A last act of love.
It must not be supposed that the act of Jesus here was a purely symbolic act, an act useless in itself. Probably Jesus and his disciples had been walking about most of the day, and the washing of the feet would be very grateful to tired and sandaled wayfarers. Jesus was rendering a real service, however slight a one. Before they went out of the room, Jesus had to have much very earnest talk with them, and it was just as well for them to be comfortable while they were listening.
I. AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE. John puts this first in the narrative. Those whose feet Jesus washed were not comparative strangers. Jesus loved them simply as human beings, knowing sin, suffering, and sorrow. But beyond all this was the added love coming from many days of close companionship. And now the very last day had come. To-morrow the Shepherd will be smitten, and the sheep scattered. Soon, very soon, according to the flesh, he would cease to know these disciples. They were to stop in the world and do his work. Years of toil, anxiety, and suffering were yet before them. But Jesus was going to the Father. A few more hours, and he would stiffer his last pain, know his last trial. We can easily imagine how, in years long after, and in lands far distant, when some of these apostles had finished a weary day of walking for Christ's sake, and had got their travel-stained feet washed, their thoughts would go back to that last night, recollecting how the Master went from one to another in the little company, washing their feet, and looking in their faces with his own unutterable look of affection and interest.
II. AN EXPRESSION OF STEADFASTNESS IN LOVE. Jesus was just on the point of stepping from humiliation to glory, just about to cast aside the veil of his flesh, and appear in all his heavenly splendor; but it made not the least difference in his gentle, unaffected way of treating his disciples. We reckon it one of the greatest things to be said in praise of any one who has risen in the world, that he remains just the same sort of man, not made proud by being lifted up. The washing was a kind of intimation that Jesus looked on himself as being a Minister as much as ever. They were servants to him, but he was Minister to them; they did his work, and he supplied the needs that made them fit for the work. He who in the flesh was ever at the beck and call of needy men and women, is at their beck and call still. His power to help is greater, but his willingness cannot be greater.
III. A PRACTICAL ASSERTION FROM JESUS THAT MEN CANNOT DO WITHOUT HIM. Not only does he minister, but he must minister. Peter thought Jesus was not doing a fitting act. But it is perilous work criticizing what Jesus does. How should we find out, all at once, on the first glance, the full aim of any act of his? Jesus knows what he can do for us, what he ought to do for us, and what we, in all humility and obedience, ought to accept from him. If Jesus comes not to minister, what need is there for him to come at all? Jesus must cleanse every human being as far as he needs to be cleansed.
IV. THE GREAT EXEMPLARY AIM IN THIS ACT. It is plain that Jesus recollected what disputings the disciples had among themselves as to which should be greatest; and just at this moment, when it is beginning to be settled conclusively that Jesus is far above them, he tries to show by his own example that the spirit of ministry is a part of real greatness. Distinction does not make happiness. God means all of us to be as happy as we can be. Jesus came to minister to us, in order that we might minister to others, and if we are not ministering lovingly, diligently, joyfully, then that is a proof that the ministry of Jesus himself has not yet been truly accepted by us.—Y.