Jesus: Healing Hippie or Messiah? | Sunday, January 3, 2021

Hey there, Cross Connection. This morning, we're going to be in John Chapter 13. We'll primarily look at verses 1 through 17 at the beginning, but we will range far afield after that. For now, let's read through John Chapter 13, verses 1 through 17.

Before the Passover festival, Jesus knew that the hour had come to depart from the world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Now, when it was time for supper, the devil had already put into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot's son, to betray him. Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God.

So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered him, "What I'm doing you don't realize now, but afterward you will understand."

"You will never wash my feet," Peter said. Jesus replied, "If I don't wash you, you have no part with me." Then Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head." Jesus told him, "One who has bathed doesn't need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you." For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, "Not all of you are clean."

When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, "Do you know what I have done for you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are speaking rightly since that is what I am. So if I, 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 as I have done for you. Truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them."

So, Heavenly Father, as we dig into your word this morning, I pray that you would fill us with the Holy Spirit, Lord, that you would give us wisdom and discernment, and that you would help us to understand what you have for us, Jesus. Help us to make that leap from understanding to putting it into practice. Today, Lord God, be glorified as we study your word, and we pray these things in your name. Amen.

All right, so we start out here in John Chapter 13.

This is the last night with His disciples. This is the night of the Last Supper. This is the night of the garden. This is all those things. Right here, this is before they are celebrating Passover. Jesus knew, as stated in verse 1, that His hour had come to depart from the world. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. I absolutely adore that statement about Jesus. He loved them, and He loved them to the end. He knew His people, and He loved them to the very end. What a great statement! What a great picture of the love of Jesus.

When it came time for supper, the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Him. Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into His hands and that He had come from God and was going back to God. So, Jesus here knows what is happening. He knows what is going to happen tonight and in the following days. He takes this time to cement with His disciples another message and a new commandment that we will see.

Knowing that He has come from God and that He is soon going to go back to God, He got up from supper. Verse 4 says He laid aside His outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around Himself. Next, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples' feet and to dry them with the towel tied around Him. This is an interesting practice. It is not something that we do today. When I show up to your house or you show up to mine, I am not going to have somebody wash your feet. This was a cultural practice dependent on the time and many other factors.

You have to remember that back then, there was no mass transportation. There were no vehicles, and there weren't even bicycles. Everywhere you went, you were either walking or riding on an animal, and both walking and the presence of animals resulted in dirty feet. Normally, you would have a servant come out and wash your guest's feet. It was just something you did; it was proper etiquette and a sign of respect for people you loved.

However, since they had arrived, nobody had washed anyone's feet. This gives us a couple of ideas about what may be going on here. By nobody washing the feet, everyone is probably looking around the room, wondering who is going to wash the feet. Who is going to do it? I mean, I am not going to do it.

That's not my job; that's a servant's job. I'm not going to do that. At this point, they're probably feeling like they're too good to be the feet washers. I love Jesus and all that, but I ain't washing Andrew's nasty feet. And have you seen James's toes? I'm not even going there.

Jesus Himself gets up and humiliates Himself by taking off His outer garments. He takes on the aspect of the lowest servant in the house to serve them. This is a cultural moment, as I mentioned, and we might miss it if Peter hadn't highlighted it for us and pointed it out. In verse 6, he said he came to Simon Peter, who asked Him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" You can kind of hear the shock in Peter's voice, like, "What are you doing? Are you going to wash my feet?" This is unheard of. This is ridiculous.

Jesus answered him, "What I'm doing you don't realize now, but afterwards you will understand." You don't get it, but you will. This is spiritual hindsight. It happens to me all the time. I'll go through something and think, "I don't understand this, Lord," and then later on, I look back and say, "Oh, that's what God was doing. That's why this happened in my life." Jesus tells Peter, "Yeah, you don't get it now, but you will."

Peter responds, "You will never wash my feet." Here, Peter is zealous for the glory of God. He is zealous for the position of Jesus. "You are the boss. You're the greatest. You're number one. Why would you wash my feet? There's no way you can do this." The job that Jesus is doing is so humble that Peter can't even conceive of Jesus doing it. It's farcical to Peter to think that Jesus would do this.

It's like having the president come to your house and plunge and clean a toilet that everyone in your house has been ignoring and pretending there isn't a problem. It's just on a whole other level of this whole swap. Jesus is going from, "Yes, I'm your Lord," to "Now here I am scrubbing your feet."

But Jesus replies to Peter, saying, "If I don't wash you, you don't have a part with me. If I don't wash you, you're not with us. You're not with me. This is a requirement. This is, in fact, part of what makes you mine."

Now Peter knows in his head that Jesus is his Lord, but he doesn't really grasp what that means. Jesus is going to take Peter's sin away on the cross. Peter doesn't fully understand how gross and demeaning his sin is. He doesn't grasp the length and depth of the shame that Jesus' love will go to in order to redeem him, and I don't think we do either. If we truly understood how disgusting our sin was, how much like crusty junk in between toes, we probably would have a completely different perspective on the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. Maybe that's something we can pray for: God, show me just how gross it is so that I can understand the depth of your love.

Then Peter swings all the way to the other direction. Peter is a beautiful example of humanity, of us. He hears, "If I don't wash your feet, you have no part of me," and then he says, "Lord, not only my feet, but my hands and my head; just everything, Lord, just scrub everything. Wash all of me." Peter is basically saying, "I am a super fan; I'm all in." Points to Peter for enthusiasm, but he loses all those points because he completely missed the meaning.

One who is bathed, Jesus told him, doesn't need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. "You are clean, but not all of you," for he knew who would betray him. That's why he said, "Not all of you are clean." Jesus is telling Peter, "You are clean by virtue of our relationship. It's because of me that you are clean. You only need your feet washed here," because Jesus has a point that he's teaching them.

When Jesus had washed their feet, as stated in verse 12, and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, "Do you know what I have done for you?" And of course, they don't. They have no idea. They have no idea what he's done, but we wouldn't either. We would not grasp it either. So they have no idea why Jesus has done this. They have no idea what he's done for them and to them. This happens to them all the time, and if we're honest, it happens to us as well. If we're paying attention, very often we miss what God is doing, or we don't understand.

It is often not until something is pointed out to us that we truly understand it. Jesus begins to highlight this in verse 13. He says, "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are speaking rightly, since that is what I am." He continues, "So if I, 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 just as I have done for you."

Jesus is saying that if He, as the greatest among us, has done this, then we have no excuse. We need to go and do the same thing. This is where we tend to misunderstand the message. Historically, we have made this about washing feet, holding foot-washing ceremonies that focus solely on that act. However, it is not about feet; it is about engaging in the hard, dirty, and sometimes shameful work of following Jesus into the messy, humiliating world of sinners and loving them first, even when they do not deserve it and do not appreciate it, just as we once were.

It is about following Jesus and loving people enough to lay down our rights and desires to serve them lovingly. At this point, we have never been more polarized as a country. We are divided over politics, race, masks, vaccines, and just about anything else. As followers of Jesus, all of these issues are the outer garments we are called to take off. We need to put on the servant's towel that Jesus used and start washing feet.

We have spent our time grumbling about who is supposed to wash feet, ignoring the example of love that Jesus set for us by relinquishing His rights and position, putting Himself in the role of a servant, and washing His disciples' feet. God forgive us for singing songs about worshiping Him while refusing to live the way He did. His words are clear: "I have given you an example. Now you go do it."

He goes on in verse 16 and says, "Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master."

A messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. Underline that in your Bible; highlight it in your app. You are blessed if you do them. We want to be treated with justice, fairness, and respect, but was Jesus? Are we really going to insist that we are treated better than our Savior and our Lord? Knowing what Jesus did is kind of helpful, but the blessing is found in doing what Jesus did.

Jump down to verse 31 in that same chapter. When he had left, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once." Little children, I am with you a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so now I tell you, where I am going, you cannot come. Jesus points out to them that he is only here for a little bit more time. Then he talks a lot about God being glorified.

How is God going to be glorified in Jesus? Through the most shameful death they have been able to devise, along with humiliation and torture. But often we insist on justice. We insist on justice from the powers of this fallen world while we ignore the example of Jesus. Look around us currently. How have we, as the church, shown the world love? Largely by projecting arrogance and insisting on getting our own way.

How did Jesus show the world love? He went like a lamb to the slaughter, silent. He loved them enough to lay down his life. We can do better than we've been doing. We need to do better than we've been doing. In verse 34, Jesus tells his disciples, "I give you a new command. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another."

You see, the hallmark of a follower of Jesus is love—the self-sacrificial love that Jesus showed by washing feet, carrying a cross, and asking for forgiveness for the people who were actively involved in killing him.

That's the kind of love that we're called to show. That's the kind of love that this world needs to see because that's the kind of love that Jesus told us we should be doing. That's the kind of love, that's the example that He gave us, that we should be out there laying our lives down.

In verse 36, Peter once again kind of misses the point. He forgets about the new commandment about love and asks, "Lord, where are you going?" He missed the commandment about love and instead inquires about where Jesus is going. Jesus answered, "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me later." See, Jesus is going to the cross. He's going to a death that the disciples are not ready for, but one that they would all eventually embrace.

In verse 37, Peter says, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. I can do it." It's like the cry of an ignorant child. Peter is not equipped at this point to follow Jesus to that death. Jesus replied to him in verse 38, "Will you lay your life down for me? Truly, I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times."

One of the most painful things that we can face is to truly see who we are without the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Peter hears that he will fail his friend. He is going to run away from his Lord in his darkest hour. He won't be able to stay awake with Jesus while He prays. He runs away from Him in the garden and even denies that he knows Jesus when questioned by a servant girl.

Very often, we stop at that chapter break, which is really unfortunate. Look at chapter 14. In verse 1, it says, "Don't let your hearts be troubled." Why would their hearts be troubled? What has Peter just heard? It continues, "Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I wouldn't have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself so that where I am, you will be also. You know the way to where I am going."

Jesus says, "Don't let your heart be troubled," which is kind of a hard statement.

Don't let your heart be troubled, but there are so many troubling things. The solution is to believe. Believe in God. Believe also in me, Jesus says. Follow me.

In case we were to miss the point, the apostles bring it up for us. In verse 5, Thomas says, "Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way?" He is looking for a place. Thomas is searching for direction, asking how they are supposed to get there. But Jesus told him in verse 6, "I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

Jesus emphasizes that He is the embodiment of the way. If you know Him, you know the Father. The way for us is Jesus, and we are called to live as He walked, to follow the example He set in sacrificing Himself and in washing the feet of the disciples. We are called to follow Jesus even when it means being lied to and lied about, even when we are mistreated, and even when we do not get our way. This includes times when we are stolen from, assaulted, or even killed. Jesus endured all those things, and He calls us to follow Him in spite of them, even in those circumstances.

Yes, we are going to do this badly. Yes, we will need the grace of God and the forgiveness of our Savior. But like Jesus said all the way back in verse 17, "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them." It is the doing that brings the blessing.

Now, fast forward a bit, roughly a month, to the day of Pentecost. In Acts chapter 2, the same Peter who ran away from a servant girl stands before a multitude of people in Jerusalem and preaches about Jesus, rebuking them for crucifying their Messiah. In Acts chapter 4, Peter and John are arrested and called in front of the very council they had fled from on the same day that Jesus was being put on trial. The same council that Peter ran from is now the one he stands before because they have had the audacity to heal a man.

In verse 5 of Acts chapter 4, it says, "The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all..."

The members of the high priestly family questioned Peter and John, asking, "By what power or in what name have you done this?" Then, in verse 8, Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. Highlight it, underline it, circle it, or tattoo it on your arm if you would like to. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and the elders, if we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man, by what means he was healed, let it be known to all of you and all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing here before you healthy. This Jesus is the stone that you, the builders, have rejected, which became the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved."

In verse 13, when the council observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus. What a testimony! They recognized that they had been with Jesus. Previously, they had been recognized for a similar accent and had run away, but now Peter is recognized for showing the same power and boldness in proclaiming Jesus.

In verse 14, it says, "And since they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in opposition." After they ordered Peter and John to leave the Sanhedrin, they conferred among themselves, saying, "What should we do with these men? For an obvious sign has been done through them, clear to everyone living in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But so that this does not spread any further among the people, let us threaten them against speaking to anyone in this name again."

So they called for them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide. For we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard." Look at verse 20 again: "For we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard."

They're not talking about their own rights. They're not talking about their own desires. Their boldness is solely on proclaiming Jesus.

In verse 21, after threatening them further, they released them, and they found no way to punish them because the people were all giving glory to God over what had been done. We need to remember who we claim to follow and actually follow Jesus, not our convenient Jesus idol who keeps us safe and gives us what we want, but the risen Savior who suffered, was humiliated, hated, and wronged.

The Jesus who responded not with anger and insistence on getting His rights, but responded with love, laid His life and His rights down for a world that He loved, which largely would not love Him back. We have an example to follow. We have a world to reach, and we're not going to do it any other way than taking off our garments, putting on a towel, and serving people, especially when it hurts our pride.

Holy Spirit, fill us and guide us as we seek to be like Jesus.