024 - Food, Fellowship and Feet

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.

Welcome to More Than Ink. Hey, you know that famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper? Yeah, The Last Supper. Yeah, they're all sitting around the table and there's food and there's wine and bread and that kind of stuff. Oh, tablecloth and it's gorgeous and beautiful. Well, did you know Jesus did something remarkably unexpected during that event and only John's Gospel covers it? Well, it's not in the picture.

It's not in the picture, but it is in John's Gospel today on More Than Ink. Well, good morning this wonderful 2021 new year. I'm Jim.

And I'm Dorothy. And we are so glad you're back with us as we sit down with our coffee around the kitchen table here. And we're going to read the Scriptures again because we are really firmly convinced, persuaded, that putting ourselves into Scriptures does amazing things for our hearts and for our minds. And there is great power in simply reading the Word of God aloud with understanding, not just reciting the words, but reading it with real communication.

Right, so there's extraordinary value here. So we left off before the holidays going through the book of John and we're coming back to John now. We're in John 13 if you want to follow with us and we're reading out of the English Standard Version, the ESV. But we're going to, at this point in John, we're going to slow down a little bit. Up to this point we've done a chapter a week. And at a chapter a week it gets a little dizzying when you get to this part of John. So we're going to go about a half a chapter a week.

So today we're going to do the first half. Well, because up to this point it was mostly narrative. Yeah, exactly. But now we've got the words of Jesus for the next five chapters. Yeah.

And so we really do need to slow down. Yeah, from here from 13 through 17 especially it's a very special section of John and a very intimate time with John. So we're just going to go in half chapters and that's okay because there's going to be plenty to chew on. So today we come up, if you remember the historical context, Jesus is right at the beginning of the Passion Week. And the week is going to unfold with the end of the week being Him crucified and then the very end of the week and the first and next week risen from the dead. So this is the beginning of that being in Jerusalem for the Passover and that entire week. And so He's having, as we look in John 13, His last really intimate moments with the larger apostles. And so that's why this starting chapter 13 and 14, 15, 16, 17, why it's so interesting because John records for us what the other writers of the Gospels don't.

So it's a fascinating thing. Well, and I always like to approach this section of John, the whole Last Supper narrative with the question in mind, you know, if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you say? What were the most important things you want to say to the people you love?

If you gathered all your friends together and said this is the last you're going to see me, let's do something. Yeah, so when we put that in this context it really changes how we read it. It's like these are literally the last words of Christ to the people He had walked with and was going to entrust the Gospel to. And these are some of the last thoughts, demonstrated thoughts that they're going to remember about Him too. Right, so He collects up kind of the distillation of everything He has come to say and speaks it in a very special way to these ones. So suffice it to say, Jesus is going to do a very surprising thing. Well, here at the beginning, yeah. This is what He does. We talked about two guys whose expectations were busted going to Emmaus.

You know what? No one expected this. So as we come into John 13, they're all just gobsmacked by what happens next in this very intimate moment. So let's just pick it up in verse 1 of chapter 13 and let's see what unfolds in this very unexpected way. Okay. Crazy. Who's going to read? I'll read.

Okay. Now before the Feast of Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, when 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 that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, rose from supper.

He laid aside His outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around His waist. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, Lord, do You wash my feet?

Jesus answered him, What I'm doing, you don't understand now, but afterward, you will understand. Peter said to Him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet, only by my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, The one who's bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean, and you are clean, but not every one of you.

For he knew who was to betray Him, and that's why He said, Not all of you are clean. Yeah, let's stop there. Let's stop there. So did they expect this?

No, don't think so. This was just craziness. They're having this feast. They're having this meal. Okay, well let's talk about the meal first, because that's where John starts.

Yeah, that's true. Before the Feast of the Passover. So the context for the Passover is the annual celebration. It's a giant party of remembrance for God delivering the Jews out of Egypt, of slavery in Egypt. And he said, You're going to celebrate this in perpetuity every year at this time.

You're going to remember that I have delivered you at the cost of the firstborn sons of Egypt. Yeah, even to this very day, it's one of the biggest deals on the Jewish calendar. It's a big deal.

Very, very big deal. So, I mean, that's really important for us to know, because Jesus knows that this is that Passover. That every Passover for thousands of years before this had pointed to this one. And John doesn't include that part in his narrative. The other Gospel writers had already written about that.

Jesus said, This is the last time I'm going to do this until I do it new with you in the kingdom of God. So you should look at those other Passover narratives before coming to this one. Yeah, and that's a good Bible study kind of hint as well, too.

I wrote down where they are. They're in Matthew 26 and in Mark 14 and in Luke 22. And you read those, you'll find a large amount of similarity between those three. And then when you get to John's, this is all new stuff. And in fact, most of the stuff that's mentioned in the other three passages is not mentioned in John's. So clearly John is filling in the gaps from kind of an intimate perspective, from his perspective.

From an insider's view, yeah. Which makes it really interesting. So yeah, go back and read those other three if you haven't done it already, because that's just a very powerful way to try and figure out why John wrote exactly what he wrote. But when you compare them, you realize John is telling you a perspective that none of the other three are capturing. Well, and he starts into this telling us Jesus' motives. He said he knew who he was. He knew where he had come from and what he was going to do. He knew where he was going. He knew why he had come. He knew that it was time. He knew the man he'd chosen. He knew.

He knew. Well, and I've always felt it was because John's reaction now, having been writing this decades later after the event. He's looking back. But I think in the moment when it was happening, they're all thinking, especially in the last half of this chapter, this is a train wreck. This is a total wreck.

Everything's going wrong. Because in a moment, Jesus is going to tell them he's going away. So there's a difference between what they're experiencing then and what John is looking back and seeing. So I think John's emphasizing for us as he writes this is that Jesus was on top of this the whole time. Right.

There's nothing out of place here. This is exactly how it's supposed to go down. Yeah, he sees that very clearly in hindsight. In hindsight. And so we're actually seeing his comments in hindsight that way. Since he knew his time had come to depart, which was true, but John and the rest of the guys didn't know at the time. So what you see is this contrast between we don't understand what's going on while it's happening to now that we look back we go, oh, he was telling us all along we didn't catch it. So that's John's perspective coming in at verse three, knowing that the Father had given him all things, which means everything's done and he'd come from God, he's going back to God.

So with that perspective, this being your last hours with your apostles, what do you do? Well, you get up from supper and you wash their feet. Well, that's kind of a head scratcher. That's a real head scratcher. And I think for them it's a head scratcher because, in fact, Jesus himself, if you scan down to verse seven, when we see Peter's reaction, we'll talk about that more in a second, he says you're not going to understand now.

Right. But afterward you will understand. And before we finish this morning, he will explain it some so that they'll start to understand.

But he's doing something that deliberately is going to confuse them in the moment but will become crystal clear as time goes on. And I think that's a clue to how God deals with us in the moment as well. Things happen and we don't understand, we scratch our heads, we look toward heaven, we wonder what's going on, we demand that God explain himself, and he says, well, okay, I know you're not going to get it now, but I'm going to give you some time to kind of unwrap this.

And this, what John wrote, is what he unwrapped over the years as you look back at what happened. Okay, and he uses the word know, K-N-O-W, know, several times in this passage. And what's not always clear in English is that there are two different Greek words occurring in this passage for knowing. One is having the information, possessing it in your head. You have an intuitive grasp of the information. Right.

And the other one is more experiential. It's a living understanding because you've touched it, felt it, tasted it, it's been placed, you've come to know it through the senses. Yeah.

And so those are both there when he says to Peter, you don't understand this now, right? You don't have all the information yet. But later on, you're going to know it fully. You're going to experience what this means. Yeah.

You're going to get it. Yeah. And so it's kind of helpful for us to understand that, you know, we often know things. We have the information in our heads. But we don't really know it in terms of it impelling us to act. And that's one of the things that's interesting about what John says at the beginning of this passage.

He said, Jesus, knowing profoundly, deeply something was true, then he acted in a particular way. Right. He wasn't clueless.

And none of this was accidental. Right. But it was for the apostles. And in wonderful, almost comic style, John decides to pick out poor Simon Peter to show just exactly how badly he understood. Okay. Well, it's interesting that he calls him Simon Peter here. Yeah. Because we see him still functioning as Simon, not yet completely as Peter. Right.

Right. And in some of the other Gospels, just to be fair, when you read the other parallel passages, they all pretty much do the same thing as Peter does. They were all dopes.

They were all dopes. But I mean, just to illustrate, and this is why I call this comic. You know, at first, he rejects the whole offer to be washed his feet right down when you get to verse seven, verse eight, you know, you shall never wash my feet. Oh, yeah. Well, why would he have said that in the first place?

Because he had already declared, you're the Messiah, you're the anointed one, you're the guy God has sent. And this is out of place for the person in charge. Right. Does not make any sense. The king doesn't wash people's feet. Exactly.

So in a real proper sense, he's saying, oh, no, wait, that's not your place. You know, I ought to wash your feet. That's the way things work here.

And then Jesus says, yeah, but wait a second. This is part of the plan. And if you don't take part in this, you have no part with me.

You have no share with me. That's a confusing statement. So then once that bell goes off in Peter's head, okay, I've got to go with the program.

Then his understanding is so bad, he says, well, let's go big with the program. Why don't you wash all of me? You know, not just my hand, but my feet, but my hands and my head. Let's do the whole thing then. I'm in. I'm in, Jesus. See how much I'm in.

I'm in so much I want you to wash all of me. Again, comically, no real understanding about what's going on here. And that's Peter. And that's us. And he's trying to figure it out. So then Jesus corrects him a second time and says, no, if you've bathed, you don't need me to wash just your feet, you know. But complete cleanness is what we're about.

And you're clean, but not every one of you. He's kind of foreshadowing the whole thing about Judas and stuff like that. But the whole idea, the fact of this understanding, I find just fascinating because Peter doesn't understand.

None of them understand. Peter is more, what do you want to call it, zealous in terms of stepping up into the program. And even if he doesn't understand, he's going to step in. But he steps in in kind of a silly way, a stupid way. And we make fun of him. But we do the same thing. He just speaks before he thinks, before he has. And we all do that. And that kind of characterizes Peter up to a point in his life.

He's very enthusiastic and jumps right in without always complete understanding, which is why after he had said, you're the Messiah, Jesus has said now, great, don't tell anybody. Because you don't yet understand what the implications of that are. And that kind of comes in here. You know, when I was reading this a couple days ago, it dawned on me, in this passage, just in these first 11 verses we've read, washing, the word wash shows up nine or 10 times, just in these first few verses.

Well, you know, that's pretty important. And I just stopped short when Jesus said, you know, if I don't wash you, you have no share in me. You are not a participant in me. In other words, you are not a fully comprehensive, a fully understanding participant in my kingdom.

I have to wash you. That's the entry requirement to get into the kingdom or to function in the kingdom. Yeah, and we'll always remind you that in these narratives, these aren't just accidental events. These are orchestrated events that God puts together. So in this particular case, Jesus could have chosen one of many ways to demonstrate that He serves them. He loves them and He serves them. In many ways, He could have done this, but in this particular case, He uses this whole idea of washing and even the dirtiest part of who you are about washing. So this is not accidental. The cleansing is an essential central piece here.

So I think they'll come back to this very orchestrated narrative, what they experienced in the years to come. I think, in fact, this is just my pet idea, is that, you know, when they would walk someplace, it was always a custom when you went into someone's house, they would wash your feet because it's just really dirty and dusty. Yeah, and we still do it today in many of our households. We take our shoes off when we come inside because the outside world you walk on is dirty.

And the dirtier the places you live, the more important it is to take your shoes off. So for them, it was exactly the same thing. And I can always think that when they would come into a new home, someone would wash their feet. I bet you they would flashback to this very moment in John 13. They'd flashback and say, you know, I remember when Jesus washed my feet. He served me.

I need to serve in this home I'm coming into. I think it was just a brilliant kind of memory device, as well as an idea that we are all in need of being cleansed from our sinfulness. To be a full participant in the Kingdom. Exactly. To be a participant in Christ. He has to wash us.

Hebrews says, indeed, without the blood, nothing is cleansed. Right. Right. So Jesus is kind of laying down the groundwork for that here. And He's going to talk about it a whole lot more in the chapters that come.

Yeah. And the wonderful thing about narratives is you can kick back and think about this. You know, I've thought about the fact that when I walk through the world, regardless of my ability to keep myself clean from the influences of the world, my feet still get dirty. I still pick up stuff that is in need of cleansing from Jesus. So you could take this story a thousand ways meditatively.

But I think it's just a brilliant, it's a genius piece of narrative that God has orchestrated here for them. But now He moves on. We get to verse 12 about this understanding issue that Peter clearly does not understand what's going on here. But he's going to later because I looked this morning and actually that shows up in Peter's letters.

Oh yeah. This idea of being cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Well, and now right now in verse 12, Jesus is going to start the process of understanding. We need to press on. So let me read this and we'll just go into 12. He's going to start the understanding process, which I think is not finished here.

It's going to go on for the rest of their lives. Oh no, it's opened. He's just opening the book. Verse 12. So when he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what I've done to you?

Of course, everyone looked at each other and said, no. Well, you call me teacher and Lord and you're right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, then you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. And if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

And I'm not speaking of all of you. I know whom I've chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread and lifted his heel against me. I'm telling you this now before it takes place that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. So we start the process of understanding and what does he tell them at the beginning of this process? What does he tell them?

I didn't know you were going to ask me that question. I'm just thinking, I was kind of tracking along, if you know these things, you're blessed if you do them. So he's telling them, I'm your master, I'm your teacher, and that's correct. I'm washing your feet. So wash one another's feet. And you can understand that, but actually getting down on your hands and knees and humbling yourself at one another's feet and washing, serving one another in that humblest way is what we are called to do as participants in Jesus. And I've always wondered what their expectations at this point was outside of this. I mean, here's Jesus very close to looking like he's going to be coronated king in Israel and the 12 guys around him are going to be coronated with him as their right and left hand men.

That's their full expectation. So they're thinking that probably by the end of the week, we're all going to be in charge of Jerusalem. And here Jesus is saying, well, that's right and proper in many ways, but here's the deal. The heart of God who loves us is a heart that serves and gives. And so if that's my heart, Jesus is saying as God, that should be your heart if you're a follower of mine.

So if I've done this, you ought to do this. So it's really revealing the heart of God. I think it echoes right back to the very beginning where John says in verse one, he loved them to the end. And here he is loving them to the end.

Completely to the completion of the process. In a way that serves and in a few days he's going to love them so completely he's going to die on their behalf. He's going to give. So the loving kindness of God, the love of God, the character nature of God that's really all about love is all about giving and serving and about doing what it takes for someone else's best benefit. And after the resurrection, he is going to send them to give their lives to bring salvation, bring the message of salvation to the whole world. So just this week in reading this passage, a few things just leaped off the page to me and that is this connection between he loved them and then he washed them and then he sent them. He said, I'm washing you, I'm cleansing you, you're a participant with me because I'm going to send you to the world with this message. It's not a message of here comes the king, it's going to be glorious. It's a message of repent because the king has paid the price for you and he comes to cleanse you from your sin. Right.

And the very reaction people have to the apostles when they're sent out, he says at the end here, if they receive you, they've received me. Wow. Yeah. Now that's a really close identification. Very close. Yeah.

Very, very close. And if you receive Jesus, you receive the one who sent him, the father. So this is a big deal, that they're going to be in a position to do this, they're going to be ones that are sent. But they still don't fully understand that the nature of their hearts has to be transformed by God and be God's heart, which is a loving heart which serves and gives, for God so loved the world he gave.

Okay. And they still don't understand that that's going to take place because he is through the Holy Spirit going to take up residence and indwell them. And he's going to unpack that for them a little later in the evening. But in verse 17 here he says, Now if you know these things, you're not greater than the one who sent you. If you know that, blessed are you if you do that. So that word blessed is, we've talked about this word before, it's makarios, it means to be possessing the actual characteristics of God, to be indwelt, to be fully satisfied. And so he says here, that's going to be the evidence that you are a participant in me if you can, knowing who you are, knowing where you come from, knowing where you're going now in Christ, you can humble yourself and serve the way I have served you. Yeah, and that would be a blessing to you, it'll be a blessing to other people. But even in the process of being sent out, they could wrongly think, well, I'm going to go out and kind of swagger with my apostle authority, I'm going to tell people what they need to do. And Jesus saying, No, no, you're going to go out there, you're going to love them by serving them. That's what you're going to do. Jesus says, I didn't do that. Exactly.

I will do that, but not this time. Right. And he charges them in another place. He says, you know, the Gentiles lord it over people, but that's not going to be with you. You're not going to lord over people like that. So Jesus is really preparing them for what the mainstream center of their life is going to be once they're sent out. They're going to be sent into communities where there's strangers, and you need to actively love those people.

And how can you most visibly demonstrate that love? Serve them. Serve them.

Wash their feet. There are places where people are in need of that kind of cleansing, but you're going to serve. You're not going to command and be authorities. That's just not going to be part of the process. Well, I didn't sign up for that.

Yeah. Well, and you know, and I have to think too, if he says this is a blessing for them, then the process of what Jesus is doing right here in washing their feet is a great blessing to Jesus. In a sense, what he's saying is, if you want to understand how life is really experienced to the full, you need to serve. You need to love and serve.

You need to do these things and not just appreciate them in your head. Because it doesn't bring down your identity or your personality or personhood, your value, your value and worth in God's eyes is not in any way diminished by going for the lowest, dirtiest, humblest servanthood, because that's what Jesus did. Exactly. And it could very well be that that's the way you're designed to fully experience life is to give in the dirtiest and most inconvenient circumstances.

And just between you and me, there's just not enough time left in our lives to pursue enough opportunities to love people like this. And Jesus in the last moment of his life is taking advantage of those seconds that are ticking away and says, I'm going to do this because this is a blessing to me and it's a blessing to you. And I want you to understand that this has got to be the core of your life from this part on. If you're calling me the master and you're the disciples, this is what you need to do. So this is where the narrative portion of these chapters ends. And now we're just going to have Jesus elaborating on it for the next three or four chapters and it's profound. So I would encourage you to read in a piece. Just sit down and read John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, all at once, because some things will suddenly become clearer than perhaps they've been before. I always regard these passages as a single statement. They should be one big chapter.

Maybe that's too much for a chapter, but they hang together really tightly. Loving and serving and acting on what you know is central here. So I would encourage you as well, just to remind you again, Matthew 26 and Mark 14 and Luke 22 is the context of sitting in this upper room. And now in John, we're going to get the big words that Jesus brings after that as he's kind of coming back to the whole process of our relationship with him. And just one more thought, let me put with you, because John tells us a couple times here that he knows who he's chosen and he knows who will betray him. Judas was here.

Judas was here at this point. Do you think Jesus washed his feet? I think he did. He did. I think he did.

I think he did. So you can ruminate on that in the coming week, because we're going to open that box next week. So come back. We'll still be in chapter 13. We'll pick it up at verse 21 as we come back and we'll kind of finish at least this portion of it. But next time, it looks like Jesus is throwing a monkey wrench in the entire plan of his Messiah ship. And I think that's what the apostles are thinking too.

Again, unexpected and it looks like everything's bad, failure and apparent failure. So come back with us next week. I'm Jim.

And I'm Dorothy. And we're just delighted you're with us and we're delighted that you're exploring through the Bible again with us in this new year, because the word brings life as we do this. So join us next week on More Than Ink. Bye. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments, just go to our website, morethanink.org. I don't know that I've ever seen a painting of Jesus washing their feet.