It’s easy to love those who respect us and who listen to us. It’s easy to serve those who are loyal to us and who stick with us through thick and thin. But in John chapter 13, we learn that Jesus loves in a completely different way.

In verse 2, John makes it clear that when they all sat down to the Last Supper, Judas had already decided to sell Jesus out. And in verse 3, John reminds us that Jesus knew all about this plot. And yet, He washed Judas’ feet. In verse 6, we see Peter once again contradicting Jesus, assuming that he knew better than his master. And to make matters worse, Jesus knew that Peter would run off and leave Him before the night was over (verse 38). And yet, Jesus washed Peter’s feet as well.

And in order to accomplish this task, Jesus had to abandon all dignity. You sew, in those days, people lay down on cushions on the floor to eat from low tables, with their feet stuck out behind them. That meant that Jesus had to kneel down on the floor to wash their feet. Moreover, John makes it clear that he had wrapped the towel He was using around Himself (verse 4). That meant He ended up wearing a lot of the dust and grime they had tracked in with them.

Jesus was thus showing the disciples what He was about to do. For on the cross, He would take all their spiritual dirt on Himself, all the grime of their sin and rebellion against Him. They were not listening to Him. They were not loyal to Him. That very night they would betray and abandon Him, and yet He would lay down His life for them. He would die so that they might have eternal life.

No, we don’t love like that, but that’s the way God loves. Our Creator and Lord serves and humbles Himself before sinners like us. Our God has sacrificed Himself to save His enemies. So, let’s receive His grace and enjoy His love today. And then, with the same sort of unconditional, self-sacrificial humility, let’s love others as He has loved us.

John 13:1-17 (NASB)

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
2 And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God,
4 rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about.
5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
6 And so He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter.”
8 Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”
10 Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”
11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 And so when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments, and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?
13 “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.
14 “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15 “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.
16 “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master; neither is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
17 “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.