The scene in the early part of John 13 is more or less familiar to many; it contains the account of the Lord washing His disciples’ feet, just before He went away; an action typical of His present service for “His own which are in the world.”
Perhaps we have narrowed it too much, confining it to restoration, and removal of soils which we contract in passing through the wilderness.
To make this clear, we must look a little at the Priesthood of the Lord in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The first thought of Priesthood was to prevent failure in the redeemed: it is the thought of divine and perfect love. No doubt we do not always bow to the Lord’s action thus with us, and then we have to be cleansed afresh by His washing of our feet.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christians are looked upon as traveling through the desert, and Christ is spoken of as both “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.” We find this in type in Moses, who came out from God with His word to the people as an Apostle, and in Aaron, the High Priest, who went in to the presence of God with the blood of atonement for the people. Both are found in Christ.
In Chapter 1 we have Christ as the Apostle. He comes from God to us revealing all His mind—nay, Himself. In Chapter 2 we have Him as the High Priest, who goes back in all His suitability to the office, because He is a Man. But when He really enters upon His priestly office for us He goes to stand between a reconciled people and God. They are looked upon in their journey here below on earth, and there is no mention in the Hebrews of their being seated in Christ Jesus in heavenly places. Christians are ever there, of course, but are not so seen in this epistle. Having then the ability (chap. 1.), and suitability of Christ as High Priest, in chap. 2, we are told to “consider Him” in these two characters—the “Apostle,” who came from God to us, and the “High Priest,” who has gone for us to God.
Then in chapters 3, 4 we find the people in the wilderness on their journey; and in the end of chap. 4 we have the two instruments by which He carries His people through the wilderness. First, the Word of God—not in its formative, but (as verse 12 shows) in its detective character— “The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” The Word of God leeks down into your heart while you are in this place of weakness—as His eye, and if there is a thought or purpose there not of God, it deals with you, it “discerns it.” It deals with the will, and when this will would lead you aside, the Word exposes its workings in its true character.
The second instrument is the Priesthood of Christ to meet and sustain us in our weakness. If the Word of God in its breaking-down power was all we had, we should say that it was very disheartening. But it is not all. There is a great deal more. “Seeing we have a great High Priest, that is passed through the heavens” —the Son of God—not One who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses (this is the same word as in 2 Cor. 13:44For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. (2 Corinthians 13:4), He was “crucified through weakness”), for He was in all points tempted like as we are, except sin. A true heart looks for His sympathy, not with sin, but with the weakness: He looks—for us to have common feeling with Him against sin. Then He goes on— “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace for timely help.”
There is a great difference between “timely help,” and “help in time of need.” Suppose you are walking across the street and fall down and hurt yourself, and I run and help you up—that is help in time of need. But suppose I see you are likely to fall, and I hold you up to prevent your doing so—this would be “timely help.” Now, there is a Priest—Christ in glory—who knows your nature, and that you are likely to fall at any moment. What then is to keep you? Let us go boldly to Him that we may obtain mercy, and find grace for “timely help.” What then is the language of your heart? “Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe.” If the heart is always in the consciousness of weakness, knowing its need of being held up, it will rejoice in His timely succor. On our side there is the sense of weakness, on His there is ability to meet that weakness; and God’s instruments to prevent, the saint from falling are thus effectual.
We stand in the consciousness of sins having been put away—deliverance from our standing as children of Adam; and we have been brought into an entirely new place, with the question of sin and sins all settled, and redemption complete. Sins—our part; death—Satan’s part; and judgment—God’s part, all met and settled: and we draw near boldly to the throne of grace.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is really the complement of that to the Romans. Romans sets us in divine righteousness with God, while Hebrews maintains us there. In Rom. 5:1010For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10), we are said to be “saved by His life,” and in Rom. 8:3434Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (Romans 8:34), “who also maketh intercession for us.” In Heb. 7:2424But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. (Hebrews 7:24), we find allusion to both— “He is gone on high, and ever liveth to make intercession for us.”
Now we turn to John 13. The doctrine of the Gospel of John does not go beyond the seventh chapter. In chap. 6:35 we have Incarnation; in v. 51, death (we eat His flesh and drink His blood); and in v. 62, we have Ascension “What, and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before;” then in chap. 7 we have the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the whole thing is completed.
In chap. 8 a fresh thought comes in. We find Him as the Light of the World, detecting every man’s conscience. In chap. 9 He gives eyes that men may see. He is light in chap. 8, but if anyone wants to see, he must have eyes to do so; so in chap. 9 we read (v. 6), “He spat on the ground, and made clay, of the spittle;” the clay (incarnation) and the “spittle,” something more, and from Himself, and “He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.” That which he gets from Christ Himself gives him sight—and all are in antagonism to the man in a moment. Who does not know that when your eyes are opened to see Jesus the world is against you? Pharisees, Jews, parents are against this poor man; but he has got his eyes opened.
Chapter 10 gives the doctrine of chap. 9—the ninth being an illustration, the tenth the doctrine. Then at the close of the tenth chap., He completes the circle of His mission in Israel, and comes back “to the place where John at first baptized,” beyond Jordan.
Now in chapters 11 and 12 we have God putting His seal on Christ in His three Son ships. He is the Son of God in 11; in chap. 12, the Son of David, when He enters Jerusalem, and then the Son of Man; but as soon as He speaks of Himself as Son of Man, “the corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die.”
From 13 to 17—a series of chapters which give us the new service and teaching of the Lord as beyond the cross. In 13, His new service for His own is taught. Ex. 21 gives us in figure a picture of this service. The Hebrew servant, who would not go out free—he loved his master, his wife, his children—he would not go out free. His master shall bring him unto the judges, and shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door-post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.
You will find what a remarkable place “the ears” have in the Scriptures which speak of the service of Christ. In Psa. 40:6, 76Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, (Psalm 40:6‑7), “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire: mine ears hast thou opened (or digged). Then said I, lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God.” The Son says, “I delight to do thy will.” What is the place of a servant? To have no will—the ears always opened to receive commands. In Isa. 50:4, 54The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. 5The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. (Isaiah 50:4‑5), the ears are again mentioned “The Lord God hath opened my ears to hear as a learner,” (not as the “learned.”) “He learned obedience by the things which he suffered.” Here, notice, it is never said that He learned to be obedient. To a child, you say, you must learn to be obedient; but of Christ it is said, “He learned obedience”—because it was a new thing with One who, ruled all, and besides there was not the will to be disobedient in Him. “Who, in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared. Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered: and being made perfect,” &c.
In Ex. 21 The servant’s ears were bored through with an awl, and he became a servant forever. So Christ: He loves His Master, His Church, His people—all. His time of service here on earth was over. But there is one thing about the Lord’s service above all others—He never gives it up. He is the servant now, will be the servant during the millennium, and, when all the countless ages of eternity are rolling on, He will be the blessed servant still. When He has reigned a thousand years, and delivers up the kingdom to God, He will continue His service for us.
He took the form of a servant. Could you take the form? No; because you are one. How blessed if the heart can enter in the smallest degree into what it cost Him to do this. In the gospels He labors and toils for poor souls, and when He has done it all, He begins again when gone on high. He came to have a place with His people here; but received it not; then He will prepare them for having a place with Him there; He cannot remain as man in a defiled earth, but He will have His people there, and He will fit them for the same.
There is a difference between a judicial fitness for God’s presence and a moral fitness for it. Judicially you never can be more fit than you are through the blood by which you have been brought to God. But it is by the washing of water by the Word that you are made morally fit for the new place.
Suppose the Queen takes up a child from the gutter, and adopts it, and brings it to her palace, her perfect grace would give the child the title to be there; but the child needs a suitability, a moral fitness for the palace. Then it is educated, and clothed, and fitted for the sphere in which it now will move. The educational acquirements do not give it its title to be in the presence of the Queen; her adoption settled that point. And so with the Lord’s people. They need as sinners to be brought nigh to God, and all His holy claims judicially answered for them. Then as saints they require that their whole nature be molded and character formed for His blessed presence. How much more do we see one saint enjoy God’s presence than another; yet that other possesses as perfect a title to be with Him as the former. But the soul of the other has walked with and learned Christ, and grown up to Him.
Let us examine the blessed scene of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples, which seems to present several distinct thoughts to our minds:—
1. That He who could not remain with them below was now about to educate them morally for the new sphere in which they would have part with Him—for the Father’s house on high. This is the positive action of His love.
2. That while this is the primary thought in this service of love, He would also sustain them while walking through this scene, keeping up the separation between them and their present place here, with its defilement and sin. This is the negative side. And
3. That if they bowed not to this preventive ministry of His love, and contracted soils by the way, He would cleanse them by the washing of their feet, and restore them if fallen aside.
There is no action of our life in which the Lord has not been dealing with us. If you turn aside to pray, you will find when you are consciously before God that He deals with your conscience when there is a soil; but with the heart when the conscience is free. God is said to be light and love—the love attracts the heart, the light deals with the conscience.
The great instrument by which the Lord thus deals with us is “the washing of water by the Word.” “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” This action was to be known by Peter at another time thoroughly.
I think you will find, that when this action has not been fully effectual, through the frowardness of our hearts here, the judgment-seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5) will bring to full result, through the full and entire judgment, according to the light of God, of all that was unjudged here, of all that the water of the Word had not practically dealt with, by reason of the stubbornness of our hearts.
There may be many who pass away quietly and happily to heaven, and yet after a course which has been exceedingly faulty. It is also possible for a soul going on well (through grace) to be happy at the Lord’s table, though he may have a deal of unjudged “flesh” about him. Peter did not then understand the full meaning of this action of the Lord. And after his denial of Christ, we find him (in chapter 21) at dinner with the Lord, and yet the root of flesh was still unjudged in him. The judgment-seat of Christ must bring out all that which has not yielded to the action of the Word now.
It is a great thing to know that Christ is preparing you for this place morally, though the Blood has prepared you for it judicially. God, in righteousness, pronounces you a righteous man, if you have faith in His Son. But there are many things as you walk along that would draw you aside, “Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life” (Prov. 5:66Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. (Proverbs 5:6)). All through this shifting scene the Lord is dealing with you, and the Word of God, if you are feeding on it, is maintaining you in separation from it; it is dealing with your conscience if you are faulty, or with your heart if free. “When thou goest it shall lead thee, when thou sleepest it shall keep thee, and when thou wakest it shall talk with thee” (Prov. 6:2222When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. (Proverbs 6:22)), may be said of it most truly and happily in its action every day. The Lord, by His Spirit and through the Word, brings the thoughts of heaven down to your hearts, and your hearts up to Him in heaven.
How solemn is the thought that the present time is that in which our capacity is formed for our place and enjoyment in the glory of God! No doubt that all is foreknown and prepared of the Father; but still, just as the soul has learned Jesus here, so will you be able to enjoy the glory.
You find this illustrated in Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, in John 11 Just as each one learned the Lord in this scene where death reigned, so each one had their place in the lovely typical and yet real scene of chapter 12, where the glory is portrayed. Just as we constantly find that the character of a person’s conversion gives a tone to his walk, so his walk will determine his place in the glory! The present, then, is the time of preparation for that scene in capacity and growth; the enjoyment of it will be by-and-by; yet, as we have said, all will be as ordained of the counsels of God. This action of the Lord detects what is in your heart, by the entrance of His Word giving light there. Now that may be done without your having a bad conscience, for you may never have thought that the thing detected was unfit for the light. Many things and associations that are not according to the light may never have been thought of as not suited to it, and hence the conscience is not defiled. They are shown you in this mystical washing that you may cast them off. If you do so, the conscience is undefiled, and it is not then the removal of a stain, nor the restoring the soul when defiled, but our moral education by the Lord in the suitability needed for the new place.
But, supposing you were to go on with them after they have thus been detected, you would need to be restored. The Lord’s thought is that you should go on with nothing between Him and you, and by the action of the Word He is discovering to you what would come between, that you may be the better able to enter into the enjoyment of the Father’s love, in communion with Himself as well now as by-and-by.
Under the law, at the brazen laver the hands and feet were washed. This laver stood between the altar and the holiest. Both hands and feet had to be washed; because the Lord was taking cognizance and forbidding the actions and walk of the old man there under the law; here it is to a man who has the divine nature, but who has also a principle within him which loves sin, and whereby he becomes defiled. Then the Lord deals with the conscience; and “we have an advocate with the Father” (1 John 2). How important it is, then, to bow immediately to the washing of water by the Word: there is then instant restoration. Keep a thing that the Word has detected still on the conscience, and it corrodes there. One’s felt state will show him surely that communion is lost, while all the time you have not got to your real state. The longer it is there the more difficult to have the sense of restoration. Remember, too, that the moment you are made conscious of failure, it was the Lord who did it.
The two most prominent of the disciples at the Supper, whose course is thrown together in the whole Gospel (Peter and John) were converted in different ways. John heard the word of John the Baptist. “Looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:3636And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! (John 1:36)). He is ravished by the beauty of Jesus, and attracted to His person. A little word is let out from John Baptist’s heart, and he follows Jesus. John Baptist began his ministry (and rightly so) with the terrible denunciations of coming judgment; but the last two notes in John 1, as to the person of Christ, attracted their hearts, and God allows one of those men to tell you “it was about the tenth hour.” Do you think God is indifferent to the day and the hour when a soul was brought to Him. Nay; of one it is written here in the eternal Word of God.
Now, when Peter was converted, it was different. Andrew goes to Peter, and brought him to Jesus, and he said, “We have found the Messias, which is being interpreted, the Christ.” The results were very different in their path. You never find that the Lord had to tell John to follow Him, though He has to say to Peter— “Follow thou me.” There are the same distinctive marks in the character of their ministry. John is a true Kohathite, bearing the golden vessels of the tabernacle, the person of Christ.
Peter never went beyond the Messias made Lord and Christ. It is remarkable how his conversion gives a character to his ministry in his epistle and service, as John’s so markedly did so in his: though, on the other hand, the call of God does all. Still, the character may be much altered afterward, which is encouragement to us. The men who gathered to David to the cave of Adullam had but sorry characters, yet they had fine characters when the kingdom was set up. Why? Because they remained with David. So the power of assimilation to the Lord will keep us in His presence, and mend our characters.
“Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter, therefore, beckoned unto him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then lying on Jesus’ breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?” John then, drawing more closely, gets the mind of Christ, and this because he was leaning on His bosom. He did not draw near to get the mind; but, because he was near, he got the mind of the Lord. “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them that is the one that loveth me” (John 14). No matter how ignorant we may be, if we love Christ, we will get the intelligence of His mind, and He will manifest Himself unto us. Like Mary in John 20, she had no intelligence, but she had a heart that could well nigh break itself for Christ, and she got the manifestation of Himself as well as His commandments. To such hearts as these He manifests Himself. Is your heart resting on His bosom? Is your ear open to hear His word? And are you so near that He communicates to you His mind
Why do we go to another to solve a question. Because we feel that he is nearer to the Lord than we are.
In Judas there was the habitual allowance of sin, and this was the groundwork of his fall: it hardened his conscience. The Lord could not reveal His mind to the others until Judas had gone out. The presence of the traitor hindered the manifestation of His glory.
“A new commandment I give unto you” (v. 34.) There are in other languages two words for “new”; but in English we have only one. Suppose you see a man with a coat c f an entirely new fashion and cut that never was seen before, we say, This is a new coat, i.e., of entirely a new kind. But, suppose you see an ordinary coat, but of new cloth, there is many a coat like it, still in that sense it is new. It is in the first sense that this word in verse 34 is used— “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you.” And this love is that which rose beyond and above every littleness and stupidity and failure of His disciples.
Do you seek to love each other as He did, in such a way that it will rise above every pettiness, every bitterness, every hindrance, “As Christ loved you?” Divine love is never thrown back, and never changed by the unworthiness of its object; it is superior to everything. Like a stream, whose banks may for some distance be smooth; but when they become crooked and rocky, the same stream flows on and on, unchanged in its course and its quality; such is His love.
In Peter’s case we find a solemn yet blessed lesson, that a fall never happens to a Christian without a previous warning, and without some dealings from the Lord. If Peter had taken the warning he might not have fallen. May we be of those who know His voice, and bow to the washing, knowing the blessed object He has in this action of His love. Amen.