extends from foot-washing to the cross. “Having loved his own who were in the world,” recalls an earlier line from John’s prologue, “he came unto his own, but his own received him not.” Christ’s love prevails in spite of rejection. The timing is right for Jesus to show the full extent of his love, not just to his immediate band of disciples, but to all of “his own who were in the world.” The limitless nature of this love is captured in the ambiguity of the meaning of telos. The sentence can read, “He loved them to the end,” or it can read, “He loved them to the utmost.” Either way, we hear echoes of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whosoever believes in him shall not die but have everlasting life.” This is the deep, soul-cleansing love of sins forgiven, guilt removed, and righteousness bestowed.
The fourth deep meaning indicator is John’s matter-of-fact reference to the devil. Whether moderns are embarrassed or shocked doesn’t matter; the reality stands: the devil is influential, persuasive, and determined. The personal presence of supernatural evil manipulating the heart and mind of Judas is acknowledged by John as a fact. The devil’s prompting plays on Judas’ sin-induced vulnerability. Upper room access is no guarantee of immunity from evil’s infection. On bended knee, Jesus is heading to the cross. Everything has been set in motion. The momentum is building and even the forces of evil are unknowingly governed by God’s sovereign redemptive will.
John’s fifth theological truth offers a behind-the-scenes explanation. He frames the Passion Narrative with the very highest view of Christ. “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal . . .” John shapes the reader’s upper room understanding with post-resurrection perspective. Sometime during the forty days before the ascension the risen Christ briefed the disciples on what he knew and how he felt leading up to the cross. The abiding presence of the Father and the purpose of his will never left him. John remembers observing this confidence and calmness. Jesus’ serenity and certainty in the midst of hostility and confidence was manifest in the upper room. The bond between Father, Son and Holy Spirit brings the highest glory of heaven down to earth. Martin Luther said, “He thought of His glory which he had with the Father from all eternity, and which He would now assume as to His human nature.”5
The sixth indicator may seem implicit to us, but it was deliberate in the mind of John. When he said that Jesus laid aside his outer clothing, he recalled Jesus’ description of the good shepherd as the one who “lays down his life for the sheep” (10:11; see 10:15, 17, 18). The language of laying aside or laying down makes a significant connection between the foot-washing and the death of Christ.
The seventh and final indicator is the word “finished”—“When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place” (John 13:12). It is the same word Jesus used at the very end, when he cried from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30). The word “finished” links foot-washing and crucifixion as one continuous divine action.
All seven elements are woven into the tapestry of this scene, helping the church see what she might otherwise miss. The issue in the foreground is not admiration but atonement. Luther believed that the foot-washing scene focuses on the person of Christ and “the washing from sin by His blood shed upon the cross.” Luther continued, “Such washing is no example; for we cleanse neither ourselves nor others from sin. The Son of God, the Lamb of God, who bore the sins of the world, can do it, and He alone.”6
Jesus turned foot-washing into a preview of the cross. The mundane act of washing feet is transformed into a redemptive analogy. The story is not about a great man condescending to do something nice; it is about God incarnate descending and dying for the sake of our salvation. The moralistic angle doesn’t work and best business practices miss the point. This isn’t about random acts of kindness. This is about the mercy of God, eternal salvation, and costly discipleship. Jesus has the cross in mind and so should we.
Upper Room Reflection
Does foot-washing lose its spiritual force if we see it as a metaphor for self-denial?
How does John make the case for a metaphoric meaning of foot-washing?
Which deep meaning indicator had the greatest impact on you?
What are the implications of the Passion Narrative beginning with foot-washing and ending in crucifixion?
5. Luther, “Sermon for the Thursday Before Easter,” 24–25.
6. Ibid., 26.
Day 8
Inscape
“You do not realize now what I’m doing . . .” John 13:7
Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins coined the term “inscape” to describe the unique character of an object or subject as it relates to its environment. Landscapes give us the horizon. Inscapes give us the essence. In John 13, John develops a theological inscape for the nature and practice of discipleship.
What gives foot-washing a cross-bearing significance? To answer this question, we take John’s seven deep meaning indicators and reapply them to Jesus’ followers. I believe it is important for us to see them all together. What I have done here is take what was said yesterday about Jesus and apply each theological marker to his followers. Here are the seven again: the Passover, kairos timing, redemptive love, the work of the devil, Jesus’ self-identity, his self-emptying, and his finished work. We are meant to transpose all seven indicators into a score to be played out in the life of the believer. We are playing “second fiddle” to the concert master, but what a privilege to play in this symphony!
We begin with the Passover, the event that underscores the meaning of redemption not only for the Savior but for his disciples. By divine design everything in our lives is to be framed by God’s redemptive action. Christ’s disciples embrace life sacramentally. Nothing lies outside the scope of God’s redemption, from menial household duties to evangelism. Because of Christ’s death we are continuously dying to self and to the old sin nature. In Christ we are made alive to the positive richness of life as intended and redeemed by God. We no longer live, but Christ lives in us, and the life that we now live we live by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for us (Gal 2:20). Salvation is grandly inclusive of all we are and will be.
The second deep meaning indicator, applied first to Christ and then to us, is time. As Jesus was conscious of his “hour,” we become conscious of a new sense of time and timing. Life is not primarily measured in minutes and months but in God’s providential will. The old chronology of the past, with its Rolex pride and self-importance, gives way to God’s rhythms of grace. Instead of pursing present-moment happiness we learn to abide in Christ moment by moment.
The third marker is love. Jesus showed the world the full extent of his love, and he calls his disciples to do the same. We are not only the recipients of his love but the agents of his love. We love because he first loved us.
The fourth shared factor between the Master and his disciples is the devil. The devil’s real presence in the upper room is consistent with his real presence in the world. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but “against the powers of this dark world” (Eph 6:12). Like a wounded animal the devil roams around seeking those he may devour (1 Pet 5:8).
The fifth deep meaning indicator, Jesus’ divine self-identity, is the basis of the believer’s resilient self-confidence. Because Jesus “knew the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God,” we know who we are. We can say with the Apostle Paul, “I am what I am” by the grace of God (1 Cor 15:10).
The sixth parallel between Jesus’ cruciform identity and the disciple’s calling is self-denial. As Jesus laid aside his clothes as a precursor to laying down his life,