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

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

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

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

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

John 13:1-17 (ESV)

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,
4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?
13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.