Wash All of Me Jesus
(Luke
13:1-9)
Time was running out.
Jesus knew that in a few days he would be sent to the cross by the
Pharisees and priests. Jesus had done
many things to anger them, but often during His ministry, Jesus had forgiven
people of their sins. That had
especially made these religious leaders furious. (Luke 7:44-47, Mark 2:9, etc.) “Only God can forgive sins” they had fussed,
not realizing that Jesus is the Son of God.
Jesus knew his time was running out and He was concerned about
his disciple and how they would get through the difficult days ahead. Persecution and hate would soon cause Jesus to
go to his death. And Jesus knew that in
the future persecution and hate would cause most of his disciples to follow him
to the death also.
This would be one of the last times Jesus would be with his beloved
disciples before his death and He still had so much to tell them. As Jesus and his disciples were eating dinner
together Jesus rose early from the table and wrapped a towel around his waste
and filled a basin with water. Then
Jesus started around the room kneeling down in front of the nearest disciple
and lovingly washing and drying his feet and then moving on to the next one and
gently washing and drying his feet.
Two of the disciples
had been arguing about which one would be greatest in the kingdom. And perhaps Jesus, our Servant King, was
trying to show these men how they could humbly serve one another and perform
the most menial tasks with Christian love. To be a leader, Jesus told his followers, one
should take the role of a servant.
After Jesus had been moving around the table washing four
and then five of his disciples’ feet, He finally came to Peter. But when He started to wash Peter’s feet, Peter
jumped up and stopped Him protesting loudly:
“Lord, you are not
going to wash my feet!”
Jesus answered: “Peter, you do not realize now
what I am doing, but later you will understand.” (John 13:7)
Jesus perhaps was trying to tell Peter to just trust Him even if he didn’t
completely understand.
But Peter wouldn’t
listen! He stamped his feet! “No, you shall never wash my feet!” he insisted. (John 13:8a) Peter probably didn’t think it was proper for
Jesus to be his servant. (In those days the job of washing a guest’s feet fell
to the servants or the slaves)
But then Jesus answered Peter: “Unless I wash you, you will
have no part with Me!” (John 13:8b) There was a long pause! Uh oh! Peter hadn’t realized how important it was for
Jesus to wash him. – to wash him spiritually, that is. “Then, Lord, don’t just wash my feet, but wash
my hands and my head also,” Peter quickly replied, bowing his head. (John 13:9)
Peter was learning that Jesus is the One who would wash away
his sins. And Jesus is the One who will
wash away our sins too. There is no
other. Scripture says that we are all
sinners. (Romans 3:23) And we are all in need of spiritual cleansing
in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. There are no sins in heaven and we
cannot enter the kingdom of heaven in our sinful condition. We cannot come before a holy God in our
sins. We must be covered with Christ’s
righteousness to enter in. (Matthew
22:11)
Peter gave in and asked Jesus to wash him. He didn’t want to miss out on his part with
the Savior. And we must allow Jesus to
wash us too. We can do that by repenting
of our sins and asking Him to be our Savior.
Repentance is the doorway to grace. (1 John 1:9)
The Psalmist proclaimed:” Wash me and I will be whiter than
snow…” (Psalm 51:7) and Isaiah writes: “Come now, let us reason
together, says the Lord, Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow. Though they are red as
crimson, they shall be like wool.”
(Isaiah 1:18) We celebrate
Communion or Mass to remember that Jesus shed his blood and gave up his body to
be put to death in order to take away our sins.
Scripture records that once when Jesus was celebrating the
Passover meal with his disciples, He taught them that when they partook of the
bread and the wine they would be proclaiming His death and the washing away of
their sins. (Matthew 26:26)
As Jesus was eating with
the disciples, He took the bread and gave thanks and broke it up in pieces and
gave it to them saying: “Take, and eat, this is my body, broken for you.” (Matthew 16:16b) And then Jesus took the cup and gave thanks
and offered it to them saying, “Drink from it all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of the fruit of
the vine until I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Matthew 26:27)
Jesus told his disciples and all of his followers (that’s
us) to eat this meal together in remembrance of Him. “Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup,
you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes again.” (1 Corinthians 11 26) Christians around the world have been
celebrating the Lord’s Supper or the Mass together down through the last two
thousand years to remember that Jesus’ body was broken and that His blood was
shed for us to wash away our sins.
Scripture says that we should examine ourselves before we
take communion or Mass.
There was a woman we knew years ago who was a member of our
church. This woman did not believe that
Jesus was the Savior or that He took away sins.
She tried to teach the rest of us the error of our belief – our faith. In fact this woman did not even believe in
sin. She thought that there was no such
thing as sin and she joined our church to enlighten all of us! And worse yet, she
took the Lord’s Supper with us even though she didn’t believe.
This poor woman was painfully thin and continuously ill and
looked twenty years older than her actual age.
She was allergic to almost all food and could only eat eggs and
apples. Her doctors could never find
what was causing her illnesses. She also
had to continuously wear a mask to cover her mouth and nose as she was allergic
to something in the air all year round.
And she carried a pillow around with her as she hurt too much when she
sat on a chair without the pillow.
I have always worried that perhaps she was ill because she
was taking Holy Communion when she did not believe. No one in our church asked her not to take
communion or told her that Scripture warns against this. None of us cautioned her that there is power
in the Lord’s Supper and power in the Mass and power in the blood of Jesus –
even though she might not have believed us.
I am sorry that I didn’t speak up!
Just as Peter could have no part with Jesus unless He washed
him, we also can have no part with Jesus unless He washes us. So let us join Peter and use his words to ask
Jesus: “Lord wash my feet and my hands and my head also.” Wash all of me, Jesus!
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