Ye call me the Teacher and the Lord, and ye say well, for I am [so].
Jesus has just washed His disciples' feet. Now He points to the two names they always gave Him, owns both as true, and makes them the ground of everything He asks of them.
Jesus does not wave the titles away as flattery. He accepts them, then turns them into an argument about what the disciples owe each other:
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?
They say "Teacher and Lord." In the next verse He reverses the order — "Lord and Teacher." That switch has a practical point:
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.
The words "so I am" hold the line. Stooping to wash feet did not lower Him by a single degree:
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.
Because these titles are true, the way we speak to Him matters:
"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."
The title is not just a compliment. If He is Lord, then obedience is what the word means:
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?"
He tells them their words are right. The last question is what stands behind the words — and older translations say "Master" where the ESV says "Teacher":
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?
- Say well. He does not correct the two names — Teacher and Lord. He confirms them: "so I am."
- Bow first. He puts Lord before Teacher. We gain from His teaching only once we bow to His authority.
- Stoop, not shrink. No humiliation changed what He is. He came down to our level to raise us to His glory.
- Speak reverently. His personal dignity is never lost in the tenderness of His love — nearness is not familiarity.
- Do better. Saying well is right. Doing what He says is better.
If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet;
Jesus has just washed His disciples' feet, and now He takes His seat at the table again. He turns what He did into a claim on them — but is He asking for a ceremony to repeat, or for a service His people owe each other for life?
The disciples had two regular titles for Him. He quotes them back, but not in the order they used, and one writer draws a lesson from the switch:
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.
Some have taken these words as setting up a ceremony to keep. One writer reads them differently, and gives his evidence:
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.
If the washing is symbolic, so is the duty. The service He hands over is the Word applied in grace to a believer who has gone wrong, and it asks something of the one who gives it:
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.
There is also a question of timing. A person in need of the service himself is in no state to give it:
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.
The danger is doing the right thing in the wrong spirit. Correction can look like this service and be its opposite:
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.
The duty never expires, because the Master never stopped the work. He carries it on from heaven, and He looks for the same care among His people on earth:
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.
The Lord did not only wash; He wiped. One writer draws a practical rule from that second detail:
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.
- Bow first. He puts Lord before Teacher. His teaching only bears fruit in those who submit to His authority.
- Stoop lower. He stooped in love, so what we owe Him we now owe each other. He still washes feet from heaven and looks for the same care on earth.
- Word, not rite. The service is the Word applied in grace to a believer's conscience, not a ceremony to repeat.
- Towel, not whip. Pointing out a fault is not feet-washing. Harsh criticism is the opposite of the basin, and not caring at all exposes our own failure.
- Wash, then wipe. Once the service is done, bury the failure. Never raise it against the person again.