The Laver of Cleansing

“He... began to wash the disciples’ feet.” John xiii. 5.

ATT has often been suggested that this act of Jesus was performed to teach humility. That lesson is truly here, for He Himself said, ‘’ If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet,”

anti (0tf)er interpretations but It IS incidental and by the way. No Oriental thought it a menial act to wash a guest’s feet. Peter’s astonishment, and refusal, were because the Divine Master took this act upon Himself. ‘’ Dost thou wash my feet?”

It was an act of condescension for the Lord of Glory to perform this office; and doubtless therefore there is a blessed teaching of humility in our Lord’s act, but that is not the central truth; the deepest meaning hes in the words ‘’ If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me.”

After eating the Pascal supper, and before the institution of the memorial supper, which is one of the two Christian ordinances, Jesus rose from the table, and girding Himself began to wash the disciples’ feet.

They received this with the usual stolidity until Peter was reached and protested ‘’ Dost thou wash

John xiii.
6.

John xiii.
4, 5-

8o

Mo yoom in tije 3nn

John xiii,
7.

John xiii.

John xiii.
9.

John xiii. my feet? “To this Jesus made answer ‘’ What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” Our Lord’s act was, then, symbolical. But this did not satisfy Peter: ‘’ Thou shalt never wash my feet” was his resolute reply. So Jesus disclosed the symbolical meaning of His act, *’ If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me.

And now Peter, understanding the act to be symbolic of purification from sin, goes quite too far, ^’ Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” It is as if he said “Lord, if it is a question of cleansing I am all unclean.” So again our Lord defines His act. ‘’ Jesus saith unto him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet.” The underlying imagery is Oriental — of one who, in the public baths, has become clean, but whose feet, as he walks homeward through the filth of an Oriental city, contract new defilements, and these must be washed away. And the application is obvious. The believer, cleansed by the blood of Christ from all guilt and penalty, needs also daily cleansing as he walks through an unclean world.

And there is here, also, a reference to the laver of the temple, which every Jew should have understood.

The priest, having offered sacrifice at the brazen altar, and proceeding thence to worship and communion in the holy place, must pause at the laver for the cleansing of hands and feet. Typically the sacrifice unto salvation had been offered at the brazen altar. Forgiveness and cleansing had been found there. But sin is not only guilt, it is defilement, and fellowship with God demands that this be removed. The cleansing work of Christ is two-fold; the cleansing by blood

The laver,

Ex. XXX.

17-21.

The double
cleansing.

i ioom in tfje 3nn

Eph. V.
25-27.

Confession
and cleansing,

I John i.
7-9.

unto full salvation, the cleansing by the Spirit through the word unto full fellowship,

“Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

In these passages the whole beautiful, but solemn truth of the feet-washing is opened, and this is that anb 0ttx Snterpretationg truth: The Lord was about to institute the Eucharistic Supper, a supreme expression of communion and fellowship, and He would teach His loving, but careless disciples, the two-fold lesson — first, that His blood answered once for all, for the guilt of the believer. “He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet.” Secondly, He, the Holy One, could not admit to the privileges of His intimacy the believer who lived carelessly in unconfessed sin, and, that only He, Christ, could cleanse the defiled believer. Our part is confession, His part is to cleanse us from unrighteousness, and so to restore our interrupted fellowship. The saint’s confession is but putting the defiled feet into the hands of Jesus; He only can cleanse.

Luke xxii.
19, 20.

io 3loom in tfje 3nn

Three vital
truths*

Luke xix.

Heb. X.
S-io.

John xii.
24, 32, 33.

John iii.
14.

Heb. ix.

Matt. xii.
38-40.

Rom. iv.
23-25.