under them, I've got like A, B, and C. So I'll give them like that. And that way it'll be easier to keep track of this if you're taking notes. But number one, the first area of what it means is humility and loving service to others, showing humility and loving service to others. That's something that we've commonly said, and there's no doubt about it that that is absolutely correct. And point A under this, I want to give the point here of hospitality. Because that's what we're really talking about.

In biblical times, people had dirty feet, they wore sandals, and when they came to homes, people welcomed them in, and their feet were tired from walking, and they would give them water to wash their feet. And so they would be able to come in the house and not be all dirty with their feet, but also they would just be able to relax and be comforted by washing their feet. This is a very common thing we could turn back in Genesis, and I'd like us to do that. Turn back to Genesis. We'll look at several examples of this so we can see just how common this was in biblical times, that people would wash their feet. But in most of these examples that we will see, I want us to notice, and we'll talk about this here in a little bit more later with respect to another point, is that it was usually that people would wash their own feet, is what we'll see.

The host would provide them with water for that purpose. So we see this in Genesis 18, when the Lord and two angels visited Abraham. When they came there, it says in Genesis 18, in verse 4, Abraham said, actually in verse 3, My Lord, if I found favor in your sight, don't pass on by your servant. I mean, this is the way that you would talk to a guest or people coming through.

Please, verse 4, let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. So this is what was a common aspect of hospitality at that time. And just to see that it was very common, turn over the next chapter, chapter 19 of verse 2. And when the angels came to Sodom, we see Lot rose to meet them at the end of verse 1. And it says, and he said, Here now, my lords, please turn into your servant's house, spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go your way. And they said, No, we'll spend the night in the open square. Oh, no, we can't have that. I mean, that would be unacceptable. And by the way, hospitality was a very important aspect of life in the ancient world. It's still an important part of the Middle East, even among the Arabs and people over there today. But it was, you know, for travelers, there was just a common expectation that people were going to be hospitable to you when you came to an area that was an absolute must. And it's actually commanded in the law of God. Actually, chapter 24, if you will flip over a few more chapters, we'll see that when Abraham's servant went to get a bride for Isaac, it says in chapter 24 and verse 32. And it says, Then the man came to the house, and he unloaded the camels, and provided straw and feed for the camels and water to wash his feet, and the feet of the men who were with him. So again, there's this provision of water for people to wash their feet, and that was an important duty at that time. Chapter 43. You can see this in chapter 43 of Genesis.

Chapter 43 and verse 24. At the time when the brothers, Joseph's brothers, came down in Egypt, and there was this whole roost going on where they didn't really know who he was, and he was trying to test them. But it says in verse 24, So the man brought them in into Joseph's house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet, and he gave their donkey speed. So again, that was something that was done. It was done for two reasons. It was done for the guests, and it was done for the household, so that you wouldn't have a bunch tracked in, and also so that you would be able to, for the guests to be provided for and be relaxed. And also, turn over to Judges 19. A few books later, Judges 19. So we see what we were just reading was in the patriarchal period, and we move a little bit later into the time of the Judges. And if I can get there myself, Judges 19. And we'll look at verse 21. It says, again, just to read the verse, So he brought him into his house, gave fodder for the donkeys, and they washed their feet, and ate and drank. So this was a very common thing that people would do. And we see it even in the New Testament, if you turn over to Luke 7, that, and here's somebody's rebuked for not doing this, by the way. I'll show you this in Luke chapter 7. Remember the account where the woman got down and wiped Christ's feet and washed his feet with her tears and used her hair to actually wipe his feet? And this was this unbelievable scene. We see that in Luke 7 and verse 38. And the other people there were appalled at this. And this was Simon, whose house this was, thought, well, this guy can't be of God. He doesn't see what kind of woman he's dealing with here. Of course, she was very, she was forgiven, and she was very thankful and grateful to him, and she was showering him with this affection. And in verse 43, Simon said, because Christ had asked him, who is going to be more thankful, the one who's forgiven little or forgiven more? And he said, I suppose the one who was forgiven more. And he said to him, you've judged rightly. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman?

I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. But she washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. So this was, again, a common practice. But notice how he words it. You gave me no water for my feet. As we'll see, he doesn't say you didn't wash my feet. He said, she washed my feet. That was extraordinary. He's saying that you didn't even give me water so I could wash my own feet. You didn't provide for me like you should have provided for a guest in your home. That was the expectation of the time and this is what should have been done.

And if we'll turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 5.

1 Timothy chapter 5.

We will see that, and this is years after the example there at Passover, but this is here's a description.

of hospitality in the church. 1 Timothy chapter 5. And what we're talking about here is how these women are supposed to be. Those who are taken in as a widow into this number of people being supported by the church. If she at verse 10, if she's brought up children. Well, reported for good works if she's brought up children. If she's lodged strangers. So, again, this has to do with hospitality. You're supposed to be very hospitable. If she's washed the saint's feet. If she's relieved the afflicted. If she's diligently followed every good word.

Now, there's a question about the terminology here. I mean, did she literally wash saint's feet? I mean, everybody does that at Passover, we would expect. So, this is probably not talking about just observing the Passover. This has to do with just how you treat your guests. And it seems to say that they should be washing the saint's feet when they would be visited by these other saints.

But, again, we don't know exactly what the term meant in this context. It could be that this was sort of a metaphor for serving other people because of the example that Christ gave at the Passover. I'm not saying that we don't do this literally. And I'm not saying this doesn't mean that that's what was literally done. Although, this may be more broad. This may be a broader term than just referring to foot washing in this context. It may have to do with a broader service going on for those who are visiting. But the key is to show hospitality. That's the immediate context there. You're lodging strangers. You're washing the saint's feet. You're doing things for other people.

And, of course, this is the overriding thing here when we see what we're talking about.

Is that we must help others who are in need. That is the key. People need their feet washed.

They need help of whatever kind. They need to be provided for. They need to be shown hospitality. They need to be cared for. We're told in Galatians 6 verse 2, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. We are to bear one another's burdens. We are to help one another. That is the main...not just...we're to do what we can. Let me put it that way. It's not just...there's another passage where it says, he that sees somebody in need and doesn't give them what is needful. How does that profit? We can pray for people and that's important. We must. But if there's more that we could do, then we need to do that. Now, this has to be on balance because you could totally expend yourself in going out and trying to take care of every problem in the world and that's not what was meant here. But there has to be a giving spirit. And certainly, as people come to you...this is talking about people coming into your household, into your sphere. You are to extend the helping hand and help them. And that's part of the lesson in this idea of providing in the foot washing. And of course, we're also told in chapter 10 of Galatians 6, Galatians 6 10, that we are to do good to all people, but especially those of the household of faith. We have a responsibility to care for everybody in the world, but we have a particular duty to care for our brethren in God's church. And that is why we...even here, you see a delineation. She's lodged strangers, but she's washed the saints' feet. This is a special service that she is devoting. She's not just providing water in that case. She's providing a special service for the membership of the church. And this has to do, again, with showing a special devotion that we need to have in being very hospitable to others. So that's A, and I'll go to B.

B under this broad...again, we're under the broad category of humility and loving service to others. And so B under that is lowliness of mind. We saw hospitality, but now let's...we have a different aspect to this, and you can see how there's different aspects of this. Yes, we need to be hospitable, but another aspect of that is lowliness of mind. We are to actually not be exalted in our own minds. We are to humble ourselves. We are to have lowliness of mind. This, you know, we often have heard was the job of a slave. And in fact, when it says that Jesus burdened himself with a towel, the idea there is that he was clothing himself in the garb of a slave, that he took off his outer tunic and he wrapped the towel around him. And so basically, he now looked like a slave because that's what you do. I mean, a domestic service, you'd have something like this going on. But it's actually quite remarkable because in research I've done, I think it's...you know, because we say, well, normally...I've seen it quoted well, well, normally a servant would be provided to wash guest's feet in a home. I do not believe that is true. I do not believe normally a servant would be provided to wash guest's feet. And I'll tell you why I don't believe that. There's a Jewish source called the Makilta. And in one of the tractates in this resource called Nezukin, the tractate Nezukin in the Makilta, says this, a Hebrew slave...now there's a difference. You've got the Hebrew servants who are basically indentured servants and there's laws given about Hebrew servants in the law of God. But it says, a Hebrew slave shall not wash his master's feet, shall not put on his shoes for him, shall not carry his garments for him when he goes to the bathhouse, shall not support his hips when he's climbing stairs, shall not carry him in a litter, a chair or a sedan chair as slaves do. It says, but one's child or disciple may do so. A Hebrew slave cannot be made to work in anything other than his usual trade or work in a trade in which he must serve the public. This is a very interesting statement about how this was was done at that time. So, slaves were to be used for economic purposes, one source says, not for creature comfort. This is not...in the law, the way you dealt with Hebrew slaves again were they were indentured servants, they were considered brethren because they were Hebrews, they were Israelites, and if they had become indentured to you as a servant, you were not to dehumanize them, you were to preserve their dignity, you were not to be just using them for whatever, they were basically, you know, doing some kind of job. They took on some kind of trade.

Now, they might be involved in domestic service, but even in that sense, they were not expected to wash their master's feet, and he couldn't tell them to wash somebody else's feet. That is remarkable if you think about it. Another web source states, in terms of foot washing, that was the responsibility of a servant. It was a Gentile servant's job because it was too lowly of a job even for Jewish servants, soiled with unclean dirt, which would subject the Jewish servant to uncleanness.

I don't know that it was, that was really the problem. I think it's more the fact that this, again, was an indentured servant who was not supposed to be able to just be told to do these these things. So, if you think about it, if you had a Hebrew servant, you're not going to just have them wash people's feet. So, it would need to be a foreign, a Gentile slave. Well, who has foreign Gentile slaves? I would submit that this was something that only the wealthy would have.

So, this would not be very common in a household, that you would have a foreign Gentile slave to do this. So, this was a rarity, is the way I look at this, that you would have some kind of servant set up to wash people's feet. So, there was not, I don't believe, this idea that when, you know, that it was this common idea that they would come to the house and somebody would just wash their feet. They would be given water to wash their own feet. That, I believe, was the norm, unless you were in some rich person's house who had a Gentile servant who he could order to do that. Now, evidently, it says, though, that a disciple or child or maybe, you know, even a wife and a family, somebody might wash the feet of somebody else. But that would be more of a willing thing and it would be not because they were being forced to, because they were an indentured servant.

That would not be allowed under these regulations. So, I find that very interesting and I think that definitely plays into what's what was going on here. Because Jesus, then, for him to do what he did, it was utterly unthinkable. I mean, he is the master in this, you know, rabbi and disciples relationship. That's one thing that was unthinkable. But also, it was just unthinkable that a Jewish man would just go down to do this. This was something that you would only see being done by a Gentile servant, a Gentile slave, and that is pretty astonishing.

We are, as we're told in Philippians 2, verse 3, to esteem others better, you know, than ourselves. We are to not exalt ourselves. We are to esteem others better. And, of course, I'm just going to give you several references for some of these things, because otherwise I'll be here all morning and far into the afternoon. Of course, Jesus also said that we must abase ourselves to be exalted. He that is exalted will be abased. He that is abased will be exalted. That we don't seek out the chief seats. Remember, we seek out the low positions, and then we're moved up to the higher places. We don't go to the high places, so we'll get put down. Matthew 23, 12 tells us that we are to abase ourselves to be exalted. Remember the attitude of John the Baptist when Jesus came to him to be baptized. We find this in John 1, 27, where John said, you know, I'm not worthy to lose sandals. I mean, he was not worthy. He didn't feel himself worthy to lose Christ's sandals, much less to perform this baptism there. And really, that's the attitude we should have, brethren. I mean, this is the idea that we should have. We should abase ourselves, esteem others higher than ourselves. We are to look on others as higher than us.

There's an interesting quote I have here about Peter. This is in an article called, Cleansing of Feet, a Cleansing of Hearts. This is from the Anglican Community News Service.

I'll try to give you the date on this. This was in Anglican Journal, September 1998.

I think that this was an interesting wording about this episode that happened with Christ and Peter. It says, you see, Peter has a sense of hierarchy. Remember, you say, you won't wash my feet.

You see, Peter has a sense of hierarchy. There are people at the top and people at the bottom.

He is quite prepared to wash the feet of Jesus. He would do that.

That is quite a normal and natural situation. Well, I'm not sure that it is, by the way, but there was an idea of subservience of a disciple to a master because you had willingly put yourself into a situation like that. This wasn't the same as a situation of indentured servitude.

It says, you know, he would wash his feet. He would probably like people to wash his feet.

That is to say, he has a sense of what all our societies are about, the vision of a pyramid. There are a few people at the top and a minced number right at the bottom. Those at the bottom are the useless ones. People with disabilities, people maybe who are mentally sick, people out of work, immigrants, whatever it might be. But the idea was, well, you know, he's going to be one of these rulers in the kingdom, Peter was, and so he could see that, you know, somebody, some low person could come wash his feet, but not Christ, who was the king above him. That was an unthinkable situation, not to be done. I just thought that was a very, you know, interesting idea there, that he's totally missing the point, that Christ abased himself to that point. That brings us to point C under this first idea of humility and loving service to others. Point C is servant, leadership, servant, leadership. Turn over to Luke 22. We talked about this a few weeks ago. Luke 22 at the Passover. We don't know exactly when this argument happened, but it happened sometime during the Passover. I prefer to think that this happened before the whole foot washing episode. There's some confusion because of the way this is worded right before this gives you the account of the bread and wine, and then you have this argument recorded. And I prefer to think that the argument happened before the foot washing. And maybe the argument is what instigated the foot washing. In other words, it may be what led to it. But we don't know for sure.

But it's certainly true that if this argument happened after the foot washing, that would mean they completely were oblivious to the point Christ was making in the foot washing. Verse 24 of Luke 22, there was a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest.

Jesus said to them, the kings of the Gentiles exercised lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors, helpers of the people. But not so among you. On the contrary, he who is greatest among you let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. Or who is greater, he who sits at the table or he who serves.

It's not he who sits at the table, yet I am among you as the one who serves.

But you are those who continue with me in my trials, and I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as my father bestowed one upon me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But when you do, what is he saying? You are to be as one who serves. We are called to be slaves, and I'll just reference for you Matthew 20, verses 25-28, basically tells us a lot of the same thing here. That we are not to be lording it over people, we are to be servants to other people. We are to be giving to them, and we are to be doing what we can to help others, not to serve ourselves.

And by the way, rule on this context, the way that rulership goes, because I mentioned before, there's a certain authority structure in the church, and certainly there's an authority structure in the kingdom of God when we are in the kingdom, we'll be in different positions of responsibility. But rule within the church of God and in the kingdom of God, the higher you are, the higher up you are, meaning the more people over whom you are governing directly, that means that you have that many more people to serve and to give to. You are to help that many more people. It's not about that many people looking to you, it's about you looking to what you can do to help all these people that you're serving. You're to be leading them, yes, but leading them not for yourself, but for them. And that is a big part of the lesson in all of this. I want to read the rest of part of this quote I was just reading to you from this article out of the Anglican Journal. It says, when Jesus is washing the feet of the disciples, he is cleansing their feet to show that he wants to cleanse their hearts. And I will get to that here in a moment, because that's true. But also, Jesus is there on his knees as a servant, as a slave, to be there for us. He is teaching us how he wants us to exercise authority, not from the top of the pedestal, but close to people. Confirm them, call them forth, empower them, help them to grow to freedom in truth. Jesus is reminding us that henceforth we must look downward, because God is hidden in the weak and the poor and the disabled. I want to mention more about that in just a moment. God is in the body. He is saying, Be attentive to the littlest, to the weakest, to the poorest, to those who are the most broken, for I am living there.

We want to be in communion and sharing fellowship with one another. We love each other. We may have divergences in vision, divergences in theological questions. This is normal. We come from cultures and backgrounds that are very different. Each one of us, we have our character traits.

Jesus is saying something about communion, that is fellowship and sharing together, how to be with each other with words that are not flowing from our woundedness, our darkness, and our need for power and superiority, but from a desire for oneness. Oneness is not exclusion of difference. Oneness is not fusion. We are to come together. We are all called to be small.

The camel cannot go through the eye of the needle, but we who carry authority and power, in some way we are called to be like little children, and we are called to serve each other in rectitude and in truth as Jesus. And as we become small, then maybe we can go through the eye of the needle. I thought that was very, very good. We are called to become small, that is in our own eyes, and that's what makes us great. If we're small, that's what Jesus was saying. He that would be the greatest, let him be he as the one who serves. The one who serves more, that's what makes you great, is the more you lower yourself in helping others.

Point D under this first aspect of humility and loving service to others is forgiving one another.

Forgiving one another. When you think about the foot washing, it really breaks pride. You say, I don't forgive this person, but when you have to actually get down and wash their feet, this helps you to do that, brethren. And if we think about the symbolism of foot washing of helping others and doing things for other people, not just the literal foot washing, but beyond that what it means, all of this helps to break pride. And it fosters reconciliation. It helps us to come together.

It lifts others to our level, as Christ has lifted us. That's what we were just reading.

It lifts other people up to where we are because we are willing to do something for them and to take care of their need. And Christ was willing to take care of our needs, despite how high he was. He came down to us and he lifted us up to where he is. Point number E under this is that we are honoring all without partiality. We're honoring all without partiality. You think about it the way the foot washing works. You know, it can be anyone. It's not just your favorites. You're not going to get it all lined up so that you can make sure that you wash it. You know, you just sit there and whoever it turns out to be, that's who it is. And Christ washed all the disciples' feet, by the way. Even Judas' feet. He actually washed Judas' feet, the one who betrayed him.

Now, the body of the church is made up of individual bodies of people, and all of us are the temple of God's Holy Spirit. We read that in numerous passages in Scripture. The church is the temple, but we, our body, is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And in this temple of ourselves, the feet is the lowest part. That's the lowliest part, the lowliest members. And we read about the lowliest members over in 1 Corinthians 12. Look, it's turned over there. 1 Corinthians 12.

1 Corinthians 12, verse 21 through 23. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor can the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Oh, the head's important, so it says to the feet, I don't need you. No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable on these we bestow greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty. So there is a, again, when we think about this, when we wash somebody's feet, I mean, that's helping them as an individual. But it's also symbolic of something else going on here. Here, you know, you're washing the lowly part here in that sense.

And this goes to the whole symbolism of serving the members of Christ. We are members of the body. We think of that as just membership in a church organization, but if you really think about it, we are, when it talks about members, the word members is talking about arms and legs and, you know, hands and feet. That's what it's talking about, and it says we are members of Christ.

We are members of the body of Christ. We are an extension of Christ in that sense.

We are His hands and feet that is supposed to be doing and helping in this world, and we are serving Christ in that sense because we are serving the members of Christ.

And we're told this in Matthew 25 as well. I'll just reference this for you. In Matthew 25, you know, is where it says, you know, those people were rewarded who were helping other people. And he says, He who's done it to the least of these my brethren has done it unto me.

If you've served some member of the God's church, you say, well, when do we do this? Well, whenever you serve these other people, Christ said, you serve me. Whenever you didn't serve these other people, you were withholding from me. So when we serve other people, especially when we serve His brethren in the church, we are serving Him and the Father.

And we're also told in John 13, that account where we just were, actually, let's look back there, John 13. John 13 and verse 20. Right after the foot washing, Jesus said in verse 20, most assuredly I say to you, He who receives whomever I send receives me. And he who receives me receives him who sent me, the Father. So if you receive one whom God has sent, you receive in Christ, and the Father. And God has sent us all, brethren, and we are to receive one another. And in doing that, we are receiving Christ and the Father. And we are doing so without partiality. This is the family of God, and we are all members of Christ. And that is the beauty of this awesome picture.

Point F under this is following Christ's example of loving service. Following Christ's example of loving service. Philippians 2. Let's flip over there. Philippians 2.

It's a big part of all of this. And we talked about this several weeks ago. We talked about the Christ becoming a human being. Philippians 2. And we'll read here verses 5 through 7. Let this mind, and we just noticed, by the way, above that, where we're told to esteem others higher than ourselves. That's in verse 3. Let each of you look at verse 4, not only for his own interest, but also for the interests of others. That's part of this. Verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it...well, this is the wrong wording here, but basically the way this should in the New King James. But it should say here, did not consider equality with God something to cling to, something to hold on to, but he let it go. Verse 7. But made himself of no reputation, or he emptied himself, which is literally taking the form of a bondservant, or a slave. He became a slave. He girded himself with a towel. Yes, he came as a slave when he came to serve humanity in doing what? And coming in the likeness of men. In verse 8, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

That's what Jesus did. He went all the way from way up as high as you can be to as low as you can be.

And he did it for us. He set the example of loving service. And so in doing the foot washing, we are following his example of loving service. And he washed the feet, literally. And he said, as I've done this, you ought to do it for one another. But of course, it's symbolic of something bigger, because also in that night, John 15, he said, greater love is no man than this, than he laid down his life for his friends. And that's what he did. He laid down his life.

And in verse, and in John 13, let's look at John 13 again. I want us to flip back over there.

Probably keep you have you stay, keep your place there, because we'll come back to this a few times.

In John 13, you know, it says here in John 13 and verse, you know, well, we have the first part is about to put washing. But then, what I mentioned to you earlier about a new commandment in verse 34, notice what he says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. By the way, that was what was new. Some people think, well, Jesus was inventing a new commandment, not really, in one sense. I mean, he was telling them to do all the things they'd always been told to do. But the new thing that he's saying here is, as I have loved you. In other words, you see the example I set, you are to follow that. So you're going to love one another as I have loved you that you also love one another. And how interesting it is how closely that corresponds with what he just said about the foot washing. He said, in verse 14, 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 should do as I have done to you. And notice again, verse 34, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

This is exactly parallel. You see how these are almost the same way of putting this together.

And that's why the one symbolizes directly the other, is very clearly what he is telling us.

Now, he set this example, by the way, not just to wash people's feet at Passover, but to live this way all the time. This is how we are to live. Not that we're to literally wash feet for people all the time. We didn't do that in our society today. But it symbolizes the fact that we should be helping people and doing whatever is necessary to fulfill their needs. And if it did include actually washing people's feet today, we would need to be willing to do that. And we do literally do that at the Passover, and I think it's right that we do.

But I would like you to turn over to 1 Samuel 25, because all the examples I gave to you earlier of foot washing were examples of people who were being provided water so that the guests could wash their own feet. But we do have an example of a statement, at least, and I don't know, again, whether we take this statement literally or not. Maybe this is a figurative way of speaking. But certainly, the willingness was there. We find this from Abigail. If you remember her, this is 1 Samuel 25. She was the wife of Nabal, who was the fool who didn't do what he was supposed to do with helping David and his men. And later David took this woman, Abigail, as one of his wives.

But 1 Samuel 25, verse 41, she showed herself a very good servant to King David and his men. She says in verse 41 of 1 Samuel 25, Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord.

Think of that. Think of the wording of that. Think of Christ as the King and the servants of the Lord, and being a servant to wash the feet of the servants of our Lord.

That is what we are all to do. We are to have that attitude that she had.

Again, I don't know if she was talking literally or just maybe that was a figurative way of speaking, of showing hospitality and kindness on this scale.

Number 2. Wow, we're at point 2. I'd better pick up the pace here, but we're at point 2.

Being cleansed from our walk in this world. This is a very interesting aspect of this. Being cleansed from our walk in this world. Back over to John 13.

In John 13, we see this discussion again that Christ was having with Peter. If you look at the words here, Jesus says, well, Peter said, well, you won't wash me. And Jesus said, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me. By the way, if this was only about humility, if the foot washing only had to do with humility, if that's all it had to do with, then Peter would have been commended for telling Christ not to wash his feet. If you think about that. Because if somebody comes and tries to serve you in a way that you don't really think they need to do, you could tell them, no, I don't need you to do that. I can take care of this myself. That's a normal thing that we would all do. And that would be better than us having this expectation that somebody's going to come and help us. There's more than just this idea of humility. Because again, if it was just that, that would have been the right thing to say, hey, no, I don't want you to wash my feet because I can take care of that myself. Or maybe you don't really need to do that for me. I don't need that.

But he did need that. That is the important part. And he said, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me. And he said, well, not my feet, only but my hands and my head. And Jesus said, he used bathe and he's only to wash his feet, but it's completely clean. The word bathe is a different word than washed. And the word bathe is from a word, luo. And it has to do with actually, you know, completely taking a bath. Like if you think of when the Jews did immersion, which became baptism, basically, it was a full immersion. And he says, you need only to wash. And that's the word is nipto. And this is actually just a regular wash, just like a hand washing or a light washing. It's not being completely bathed. That's all that's needed in that case. He's saying you don't need this full thing.

We say, well, this is just talking about the fact that they had already, you know, taken a bath.

And they just need to wash their feet. So this is only a physical thing, but it's not only a physical thing because of what he says next. He says, he and you are clean, but not all of you. And it says in verse 11, for he knew who would betray him. Therefore, he said, you're not all clean.

Did he mean one of you hasn't taken a bath? That's not what he meant.

It says he knew who would betray him. This is talking about spiritual uncleanness. This is talking about a wrong mindset and sin. The Jewish practice, by the way, at that time was to wash the hands and the face before you would partake of meals. And actually, there was even a further purification. People would get purified before they would do the Passover. We'll look at that maybe if we have time. But we're obviously talking here about spiritual cleanness. So I believe this has to do with the fact that God's people, as God's people, our sins are washed away at baptism. We are cleansed at baptism and we are purified. And then that's done away with.

But of course, we go on and we still do wrong things and we pick up problems.

And so that needs to be dealt with on a regular basis. And that's part of this.

Point B under this, under being cleansed from a walk in this world, is that God's way of life is described as a walk. God's way of life is described as a walk all through the Bible. I'll just give you a few examples here. I won't have you turn to them. I'll just reference them. Genesis 5, 22, and 24, talks about Enoch who walked with God. God told Abraham or Abram in Genesis 17, walk before me and be perfect. In Deuteronomy 5, 33, and Deuteronomy 26, 17 through 18, talks about the fact that we're to be walking in God's ways and keeping His commandments.

Micah 6, 8, what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with God? Psalm 94, 18 actually says, if I say, my foot slips, your mercy holds me. So our feet slipping is compared to a sin and not continuing in the walk. So this is a metaphor that continues on and on through the Bible. Point C under this broad category of being cleansed from a walk in this world is a point about ritual cleansing. Something interesting on this. I'd like you to turn back to the book of Exodus because being washed recalls these ritual cleansings that were done. Baptism itself is a ritual cleansing that we undergo. By the way, the ritual cleansing that was done under the law was done either with blood or with water or with fire. These were various aspects of the cleansing that were done. I want to look at a couple here. Exodus 29 and verse 20 says, this is talking about being cleansed with the the priesthood being cleansed with the blood, and you shall take some of the blood that's on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments. I'm sorry, I'm on verse 21. I meant to go to verse 20. To kill the ram, take some of its blood, put it on the tip of the right, tip of the right ear of Aaron. We think that symbolizes the hearing. This is whether they're going to hear God. This is interesting. There's got to be some symbolism in here. You're going to touch the blood to the right ear so you might make sure you hear God. On the tip of the thumb of the right hand, that's your right hand, and we know that the hand symbolizes your actions. This is whatever you are able to grasp with your thumb, whatever you're able to take with your hand and do.

And on the big toe of their right foot. Of course, that gives them balance for their walk. You see, again, we're looking at this in a metaphoric sense, and we're talking about cleansing of the feet and sprinkle blood around the altar. So that blood cleanses them in these various places, and we see this done as well with the oil. There are other examples of this.

I won't go to them all, but I would like you to turn to chapter 30 now, right after this, and see something else here. This is verses 17-21. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, You shall make a laver, a wash basin of bronze, with its base also of bronze, for washing.

You shall put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.

For Aaron and his son shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it. So they had to wash their hands and feet. When they go into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord, they shall wash with water, lest they die. They shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die. Notice that. They will purify their hands and their feet. And it shall be a statute for ever to them, to him and his descendants throughout their generations. It's interesting when this was first done, by the way, because if you look over in chapter 40, we see when this was set up, in chapter 40, verse 11, God said to Moses, and you shall anoint the laver and its base and consecrate it.

Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and wash them with water. You do that, Moses. You bring them to the door and you're going to wash them with the water from the laver. And remember, they had to wash their hands and feet before they would enter into this service. You shall put the holy garments on Aaron and anoint him and consecrate him, that he may minister to me as priest. Then you shall bring his sons and clothe them with tunics. You will anoint them as you anointed their father, that they may minister to me as priest, and their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generation. Thus, Moses did, according to all the Lord, to command him, so he did. And we skip down to verses 30 to 32, and it says, he set the laver between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar, put the water there for washing, and Moses, Aaron, and his sons would wash their hands and feet with water from it. Whenever they went into the tabernacle of meeting, when they came near the altar, they washed as the Lord commanded Moses. So this is what they did. And the first time this was done, Moses washed them.

And Moses was the mediator of the old covenant, by the way, and how interesting this is, that Jesus Christ, in mediating the new covenant, that he reached down, of course, and washed the feet of his disciples before sending them out on their commission as his representatives.

You had to be clean, by the way, to take the Passover. Turn to Numbers, chapter 9, because we see in Numbers, chapter 9, and this is in verses 6 through 11. Now there were certain men who were defiled by a corpse, so they could not keep the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses, there in that day. And those men said to them, well, we've become defiled by a human corpse.

Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Lord at its appointed time among the children of Israel? And Moses said to them, stand still, that I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel, saying, if any one of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is away on a journey that has to do with the ceremony of the Fama, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the Lord's Passover on the 14th day of the second month at twilight. They may keep it, so they would be able to take the second Passover if they had this defamment. And we see also something like this happen in 2 Chronicles 30, if you'll flip over there. 2 Chronicles 30. 2 Chronicles 30. We read here in verses 15 through 20.

Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs at the time of Hezekiah. On the 14th day of the second month, the priests and the Levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves and brought the burnt offerings to the house of the Lord because they had been an uncleanness issue. They stood in their place according to the custom, according to the law of Moses, the man of God, the priest sprinkled the blood received from the hands of the Levites. For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves. Therefore the Levites had charged the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was not clean, who sanctified them to the Lord. For a multitude of the people from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not cleansed themselves because they got the word later and they came there. Yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he's not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary. And the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people. But clearly this was what they were supposed to be purified before they were taking of that Passover. And let's turn over to John chapter 11. And by the way, I'm going to actually... I think I'm going to... I will conclude with this point, and so I'm going to have to continue this subsequently. And I don't know when I'll give another sermon, so it may be after Passover. But since I've explained to you that the whole idea of foot washing transcends just the Passover itself, it has to do with the whole way of life of washing one another's feet and caring for and helping one another, that there's a much broader picture here. But it'll be... we'll get some of this at least for this time.

And we'll be able to have the bulk of this as we go through, because I definitely want to go through all of this with you, because I don't want to totally rush this as I might, trying to get it all in before the Passover, because I think this is important. It's very important stuff for us to keep in mind, not just for the Passover for our whole Christian lives. But John 11...

John 11, we read here in verse 55.

And the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. So that's what people did before, of course, they would take the Passover. They would go through the ritual washing and so forth, and they would be purified. And we see something that happened in John 18. You know, the Jews of Judea were actually keeping the Passover one day late. They were keeping it at the beginning of the 15th, and that's a whole different subject. We heard a little bit about it last time, but they were keeping it one day late on the 15th.

But in doing that, there's an interesting point made here in John 18, verse 28. It says, then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium. It was early morning. That was after the actual Passover meal, but it was before when the Jews would take their Passover that night. So it says, but they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, that they might eat the Passover. They didn't go into this Gentile area, because they did not want to contract a defilement and not be able to keep the Passover.

So that's a very interesting fact. And on that note, I want to read to you something that I find very interesting about the Jews of that day as well. This is from a book called The Splendor of the Temple by Alec Girard. It has a couple notes here about when people would be cleansed before they would enter into the temple. Here's what it says on page 34. On the southern side of the court of the Gentiles, just inside the whole of the gates, were situated under the...

By the way, this information comes from the Mishnah, by the way, the oral tradition of the Jews. Just inside the whole of the gates were situated underground chambers where people could take sacred baths, which was compulsory for all who entered the temple court. They had to do the mikvah.

They had to go and immerse themselves in a full immersion for coming into the temple. Wershbers had to immerse themselves completely to be made ritually clean. There were two bathing chambers, one for the men, the other for women, and also a well from which water could be drawn for drinking, washing, and cooking. So you think, well, that's very interesting.

They had to immerse, but that's not all they did. Now, this is on page 49. I want us to notice this. It says, outside each of the gates that led into the temple court were places for people to wash their feet. Everyone had to wash in the sacred baths. That is, they had to do the mikvah, right, before entering the temple court. That was a complete immersion.

But after leaving the baths, they could possibly become defiled again by walking in the steps of someone who was unclean. As a precaution, worshippers usually wash their feet a second time before entering the temple courts. So this was the practice of Jesus' day, is that people would be bathed, but then they would only need to wash their feet before they would go into the temple courts, the courts of God.

Isn't that interesting? I mean, that is a very close parallel to the point being made. But of course, a lot of these people had invented all the way they did their rituals, and they got carried away with that. But the idea of being purified before taking the Passover was a valid point. And certainly, Christ was making the more important spiritual point about all this, but he did it through the foot washing, and he made many, many important points. And we've only covered two of them, and there's five more to go.

And I assure you, they are every bit as valid as what we've covered. But I want us to realize that there is a lot to this matter of foot washing, and we will continue this in another message. But I think that it is important for us to realize that when we are washing one another's feet, we are practicing love for one another, and we are also being purified. Christ is washing us from our walk in this world. And he's doing it through our brethren, by the way. We'll talk about this a little bit more later, that we as the church act as Christ's agents to cleanse one another from our walk in this world.

But we'll explore more about this as we go, and I am sure that you'll be doing a lot more study of this on your own.