The epitome of Christ’s mission.

Alexander Maclaren and the Lord’s parable of love.

Tintoretto, “Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet”

John’s Gospel relays one of the most striking scenes from Jesus’s earthly ministry ever recorded. The second half of the Gospel of John begins with a moment of surprising deference and humility, as the Lord of all, God in the flesh, bows in front of his bumbling disciples to wash their feet (John 13:1–12). As surprising as this scene is, though, it is indicative of Jesus’s entire ministry and identity as the Son and Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29). This is just to say that as gobsmacked as the apostles might have been as they watched their Teacher perform this act of stunning service, we are made to revere this moment as the epitomization of the Lord’s mission. In conjunction with the scene of Christ washing his disciples’ feet, one is encouraged to read Paul’s words concerning the mind of Christ, which he demonstrates by emptying himself and by “taking the form of a servant” to serve those whom he loves (Phil. 2:5–9; cf. Mark 10:45).

Fittingly, 19th-century Scottish Baptist pastor and theologian Alexander Maclaren expands on this connection in the following excerpt, in which one is made to see the washing of feet not only as a deed of love and service but also as a “parable” of God’s incarnation and redemption. Maclaren writes:

And may we not also say that all is a parable, or illustration, on a lower level, of the very same principles which were at work in the mightier fact of the greater condescension of His ‘becoming flesh and dwelling among us’? He ‘rose from the table,’ as He rose from His place in ‘the bosom of the Father.’ He disturbed the meal as He broke the festivities of the heavens. He divested Himself of His garments, as ‘He thought not equality with God a thing to be worn eagerly’; and ‘He girded Himself with the towel, as He put on the weakness of flesh. Himself He filled the basin, by His own work providing the means of cleansing; and Himself applied the cleansing to the feet of those who were with Him. It is all a working out of the same double motive which drew Him downwards to our earth. The reason why He stooped, with His hands to wash the disciples’ feet, is the same as the reason why He had hands to wash with — viz., that knowing Himself to be high over all, and loving all, He chose to become one with us, that we might become like unto Him. So the details of the act are a parable of His incarnation and death. (10:2.186)

It would be hard to overstate the significance of this scene — and, to be sure, its meaning was surely burned into the minds of all who were there that night. In fact, Peter’s mind seems to still stagger when he recalls what he saw (1 Pet. 5:5–7). The Christ of God who clothes himself in humility does exactly that when he drapes himself in the sins of the world in order that a world full of sinners might be clean. May this parable of the Lord’s love continue to speak good news for dirty scoundrels like you and me.

Happy Easter Week, and grace and peace to you!

Works cited:

Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, Vols. 1–17 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1944).