Dirty Feet Dirty Hearts

Read John 13:1-17. Verses 14 & 15 makes this narrative extremely important to us. Washing feet was a common practice in the 1st Century culture of Israel, thus for them it was not a big deal. But when Jesus said, If you call me Lord then you should do this too – now we have a big deal! This issue is now connected to His Lordship! Now we have a command. We have an obedience issue.

Jesus’ actions were thus a living parable, like the prophets of old who actually lived their sermons. Jesus’ actions illustrated his teaching. So the question is “What exactly are we supposed to do?” Wash each other’s feet? Serve each other? Humble ourselves before each other? I have heard all sorts of suggestions as to what Jesus meant. Don’t be ashamed at finding this whole incident difficult at first to understand. Besides, in verse 7 Jesus even noted that the disciples did not understand it right away. But now, with the completion of Scripture I believe we can understand exactly what Jesus was teaching.

I believe the key to unlocking this mystery is found in Jesus’ dialogue with Peter. Peter opens his big mouth and reveals his complete ignorance of what Jesus was teaching. But don’t be hard on Peter – had he not opened his big mouth we might all remain just as clueless as Peter. I remember in my college and seminary days the arrogant student who always argued with the professor. The student constantly looked like a fool for trying to debate or ask those questions that were more like comments – trying to show everybody that he was smart. But often times his foolishness allowed the rest of us who were just as ignorant to sit silently and learn answers to questions we never had to ask… but maybe wanted to. Peter’s foolish spirit of argumentation allowed Jesus the opportunity to share the theological significance of his actions. In other words, by paying close attention to the dialogue between Jesus and Peter we come to understand the theological lesson behind Jesus’ actions.

Look again at John 13:8 – 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.” (ESV) That is an interesting rebuke! Jesus is saying that if you fail to do this then you have no fellowship with Him. Peter definitely wants to fellowship with Jesus, so Peter exclaims in the next verse, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (ESV) This response sounds logical, but the problem is that Jesus is spiritualizing the actions. Peter was thinking in the physical realm; Jesus was thinking spiritually. By the way, a common charge against Covenant Theologians like me is that we spiritualize things in the Bible. But in actuality we CT’ers do not just carelessly spiritualize the Bible. But, to our credit, we do notice when God spiritualizes something. I interpret the Bible literally — But I tell you friends, very often God is literally making a spiritual point. And it is clear in this text that Jesus was spiritualizing his actions and Peter was taking him literally. Peter was missing the spiritual point.

Notice the two different types of cleansing in John 13:10 – 10, Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean…” (ESV) “Bathed” = presumably alludes to ceremonial washing that they had undergone before the Passover Feast. In fact look back at John 11:55 the Bible records, “Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.” “Purify” = bath one’s self in ceremonial pools in Jerusalem. This washing symbolized one’s salvation = being cleansed of one’s sins. Even in the New Covenant we use such language to describe our salvation in Christ (Titus 3:5 – “the washing of regeneration”) for at regeneration our sins are washed away. We are spiritually bathed, spiritually cleansed by atoning blood of Christ.

So we noticed one type of cleansing in John 13:10, bathed = a reference to salvation. The second type of cleansing is “washed” = here Jesus is referring to the washing of feet, but He has literally connected his foot washing actions to the spiritual cleaning of the Passover Bath. He says, “If you have bathed, then you only need to wash your feet for you are clean.” What does this mean? Practically, if you have bathed and then walk down the dusty streets of Jerusalem to a friends house to eat, only your feet are dirty; you only need a foot washing. Spiritually this means that if you have been saved, redeemed by the atoning blood of Christ, you never need to be saved again. But as you walk through life daily you will pick up the dirt of sin in this world. Your spiritual feet will get dirty. You will sin. And, spiritually speaking, dirty feet equals dirty hearts.

So what shall you do? That is exactly question Jesus is answering — He is teaching Christians what to do when they sin. What to do about dirty spiritual feet.

Let’s stop here and answer a few vital questions arise because of what Jesus is addressing: Do Christians sin? Yes. Do Christians lose their salvation when they sin? No. Should Christians seek forgiveness when they sin? Yes. The cleansing that Christ performs at regeneration needs never to be repeated (Rom 4:5; Rom 8:1); however, those who have been cleansed by God’s gracious justification need repeated washings in the experiential sense in order to maintain pure fellowship with God. Just compare John 13:8-10 with 1John 1:8-10 and you will notice that notice John agrees that Christians do sin. Secondly, John agrees that Christians should confess their sin and ask for forgiveness. Remember, when Jesus taught his disciples to pray in Luke 11:4 he said we should pray “forgive us our sins…” = Jesus knows that Christians sin and need to be cleansed and forgiven.

But wait! Why are we supposed to seek God’s forgiveness if God has already justified us? Two types of forgiveness granted by God in the Bible. There is judicial forgiveness God grants us at salvation based on the atonement made for us by Jesus at the Cross (Romans 8:1; Titus 3:5). We call that forgiveness “justification.” It is judicial or legal in nature. At justification our eternal guilt and condemnation is expunged. We receive judicial forgiveness. The second type of forgiveness is God’s parental forgiveness. We only need God’s judicial forgiveness once, but God continually grants parental forgiveness to His children as they confess their daily sins. Hebrews 12:5-6, “…For the Lord disciplines the one he loves…”). Thus John says in 1John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We do not lose our salvation when we sin as Christians, thus confessing sin is not a matter of regaining lost salvation or renewing our justification. Confessing our sin is means of washing our dirty spiritual feet.

Beloved, we should confess your sin to God for He is both faithful and just to forgive: faithful because it is His promise to us in the covenant relationship, and just because He has already made atonement for our sins.

So we discover that Jesus is teaching us in John 13 that we need to be cleansed from our daily sins. Paul understood this principle in 2 Corinthians 7:1 – Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. (ESV) But you may ask: Is this necessary if our salvation is secure? Yes, it is true that our daily sins do not endanger our relationship with God, but Jesus teaches us in John 13 that our daily defilement affects our fellowship with God. Let me illustrate: if our children come running through the house with muddy shoes then the fellowship is broken in the Robertson home. Relationships remain and are eternally secure; I’m still the father. They are still my children. But the fellowship within the relationship is affected until the mud is removed.

Jesus told Peter, if your feet aren’t washed, you and I will not enjoy fellowship together. What did Jesus mean? He means our daily sins must be dealt with. By the way, if the thought of not fellowshipping with Jesus does not bother you, then that is a good sign that you do not have a saving relationship with him. You may know him. You may even call yourself a disciple. But you are as lost and as deceived and as sinful as Judas Iscariot.

The Puritan Matthew Henry understood this principle writing: The Christian religion is the religion of sinners… The Christian life is a life of continued repentance, humiliation for and mortification of sin, of continual faith in, thankfulness for, and love to the Redeemer, and hopeful, joyful expectation of a day of glorious redemption, in which the believer shall be fully and finally acquitted, and sin abolished for ever.

Do you, Mr. Professing Christian, honestly view yourself as a sinner? Do you practice continued humility and repentance? Do you have a continual love for and longing for fellowship with Christ? Do you hate and despise sin more everyday, longing for the day sin shall be forever abolished from our existence? I hope so. And if not, I ask you, to ask yourself, why this might be so. Why do you love sin? Why do you not love fellowship with Christ? We would like to offer you an opportunity to repent today. Today you can be cleansed.

So now we understand what Jesus was trying to teach the disciples: the importance of daily repentance. Daily spiritual cleansing — makes sense. Right?

Well, not so fast – Jesus added another dimension to this principle in John 13:12-17 – 12When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (ESV)

First, we have been reminded by Christ that we need to daily repent, that though we are saved, we are still sinners. Second, we are instructed to be part of the process of one another’s forgiveness. I think James gives us clear instructions on how we can fulfill this command Jesus has given us, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” ( James 5:16) The context of James 5 is that Christians can get really defeated in their spiritual lives. Persecution, trials, and the sufferings of this life can weigh so heavy on a Christian, …he sins, …he backslides, …his spiritual feet get muddy and filthy, …and his fellowship with God is broken, …he loses his peace and joy, …a sinning Christian can get spiritually sick inside, …spiritually depressed, …he doesn’t feel like praying, …he doesn’t feel like reading his Bible, …he doesn’t feel like going to church…

If this is you, What should you do? You should confess your sins to a brother or sister in Christ. Let them pray for you. Let them wash your spiritual feet.

That doesn’t mean that others can confess and repent for you. They can intercede for you and love you, but only God has to cleanse you of your sin. This also doesn’t mean that we should confess our sins to a priest = such mediators were of the Old Covenant, Christ is our only Mediator. Nor does this mean that we must confess all of our specific sins to people = that would be impossible and impractical.

What does it mean? It means that we should maintain open, honest, sharing, and praying relationships with other Christians. And this will do two things for you: First, it will help believers fellowship with one another and love one another. Second, it will help keep believers from bottoming out in their spiritual lives and give the spiritual strength that provides victory over sin and provide godly pressure to confess and forsake sins before they become overwhelming to the point of total spiritual defeat.

When was the last time you confessed your sin to another person and had them pray with or for you regarding that sin? Many believers, if not most, find this difficult—often to the point of not doing it at all. But Christ commanded us to humble ourselves, and be their for people in the hour of their great spiritual temptations = and through prayer and Christian love help one another cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Such a practice is dependent largely on deep involvement in a body of believers committed to one another in a local church. In other words, in order to fulfill this command, a Christian must find a body of believers… And learn to trust them… And learn to love one another… And always be there for one another… And build one another up into spiritual maturity. A mature church is filled with mature disciples who like Christ will not condemn you for sinning but will humbly love you and forgive you and help restore you to Christ. Christ-disciples help one another be holy and clean before the Lord. Help one another fellowship with Christ with a clean conscience and a pure heart.

I encourage you to seek help from strong, mature Christians who can help you bear a burden, who can hold you accountable, who can pray for you, who can help you in overcoming bad habits and the difficult circumstances of sin. Beware of the Judases in every congregation. Seek out the men like John who understand the love of Christ. Seek our people like Peter who had fallen, but was forgiven and was restored.

But above all, we should seek the parental forgiveness of God. Judicial forgiveness deals with the penalty of our sins. Parental forgiveness deals with sin’s consequences. Judicial forgiveness frees us from the condemnation of an aggrieved, omnipotent Judge. Parental forgiveness sets things right with a displeased but loving Heavenly Father. As Holy Judge, God is eager to forgive sinners and save them from Hell; but as our Dearest Father He is equally eager to keep on forgiving and cleansing His children from the defilement of their sin.

To paraphrase Jesus in John 13:17 – If you understand what I am saying, blessed are you IF you obey.