We thank God that today also He gave us life, kept us, protected us, and allowed us to be before Him. May the Lord be glorified, dear sisters and brothers. We are thankful to God for everything.
When Moses already knew that soon he would pass from this life to the Father, to his God, he was teaching the people of Israel many things. It seems that Deuteronomy was Moses’ final words to the people of Israel. He was teaching them, correcting them, presenting different situations from the past, speaking about the future. If they obeyed, these kinds of things would happen; if they disobeyed, these kinds of things would happen. And in different ways he was preparing that people, so that even though they would pass through afflictions and have difficulties, they would be firmly convinced that God was with them.
And Moses corrected, exhorted, and appointed Joshua so that Joshua would continue the work Moses was doing and lead the people of Israel into the promised land. And we see that when Joshua also understood that his hour was near, he gathered the people of Israel and gave them his final words, corrections, and exhortations. He urged them that just as he and his household served the Lord, the whole people should serve Jehovah God and not go after other gods.
We see that when David’s days were drawing near, he called his son Solomon to himself, gave him corrections and counsel, presented things about the future, and passed them on to Solomon. We see that the apostle Paul gathers the elders of Ephesus, and he already knows that he must go to Jerusalem, and after Jerusalem he must go to Rome, and there they will kill him. And he gathers them and says, “I will see you for the last time.” He tells them, in these and these matters, you, the people of God, must shepherd rightly the people whom He purchased with His own blood.
We see that our Lord Jesus Christ also, when He understood that His hour had come, gathered His closest disciples. He gathered them to exhort, correct, encourage, and also warn them, saying, “I must go, but do not be afraid after I go, because I will not leave you alone, I will not leave you orphans. I will send the promise of the Father, the heavenly Holy Spirit, into you, so that He may be in you and with you. But the world will not know this Holy Spirit and will not understand Him, but He will lead you into truth and righteousness. What I have, He will take from Me and pass it on to you, He will reveal it.”
We see that He exhorts, corrects, and encourages. And we know that the disciples were afraid, because they already wanted to kill Jesus, and they were aware of this. Peter, not understanding, said, “I will go with You even to death,” and the rest of the disciples said together with him, “Yes.” But we see that they stumbled and fell, yet the Lord did not leave them. He visited them again with His presence, with His revelation, with His resurrection, and He also breathed the Holy Spirit into them, so that they would go and do the work He did — fearlessly, with that reverent boldness. Because if their Lord rose from the dead after so many sufferings and afflictions, what did they have to fear? There was nothing to fear. Their Lord had risen from that great suffering.
The Purpose of Jesus’ Final Words: Love
These words are in John chapter 13. What were Jesus’ final words to His disciples about? The main purpose was love. He revealed His love to His disciples, He passed His love on to them, and He gave them a commandment: “As I have loved you, you also love one another.”
And He also spoke, saying, “If you love Me, I will send the promised Holy Spirit. If you love Me, the Father will love you. If you love Me, I and the Father will come and dwell in you.” And He even prayed and pleaded concerning that love: “Father, the love with which You loved Me before the world, I pray that this love also may be in them.” May God do so.
And one of the ways He revealed that love is seen in John chapter 13. Before His final words, Jesus reveals something to His disciples. He shows them an example, a mystery, which He commands: “As I, your Lord and Teacher, have done to you, you also do to one another. As I washed your feet, you also wash one another’s feet. And if you do this, you are blessed if you perform it.”
John 13: The Example of Foot Washing
Before the Feast of Passover, Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should depart from this world to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside His garments, took a towel, and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
When He came to Simon Peter, Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus said to him, “He who is washed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”
For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.” So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that just as I have done to you, you also should do. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
“I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.’ Now I tell you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe that I am He. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” Hallelujah. Amen.
When we think about what foot washing is for, we see that during communion, during the supper, Jesus suddenly did something that had never been heard of. Historians, theologians, archaeologists, and different people who discuss these things have not found, before this act of Jesus Christ, in all the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Assyrian, or Babylonian writings, drawings, and images, one place where the master washes the feet of the servant. In all human history, there is no example until Jesus Christ did this work.
Perfect Authority and Perfect Humility
It is amazing to me that the Lord, being King, as it is written in very wonderful words, knew that His time had come, that He would be glorified, that He would leave this world and go to the Father. He knew that He had come from the Father, and that the Father had given everything into His hands.
For a moment, imagine that someone gives you all his possessions. If that person were poor, even then his possessions would still have some price and value. But imagine that the richest man in the world gives you all his possessions. What an amazing thing that would be. And you know it. But imagine that the God who created heaven and earth gave everything into His hands. He knew that.
There is a saying: “Power corrupts the human person, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In other words, when you give a person authority and that person does not understand how to use that authority, that authority produces pride and arrogance within him, and it destroys him from the inside, ruins him, kills him.
But there has never been a person in history who had perfect authority. Our Jesus Christ had perfect authority. By His word the dead were raised, the sick were healed, the lepers were cleansed, storms and winds were calmed and stopped. The One who had that authority — perfect authority — during that supper, we see what a wonderful example He left for us.
It is written that He laid aside His garments, and then it is written that He took up His garments again. In the Gospel of John, these two words are used only in one other place. Jesus speaks to the people and says, “I am the good shepherd.” And He says, “The good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep and takes it up again.” In other words, Jesus says, “I must lay down My life for My own, and I must take it up again; I must rise from the dead.”
This example of foot washing is an example of humility, and we are right to say that, because it is. But this example of humility has a special form. It was not just ordinary humility, as though He were saying, “You know, let Me go and wash the feet of people in the world, do good things, do charitable works.” There was a special image in this humility.
Foot Washing Shows the Way of the Cross
The cross, those sufferings, those pains, that dishonor, that shameful condition which our Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself on the cross. The sin, the evil, the unrighteousness, every evil thing that exists in the world, the most terrible things that we are even ashamed to think about — Christ bore them on the cross in His mortal body.
He did not only humble Himself and wash feet; that washing of feet was preparing the disciples for that perfect washing, that cleansing, that holiness which humanity needed to have. With that holy blood by which Jesus would wash them — that is, by the Holy Spirit, by the Word of God, and by the blood shed on the cross — He washed, cleansed, and sanctified from every unrighteousness and sin.
“Do you know what I have done to you?” This was not simply that He knelt down, washed feet, and said, “Good, I have done this example, and when you see people who are in need, wash their feet, help them, humble yourselves.” It is more than that. He showed His people a path that they cannot walk without the power of God.
There are many benefactors in the world who, even taking an example from Jesus, do not mention the name of Jesus, but outwardly show that they are doing humble things. But there is no one among humanity who can climb onto the cross in a hypocritical way.
The cross exposes hypocrisy and lies. Therefore, dear sisters and brothers, let us choose the way of the cross. Because that falsehood, that lie, which still wars in these mortal bodies of ours against our spirit — that falsehood, lie, evil, hatred, gossip, adultery, idolatry, and every evil and unrighteousness like these — the cross exposes and puts to shame. And therefore let us choose the way of the cross. May God help us to be firm and complete in that choice. May God help us, dear sisters and brothers.
Foot Washing: Both Mystery and Real Service
And this foot washing our Lord Jesus Christ taught so that there is this mystery, but also so that we truly wash one another’s feet, physically, during the communion service.
Jesus repeats this example of foot washing three times, saying, “As I have done, you also do,” and He places a blessing upon those who do it, repeating three times that we must perform this as He performed it. We perform this example of foot washing during communion. And we see that this example of foot washing is the example of perfect love that Jesus passed on. And Jesus does not say, “I gave you an example, and simply perform this mystery in the world.” He presents it as, “As I have done to you, you also do in the same way.”
Both physically, during communion and worship, we must wash one another’s feet, and also after washing, when we leave these doors, we must live the real life of that mystery. It is not that it must be one or the other, but both together. Foot washing reminds us that we must go and do this. And after doing this, we return again and wash feet, so that we remember again, so that it becomes fresh again in us, so that it awakens again in us, because we become tired.
We kneel before our brother, before our sisters, and we wash feet, and we understand, “What an amazing thing I am doing.”
It is amazing to me that someone who is greater than me in age, in position, and in every way kneels and washes my feet. And then I remember that my grandfather, who was ninety years old, washed my feet. I remember that even Brother Surik washed my feet, Brother Styopa, Brother Frunz — older brothers who had lived life and seen life — and in reality I should have said like Peter, “Are You washing my feet?” But Jesus told us: no, you must wash.
It is an amazing thing, is it not? Something unheard of, something unseen in this world. May God help us, dear sisters and brothers.
The Practices Commanded by God’s Word Are Holy
You know, many times, if something is repeated or if it is a practice, people say, “Oh, it is just a practice.” No. There is the Word of God, which teaches us practices, so that we perform these practices as rites, and the Word of God commands it. And many times people look and say, “That is just a practice. You are performing a rite. You are formal. You are hypocritical.”
No, no. Hypocrisy and formalism are not because of foot washing or communion worship. That exists in every person, and we must fight against these things until the last breath of our life. But that foot washing helps us. At least for a moment, even outwardly, we humble ourselves so that we may receive the thought that our Lord Jesus did this same service.
Do you want to become like Jesus, my dear sister, my brother? He said, “As I have done to you, you also do to one another.” As I have done to you. And by kneeling and washing feet, we become like Jesus. We do the work of Jesus.
Many times we say about certain practices, “This is just a practice.” Jesus commanded and ordered practices in different places. The apostle Paul, and Jesus, did not accept those practices that people did in order to appear, to show that they were holier than the rest, or to set aside another word of God through those practices. In Matthew chapter 15, Jesus speaks against those practices.
But the practices that the Word of God commands are holy, complete, and acceptable, so that the people of God may both physically perform those practices and embody the meaning of those practices when, after performing them, they go into the world. May God help us all in this matter, dear sisters and brothers.
When God Is Not Pleased with Ceremony
I would also like to speak for a moment about when God is not pleased with practices, and then how God looks when a person does them in the right way. I want to read for a moment from Isaiah chapter 1, verse 10 — Isaiah 1:10-15.
When we look at all these things that the people of Israel were doing, they were according to the Word of God. But what was the problem? The people of God thought they could go and sin, do evil, commit unrighteousness, and then come and hide under these rites.
But God says, “Cleanse yourselves, sanctify yourselves, be clean, so that after being cleansed you may come and perform these ceremonies, these rites, these practices, this Word of God, and it will not be a covering for your evil, but sincere worship of God.”
And dear sisters and brothers, in all our situations, in the practices that the Word of God commands, let us do them from the heart, with purity, with sincerity. And let it not be that an evil thought enters our heart and we think, “You know, they did not see my evil works. Let me hide under this ceremony, cover myself, so that people will think I am holy.”
Rather, God says, “Come, let us reason together. Though your sins are red, I can make them white, cleanse them, sanctify them.” May God help us, dear sisters and brothers.
A Broken and Humble Heart
And David’s Psalm 51 says, “God does not delight in sacrifices, otherwise I would give them.” What does God delight in? A broken and humble heart. “You will not despise it.” But it does not stop there. David says, “When I have a broken and humble heart,” then he prays, “Do good to Israel according to Your goodness.”
David was king, he was the ruler of the people of Israel, and he was in sin. He confessed, he was broken, he repented before God, and God forgave him. And no sacrifice, no work could grant him that forgiveness; only the mercy of God granted him that forgiveness.
After receiving the mercy of God, he says, “And then I will offer sacrifices to You.” In other words, those sacrifices were not wrong. The problem was that he was entering the presence of God with sin and thinking he was covered.
May the Spirit of God help each one of us understand these words, dear sisters and brothers, so that whatever we do, we do it with purity and sincerity. And let it not be that an evil thought enters our heart and we think, “You know, they did not see my evil works. Let me hide under this ceremony, cover myself, so that people will think I am holy.”
Rather, God says, “Come, let us reason together. Though your sins are red, I can make them white, cleanse them, sanctify them.” May God help us, dear sisters and brothers.
