John 13:1–38

He was the only man whom nothing took by surprise. All was read and known and felt in the presence of God His Father. He knew all along that He was to die. He knew its form, its character, and its aim — in God's purpose, and in the malice of man and Satan. Here we see more: how near it now was, and how immense its consequences, stood before His mind.

He knew every detail: the malice of Satan, the treachery of Judas, the denial of Peter, all the disciples forsaking Him, the bitter persecutions of the Jews and of the Romans, His crucifixion. More dreadful than all of these, He knew He must suffer the judgment of God for our sins. These things are not mentioned here. Yet through it all His love for His own stayed as full and pure as it had been from the beginning.

This is the language belonging to the One who came into the world with a mission to carry out, and when it was complete He would go out of it quietly, calmly, confidently, in the blessed consciousness that what He came to do had been gloriously done. He came forth "from the Father" (16:28) and He travelled through a sin-ridden world, His footsteps constantly dogged by those who always tried to prove His moral failure; thank God they could not.

All through the Gospel, from chapter 1, He is unknown to the world, and rejected by the Jews. "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him." But from chapter 13 He speaks as going out of the world and ascending on high.

John's Gospel records the rejection of our Lord Jesus Christ very early. Yet in these wonderful words in John 13 we read that there was still something in the world that He called His own... If what was His own in John 1:10 was kept from Him, and if His own people Israel refused Him, that only brought the eternal purpose to light. In the world that would later crucify Him, He has brought to light a unique company that He gladly owns as distinctly His own.

The human heart has a peculiar joy in having something it can call its own. It is not so much the value of the thing owned, as the simple awareness that it is mine. Now it is just like this that Jesus speaks of us. He tells me that I am His, and that He delights in its being so.

The expression "He loved them to the end" does not simply mean that He loved them to the end of His pathway... Look at another expression in the New Testament, in Hebrews 7:25: "he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him." This word has the same root as "end" in John 13:1. It means that He loved them completely, He loved them utterly, He loved them abidingly.

He loved not merely till the end, as a question of time, however true this may be, but taking up each need, and bearing all the labour for them, whatever the draught on it, unremittingly and without wavering.

He had loved His own, He loved them to the end; His heart did not give them up, but He knew that He must leave them. Would He cease to be their servant in love? No, He would be it for ever. Everything was ready for His departure, even the heart of Judas. The wicked treachery of Judas lay below Him; the glory He was about to enter lay above Him. Neither one separated His heart from His disciples. He ceases to be their companion; He remains their Servant.

The Authorised Version treats the phrase as meaning the end of the meal. But I agree with those who take it as the arrival of the time for supper. The wonderful action we are about to hear of confirms this. There is no doubt that it was usual to have the feet washed before supper, not after.

Judas was a covetous man. He loved money — a very common love in every age. He had preached the gospel. He had walked in company with the Lord Jesus during the days of His public ministry. He had heard His words, seen His ways, experienced His kindness. But, sadly, though an apostle, though a companion of Jesus, though a preacher of the gospel, he had no heart for Christ. He had a heart for money... Satan knew this. He knew the particular craving of Judas. He was fully aware of the price at which he could be bought.

We can see three steps in his fall. First there was the unjudged covetousness which led him to become even a thief (John 12:6). Then came the action of Satan. He put it into Judas' mind to recover part of his loss (John 13:2). The three hundred pence which the ointment was worth had not come into his hands, and in the end he settled for ten per cent of that sum. Lastly Satan entered into him. The master spirit of evil took personal control. Nothing was to go wrong in the arrangements that would bring about the Lord's death.

Judas was clearly there, and the devil had already put it into his heart to betray the Lord (v. 2). Afterwards the Lord gave him the piece of bread, and Satan entered into him (v. 27). Satan drove him to carry out his purpose. That is the fatal result of not refusing at once a first suggestion or form of evil (1 Thess. 5:22).

Here we are reminded of the devil's hostility to the Lord, and of his readiness to ruin an immortal soul forever, set against the unchanging love of Christ towards His own... Who was Judas betraying? He little knew. But here the writer tells us. It was the One into whose hands the Father had given all things. Judas, therefore, the chief priests, and the devil must all be subject to His power, to be dealt with as He wills. All are absolutely at His disposal. As a man Judas saw Him. He betrayed a man, very likely hoping that the Lord would escape by some act of power, so that His enemies would lose their prey while he kept the money.

So it was with Jesus. The enemy's hate came out most strongly as the love of God showed itself in Him and through Him. But how crushing to human pride that the devil worked through a man and a disciple, the close, personal, honoured follower of the Lord Jesus!... In that holy company he had trifled with sin, with the greed that always clung to him. Now the devil prompted him to gratify it by betraying the Son of God.

Nothing can stop or hinder this service for His own. He girds Himself to wash the disciples' feet at the very moment of Judas' betrayal of Him (John 13:2). He owns all things. He came from God and He is going to God. That dignity does not hold Him back from this service either. On the contrary, He uses His power in humbling Himself to serve His beloved ones.

Notice how the Holy Spirit has recorded this for us: "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands." Everything the Lord did in this chapter, He did in the full consciousness of the unmatched dignity the Father had put upon Him. His right hand was full and His left hand was full. The Father had put all things into the hands of Jesus, whom men despised. The Father had committed to Him the whole range of the glory of God: the control of angels, the blessing of men, the judgment of devils; things in heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth. This was proof of the absolute confidence the Father placed in Him. He knew it, and knowing it, what will He do? What would any other man have done? Would he not have unveiled the glory before the astonished eyes of those who had despised Him? Did Jesus do this? No. He rose from supper, laid aside His garments, tied a towel around His waist, and washed His disciples' feet.

In John 13 you get in symbolic language what Philippians 2 plainly declares. He who "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped," who "made himself nothing," is shown by John as "laying aside His garments" — not His deity, but His glory. He humbled Himself. And in wonderful grace He took the place of a servant: He took a towel and "tied it around His waist."

It says "to God" in verse 3, because this affirms that Christ returns in the spotless divine perfection in which He left God. He is just as perfect as ever, and He goes back as such to God — He goes back just as He came. He did not go half way, but came from God and went back to God. And then He must bring us into the same place too. Either He must give us up, since He could not stay here where we are, or He must do everything needed to fit us to be where He is.

He came out to reveal God; no created being could do that. Having done that, He went back to God. He did not come a Man from heaven; He came out to take the body prepared for Him. But if so, He did not go back as He came out. He took manhood in order to go there, and He has gone there as man. He did so because He is taking up again the place He had left, the place that belongs to Him as God. In this sense He has carried manhood to the throne of God. As people often say, God has come out and Man has gone in, in the same blessed One.

The time has not yet come for Him to take possession of the "all things" the Father has given into His hands. But He rises to secure what is more precious to Him than everything else: the unbroken and unrivalled possession of our hearts, against all that would dispute it with Him.

His own words explain it all: "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me" — older translations read "no part with me." What do we learn from this? That all His people have a part with Him. They share all the benefits of His life and death. The Father loves them as He loves Christ Himself. They have a part with Him in His future glory. They are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. He washed their feet knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands. In doing so He declared this: the love He had for His disciples while He was with them in the world would go on after He had left them.

Everything the Lord did in this chapter, He did in the full consciousness of the incomparable dignity that the Father had put on Him. His right hand was full and His left hand was full. The Father had put all things into His hands — into the hands of Jesus whom men despised... He knew it, and knowing it, what will He do? What would any other man have done? Would he not have unveiled the glory before the astonished eyes of those who had despised Him?... He rose from supper, laid aside His garments, tied a towel around Himself, and washed His disciples' feet. In the tenderness of divine love He did for them the labour of a slave!

The Authorised Version treats the phrase as meaning the meal had ended. But I agree with those who take it to mean that the time for supper had come. The wonderful action we are about to hear of confirms this. Without doubt, the custom was to wash the feet before supper, not after.

With this consciousness He rises from supper: lowly service is to follow the sweetness of communion. He laid aside His garments. This quietly reminds us that He laid aside the garments of Godhead glory and dignity, to serve as a man in the place of subjection. Then He took a linen towel and tied it around Himself, for His aim was the blessing and comfort of His disciples.

He rose up from supper, put aside His garments and tied a towel around Himself. In doing this He put aside His place as their Lord and Teacher and became a servant to each one. They held Him in the deepest respect. For Him to stoop down and do so lowly a task as washing their dirty feet was itself a proof of the love and tender feeling He had towards them. It also showed He was willing to go right down to the lowest level to meet their needs.

The figure comes from the apron a slave tied on, so that he could work hard without soiling his clothes. The Lord had a far different motive. He stooped lower still when He tied on a linen towel to wipe the feet of His own, which He washed clean from defilement. This was holy love; and this alone compels us to tie on humility.

He could no longer stay with them on earth. He had to leave them; but even so He would not give them up. He would make them fit to be where He was... They were all supping together here at the same table. But He leaves this position, just as He left His personal company with His disciples, by going up to heaven, by going to God. But, if He does, He still girds Himself for their service, and takes water to wash their feet. Although in heaven, He is still serving us.

We are to copy the action of our Advocate. If we rejoice in the service He is doing for us in this role, we must never forget the duty laid on us to serve one another. Is there not room here for much heart-searching? Do we know our own duty as well as we know the teaching about Christ's service to us?

In that country, if a man invited you to his house, the first thing he did was provide water for the feet. In Genesis 18:3-4, Abraham did this; in Luke 7 the Lord reproaches Simon that he did not. The Lord takes here the place of host, and provides the water, and He also takes the slave's post, and washes their feet. The Lord of glory stoops down and washes the feet of these twelve men. It was perfect grace. He who was God stooped down and became a man. Then, as man, He stooped to do something few of us would have the grace to do.

Notice carefully that the question here is water, not blood. Readers of John's Gospel will have seen how much he makes of "water" as well as "blood." His first letter also says the Lord came by water and blood — not by water only, but by water and blood (1 John 5:6). He purifies as well as atones. He uses the word to cleanse those who are washed from their sins in His blood.

And if we do fail, this is no question of putting away sin, and of blood. It is a question of water. Christ is then an advocate, pleading for us to restore our souls. In John 13 He did not put blood into the basin, but water... I have defiled my feet, and then I get water, and not blood. Water, as a figure, always signifies the application of the word by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord washed the disciples' feet, not their hands. Hands are for work and the feet for walking. His action has a meaning in connection with our walk in the world. We pick up defilement as we pass through this world. And defilement cuts off communion with the Lord... We must come to Him with our failures, our stumbling, imperfect walk, our defilement. We place ourselves in His hands, as the disciples placed their soiled feet in His loving hands. His own perfect light then searches us to the core and shows what has defiled us. Once we are cleansed, we can enjoy His fellowship and have part with Him. This needs confession and self-judgment on our side.

Here we see the Lord putting us in contact with the Word — the water of purification. He Himself applies it by the Spirit to our consciences and our walk. His aim is to give us a present part with Him, not a future one. "If I do not wash you, you have no share with Me."

There was something else to be learned in the selfless act of the Lord. The water He poured out and used removed the dirt and defilement. With the towel, it also set "His own" clean and at ease in His presence. There was to be no distracting element upon them. He would have them know comfort and rest.

Our Lord said, "I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you." He certainly did not mean that we should copy Him in the mere preparations for that service — the girding with the towel, the pouring of water into the basin. Many show great skill at such preparations. But they break down at the act of feet washing, because they refuse to kneel down to reach the brother's feet... "If I do not first judge in myself the flesh I see active in my brother — for the same exists in me — I am not fit to wash his feet."

In the full awareness of His personal dignity He rose. He took a towel and a basin of water, and went on to wash the disciples' feet — a service usually done by slaves in wealthy homes. Peter expressed his astonishment: "Lord, do You wash my feet?" Both pronouns are emphatic. The Son of the living God doing menial service for a Galilean fisherman! Peter could not bear the thought.

Peter was too self-confident. He was ignorant not only of himself and of the defiling scene around him, but of the depth and constancy of Christ's love. So he says to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?" We grant that he could not know what had not yet been revealed. But was it fitting in him, was it reverent, to question what the Lord was doing? He may have thought it humility in himself, and honour to the Lord, to decline so menial a service at His hands. But Peter should never have forgotten this: Jesus never said a word and never did an act except what was worthy of God and showed the Father.

The others accept the Lord's service in wondering silence. Peter, driven by his forceful character, says everything he thinks. Three times he speaks, and each time he exposes his ignorance of the Lord's mind. His first words play down the Lord's lowly service. His second refuses it outright. His last impulsively accepts the service, but in a way that would strip it of all its deep meaning. Yet, as someone has said, "If the mistakes of the disciples warn us, the answers that correct them teach us far more."

The Lord answers, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." So we learn that at that moment the disciples could not grasp the spiritual meaning of the Lord's act. Later, when the Spirit has come, He will make it all plain. Clearly then this service was not, as many say, a lesson in humility taught by the Lord's own act of supreme humility. There would be no need for Peter to wait for a later day to see the humility of the act. His very words show that the Lord's humility was uppermost in his thoughts at that moment.

When we come to these communications (John 13), what is the first thing He brings out? Not salvation, for we already know we are saved for eternity. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But we do need provision to keep us clean while on the journey, and the Lord gives this at the opening of the chapter.

Now Peter should have said, "If the Lord stoops down to wash my feet, it must be because His love is at stake, His glory is at stake, the will of His God and Father is at stake, and, more than that, because I need it." All our needs only give occasion to bring out the Lord's grace and to display His glory. Who would want to be without that? So it is not a question of whether it suits me. I am sure I need it. The question is whether it suits Him.

We need not wonder at Peter's reluctance to let the Lord serve him in this way. The Master at the feet of the servant naturally seemed out of place. But what shall we say when we remember that He now, in glory, stoops to do that lowly service for the humblest believer on earth? It was love to the end. Love to the end it truly shows — love no creature could have predicted or even guessed at.

To Peter it was unthinkable that the Lord of glory should stoop to wash those wayward feet. So his first words are protest mixed with surprise: "Lord, do you wash my feet?" The Lord answers, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." So we learn that the disciples could not then discern the spiritual meaning of the Lord's act. Later, when the Spirit has come, everything will be plain. Clearly, then, this service was not what people often say. It was not a lesson in humility taught by an act of supreme humility on the Lord's part. Peter would not need to wait for a later day to see the humility of the act. His own words show that the Lord's humility was uppermost in his thoughts at that moment.

But the gentle Lord answered him in fullness of grace: "What I am doing you do not know (οἶδας) just now, but you will know (γνώσῃ) afterwards." Was this not a serious but compassionate hint to Peter, if he had been in the mood to learn? He should have gathered from the Lord's words, even if he did not at once bow to His act, that there was a meaning worthy of Him. He thought it due to the Father, in truest and lowliest love to the children, to wash their feet. He should have gathered more than this: what he did not know of himself then, he was to learn afterwards. I take it this means after His rejection and death, resurrection and ascension, when the Holy Spirit would be given to guide them into all the truth.

Only when the Holy Spirit came down was there the spiritual understanding to learn the meaning of this action. All through the Lord's life people misunderstood His words. Until a person has the Holy Spirit, there will never be knowledge of the mind and ways of God. Having life does not mean having power and understanding. The possession of the Holy Spirit marks the difference between believers now and those of past times.

The Lord's action here is deeply symbolic. To take from it only the lesson of humility is, I do not hesitate to say, to miss the point of the teaching. We see it must have a deeper character by reading from verse 7 to verse 10. It is essential to having part with Christ. It is, in fact, the Lord's present service in the Father's presence for His people in this world.

And all this shows us that forgiveness is one thing. Communion with Christ, as the object that fills our hearts, is quite another... Mark His ways of love with Peter. "What I am doing you do not understand now," Jesus had said, "but afterward you will understand." The time had come when Peter should know the action of the washing of the Word in the reality of its blessing. He should also welcome the love of Jesus that stooped to do it.

What weighty words! "Now" and "Afterwards"! How much we all need to remember them! Often "now" is wrapped in darkness we cannot see through. We cannot explain our Father's dealings at all... We are wholly taken up with "now." Dark, unbelieving reasonings fill our minds. Then those precious words fall on the ear in a still small voice: "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand."

Now Peter ought to have said, "If the Lord stoops down to wash my feet, it must be because His love is concerned, His glory is concerned, the will of His God and Father is concerned, and, more than that, I need it." For all our needs only give occasion to bring out the Lord's grace and to show His glory. Who then would wish to be without that? So it is not a question of whether it suits me. I am sure I need it. The question is not whether it suits me, but whether it suits Him.

Notice that the Lord does not say, part in Me. The service of feet-washing is precious, and yet it could never secure "part in Christ." That took the greater work of the Cross. Once accomplished, that work can never be repeated, and it has secured part in Christ for ever to every believer. Feet-washing is an earthly picture of a service that continues in heaven. That service lets believers on earth hold communion with Christ in heaven. For do not the Lord's words "part with Me" mean communion with Himself?

This assurance is solemn, and not for Peter only. It is for all who make light of the same gracious provision on His part, who forget or have never grasped their own need of it. The question is not so much about life as about fellowship — about a part with Christ rather than in Him, though the two cannot really be separated. Christ was going on high to God; Peter and the rest were still on earth, surrounded by defilements along the way. Christ would neither reduce His love to His own, nor treat their failures lightly. So the disciples' feet needed washing, since walking through the world soils them. And this is carried on by the word applied to the conscience by the Spirit. The believer bows, judges himself, and is cleansed in practice. His communion returns, and he can enjoy the things of Christ. He has part with Him.

Still the Lord waits on His own, girded, with the basin and towel, ready Himself to do the work so needed, so impossible to do for ourselves. "If I wash you not." So He expects, not clean feet, but feet to be cleansed; and the cleansing is what He has undertaken to perform, and we may safely — though not carelessly — leave it with Him.

In John 13 the Lord is sitting with the disciples as their companion in the world. He knew that the glory was His and that He was going to it. In the perfect holiness of His nature He says to Peter, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with me." I am going away, but I am not going to give you up. I must have you with me where I go, and dirty feet will not do for heaven.

Sadly, I fear that too often, like Peter, we resist the wholesome water of the Word — and with less excuse than he had. He might have pleaded that he did not know Christ's intention; we cannot. We know now that He would only shape us by it for deeper intimacy with Himself, for we are His own. But we love too well something He must detach us from. And yet it is Jesus who stoops to wash you! My brother, my sister, can you say to Him, "You shall never wash my feet"? Yet we say it in effect if we are afraid of the truth and try to turn its edge away from us and our ways.

"Then He comes to Simon Peter." The others accept the Lord's service in wondering silence. Peter, driven by his forceful character, says everything he thinks. He speaks three times, and each time he exposes his ignorance of the Lord's mind. He first objects to the Lord's lowly service. Then he refuses it outright. Then he accepts it on impulse, but in a way that would rob it of all its deep meaning. Yet, as someone has said, "The mistakes of the disciples warn us, but the answers that correct them teach us far more."

Peter objects to the Lord humbling Himself to wash his feet. Then he learns that this washing is essential if he is to have part with Jesus where He was going. And so we learn more. His wonderful service for us includes recovery from sin and the restoration of the soul. But it goes much further, in love that cannot bear a cloud between us and Him. He provides for the removal of whatever would block the light and joy of His presence. Peter thought he could not have too much of such washing.

It is a question not so much of life as of fellowship — of a part with Christ rather than a part in Him, though the two cannot really be separated.

The Lord's warning alarms His servant. At once he runs to the opposite extreme: "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head." Now Peter cannot have too much. He wants the whole bath again, as if all the value of his earlier washing could evaporate, and he needed it as much as if it had never happened. But it is never so. To see and enter the kingdom of God one must be born again, born of water and of the Spirit. But this is never repeated. The new birth allows no such repetition.

The Greek words for "washing" in John 13 differ in meaning, and that difference teaches important truth. The word in John 13:10 is louō, "to cleanse, wash thoroughly." Anyone cleansed in this sense never needs that washing again. He is, as the Lord said, "completely clean." Yet to have "part with" Christ, he still needs his feet washed, because of the dirt he picks up along the way. Here the word is niptō, an action used only on parts of the body.

Christianity holds both truths together. It never weakens the basic and eternal character of the new birth. And it never denies how vital continual self-judgment and confession are. The bathing is never repeated. The feet-washing is always needed here on earth, if we claim to have communion with Christ.

The dust of the road soils and tires a traveller's feet. In the same way the believer meets the daily round, the duties of home life, the pressures of business life, and the constant conflict with evil. His spirit often grows weary, and that keeps him from sharing Christ's things with Him. He has not done anything the conscience would take account of, calling for confession and the work of the Advocate. His spirit is simply tired and needs refreshing. Christ delights to give that refreshment, if we will only put our feet into His hands.

Our Lord washed the feet of His disciples as a symbolic act. He said, "The one who has bathed [Greek louō, to wash the WHOLE body] does not need to wash [Greek niptō, to wash A PART of the body], except for his feet, but is completely clean." The first washing matches the ceremonial washing of the priests all over, which was never repeated. The second matches the washing of the hands and feet at the bronze basin, done again and again.

The "washing of regeneration," the cleansing brought about in new birth, never needs to be repeated. Despite everything in this world that works against it, the effect is permanent... In how many ways we are reminded of the unfailing character of God's precious grace! The love that has laid hold of us for eternal glory is not going to be defeated in what it has taken in hand to do. The washing of the feet can be repeated again and again, but not the bathing of the whole person.

There is the first bathing, the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which is never repeated. But there is the need of having the feet washed whenever they are defiled along the way. Neither one refers to blood, but to water — necessary as it is that Christ's blood washes us from our sins for redemption.

Now water is a well-known symbol for the Word... Paul speaks even more directly when he uses the phrase, "the washing of water by the Word," and this in connection with cleansing — though there it is the Church, not the individual believer (Eph. 5:26). It is very clear, then, why the Lord used water in the scene before us. He was showing that after He left, He would cleanse their feet — their walk — by applying the Word. How, then, is this application of the Word produced? When we sin, the Lord undertakes our cause with the Father. He then exercises the office of the Advocate. The result for us is that the Spirit of God begins to deal with us about it, in God's own time. He brings the sin to our memory and applies the Word to our consciences. This produces self-judgment in us and leads us on to confess our sin, and so we are restored.

There is no repetition of that first and absolute cleansing of the person. If our feet get defiled as we walk through a muddy world, that defilement must be washed away, because it hinders our communion with Him. And He sees to this as Advocate with the Father, if we sin. The firm foundation of God stands, and our standing remains. But if we defile our feet, He deals with us by His word and Spirit, and so restores the communion that had been interrupted. He applies His advocacy to this need now that He is on high.

Then note that the washing of the feet, even by the Lord, gave neither life nor salvation. It is not for sinners but for saints, and is done only for the latter. That it gives neither life nor salvation is plain: Judas was not left out of the washing with actual water on that occasion. The time to unmask him had not come, so his feet were washed with the rest. Was the Lord unaware of what this man really was? He told them all that He was not. In the washing of regeneration Judas had no part. Being born of water and of the Spirit was an inward change he was a complete stranger to. Only for those who first have part in the washing of regeneration does the Lord now wash the feet.

He used two words for wash, the first of which means to wash all over, or bathe. So He said that a man who has been bathed needs only to wash his feet. He was pointing to the two washings of the priests. First came the bathing when they were set apart for their office (Lev. 8:6), which happened once for all. Then came the frequent washings of hands and feet every time they entered the sanctuary (Ex. 30:19). This once-for-all bathing is ours when we are born again... So here, the Lord said to the disciples, "You are clean," adding, "but not every one of you" — with Judas in mind. Despite all his claims to faith, no new birth had ever reached Judas.

The washing of the feet, even by the Lord, gave neither life nor salvation. It is not, as we have said, for sinners, but for saints, and is done only for them. That is clear from one fact: the Lord did not leave Judas out when He washed with actual water that evening. The time to unmask him had not come. The Lord washed his feet along with the rest... In the washing of regeneration Judas had no part.

The new birth holds and is never repeated, because it stays true and good. When one who is born again fails, that failure comes under Christ's active love and advocacy. He brings the soul to judge himself, so that fellowship is restored. Again, the case of Judas is not one of losing life. It shows that he had never been born of God, and no Scripture ever says he was.

Until Judas showed himself by betraying the Lord, he had his place among the apostles. We learn later why he was counted among them — so that the Scripture might be fulfilled (13:18; 17:12) — while the Lord knew all along what he was, and the terrible sin he would commit. No one could deceive Christ. He knew what was in man (2:25). He knew that some of the crowd which had followed Him across the water did not believe (6:64). He knew who would betray Him (13:11). He is a Divine Person who knows all about everyone. He let that knowledge appear only as circumstances arose.

There was one who was not born of water. Satan took advantage of that very one, and all the more because he was so near Christ. Nothing hastens the ruin of a man who has not received life from God like being near Christ. Someone may come into the presence of Christ not to receive life, but to push his own will and his own plans. He becomes nothing but the prey of Satan, and that in the form of direct opposition to the Son of God.

There was one present for whom it would have no meaning. The Lord has to say, "You are clean, but not every one of you." The betrayer had never been "washed all over." He had never been born again. So he would never feel the need for the Lord's gracious service, and never know its refreshment.

Now He takes up His garments and His seat again, and He is once more the Master among His disciples. He speaks to them all as Master.

The Lord's humility in washing the disciples' feet is beyond question. He had solemnly urged them, in the plainest terms, to cultivate it, as we see in all the Synoptic Gospels. But there is another and deeper instruction. He is about to leave them, and what is on His mind is the fresh defilement they pick up walking through the world. About this He would search their hearts with the question, "Do you understand what I have done to you?" It is indeed His way to teach us later the good He has already done for us. As we grow up to Him in the truth, we understand better what we grasped only a little at first.

Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. The power of that sacrifice is as perfect for the believer as His Person is. That is why the oneness of His sacrifice is the great argument of Hebrews 9 and 10, over against the repeated sacrifices of the Jewish system. By His one offering we are not only sanctified but perfected forever. Is there no failure in the believer afterwards? Too often there may be. What, then, is the provision for it? It is the washing of water by the word. The Spirit applies it in answer to the Son pleading for us with the Father. Of this Christ was here giving the sign.

The Lord gives what He had just been doing as an example of humility. But they would only understand it spiritually after the Holy Spirit came. Still, we are called in this sense too to wash one another's feet. That means applying the word in grace to the conscience of a brother who needs it, in the humility Christ has shown us. But the teaching points to what Christ is doing for us on high, where He remains always our Servant in grace.

How are we to carry this out? As Christ does in His heavenly glory. Look at the way He washed His disciples' feet while He was with them in the world. He patiently bore with all their weaknesses, mistakes and faults. He did it so that He might intercede for them, and remove from their hearts and minds everything that defiled them. In His glory Christ still serves His people in this way. And He truly said, "You also ought to wash one another's feet." He means in the same manner: bearing with their ignorance, errors, weaknesses and faults, and with any defilement that clings to them. We bear with it, I say, so that we might be the means of removing it.

And we do well to remember that besides the washing there is the wiping. Once the service is done, treat it as past. Bury the failure that called for it, and never throw it back at the person later. … Such a ministry is valuable when one fellow Christian does it for another in the right spirit. Yet it could never take the place of this kind of ministry from Christ. He must wash His people's feet as they need it.

The Lord next backs up what He had done by appealing to the titles they always gave Him. "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am." He is One to obey as well as to instruct. Where His personal glory is known, it cannot be otherwise. If He then stooped in love to wash their feet, what did they not owe one another?

In John 13 the Lord says to His disciples, "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet…" You will notice that the Lord reverses the words. We do not get the gain of the Lord as Teacher unless we recognize His Lordship. The Lord again said, "If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God" (John 7:17). So the One who rules comes first. We are often slow to accept divine teaching because we have not bowed to the Lord's authority.

No humiliation could ever change what He is in Himself. But through it He could bring home to the soul what nothing else could — His own gracious example… As Lord of all, He stands alone, above us all. He cannot give that up, for it would be a denial of Himself. He has all authority to command as Lord, and He will soon reveal it. Yet in His humiliation He gladly gave us an example, so that we should follow His steps. He delights to come down to our level, to raise us to His own glory. This is the way of grace.

"You call me Teacher and Lord," He says, "and you are right, for so I am." People have even prayed to Him as "Dear Lord." That kind of familiarity is not quite reverent. We cannot exaggerate the grace of Christ towards us. But as someone has well said, "The personal dignity of Christ is never lost in the intensity and tenderness of His love."

Our responsibility, then, as servants is obedience. As the Lord said to certain professors, "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?" (Luke 6:46). Or, as He said to His disciples, "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet" (John 13:13-14). The moment Christ is revealed to us as our Saviour, and we acknowledge Him as our Lord, we should take Saul's attitude. He said, "Lord, what will you have me to do?"

How far do we know the joy of this recognition of the Lord as Master? We call Him Master and Lord, and we say well, but do we do the things He says, for that is surely better?

They called Him Teacher and Lord, and He approves this, yet He Himself reverses the order (v. 14). We too often treat teaching as the most important thing, as if His Lordship grew out of His teaching. But Lordship comes first. Once we submit to His authority, His teaching has its proper value and bears proper fruit.

Formalism loses the blessing of our Lord's act by copying it literally. He did not set it up as a lasting ceremony. Acts and the Epistles, for instance, speak often of baptism and the Lord's Supper, but they do not speak of the washing of feet in the same way. That, along with its clear symbolic character, should keep us from misunderstanding this simple act.

We ought to be able and willing to help each other. It is not feet-washing to point out the fault of another. If you are going to wash another's feet, you must get down low enough yourself... We are still called to wash one another's feet, to apply the Word in grace to the conscience of an erring brother or sister who needs it. But to really do this we must be in the humility of Christ, so blessedly shown in this heart-touching scene.

Notice in passing: when we ourselves need our feet washed to be restored, it is not the moment to try to wash our brothers' feet.

If He then stooped in love to wash their feet, what did they not owe one another?... On the one hand, it needs faith and self-denial and divine affections. Indifference about it shows up our own failure. But on the other hand, the righteousness that condemns another is as far as possible from washing the feet. It looks more like the whip than the service of the towel and basin. And if grace is needed to bear the washing, far more of it must be at work to wash another's feet.

He expects to see, among us on earth, the copy of what He is doing for us in heaven. He is there daily washing our feet, bearing our need and dealing with our defilement before the throne. And He would have us daily washing one another's feet, bearing one another's weaknesses and helping one another's joy, here on earth, His footstool.

None of us can take up such a work without real love for the other person and a true desire for his good. And we do well to remember that beside the washing there is the wiping. Once the service is done, count it a thing of the past. Bury the failure that called for it, and never bring it up against the person again.

The Lord Jesus Christ did not wash the feet of the apostles that evening simply to teach a lesson in humility. All must understand this: here He gives us an example of stooping to lowly service for other Christians. Peter's exclamation, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" tells us what he thought of the act... He has stooped in a way and to a degree impossible for us. He, our Lord and Master, has stooped to serve His disciples. They may well stoop to serve one another.

Verse 7 is clear proof that the Lord did not mean His disciples to keep up a merely literal washing of feet. He meant something more important, and feet-washing is a picture of it. It speaks of the word of God applied to the details of our walk through a defiling world (Ephesians 5:26). If the defilement is to go, contact with defilement needs contact with the word. And who is more gentle and thorough than the Lord Jesus in applying that word?

This feet washing is the lowly ministry of applying the word of God to the need of one another's souls, for the cleansing or preservation from the defilement of our daily contacts with the world. We all need this restoring ministry, and we should all engage in it for the help of one another.

Peter never forgot it. Twenty-five years later, in his first letter, he urges his fellow disciples to be "clothed with humility" (1 Peter 5:5)... The apostle could never forget the sacred head bowed over his unworthy feet... The Lord Himself sets the measure and the standard: "just as I have done to you" (John 13:15). This goes beyond the golden rule. It gives us not merely an ethic but an Example to copy. My debt to Him is the measure of my debt to my brothers.

Here is a definite call to share His grace in seeking each other's restoration where failure has come in. It comes at the very point where we are most likely to fail. On the one hand it needs faith, self-denial and divine affections. Indifference about it exposes our own failure. On the other hand, the righteousness that censures another is as far as possible from washing the feet. It looks like the whip, not the service of the towel and basin. And if grace is needed to receive the washing, far more must be at work to do the washing.

Anyone who wants to cleanse another's feet must be down at his feet to do it. The soul that has fallen into sin has fallen because it has got away from the Source of holiness and strength.

When Christ was with His disciples in the world, He bore patiently with all their weaknesses, errors and defects. He did it so that He might intercede for them and remove from their hearts and minds everything that defiled them. And so in His glory Christ is always serving His people this way. He truly said, "You also ought to wash one another's feet." He meant it in the same way: bearing patiently with their ignorance, errors, weaknesses, defects, any defilement that clings to them.

The Lord knew the end from the beginning. He knew how soon His ministry would sink into a worldly institution. It would become a title of pride instead of a work of faith and labour of love... To refuse His service of washing the feet of His own is to set oneself above the Lord. It is to claim a greater place than He who sends even an apostle.

And we do well to remember that beside the washing there is the wiping. Once the service is done, we should count it a thing of the past. We should bury the failure that called for it, and never bring it up against the person later.

It is the joy of the heart of the Lord Jesus Himself to place Himself in that posture in which He can bring us in to share His own blessings with Himself. As Lord of all, He stands alone, and above us all; and this He cannot give up, for it would be the denial of Himself. He has all authority to command as Lord, and He will soon be revealed as Lord. Yet in His humbling He was pleased to give us an example, so that we should follow in His steps. He delights to come down to our level, to lift us up to His own glory. This is the way of grace.

The Greek word is apostolon (our word "apostle"). At first it meant simply "a messenger, one sent on a mission" (Abbott-Smith). That is how it is used in John 13:16, and perhaps in 2 Corinthians 8:23.

The Lord knew the end from the beginning. He knew how soon His ministry would sink into a worldly institution. It would become a title of pride, instead of a work of faith and a labour of love. So He gave His solemn words, as a standing witness to all His own. In a world of empty show and selfishness they are so ready to forget His word and wander from His way. But His warning still stands: to refuse His service of washing the feet of His own is to set yourself above the Lord, and to claim a greater place than His Who sends even an Apostle.

If we are hesitant to obey this word, then we need to be reminded that the servant is not greater than his Lord (v. 16). How vast an understatement is this! Yet in our pride we may too easily act as though we were greater than He! We need this pressed upon us: happiness lies not in knowing alone, but in acting rightly on what we know.

Here, though, is a clear call, and this is where we most often fail. We are to share His grace in seeking to restore each other when failure has come in. On the one hand, it needs faith and self-denial and divine affections. Indifference about it exposes our own failure. But on the other hand, the righteousness that criticises another is as far as possible from washing the feet. It looks more like the whip than the service of the towel and basin.

Many are very good at such preparations, but they break down in the actual foot washing, because they refuse to kneel down to reach the brother's feet. They come to him with an air that says, I have come to wash your feet. … One well-known servant of Christ said it well: "If I do not first judge in myself the flesh I see at work in my brother (for the same is in me), I am not fit to wash his feet." If I have been in the dust before the Lord before I go to my brother, I will seem small to him, and so I will be able to remove the dirt gently.

Certainly the believer is not said to be blessed for his doing, but in it... No doubt, it is a day of knowing what God has revealed, and He has revealed nothing more fully than Himself in His Son. But it is a day of obedience for the faithful, no less than of life and peace, and of fellowship with the Father and the Son. Knowledge without obedience is a sad and shameful reproach. "If you know these things," said the Saviour, "happy are you if you do them."

We ought to be able and willing to help each other. It is not feet-washing to point out the fault of another. If you are going to wash another's feet, you must get down low enough yourself. "If you know these things, happy are you if you do them" (John 13:17). I think the secret of a good deal of the lack of happiness lies in this. We are not doing this. If we were more eager, in the spirit of meekness, to take the spot off some erring child of God, we would know more of what this means. We are still called to wash one another's feet — to apply the Word in grace to the conscience of an erring brother or sister who needs it. But to really do this, we must have the humility of Christ, so wonderfully shown in this moving scene.

On the one hand, it needs faith and self-denial and divine affections. Indifference about it exposes our own failure. But, on the other hand, the righteousness that censures another is as far as possible from washing the feet. It resembles the scourge rather than the service of the towel and basin. And certainly, if grace is needed to bear the washing, a far larger measure must be at work to wash the feet. ... Self is the greatest hindrance in dealing with another's trespass.

If we are hesitant to obey this word, then we need to be reminded that the servant is not greater than his Lord (v. 16). How vast an understatement this is! Yet in our pride we may too easily act as though we were greater than He! This truth must be pressed on us: happiness lies not in knowing only, but in rightly acting on that knowledge.

To decline His service in washing the feet of His own is to set oneself above the Lord, and to claim a greater place than His who sends even an apostle. Oh, for the blessedness of doing as well as knowing these things!

What is more, feet-washing not only refreshes the weary soul. It also gladdens the heart of the one who does the service. That is why the Lord can say, "If you know these things, happy are you if you do them."

It is the only real service. It is what Christ wants and does about His sheep; loved even if they do fail. It is great glory, the very heart of union with Jesus, if we are permitted and enabled to do it, if Christ does it in us. But this can only be in real union with Him. ... Again, again I say, "If you know these things, happy are you if you do them." Happy! It is the way of happiness.

The way the Lord removes Judas shows His tender care for His own. The treachery of Judas, long known to the Lord, is very gently disclosed to His disciples. During the foot-washing the Lord had referred to Judas, and the eleven did not seem to notice. Now He speaks more plainly: "I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen." There was an inner circle of the Lord's chosen companions to whom He was about to disclose the secrets of His heart. But there was one present who had no part in that chosen circle.

He did not speak of all the disciples then present — a sad sign of what would become far more common in later days. He knew whom He had chosen out: Judas was not among them, though he was called to be an apostle. He had never known the Lord, knew nothing truly of His grace or of His mind, and was not born of God. Why then did he receive that place of honour among the apostles, constantly attending the Lord here below?

With the sense of what lies before Him, He foretells the defection of Judas. This only fulfils the Scripture. It was written: "He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me." His heel! The most contemptuous rejection possible. Was it not contempt to sell the Lord of glory for the price of a slave? It was as if he would inflict on Christ the serpent's predicted doom.

"Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked" long ago; "he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation." Judas went far beyond that. He was guilty of indifference to the Son of God, who had come down in love and humiliation. He was eager to serve himself at any cost, and he betrayed his gracious Master for a pitiful sum. Never was there such love, and never such contempt and abuse of it — and this in a man who had a special duty to be faithful. ... How wonderful the patience which, knowing all from the beginning, bore all to the end, without a frown or any sign of shrinking from the traitor!

If the Lord could foresee what Judas would do, why was he chosen? Would such a question raise a doubt about the Master in any one of the eleven? Earlier in His ministry He had indicated that there was one of them whom He then called a devil. He now spoke of that same man, still unnamed. He showed why this man had a place among the twelve — so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The coming treachery was no surprise: God knew it beforehand, and Scripture predicted it.

Scripture had foretold this, though the fact does not in the least excuse the guilt of Judas: he was himself responsible for the callous deceit of eating with the Lord while plotting to betray Him.

Their faith would be shaken that one of them could do such a thing. So before speaking of His own deep trouble, He first provided for them... Is this not the most marvellous grace? He thinks first of the consequences for them, before speaking of the consequences for Himself.

He had not told them before, or they could not have carried on. They could not have carried on with Judas and stayed right before God. It would not have been possible. But now that time was over. The Lord was about to go. Judas was about to be separated from them. Now He may tell them. The example He sets lacks no love; He speaks because their good requires it, in righteousness and truth. How well timed is the Lord's "From this present time"! He could not have told it any earlier than "before it comes to pass." To their faith it would have looked like weakness in Him, as if He could be wrong.

This disclosure might well be a shock to the disciples and a test to their faith. Unbelief might have reasoned, "We did not know the traitor was here. But if Jesus did not know either, can He really be the Lord of glory?" The Lord deals with such reasoning in advance. He supports their faith by revealing the coming betrayal before it happens... Through the betrayal of Judas they will have fresh evidence. He is indeed the great I AM, who knows everything, and to whom the future is already present.

At this point the Lord told them what lay ahead of Him. He foretold it so that when it happened, their faith in Him would not be shaken. How the enemy would have used the fact of the Lord's arrest and death to shake their faith in the truth of His person! He knew it well, for all hearts, even the devil's, lie open to Him. So He foretold His betrayal here. Their faith in Him would then grow stronger instead of weaker.

In John 13:19 the translators rightly give it as "I am he." He is identifying Himself with the One spoken of in Psalm 41 — the One whose own table companion would lift up his heel against Him.

So the Lord proved His perfect and divine knowledge of what still lay in the future. At the same time He taught the priceless worth of Scripture, and not least of prophecy still unfulfilled. He met unbelief in every form, in believers as well as in unbelievers... Jesus is never so clearly the Messiah as when He points ahead to the word of Scripture, soon to be fulfilled in His own rejection and death on the cross.

This testimony beforehand was evidence of truth... In the same way, every sorrow that seems to disprove faith ends up confirming it. What seems to discredit our hope in the Lord proves its truth and strength instead... He tells the disciples beforehand, as something owed to them, so their faith would not be shaken. That is the blessing of being close to Him. The world learned it in the accomplished fact.

Their faith would be shaken that one of them could do such a thing. So before He spoke of His own deep trouble, He first provided for them... Is this not the most marvellous grace? He thinks first about what this means for them, and only then speaks of what it means for Himself.

The Lord will not allow the presence and treachery of the betrayer to stain His glory. Nor will the complete collapse of one of the twelve cancel the commission of the remaining eleven. That commission would remain in all its force... Judas's sin was terrible, yet the glory of the Lord shines undimmed, and the commission of the eleven stands untouched.

The Lord's statement is, "He who receives whomever I send." Here is the principle: "whomever I send" — no matter who the messenger is, the one who receives him receives Christ. The Lord sent Judas, and whoever received Judas received Christ. How blessed for that man! Christ may send someone who is poor and carries no other approval. If the Lord sent him, that is all we have to look to. We receive Christ. The one point we look at is Christ's sending.

That "whomever I shall send" is of vast moral importance, especially in the present confusion of the Church. It is the keystone of holy grace and the destroyer of confusion in the Church. We receive the Sender in receiving the messenger. Let us keep this always in mind. It is a "Truly, truly" of Christ's; and by it we receive God, even the Father, the Sender.

He adds to this an absolute confirmation. When He sends a messenger, that sending carries such authority that receiving the messenger is receiving Himself. More than that, receiving Himself is receiving the Father who sent Him (v. 20). For He Himself was leaving, and in this whole age of grace, others would now carry His message.

When God sends a messenger He is pleased to identify Himself with His servant... This is a solemn thought for the people of God, because the reverse is also true. Refuse a servant the Lord has truly sent, and you refuse the Lord in the person of His servant. Not that we should receive everyone who claims to be sent by God. The test is this: do they speak the words of God?

How often people openly hold and even enjoy certain truths, while they condemn and shut out the very people who carry those truths. Sometimes they even use the light they have received to heap reproach on the vessels through whom that light has shone. Such conduct may satisfy man, but it can never please the Lord. His witnesses are as sacred in His eyes as the testimony they bear.

The Lord made no mistake in sending the guilty Judas, and those who received Judas made no mistake either. He was one sent by the Lord. People heard a divine message from his lips, though he himself had neither saving faith nor eternal life. He was the son of destruction. Judas stands as the sad witness of this: the greatest outward and official nearness to Christ, without eternal life, only exposes a person to the worst sin and ruin.

It would be good to gather all these sentences marked "Truly, truly." They are the expressions of the great principles our Lord revealed. This was one of the great principles on which the Church hung: "One of you will betray Me." It was not only, I know who will, I know Judas. That was not the point. One of you, you who are so joined to Me — this was what troubled His spirit. Is Jesus, our blessed Master, wronged by us, any less grieved and troubled at evil and falling away in the Church?

It was holiness, it was love, which took the coming wickedness of Judas so to heart. The Lord felt it from every side. He felt sin itself, in its opposition to God. He felt its effect on others as well as on Himself. And He felt how dreadful it was for the wretched guilty man. It is not self, but love, that goes together with the truest feeling. The Lord says it as a testimony too. They were all faulty. But one, and only one, was about to become Satan's prey and the tool of his malice against the Lord.

It is beyond wonderful that the Son of God became man and entered into the sufferings of mankind. His heart felt as men feel. Yet His feelings were perfectly holy, untouched by the sin that dulls all true natural feeling. As a divine Person, the Son of God could also know what sin is in man as no other man could. And He could grieve as no man could.

This expression, "He was troubled," comes three times. In chapter 12:27 He says, "Now is my soul troubled." … Then in chapter 13:18 He had said, "He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me." There too He was troubled in spirit. In each of those passages it was soul-trouble in Christ. And in each passage glory from God is the answer. "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him."

Their faith would be shaken that one of them could do such a thing. So before speaking of His own deep trouble, He first provided for them: "I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. … I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he." … Is this not the most marvellous grace? He thinks first of what it will mean for them, before speaking of what it means for Himself.

The way to be intelligent and know the Lord's mind is to be near Him. By what he does, John says in effect, "I will show you the way." No one except Judas knew who was going to betray the Lord… How like ourselves! When things are low in an assembly, and we know something is wrong, how we look at one another. Are things very cold, dull and flat where you live, and are you looking at one another? Do not do it.

No tongue can tell how the Lord felt that! He felt it keenly; but, feeling it, He took the bread and there and then instituted the Supper. What did that mean? It seems to me it meant this. You may not be able to trust anyone else, but you may trust Me. If treachery springs up in this inner circle, who can you look to? My love will not fail you… In days of darkness and nights of treachery and betrayal you will find Me always the same.

The announcement of a traitor among the twelve troubled the disciples and led to anxious thought, as they looked one on another. What a testimony to His perfect grace Who had known it all along, and had given no sign of distrust or aversion! How solemn for the saints who deal with the same unchanging Christ day by day!

They were all faulty. But one, and only one, was about to become Satan's prey and the tool of his hatred against the Lord. Their doubts were as honest as his presence among them was now a lie against the truth. If he joined the rest in looking at one another, it was hypocrisy, for he could not truly doubt whom Jesus meant. Yet no blush and no pale face gave Judas away. The disciples had to learn the sad truth some other way.

Can you understand that? Oh, man, before your conscience wakes up, you look at other people. Sinner, when you are accused of your godlessness and guilt before God, you think of other people. When you hear of men going to hell, you look for other men going there — not yourself... So it was then. "The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke." Soon after, the Holy Spirit tells us, conscience began to work, and each one says, "Lord, is it I?"

They did not doubt the truth of the Saviour's words, and they were not over-confident about their own faithfulness. So they asked Him one by one, "Lord, is it I?" Matthew and Mark both record their question. Mark adds that "they began to be sorrowful," and Matthew tells us they were "very sorrowful."

John was near the Lord; Peter was not. Peter lacked what John had: a focused spirit, and a heart always taken up with Jesus, which kept him close to His beloved Person. John did not place himself near the Lord to get this message. He received it because he was near Jesus at the very moment when such nearness was needed to learn the secrets of the Lord's mind — and he was near because that was the settled habit of his heart.

It is closeness to Jesus that gathers secrets, but passes them on for the good of others.

In Jesus we see how very near His love has brought Him to men like ourselves: John can lay his head on the breast of the One who was in the bosom of the Father. In John we see what the heart of the Saviour can do for a sinner, bringing him to perfect rest in perfect love. In Judas we see what the heart of the sinner can do with the Saviour — betray Him for thirty pieces of silver, while claiming all along to love Him.

After the disciples had looked at one another, their consciences began to work. They looked at themselves, and each one asked, "Is it I?" But that did not bring the answer. Peter, though a warm-hearted man, lacked spiritual understanding. He longed to know who the traitor was, but could not frame the right question. Why did he not ask the Lord Himself who would betray Him? Because he felt and knew, in the presence of the Lord, what we have often felt — that another was nearer to Him than himself. Peter had not freedom and liberty. So he beckoned to another to ask. Intimacy grows out of affection, and it is the source of real understanding.

John did not place himself near the Lord to get this message. He received it because he was near Jesus at the moment when only such nearness could draw out the secrets of the Lord's mind, and he was there because that was the habit of his heart... Nothing else put him so near the Lord — a nearness others could have had, but did not take.

Peter wanted to know; he was eager to know. It is only leaning on Jesus' breast that we know these things. There we learn everything. He is not in the habit of holding anything back, for He truly deals with us as a friend. From one leaning on His bosom He has no secrets... And what brought John there? Habits of affection for Jesus lead us into such a place.

Peter, at a distance, signals to John. John, being near, leans on his Lord's breast again, and so together they draw out the secret of that heart. There is no jealousy here, and no rivalry. It is hard to say which is the greater delight — Peter signalling to John, or John leaning on the breast of Jesus; Peter using his brother, or John using his Lord.

It is a mark of the Spirit that the disciple who enjoyed such favour describes himself, not as loving Jesus — though he truly did — but as loved by Him: the disciple whom Jesus loved, holding back his own name as a thing of small account. It is intimacy with Jesus that gathers secrets, but imparts them for others' good.

The love that would not openly name the traitor made him known to hearts that cared and asked. To know the intimacy of that love you must be near, and the Lord revealed His burden so that He might draw them near... To know the place John took is to know an intimacy that gives simple boldness. He enjoyed the intimacy that kept nothing back. How readily love answered him! The token given to Judas made the answer known only to the one who asked, while not revealing his name to all. The love that confided in His own was as perfect as the love that bore with Judas.

If, like John, we live day by day in the enjoyment of the Lord's presence and love, we will never lack the knowledge of God's mind in any difficulty... Absorbed in His love, we will hear His faintest whisper, and His path will be plain before our face. But if we are unspiritual or worldly, acting from our own desires or preferences, we will not be able to discern the Lord's way.

We must not think of people at meals in those days as being like us today, all sitting on chairs around a table. Rather they were lying at table. They had cushions on the ground. They would lie side by side, with their heads towards the table and their legs away from it. The one who lay in front of the Lord Jesus lay "in His bosom". He would also lean on His breast. So this one was not only sure of the wonderful love of the Lord Jesus, he also wanted His nearness. These two things go together. He was nearest of all to the heart of His Master. It was no matter of doctrine that he knew Jesus loved him; he felt it, and he wanted to enjoy being close to the Lord. This nearness to his Lord is the source of his teaching. He learnt, as it were, through the heartbeat of his Master, leaning on His breast.

Peter, though a hearty man, was not perceptive. He longed to know who the traitor was, but could not frame the right question. Why did he not ask the Lord Himself who would betray Him? Because in the presence of the Lord he felt and knew what we have often felt — that another was nearer to Him than himself. Peter did not have freedom and liberty. So he beckoned to another to ask... Intimacy is the outcome of affection, and the source of real understanding.

The disciple who asks the Lord must be one who is near to the Lord. The one who is nearest can describe himself as "one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved." He is conscious of the Lord's love to him, and he trusts that love. So John leans on the bosom of Jesus. The man whose feet, a little before, had been in the hands of Jesus, now reclines with his head on the bosom of Jesus. May we not say that this position of intimate communion is the proper outcome of feet-washing?

How wonderful a place this one had taken, who was nearer than Peter. He lay on Jesus' bosom as one whom Jesus loved, content to be there and to rest in what he was to Jesus and in His thoughts about him. To know such a place is to know an intimacy that gives simple boldness. He leaned on His breast and asked, "Lord, who is it?" He enjoyed the intimacy that keeps nothing back. How readily love answered him! The sign given to Judas made the answer known only to the one who asked, without revealing his name to everyone. The love that confided in His own was as perfect as the love that bore with Judas.

Jesus is there with a love that can never break down, for "having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end." John is there delighting himself in the love of Christ. He rests his head on the bosom of Jesus, and calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. Peter is there with real and warm love for the Lord. But he trusts in his own love to the Lord instead of resting in the Lord's love to him. Last, Judas is there, with no love to the Lord. He has the money bag at his side and the devil in his heart, ready to betray the Lord and pass into the long dark night.

Peter wanted to know; he was eager to know. It is only by leaning on Jesus' breast that we know these things. There we learn everything. He is not in the habit of holding anything back, for surely He deals with us as a friend. From one who leans on His bosom like this He has no secrets... And what brought John there? Habits of affection for Jesus lead us into such a place. We do not know what we will receive there, but we find love (it was "the disciple whom Jesus loved").

In John 13:23-25 we find the apostle pillowing his head on the breast of divine love. He does this in the presence of the spirit of betrayal, and of the activities of Satan, who had entered into the heart of Judas.

Here is an important statement: after the morsel, Satan entered into Judas. There is much in that. A person can be familiar with Christ in an outward way, and where the heart is wrong that familiarity is a deadly way in for Satan's power. Satan had already won Judas's desires and suggested the evil. But here he takes possession of him in a personal way — Satan enters into him. He hardens his heart against every natural feeling.

The English translation misleads us if we take Luke's verse 3 to mean that Satan entered into Judas at that moment. From John 13:27 we know it was only after the morsel. John also keeps this full work of the enemy separate from the earlier occasion, when the enemy had put the betrayal into the betrayer's heart. Luke gives no marker of time here. He uses only a linking word, and is content with the broad fact without going into its stages one by one.

We read that after the morsel Satan entered into him. That is a remarkable word. We read of many cases of men possessed by demons, but this is the only time we hear of Satan himself entering into a man. Two people are called "the son of perdition" — Judas, and the Antichrist, or the man of sin.

Lust had already opened the heart of Judas to the devil's suggestion. Now Satan himself takes possession of Judas. Any stirring of conscience left in Judas, any sense of shame, any shrinking back from the sin he was about to commit — the entrance of Satan silences it all. Satan does not hesitate. From now on Judas is the helpless instrument of his plans. For Judas there is now no turning back, and so the Lord can say to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly."

It was all over with Judas when Satan entered into him. Nothing could stop him on his headlong course to destruction. But the feelings of the heart of Jesus come out when He said to the betrayer, "What you are going to do, do quickly." Not one of the disciples understood at the time why Jesus said this (John 13:28). Yet we can see the terrible pressure that lay on the spirit of Jesus, longing that what lay ahead of Him should be delayed no longer.

The Lord accepted the situation and told him to act quickly. It seems that even Satan could not move freely in this matter without God's permission. Once God granted it, Judas rose and left under Satan's controlling power. He went out into the night, in more senses than one.

In the first place John is stating a plain fact: it really was night when Judas took the morsel and went out from the presence of his Lord. But think of the solemn character of the moment, and of his terrible moral condition — Satan had by then entered into him (v. 27). There can be no doubt that the statement is meant to stop us with its moral meaning… when Judas turned his back on Him and went out under the power of Satan, it was indeed night in his soul.

The Lord's clear statement that one of the chosen twelve was about to show himself a traitor also brought trouble into the minds of the disciples. Verse 22 shows that no suspicion of Judas was lurking in their minds. He appeared perfectly sincere in their eyes, so much so that they had entrusted the common purse to him. The craft of Satan's camouflage is almost perfect.

How little the disciples entered into the sufferings, the sorrow, of the Lord, of the Son of Man. There are certain sorrows kept for the secret of the Lord's heart… If He had anyone to sympathise with Him, His betrayal would in this sense have been easier to bear. There would have been some faithful hearts, a veil over the other man's turning away. But He was alone in it. None understood what it was. They thought it was to buy something, or give to the poor. But this wrong guess came from more than ignorance. Their hearts were full of other things than the one thing that necessarily filled the Lord's heart.

Yet the disciples looked on and listened, not knowing what terrible issues were at stake. Not even John grasped the meaning of words that would soon be clear to all. It was not to buy things needed, but to sell their Lord and Master. It was no preparation for the feast, but the very thing the feast, not they, had always looked forward to… It was not that Judas should give to the poor — the last thing that would occupy his mind. It was that He should give, who though He was rich, yet for our sake became poor, so that we by His poverty might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). It was a man's, a disciple's, worst sin; it was God's infinite love; both met in the death of the Lord on the cross. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

The eleven, stunned, it seems, by this terrible disclosure, fail to grasp the meaning of the Lord's words. They had entrusted the bag to Judas, so they judge that the Lord's words must refer to meeting the needs of the feast or to relieving the poor. Judas has no misunderstanding. The presence of the Lord has become unbearable to this devil-possessed man. Having received the morsel, he gets up at once and, without a word, passes into the night.

Others have noted that in this whole solemn scene no one denounces Judas. No reproach is heaped on him, no word of expulsion spoken against him, no demand made that he leave. The Lord reveals that a false one is present. He foretells the sin about to be committed, and points out the man who will commit it. Then, in a silence more terrible than words, Judas leaves the light that was too searching, the holy Presence he could no longer endure. He passes into the night for which no morning will ever dawn. Let us remember that but for the grace of God, and the precious blood of Christ, we should each one follow Judas into the night.

In the upper room the Lord had said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly." The rest had not understood it then. Now it was plain indeed to every one of the eleven.

The Lord's clear statement troubled the disciples: one of the chosen twelve was about to show himself a traitor. Verse 22 shows that no suspicion of Judas was lurking in their minds. He appeared perfectly sincere to their eyes, so much so that the common purse had been entrusted to him. The craft of Satan's camouflage is almost perfect.

How did Judas Iscariot become treasurer for the apostles in the days of the Lord Jesus? It is unthinkable that the Lord Himself chose him for such service… His companions must have chosen him for this job. They chose him for his business ability, not for his spiritual grace. Fatal blunder! It ended in disaster, as we know. Many years after the unhappy Judas had "gone to his own place," the Apostle John wrote of him. He did not care about the poor, but "he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it" (John 12:6).

He went out not to buy the things they needed, but to sell their Lord and Master. This was no preparation for the feast. It was the very thing the feast itself — not the disciples — had always looked forward to: the fulfilment of God's mind and purpose in it. That meant the Jews crucifying their own Messiah by the hand of lawless men. Judas was not going out to give to the poor; that was the last thing on his mind. Instead the Giver was the One Who "though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Cor. 8:9). It was a man's, a disciple's, worst sin; it was God's infinite love; both met in the death of the Lord on the cross. But where sin increased, grace increased far more.

How little the disciples entered into the sufferings, the sorrow, of the Lord. … There are certain sorrows kept for the secret of the Lord's heart. … If He had had anyone to sympathise with Him, His betrayal would in this sense have been easier. … But He was alone in it. No one understood what it was. They thought it was to buy something, or to give to the poor. But there was more than ignorance in this wrong guess. Their hearts were full of other things, while the Lord's heart was full of the one thing it had to be full of.

The Eleven, stunned, it seems, by this terrible disclosure, fail to grasp the meaning of the Lord's words. Judas had charge of the bag, so they judge that the Lord's words must refer to meeting the needs of the feast or to relieving the poor. Judas has no such misunderstanding. The presence of the Lord has become unbearable to this devil-possessed man. So he takes the morsel, gets up at once, and passes into the night without a word.

What the Lord had said to him in the upper room, not understood by the rest — "What you are going to do, do quickly" — was now plain indeed to every one of the Eleven… Providing for the feast had not been in his thoughts that night. To satisfy his greed had been his desire.

Could John have meant, by the "feast of the Passover," the feast of Unleavened Bread which directly followed it? The mention of the feast in verse 29 might give some support to such a view. Remember that the Lord was crucified on the fifteenth day of Nisan, the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Lord appealed to the traitor. He gave him the morsel of bread, and Judas took it, but resisted the appeal. All the love of Christ was thrown away on him. His soul lay devastated and ruined. "What you are going to do, do quickly," the Lord said. Then he got up from the table and went out. Scripture adds, "it was night." He went out into the blackness of night's darkness to do a deed of still blacker darkness. Judas was at the Passover table, but went out from the presence of the Lord, to go to his own place. He was not "clean," as the Lord had said (John 13:10).

The Lord accepted the situation and told him to act quickly. It seems that even Satan could not move freely in this matter without divine permission. Once Satan had it, Judas rose and left under his controlling power. He went out into the night, in more senses than one.

First of all, John points to the plain fact that it really was night when Judas took the morsel of bread and went out from the presence of his Lord. But think of the solemn moment, and of his awful moral condition — Satan had entered into him (v. 27). There can be no doubt at all: the moral meaning of those words is meant to stop us short. Jesus had said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world"; for in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. That is surely what He was as He sat at the Passover table among His disciples. So when Judas turned his back on Him and went out under the power of Satan, it was indeed night in his soul.

What darkness rested on that soul from then on! "It was night," says John. And that night grew more horrible for the faithless man. He saw the evil he could never undo only after he had done it. The night closed on him as he went to his own place.

Believers are not in darkness. They are "children of light, children of the day." They know God and stand in the light of the day that is coming. "Night" and "darkness" mark the world. The absence of Christ makes the night, and the ignorance of God makes the darkness (compare John 12:35-36, 46; 13:30).

Love laid its last service at his feet, he spurned it, and he goes out into the betrayer's night. The contrast is sharp. Outside is the fellowship of the world, with its thoughts and purposes of evil. Inside is the fellowship of this other world, where the thoughts and purposes of love open out. Jesus was alone with His true disciples.

Judas was not present at the Lord's Supper. These verses show that the Lord gave the Supper after the Passover. It was "when He had supped" (verse 25), and Judas went out as soon as he received the morsel of bread from the Lord. The Lord gave him the morsel and said, "What you are going to do, do quickly," and after the traitor left, He founded this ordinance. Can you imagine the Lord asking Judas to do this "in remembrance of me"? No, it is true hearts He wants.

What a contrast! What a sentence! "When he was gone out"! The blackest deed Satan ever did was now accomplished — morally accomplished, that is. So says the unburdened mind of the Lord: unburdened as He passes through the crisis, showing what it was, dwelling on it, and grasping the divine glory in it all — "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him."

The Lord felt the gravity of the moment, and saw the way and end from the beginning. All the wonderful and everlasting consequences of His death were stretched out before Him. Now that Judas is gone, He gives free expression to the truth in divinely perfect words... His own cross is fully in view, and it laid the basis for all true and lasting glory — not for God only, though certainly for God, since there can be none at all unless He is first — but for man also in the person of the Lord, the Son of Man.

The first great truth is, "Now is the Son of Man glorified."... The reference is to the suffering of the Son of Man at the Cross. The statement is that in those sufferings the Son of Man is glorified. To be glorified is to have all the qualities that exalt a person brought into display. At the Cross all the infinite perfections of the Son of Man were displayed in the highest degree.

"Now is the Son of Man glorified." No ray of glory shone upon Him: all was deepest darkness, deepest humiliation; yet in the cross the Son of Man was glorified... Who but He could have borne the awful trial of the fire of divine holiness, searching out all that was within? Who else, in that place, could have been only a sweet savour to an absolutely holy God?

Here the glory of the Son of Man is seen in going into death. Power over death displays the glory of the Son of God, submission to death the glory of the Son of Man.

The glory of His earthly throne is exceeded by the glory of His shameful Cross. The Kingdom will display His official glories, the Cross witnesses to His moral glories.

All others had dishonoured God. At last One is found — the Son of Man, Himself morally perfect, able to undertake a work which glorifies God. But to glorify God He must be made sin, and go into the place of death. "The heavens declare the glory of God" as Creator, with infinite wisdom and power, but cannot declare the glory of His moral Being. For this the Son of Man must suffer, so that by those sufferings every attribute of God may receive its highest expression. The Cross vindicates the majesty of God, upholds His truth, and shows His righteousness in the judgment of sin. The holiness that demanded such a sacrifice, and the love that gave it, shine in their brightest lustre.

We learn from this what the hinge of our Lord's standing in this work really was. It was not the outward sufferings, true and telling as they were to man, but the moral submission to God... In man, God had been permanently dishonoured. Now, in the infinite riches and unspeakable display of grace, in Man — in Jesus — He was to be glorified.

The first man was an object of shame and judgment through sin. The second Man, Jesus Christ the righteous, was glorified, and God was glorified in Him... Blessed Saviour! What a thought — and now a fact and a truth! This truth is made known to us, so that we might know not merely God come to us, but ourselves brought to God. And this in peace and joy, because man is glorified in the Person of Christ, and God is glorified in Him, a Man, the man Christ Jesus.

In His death Christ glorified God in all that God is. And He did it where God had been dishonoured, in the very place of sin. Man's hatred, Satan's power, death, and the curse or wrath of God all met there. And He was there in love and obedience, made sin. There His obedience was made complete. God displayed His righteous judgment against sin in full, and Christ endured it when God forsook Him. Yet the same act displayed God's perfect love to sinners.

The Son of Man glorified God in His death on the cross. So God glorifies Him "in Himself." He does not have to wait for the day of His kingdom glory. God glorifies Him "immediately," seating Him at His own right hand. To be glorified "in Himself" brings out at once the glory of the Person of the Son of Man. Only a divine Person could be glorified in this way. Yet it also shows the wonderful place that Man has in Jesus, God's beloved Son. He is now glorified in the presence of God the Father, with a glory that is fully divine.

God is glorified in Him, and as a result He is glorified in God Himself. It is a glory and a place enjoyed in Himself. Exalted like this, He shares the infinite delight and excellency of God. However its result may be displayed later, this glory is above and beyond all display. Such is the glory and blessing of the Son of Man!

All this clearly was God's righteousness because of the cross. It was what God owed to Jesus. It was a debt He had to pay, both as God and as Father. And this was because Jesus was the Man who had glorified Him to the very fullest, as no one had ever glorified Him before. He did it even about that very thing, sin, which God hated most of all. He kept back nothing. He endured all things… So God does not wait for the fullness of times, and He does not begin by giving Him the whole earth and all the nations on it. He glorifies Christ in Himself at once.

So the height to which God has raised the Lord Jesus measures how much He valued the glory Jesus brought Him at Calvary.

If God has been glorified in Christ, God will give an everlasting proof of His satisfaction with what Christ has done. Christ glorified as a Man in the glory is the only adequate answer to His work on the cross, and is the eternal proof of God's satisfaction with that work.

God did not wait for the kingdom to glorify His Son. His work was too precious to allow a delay, and so God placed Him at His right hand. There we see Jesus now. What an encouragement for every believer. We see Jesus, who is already crowned with glory and honour and who will bring many sons to glory. If our hands are hanging down and our knees are feeble, as was the case with the Hebrew believers, let us look at Him!

This is the only occasion in which the Lord Himself uses the word "little children" — a diminutive form expressing affection. It does not mean a young believer only. It is the address of love to all His own. The disciple whom Jesus loved uses it the same way in his letter, when he writes to the whole family of God (1 John 2:1, 12, 28; 1 John 3:7, 18; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:21).

To me, one of the loveliest diminutives in the Greek New Testament is "teknion"... He speaks it on the night He was betrayed. I do not know how it can be translated. English versions give "Little Children," "Children," "Dear Children." All are right in a way. But to me none of them even begin to translate what was in the Lord's heart.

The glorification of the Son of Man will involve separation from the disciples. With perfect sympathy, the Lord enters into the sorrow that fills the disciples' hearts. They had learned to love Him, and now they must be parted from Him. Again and again, with touches of human tenderness, He will speak of the parting that must come, and prepare their hearts for the break in their life together on earth.

He had told the Jews that they could not come where He would be. Now He says the same to His disciples. There is of course a difference. The Jews could never come there. For the disciples, it was only at that moment that they could not come where He went.

The Jews could not follow Him into the presence of the Father: His own could not follow Him into death... Poor Simon Peter had to learn through bitter experience that no one could follow the Lord at that time into His place of suffering and abandonment. That suffering was necessary for the blessing of His own. In wondrous grace, the Lord added, "but you shall follow me afterwards." Peter was honoured to follow his Master into martyrdom, and into heaven. But no one could share the sufferings that belonged to the Lord alone in the great work of atonement.

None had passed this way before. It must be a new and living way, and only His death could make it possible, in a way that was consistent with both God and man. If He was to be with them only a little longer, they were to seek Him. But heaven was never open to man the way the earth is — the earth whose dust his body was made from. Christ came from God, and went to God, and He will come again and receive us to Himself, that where He is, there we may be also. The Christian can no more go there than anyone else. Christ alone can bring anyone there, and He will surely do it for His own at His coming.

It hangs on this — "Just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, 'Where I am going you cannot come.'" The remedy is, "You believe in God." He is not present with you, so though you cannot come and I am gone, believe in Me. This is the happy position He puts them in. "Believe in Me" — then "I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, you may be also."

When He left, the disciples would lose the powerful bond of the personal presence of the One they all loved. So the Lord gives a new commandment, "That you love one another; as I have loved you."

So far, that concerned Him. But what about His disciples, left here for a time? Their situation would change: they would lose the Lord's care over them. So arguments and divisions could spring up and break the group apart. They had already shown this danger. They had argued among themselves about which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven — and they were still arguing about it on the night of that Supper. So this new commandment came at just the right time, and they needed it.

When He left, the disciples would lose a powerful bond: the personal presence of the One they all loved... Only love of God's own kind can hold together a group of people who each have their own personality, character, and temperament.

The nation disappears. It is not a question of loving one's neighbour, but of Christ's disciples and of their mutual love according to His love. New relationships would become clearer and clearer when He rose from the dead and sent down the Holy Spirit. This new duty of loving one another would flow out of that new relationship... Their love was to be made of the same material and shaped in the same mould as His own.

Jesus said to His own, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." John's practical comment on this is, "He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." If this commandment is new, it cannot be part of the law, which was already old... This new commandment of the Lord governs a relationship the law knew nothing about, and could know nothing about: being brothers in Christ. The law only told a man to love his neighbour as himself. This command tells him to love his brothers in Christ more than himself.

It is His love in verse 33 that leads to verse 34... It was a new commandment because it had never been expressed this way before. "Just as I have loved you." That should be the character as well as the measure of our love to each other. His love had been shown in washing their feet. We too should wash one another's feet (v. 14). But did the disciples live this out then? They first needed the power of the Spirit living in them — the Helper He would send from the Father. Only then could these words be true of them: "which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining."

Christ loved with a love which, while never indifferent to evil, still triumphed over all the power of evil. If we love one another the way Christ loved, we will not put up with evil in one another. But we will find a way to deal with the evil and go on loving each other.

The new commandment is not a legal rule. We can only carry it out as we live His life, and so stay in communion with Him... The commands of the New Testament become an outlet for the renewed heart, under the influence of the love of Christ. Love that has to be "worked up" is fake. The Lord is speaking of love that flows out freely between brothers. We see this in the words "just as I have loved you."

In chapter 13 Judas had gone out. Jesus could now look on the rest as one in the life He had brought them into. So He gives them the new commandment, to keep them one in practice... He has brought us together into one flock, one family, one assembly, as brothers of Christ. He did this so that this love would have room to grow and flow out to one another. It cannot grow in isolation. Everything that divides the children of God gets in the way of it.

But though they were not with Him, they were His disciples. One thing made this clear: a new commandment — and He was One who could give a new commandment. It was, "That you love one another." The commandment came from Him to them, a sign in them, telling unbelievers that they were His disciples. This was the sign to the world.

The Lord's love to them was pure, patient, untiring, persevering; it never flagged. Nothing on their part could turn it aside. Nothing less than this is the pattern of their mutual love. The Lord does not say, Love Me as I have loved you; it is, Love each other as I have loved you.

He has one striking new commandment to leave with them. It is not a legal commandment, as those given by Moses, and nothing that would tend to puff up the flesh. He had loved them: let them show the same love toward one another. Indeed, His love was because of His very nature: they too had been given this blessed nature by new birth. The command therefore is really to allow that nature its proper expression.

Love is of God, not of man, which accounts for the blank until He came Who, though God, showed love in man and to man... This is not zeal that goes out searching for sinners, precious as that is. It is the unselfish seeking of the good of believers as believers, in humility of mind and in Christ's love.

A company marked by love would look so strange in a place ruled by lust and selfishness that even the world would realise these people must be the disciples of Christ. The world cannot appreciate the faith and hope of Christians. But divine love and what it does they can at least see and admire, even if they cannot imitate it.

A disciple giving up everything to follow Christ would be thought a fool... In chapter 13 the Lord gives a mark that the natural man can recognise. It might make him wonder, but it would be clear evidence of a power greater than the selfishness of nature.

Now love to fellow believers is evidence of divine life. It is evidence first to ourselves: "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers" (1 John 3:14). Second, it is evidence to the world: "by this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35)... Do you want to bear testimony for Christ, to preach the gospel? Good! it is a good desire. But not everyone is gifted for this. Yet there is a testimony everyone can display, even the humblest: he is greatest who shows it most, and the most splendid gift is nothing without it. It is love!

So what proves that we are the disciples of Christ is not holding certain truths, and not having light, but loving one another. Let us not shrink from facing this divine fact. As we face it, let us ask ourselves whether this testimony has failed completely. The broken state of the Church, the divisions across the Christian world, and rival parties and jealousies all proclaim our disgrace.

His final destination was the Father's house on high, as the next chapter shows. But He was going there by way of death. This was not death as a believer knows it, which is after all only sleep. This was death as the judgement of God against sin. In Joshua's day the sacred ark went down first into the Jordan River. In the same way, He whom the ark only faintly pictured had to go down first into death. He had to rob death of its sting by making atonement for sin and guilt. Only then could Peter, or anyone else, follow in His steps.

The Lord was going to suffer death as the Martyr at the hands of wicked men. But something far more terrible to His holy soul lay ahead. He was going into death as the holy Victim under the hand of God. This, indeed, was a path that He alone could take; Peter could not follow in that path. Afterwards, in the years to come, Peter will have the high honour to follow the Lord in the path of martyrdom.

He could not follow Him now. At that point Peter had no power for it, and the way itself was not yet made. That way meant meeting the holiness of God in death, going into death in the power of life, and passing through death into God's presence. It was a lonely way, inside the veil. But he would indeed follow Him with power from a risen Lord.

A separation must take place. He was going to glory. They would still be on earth. That separation, however, would only be temporary. Then they would be where He was going. The Lord had told the Jews who did not believe that He and they would be separated. But He gave them no hope that it would last only for a season. For the disciples, it would be only temporary.

So far Peter understood nothing of the service Christ was setting before him. He could not enter into what his own part would then have been. Two things were missing, and He named them in two sayings. First: "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand" (v. 7). Second: "Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow afterward" (v. 36). These two things were knowledge and power.

"You cannot follow Me now, but you will follow afterward." Blessed Master! He would not let His poor weak servant enter that terrible path until He Himself had gone first. He changed the whole character of that path, so that the road of death would be lit up with the beams of life and immortality. Our Jesus has "abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

It was then that Jesus said, "Follow me." He answers what Peter had said before, "Why can I not follow you now?" (John 13:37.) From then on he would be able to follow Him.

How gracious! How gracious to tell him of his inability before His death! And how gracious to tell him of that following which was certain to come, brought about by the gracious power of God and made real to his soul… It was not that he was insincere. I doubt whether there ever was a sincerer soul than Simon Peter. Our folly does not lie in insincerity. It lies in the very opposite: we trust self in some form or another.

Peter would not be separated from his Lord even for a moment. A "why?" follows the question "where?" How beautiful the desire: "I will lay down my life for You." He did not know how weak his "I will" was. Yet the Lord valued Peter's love, and in love to Peter He would make him know his weakness.

In these few words Peter lets out the real root of the whole matter. That root was self-confidence — and it is no rare root among us. We do not question Peter's sincerity. We are sure he meant all he said. We are just as sure he had no idea what he was about to do. He was ignorant of himself, and we generally find that ignorance and self-confidence go together. Self-knowledge destroys self-confidence. The better you know yourself, the less you should trust yourself.

We hear of another in this Gospel who spoke of giving up his life. Simon Peter was impulsive by nature and full of zeal for his beloved Master. On the very night of His betrayal he cried out, "I will lay down my life for you" (John 13:37). Peter did not then understand that the very reverse would be the case, according to John 10:11-15. Neither did he believe what the Lord immediately told him about the instability of his own heart.

The Lord was going to suffer death as the Martyr at the hands of wicked men. But far more terrible to His holy soul, He was going into death as the holy Victim under the hand of God. This indeed was a path that He alone could take. Peter could not follow in that path. Afterwards, in the years to come, Peter will have the high honour of following the Lord in the path of martyrdom.

We follow our Leader in this — but not in atonement, which is His work alone. The Lord makes that distinction in His words to Peter. When atonement was in view, Peter could not follow. When atonement is made, Peter can follow: "You will follow afterward."

Here Peter's strong will had proved to be weakness before the power of the enemy. So he received the immense blessing of suffering, and even of dying, for the Lord. That was to happen when his own will was no longer the question. He would be submitting to the power of others, and there his faithfulness would stand out clearly. Someone else would bind him and carry him where he did not want to go. He would die for the Lord after all. It is then, when there is no more will of our own, no more strength, that we can follow the Lord.

He meant it as much as some of us have meant it when we have vowed on our knees to stand for Christ and serve Him with our whole hearts. But he had to weep out his disappointment and sorrow over broken vows and wretched failure. We have had to do the same, and we will keep doing it as long as our great thought is what we can be for Christ instead of what He can be for us. Peter was on the wrong track… You have to learn that it is not Peter for Christ but Christ for Peter.

Now Simon Peter wants to enter what no one but Jesus could enter — God's presence by the path of death. This is fleshly confidence. The Lord tells him, in grace, that it could not be so now. He must dry up that sea that is bottomless to man — death — that overflowing Jordan. Then, when death was no longer the judgment of God, and no longer wielded by the power of Satan, His poor disciple might pass through it for the sake of righteousness and of Christ. But Peter would follow Him in his own strength, claiming to be able to do exactly what Jesus was about to do for him.

It was not that he was insincere. I doubt whether there was ever a more sincere soul than Simon Peter. And our folly does not lie in our insincerity — quite the opposite. It lies in this: we trust self in some shape or another.

So the Lord presses the truth of His own words on him, with decisive insistence, and Peter's bold words collapse in shame. Three times, He tells him, he would deny his Lord before the rooster crowed. How strongly this shows that the flesh cannot be trusted, even in the most zealous and devoted of disciples! And how perfectly the word of the Lord can be trusted!

How beautiful the desire: "I will lay down my life for you." He did not know the weakness of his "I will." Yet the Lord valued Peter's love, and in love to Peter would make him know his weakness. The Lord's love would make Peter's failure known to him beforehand, so that he might have increased confidence in his Lord.

And notice, Simon Peter heard it from His own lips before he went astray. If he had not, we have no right to say he would have been restored as he was. We know he was restored, but God uses means, and one of the great means of restoring power for our souls is the love we knew before we went astray. Nothing brings the heart back to the Lord, or fills it with horror at itself, like this: the Lord told us so fully and so plainly before we went astray.

"Truly, truly," said the all-patient Master, "a rooster will certainly not crow until you have denied Me three times." We recall Peter's repeated denial of his Lord, and with oaths too, under the most solemn circumstances. We recall it not to lower him, but for the profit of our own souls, and to exalt Him who alone is worthy. How infinite the grace that made the measure of his sin the signal and the means of his repentance!

He brings out the most complete sentence on Peter, and puts the flesh entirely aside: "Will you lay down your life for me?" No wonder — He was offering Himself; He was about to suffer. "Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times." Then straight away He goes on, "Let not your heart be troubled." What He had in His heart at that moment, concerning Peter and John and the rest, could not be held back. The rude interruption of a man saying, "I will lay down my life for you," could not stop it. The man did not know what he was doing; the Lord understood it all.