Jesus didn’t get all the way through washing the disciples’ feet until He was stopped. This daily devotional looks at how Peter didn’t want His feet washed and Jesus’ response.
Nuggets
- When Peter protested Jesus’ actions of washing his feet, Jesus promised that he would understand His purpose in time.
- Jesus promised future understanding.
Devotions in the Living Life Connected to Christ series
In the last devotion we began talking about the humility Jesus displayed when He was washing the disciples’ feet. The Son of God was performing a menial task to men who were lower down the feeding chain than He was.
Things went fine until Jesus got to Peter. The boy just didn’t understand what was happening.
Let’s take a look.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Let's Put It into Context #2
Christian humility is our yielding our dependence to Christ to serve Him and others.
Trying to Step the Humble Actions
“He [Jesus] came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, do you wash my feet?’ Jesus answered him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.’” (Jn. 13: 6-7 ESV)
When Peter protested Jesus’ actions of washing his feet, Jesus promised that he would understand His purpose in time.
Peter had a problem with Jesus washing his feet. He believed in hierarchy.
And Peter thought he was on the bottom with Jesus on the top.
That is why Peter had such an issue with Jesus washing his feet. Higher up Jesus wasn’t supposed to do a bottom tier job on someone who was lower than Him.
Jesus got that. We could read verses 7 several different ways.
The first way is Jesus saying the words with a bite of frustration. The disciples had been with Him three years. Hasn’t Peter figured out His humility yet?
Then again, Jesus could be frustrated at Peter for jumping to conclusions about His actions. We know Peter was impulsive.
The second way is disappointment. The disciples had been with Jesus three years, but they still didn’t get a major component of Jesus’ mission.
If that were us, we would have been angry, the third way Jesus could have reacted. He was leaving then — and they still hadn’t caught on to what Jesus’ mission was.
Boynton nailed it explaining why Peter didn’t get it yet. He wrote,
“There is always something lost in a human life when that life knows more about Christ than it does for the sake of Christ. It is not that there may not be the manifestation of this lovely virtue or of that attractive trait apart from the spirit of humility; but there is a great waste in the life still, because it retains a possession which has not been transmuted into action, because it has not been entirely permeated by the spirit of love.”
Resource
Elaine-speak. We know Who Jesus is. We might even know why He came to earth.
But we don’t know Jesus’ mission, His priorities, or His character. We may know Jesus, but think that He isn’t our Savior, isn’t the Son of God, or that he is more of a social Savior.
We also know that there are humble people who are not disciples. As Boynton said, that is a waste of life. It is not based on the love we receive from God.
Knowing What Jesus Wants Us to Know
“Jesus answered him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.’” (Jn. 13: 7 ESV)
Jesus promised future understanding.
Let’s look at verse 7 another way. It augments Isaiah 55: 8-9. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55: 8-9 ESV).
Jesus also said God’s ways are not understandable. However, He added a big yet at the end of His statement.
That moment that the learning would take place was the afterward reference. There are several afterwards that could mean.
• After Jesus got finished washing their feet and explained His actions.
• After Peter had denied Him three times.
• After Peter received the Holy Spirit.
• After Peter got to heaven.
Learning something takes time, especially if it is at a higher difficulty than where we are at. I’m not saying we can’t learn things. We have to work at it more.
We know that God has to give us the information chunks at a time so we can understand. We would be totally overwhelmed if He gave us everything at once.
There are some other things that we can pull out. Wray reminded us that Jesus was – and is – a doer.
Resource
We know Jesus took time off to commune with God. But we don’t read where He took a vacation. We don’t hear about Him taking a sick day.
During the three years of His ministry, Jesus worked, and worked, and then worked some more.
The problem was the you is different than the I. Peter was different than Jesus.
We shouldn’t bite on Peter too much. He knew Jesus in a way we never will. He was face to face with Him when He was on earth.
We will never be.
Yes, we will be face to face with Jesus when we get to heaven. But that wasn’t when Jesus was setting up His earthly kingdom.
We can’t discount the knowledge that Peter did have. It was good, too.
Do we ever know everything there is to know about a topic? Maybe. The way things are always changing, though, I don’t know if we could know absolutely everything.
Isn’t it fun to research new topics, get to know new things? To learn more about people?
Pastor Steve and I knew of each other from years ago when our live intersected again last year. But it has been fun getting to know each other over the past eight months. It is going to be even more fun learning more about him over the next 36 years. (We’re going for tandem wheelchairs so Adam can push both of us at the same time.)
The good thing about what Jesus was talking about is the knowledge was going to come by divine revelation. God would tell us.
When we think about it, that is the way God wants it. He doesn’t want us going off on our own, learning whatever. He wants us learning His truth.
Making the Connections
Peter isn’t the only person to jump to conclusions. Many worldview people tie salvation to their ability to understand everything. They won’t conform to God’s laws and commandments until they fully agree with them.
The Boston Homilies brought up a good point. They wrote, “That if we submit to His will we shall in due time understand the significance of His treatment.”
Resource
God is only going to reveal Himself to His children. We aren’t children of God until after conversion.
Glossary
The other thing that needs to be mentioned is Spurgeon’s reminder that, regardless of Peter’s understanding, Jesus was going to accomplish His purpose of washing their feet.
Resource
We like to get big heads and think everything God does is dependent on us. No, everything that God does is so that He can be worshiped.
How Do We Apply This?
- Work on increasing our knowledge and understanding of God.
- Obey Christ.
- Pray daily.
Resources
Father God. Lord, Your ways are higher than ours, yet You do explain some things to us. This explanation is so that we can grow closer to You and become more like You. Forgive us when we, like Peter, see things only from our perspective. Help us to look at the spiritual ways rather than the worldview ways. Amen.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email daily or weekly providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.