10 Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you."
The wording of this verse reminds me of King David’s penitent Psalm 51as he expresses his earnest desire for God to wash him – thoroughly cleansing him of his unrighteous acts which prevented his communion with a righteous and holy God:
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin...7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalms 51:1-2; 7-10 (NIV)
King David’s allusion to cleansing with hyssop refers to the use of hyssop as a means of sprinkling the sacrificial blood on the altar – representing the removal of sin through the shedding of blood of which the Law required. The writer of Hebrews tells us:
22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Heb 9:22 (NIV)
Interestingly, in what at first blush appears to be a macabre scene, Moses sprinkles the people with the blood of the sacrifice in Exodus symbolizing their cleansing and serving as a foretaste of the New Covenant to be established by Jesus and ratified by His blood. We find the following in Exodus:
6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." 8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." Ex 24:6-8 (NIV)
The humble example set forth by our Lord in the washing of His disciple’s feet had deep spiritual lessons lying beneath the surface of His actions. First, all have the need to be washed by Christ. No man or woman can be saved apart from their sins being washed away by the precious blood of Jesus. Nothing else can make us clean and acceptable before a holy and righteous God – nothing but the blood of Jesus. We are to be washed, sanctified and justified by His blood and through the working of the Holy Spirit – the precious Gift given to all believers. By faith in Christ we are washed and become clean. Paul sets forth this progression as he speaks to those who once wallowed in the ways of depravity (that would be all apart from Christ) and then turned to Jesus:
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Cor 6:11 (NIV)
Next we learn that once cleansed (salvation) we need only a daily (sometimes moment by moment to keep our accounts short!) cleansing in seeking forgiveness through Jesus with a truly repentant heart. We are to cleanse ourselves daily of guilt contracted through our weakness and carelessness by the exercise of repentance (turning from sin) as well as watching our ways against everything that is defiling. The provision for our cleansing should never make us presumptuous rather cautious. We are to flee evil desires. Paul tells Timothy what we are to flee and what we are to pursue:
22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Tim 2:22 (NIV)
We cannot pass a day through this evil world without defilement and our sins will always break our fellowship. We are ever in need of a fresh supply of mercy as we fail and fall short in many ways. Through repentance we are, like King David, to seek God’s mercy, forgiveness and grace in order to retain the peace of conscience we held when we first believed. We begin and continue on through the cross of Christ.
“The devil allows no Christian to reach heaven with clean feet all the way.” Martin Luther
“Clean is the one who is righteous, if not in the sight of men, yet in the sight of God.” Augustine
Lastly, Jesus states not all were clean – there was one painful exception as a He reflected on Judas. I suppose what is even more striking to observe is that even of His poor, weak, erring disciples He states they are clean. That is a comforting thought indeed. Yet it behooves us all to take heed of ourselves and beware of false profession – our Lord’s Words here are very solemn. If even Christ’s own disciples were not all cleansed and justified we certainly have reason to be on our guard as well.