The God Who Kneels
Download MP3Invite you to open your bibles to John chapter 12. John 12. We're gonna do a fairly long reading of scripture. I'll begin reading in verse 37b. 36b.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus has said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though He had done so many times before them, they still did not believe in Him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, they could not believe.
Joel Brooks:For again, Isaiah said, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, so that they would not put out, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. Go to chapter 13.
Joel Brooks: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. During supper, when the devil had already put it in the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, 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, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 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. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, 'Lord, do you wash my feet?' Jesus answered him, what I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.' Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet.
Joel Brooks:Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. And 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. For he knew who was to betray him.
Joel Brooks:That was why he said, not all of you are clean. 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? 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. For I have given you an example that you also should do, just as I have done to you.
Joel Brooks: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. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate bread has lifted his heel against me.
Joel Brooks:I'm telling you this now before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me and whoever receives the one who sent me, receives me, receives the one who sent me. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Our father, that we ask that through your spirit, the words that we've just read would be more than just words. They would be words from you, Jesus, that you would penetrate our hearts with them. You would convict us where we need convicting, heal us where we need healing. Spirit, you're welcome in this place to move in our midst and to have your way. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Joel Brooks:But Lord, may Your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus, amen. Although we still have about 8 chapters left in the gospel of John, the next 7 chapters all take place over a 24 hour period. As we are coming to this climactic end of Jesus' public ministry, and John is aware that a question is likely forming in the minds of his readers, And the question is this. He has his own little commentary here to answer this.
Joel Brooks:This isn't a narrative, this isn't him giving some more teaching about Jesus, this is his own little commentary here to answer this question. And it's this, given the extraordinary love and power that is displayed by God in the glory of Jesus Christ. Why are there so few followers? I mean, there are crowds, everywhere Jesus goes there are crowds, but there's actually very few disciples, few genuine followers. Now Jesus has been saying this all along.
Joel Brooks:He'll say things like, many are called, but few are chosen. Or talk about entering the narrow gates, because he says the way is hard that leads to life, and there are very few that find it. But even though we hear Jesus saying things like this, when it comes to the end, just think that things are not really adding up, because look at all the miracles he's done. I mean, he's raised people from the dead. He has fed 1,000 of people.
Joel Brooks:He has shown incredible love and compassion for people. And so when we are doing our math here and we see such extraordinary love, and this incredible power and we add them up together, it just seems like there should be more. So why aren't there more followers of Jesus? John, he gives us an answer to this by quoting from 2 places, both found in Isaiah, Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 6. And let me just say that these passages of scripture are not easy to understand.
Joel Brooks:I'll say they're not fun to preach, but they're the word of God and so we need to work through them. I wanted to just kind of jump over that last part of chapter 12 and go straight to the section of Jesus' Jesus washing his disciples' feet. But the more and more I began reading these sections, the more I realized that these two sections are linked and you can't understand Jesus washing his disciples' feet unless you come to grips with these two passages in Isaiah. They go hand in hand together. So let's look at this first verse that John quotes from Isaiah 53.
Joel Brooks:Look at chapter 12, verse 38. So that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Now this is the very first line of Isaiah chapter 53, and any time one quotes just the first line of the chapter, what they're doing is they're trying to bring to mind the entire chapter.
Joel Brooks:They're alluding to all of that section of scripture. And this is one of the most famous passages we have in the entire Bible. Isaiah 53 is about the suffering servant of the Lord. We don't have time to read all of it, but let me just read you the first three verses. Who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Joel Brooks:For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed him not.
Joel Brooks:And John quotes here from Isaiah 53 because Jesus didn't look very kingly. He didn't look majestic. People were not attracted to him. They weren't attracted to his beauty. In other words, Jesus didn't look the part of the messiah.
Joel Brooks:What he looked the part of is a servant who is going to be rejected. Next, John quotes from Isaiah 6. So look at verse 40. He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. Now this verse here from Isaiah 6 was so important to the early church and their 4 Gospels and also quoted in the book of Acts.
Joel Brooks:I'm not aware of any other passage of scripture that is quoted in all 5 of those books, but the early church saw this verse here, as hard as it is, as a key to understanding why the Jews rejected Jesus. Isaiah 6 is one of the most famous passages also in the Old Testament. It's in Isaiah 6 that the Lord fills the temple. The glory of the Lord fills the temple. Isaiah has this vision, and he hears these angelic voices saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
Joel Brooks:And in this vision, as the glory's filling the temple, Isaiah is commissioned to go out and to tell, to prophecy these words to the people, and to tell them about the glory of God. But as Isaiah is being commissioning, the Lord says this, he goes, I'm gonna send you out, but people will not listen to you. Their hearts will be hardened, their eyes will be blind when you bring to them this message of my glory. And so now John, he quotes this passage as a way of us understanding why people don't recognize the glory of Jesus Christ. The answer is this.
Joel Brooks:God in his sovereignty is keeping people from recognizing the glory of Jesus. God in His sovereignty is keeping people from recognizing the glory of Jesus. It's a hard statement. We've seen this all along in John. Back in the very first verses, when we read the word became flesh, and we beheld his glory, glory as the only son of the father, and then yet almost immediately after that we read this, and he came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
Joel Brooks:And this has been playing out through the whole gospel. On every page, people are beholding his glory, Beholding his glory in the miracles. Beholding his glory in his teaching. Beholding his glory in his love and his compassion and yet they are not receiving him. It's absolutely astounding, why aren't these people coming to Jesus in droves?
Joel Brooks:How in the world could people be so blind and reject Jesus? And the answer here is because God has blinded the eyes of these people, lest they see and unless they understand. In other words, the rejection of Jesus is all part of God's divine sovereign plan. Jesus was sent in order to be rejected. Jesus was sent in order to go to the cross.
Joel Brooks:If the people had accepted Jesus here, if they had had followed him, then there would have been no cross, meaning there would have been no atoning sacrifice, meaning you and me would have been left dead in our sins. But because they were blinded, Jesus went to the cross, according to plan. You with me on this? I told you it was hard. So the question is, how is it exactly that God blinds the eyes of these people in order to keep them from recognizing the glory of Jesus?
Joel Brooks:It sounds really harsh. How is he doing this? And this is where you need to see Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 is linked, that these two stories go together. I was thinking all week about a possible illustration that I could use to bring out this point, and so let me give you one that's a little cheesy, but hopefully it lands. If I were to come up to you right now all excited and say, hey, I just met the future president of the United States over at the Hot and Hot Fish Club, all right, And you got to go see this person.
Joel Brooks:And you're all excited, like, all right. And so we run off to the Hot and Hot Fish Club. And so we go there and you get in, there's not many tables there, so you're just kind of scanning the room, and nobody is standing out to you. And so you ask me, Where's our future president? And so I point at a table over there, and there's a couple, they look very distinguished, they're in their 50s.
Joel Brooks:And I'm like, Oh, okay, okay, I can see it. So it's the man in the gray suit. I was like, no. No, it's not the man in the gray suit. Like, I'm a chauvinistic male pig.
Joel Brooks:Okay, alright, It's the wife, alright. I mean, I should have seen it. It's the wife there. Be the next leader of the free world. I'm like, no.
Joel Brooks:It's not the wife. And you're like, you're like, I'm so confused. I'm like, no, it's it's the person waiting on them. It's it's the waiter. That's that's the next leader of the free world.
Joel Brooks:And you were completely blind to that person, never even crossed your mind that that could be the leader of the free world. And even when I tell you this, you're like, You're crazy, There's no way that that person's gonna be our next future president. So first you were blinded in the fact that you weren't even looking for a person like that, and then when I even tell you, your blindness is still there, like there is no way. There is no way that that could be the person. And that's what God the Father has done to us.
Joel Brooks:This is how He has blinded the eyes of the people. When He sent His Son Jesus, he sent him as someone we weren't expecting, as someone we would not even notice, someone we would be blind to. He's just the guy waiting in the background. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him. He had no beauty that we should desire him.
Joel Brooks:And even when the prophets are pointing at him saying, that's our guy, that's the messiah. Even when John the Baptist is saying, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Even when a voice is coming down from heaven, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Every time we hear something like that, we go, that guy? Really?
Joel Brooks:Him? We're blinded unless the Lord opens our eyes. This is how this text, these verses from Isaiah 6, they connect with John chapter 13, Jesus washing His disciples' feet. People were blinded to the fact that Jesus would come as a suffering servant. That he was come as the waiter.
Joel Brooks:He's not who they expected. He's not who they wanted. Now, we have so romanticized this story of Jesus washing his disciples feet. We don't really understand it. We see it as this beautiful thing.
Joel Brooks:Sometimes there's even ceremonies we have now, which leaders, they publicly wash people's feet. But it is not a beautiful thing. It was not a beautiful thing then and if we take a good hard look at it, we'll probably acknowledge it's not really a beautiful thing to us either. Let's look closely at this story. The story takes place, this meal that Jesus is having is the last meal he will have with his disciples before he dies.
Joel Brooks:This is the Last Supper. And once again here, we are going to see extraordinary love and extraordinary power come together and we're going to do the math, and we're going to see what it adds up to. Let's look at the love, verse 1. 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.
Joel Brooks:Get used to this word love, or in Greek, the word agape, because it's gonna appear over 30 more times in the next few chapters. Now that Jesus's earthly life is coming to a close, it says that he loved his disciples all the way to the end. But he's not just talking about time here. Now that's the end of his life, he loved them to the end. That's not all he's talking about here.
Joel Brooks:This word end has the notion of fullness to it or completion to it. Jesus loved his disciples completely. He loved them fully. There couldn't be any more love to give. This is the same word that that Jesus cries out on the cross in one of his last breaths when he says, it is finished.
Joel Brooks:It is completed. The love that Jesus pours out on his disciples was completely full, no more to give, all the way up to his last breath. Let's look at power, verse 3. Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands, that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from the supper. I mean, that line there, the Father has given all things, given all things into his hand.
Joel Brooks:I mean this is a power that we can't fathom. The mightiest pharaohs of Egypt could not imagine this power. The greatest Caesars or emperors in the Roman Empire could not imagine this power. Jesus has the power to raise the dead. Jesus has the power to command legions upon legions of angels to do whatever He wants.
Joel Brooks:He certainly has power to overthrow Rome, and all of its army. He has the power, if he wants, to bring Caesar before him and make him kneel. But instead of Jesus making Caesar come to kneel before him, Jesus goes and he kneels before 12 dim witted buffoons, all right? People who just can't get it. And he kneels before them and he takes the form of a servant and he washes their feet.
Joel Brooks:This is what that extraordinary love and extraordinary power add up to with Jesus. Him kneeling before these 12 disciples and taking on the form of a servant. Jesus did this menbiel. Verse 2 says he arose in the midst of the supper. The other Gospels, they tell us, that actually during this meal, a dispute broke out with all the disciples.
Joel Brooks:I'm not sure why John didn't record this. Maybe everybody already knew this story and he didn't want to embarrass anybody anymore or perhaps he was part of this dispute, but they were arguing over who is the greatest. I mean, at this meal, at this time, they're fighting with one another over who's the greatest, because they could see it coming, that Jesus was about to become king. He was about to take the throne, and now the question was just who's gonna be the Secretary of Defense? Who's gonna be the Secretary of the Interior?
Joel Brooks:Is He gonna pick a vice president, a vice messiah? You know, who's gonna get that term there? And so they're fighting with one another. They want the corner office, you know, with the windows on both sides there that overlooks the city. That's what they're thinking about.
Joel Brooks:When they think of power, that's what floods their mind. Power is something you lord over people. And it's likely at this moment, as they are arguing, that Jesus gets up and He goes and He washes their feet. Normally, there would be no need to wash somebody's feet at a meal, in the middle of a meal because they would have already had their feet washed when they first arrived at the house. When you had a guest and they came over, the very first thing as they were entering the home is that they would have their feet washed.
Joel Brooks:We're not exactly sure why this didn't happen. Likely, it's because Jesus is a wanted man, and that they're having this meeting in secret at somebody's house and so there are no servants. So when the disciples arrived, they would have arrived bathed, dressed nicely, but on the way here, of course, you know, their feet would have gotten very dirty, very muddy walking on those dirt roads. And so when they came in, they would have noticed, okay, there's no servant here to wash our feet, but the thought that they would wash one another's feet never crossed their mind. They didn't even think about washing their own feet.
Joel Brooks:They just went to the table. And so after everyone is already seated and everyone is eating, Jesus then gets up to do this. And I so love how John records this. Look at verse 45. Jesus rose from the supper.
Joel Brooks:He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, he tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and he began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. John really slows down. He writes this story in slow motion, kinda like in a movie when things get really, really slow and you're supposed to focus in. This is a memory that is forever etched in John's mind.
Joel Brooks:I was thinking about this this week. Do you have any idea how long this would have taken for Jesus to wash the feet of 12 disciples? All right, so this 12 disciples is 24 feet, 120 toes. Each one of these feet, you would have to take off the sandal, remove it and then tie it back on. So if Jesus was just flying, doing as fast as He could, taking off those sandals, washing that foot, propping back up the sand, flying, it would take half an hour to do these 12 men, but I I don't at all get the picture that Jesus is trying to rush through this.
Joel Brooks:In this silence, Jesus is going person to person and slowly, lovingly washing their feet, right after they had been arguing over who is the greatest. I bet you could have cut that silence with a knife as Jesus was doing this. Have you ever had your feet washed by somebody else? I did once in high school. But I could just say it was it's kind of intimate.
Joel Brooks:One of my really close friends, we were at some youth group thing and he's the one who was assigned I guess to wash my feet, And we were already really tight buds doing this, but then when he did it was like, woah. I mean he just instantly, there's like, woah, we are, he's getting in between the toes. We are connected. It was weird. Honestly, it was weird.
Joel Brooks:I felt uncomfortable with such intimacy for the guy I knew really well. Rubbing feet is something that married couples might do, alright. You know, you sit on the couch. I sit on the couch with Lauren. It takes her about 10 seconds before one of her feet just goes right on my lap, usually with the sock pulled off.
Joel Brooks:And I will rub her feet. If one of you rubs her feet, we're gonna have an issue because this is something that like, that's just not normal behavior, this is an intimate thing here. Make no mistake. The disciples are uncomfortable as this is happening. The Messiah is not supposed to be this close and intimate with us.
Joel Brooks:They don't like what Jesus is doing here. You would think that this act of love that's being displayed here, it would maybe change this cold heart of Judas As Jesus is washing Judas's feet, but if anything, this was like the final straw and Judas goes off right after this to betray Jesus. He doesn't want a messiah like this. And Peter's the same, we're gonna look at next week. Peter and Judas are not that different.
Joel Brooks:But Jesus comes to Peter and Peter's like, no way, no. Peter's actually emphatic. He says, he says in Greek, it goes, no, you shall never wash my feet forever. Get this through your head, Jesus. This will never ever happen.
Joel Brooks:And then, Jesus says, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me. In other words, Peter, if you don't let me wash you, you can't be part of my kingdom. Peter, if you don't let me wash you, we can't be together. And this is where Jesus gets to the heart of the matter. This is about way more than just foot washing here.
Joel Brooks:This is the gospel. This is how we as sinners are allowed to come into the presence of a holy God. This is a story about Jesus who put aside his heavenly garments, and then he condescends down to us, where He takes the form of a servant. And through His life and His death, He washes us clean. And then he returns to heaven where he is once again clothed with power.
Joel Brooks:When you read through this, you realize every image in this story is important. From the removal of his outer garment, to the putting the outer garment back on, all the way to the wrapping himself with a towel. Jesus, he literally, he gets a towel and he ties it around his waist. And then he goes to each one of the disciples. He goes to each one of us and he washes us.
Joel Brooks:He removes our filth. And you know what, when he's done doing this, we are clean, but he is wearing our dirt. There's been a transfer. He has washed us clean, but now he is wearing our filth wrapped around his waist. Our sins are removed and placed on him.
Joel Brooks:And here we see that beautiful exchange in which we get his righteousness, his holiness, his cleanliness, and we give him our shame and our sin. Is one of the reasons here that the disciples don't like this idea of a messiah being the suffering servant, because it means that they have to acknowledge they are sinners, that they need help. They need to be cleaned. They need Jesus to wash them, that they can't just go and walk in the presence of God and say, here I am. Not looking like that.
Joel Brooks:And so this is a humbling, humbling thought. And so let me ask you the question. Have you allowed Jesus to do this to you? You acknowledge, I need washing. I need it, come wash me.
Joel Brooks:Do you see your need to be cleansed or you like Peter saying, no, not ever Jesus? Now this story ends here with a moral lesson. He says in verse 14, if I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. Basically, Jesus is saying, live out the gospel in which you are saved by. Live out the gospel in which you are saved by.
Joel Brooks:Pursue intimacy with others. Humble yourself before one another. Serve, even serve your enemies. I mean, Jesus washed the feet of Judas. If Jesus washed the feet of Judas, we can serve our enemies.
Joel Brooks:We can certainly listen to that obnoxious guy at the office that everybody just tries to avoid. We can at least just sit and be kind and listen to a person like that. If you're a husband and you come home, or you're a wife and you're gone and you come back, and one of the spouses has been keeping this kid all day, you know what you could do? You can serve by changing a diaper, by fixing a meal. We can serve by getting to know our neighbors and those who are hurting, and maybe fix them a meal.
Joel Brooks:We can live out the gospel that God has worked in. And if you really understand what Jesus has done for you, you're not going to leave this place and say, All right, I've got to serve, I've got to serve, and it's going to be motivated by guilt. Jesus is not like your mother saying, You know, you've got to really serve more. I mean, this is not what Jesus is doing here. There's no place for guilt here.
Joel Brooks:Guilt has been removed. There's no place for fear here. You're gonna serve out of a heart of adoration. A heart that has been made new and transformed by the love of Jesus. Hear these words from Philippians 2.
Joel Brooks:Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, When you think of God, what do you think of? What do you think of? Do you think of a God who's often angry at you?
Joel Brooks:Maybe God who's just waiting for that for your next misstep, so he can judge you, strike you down? Or do you view God as he's just up there in the clouds, just kind of barking orders at you for you to follow? Is God unapproachable? He's distant from you. Is that your picture of God or is your picture God of one who kneels?
Joel Brooks:Kneels before you and washes you with such intimacy. Hear me, we must not make the mistake that when we read the story thinking this, all right, Don't read this story and think, wow. Even though Jesus was the Son of God, he did this. Don't walk away thinking that. Think it is because Jesus was the son of God, he did this.
Joel Brooks:This is a reflection of God's heart to us, a perfect reflection. Jesus loves us with an eternal, intimate, life changing, cleansing, transforming love. Pray with me. Our father, we thank you for the glory that you have revealed to us through your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, and if there's blind eyes here, I pray that you would open them up to see that glory and to savor it.
Joel Brooks:Thank you for washing us, Jesus. Thank you for the intimacy that you have with us. I pray this would not be an intimacy we run from, but we wholeheartedly embrace. And we pray this in your name. Amen.
