JANUARY 6, 2026 – FEET WASHING

READ: Jn. 13:1–20: … For I have given you an example …

Before John describes the Last Supper in the coming chapters, he shows what Jesus intends to accomplish. He has been sent to earth to complete His work of love for His own and then return to the Father.

That work of love will reach its peak in His coming death on the cross. Jesus is fully aware of this. He loves those whom the Father has given Him and will love them to the end of His work of redemption. He will lay down His life for them and preserve them forever (cf. 10:14,15,28,29; 17:6,12,26).

What follows after supper is therefore not a disruption of Jesus’s work but fulfillment. It means that He offers Himself for His own. He immediately displays this in the washing of feet.

This act is not merely a correction of the disciples’ quarrel about which of them is the greatest (see Lk. 22:24). Rather, it highlights His own priestly ministry: He came to empty Himself in love, to become a servant (symbolized by the linen towel), and through the deepest humiliation on the cross to be exalted.

Only in this way can the disciples and all believers be justified through faith in Him.

Peter still struggles to accept Jesus’s way of suffering and does not understand: “Lord, are You washing my feet?” When he refuses, Jesus rebukes him: “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

By this washing Jesus refers to His blood that will soon be shed to cleanse His own from sin. Only later, after His resurrection, will Peter understand (v.7).

Jesus distinguishes between the washing of the body (completely clean, v.10), pointing to regeneration, and the washing of feet, pointing to the forgiveness of daily sins. Only Judas is not clean; he is not chosen. Jesus already declares that He knows Judas will betray Him (v.18). Yet this is no reason for the others to despair.

What does it mean to “wash one another’s feet”? (vv.14,15)
Sing: Ps. 133:1,2