John 13:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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John 13:1

Comments

The washing of the disciples’ feet is a symbol with four lessons, and all of them are of tremendous importance. First, it is a symbol of love. The apostle John in effect says, the following verses will show love. It is a general comment, which if it does not speak to the following verses and inform about the following verses, simply hangs in the air. We are to understand from it that everything we subsequently read is a demonstration, a symbol of love. They are going to see love in action. The Lord Jesus Christ will humble himself before them and will wash their feet. They will see that, following the example of Christ, Christian love is practical; it acts, it cares, it expresses itself in action. Christ knew what he would do. He knew that there would be the Passover feast or supper, and the next day he would be on Calvary’s cross. The disciples had no idea. They still harboured the hope that as Messiah he would be a great ruler and he would enter into his power. His enemies were clamouring for his execution, but he had returned to Jerusalem. Did his disciples not listen to him? Had he not warned them repeatedly that he was now to be taken and crucified, and he would rise again? And yet that message seems to flow over their heads. They loved him and they listened to everything he said, except that he was going to die, and they could not comprehend that, and still harboured the idea that he was going to be a great earthly ruler.But he knew that his hour was come, the hour which was appointed in eternity that he would come and suffer and die. ‘Having loved his own … he loved them unto the end.’ He knew what he was going to do. He knew every step. It is Passover eve, AD 30, and he will shortly allow himself to be arrested. He went on loving them and did no fail when that love was going to cost him most of all. He did not shrink from the love that would send him to Calvary to lay down his life for them. Love never fails.

Application

Questions

Why does John omit any references to the Lord’s Supper? Simply because John’s Gospel is the last to be written. The Gospel of John does not trouble to tell us about the Lord’s Supper because we are already familiar with it from the other three gospels. Some people have tried to say that the Gospel of John has two suppers. Others have said the Gospel of John contradicts the other Gospels because he has the supper a day earlier than the others. They read in connection with Judas again in John 13:29, ‘Some of them [the disciples] thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast’, and they leap on this verse, and they say, You see, the Passover feast has not happened yet. John has another meal, another supper. What they do not grasp is that there in verse 29, ‘the feast’ refers to the whole seven-day feast. So the Passover is eaten, verse one, and during the course of the Passover, Judas is sent out, the disciples think mistakenly that Christ has told Judas to go and buy things for the feast. But there are six more days, so it is not surprising they might suppose that. He had not in fact asked any such thing. But there were six more days of this feast of Passover, the crucial day being the first one. So there is no contradiction. Whenever the feast is referred to, it always refers to the whole feast, not just the supper, the Passover night.

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Introduction

John 13:1 Commentary and Bible Study