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| Washing the Feet of Peter by Sahi |
John 13:1-15
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet
13 [a]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 And 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 to God, 4 rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. 5 Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. 6 He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not know 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 part in me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet,[b] but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “You are not all clean.”
12 When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know 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 as I have done to you.
Footnotes:
- 13.1 John begins here to unfold the mystery of the love of Jesus for “his own.” Note the solemn introduction to the “hour” of his passion and death.
Cited in the Catechism: In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, in several paragraphs.
Commentary
13:1. Jewish families sacrificed a lamb on the eve of the Passover, in keeping with God’s command at the time of the exodus when God liberated them from the slavery of the Pharaoh (cf. Ex 12:3–14; Deut 16:1–8). This liberation prefigured that which Jesus Christ would bring about—the redemption of men from the slavery of sin by means of his sacrifice on the cross (cf. 1:29). This is why the celebration of the Jewish Passover was the ideal framework for the institution of the new Christian Passover.
Jesus knew everything that was going to happen; he knew his death and resurrection were imminent (cf. 18:4); this is why his words acquire a special tone of intimacy and love towards those whom he is leaving behind in the world. Surrounded by those whom he has chosen and who have believed in him, he gives them his final teachings and institutes the Eucharist, the source and centre of the life of the Church. “He himself wished to give that encounter such a fulness of meaning, such a richness of memories, such a moving image of words and thoughts, such a newness of acts and precepts, that we can never exhaust our reflection and exploration of it. It was a testamentary supper, infinitely affectionate and immensely sad, and at the same time a mysterious revelation of divine promises, of supreme visions. Death was imminent, with silent omens of betrayal, of abandonment, of immolation; the conversation dies down but Jesus continues to speak in words that are new and beautifully reflective, in almost supreme intimacy, almost hovering between life and death” (Paul VI, Homily on Holy Thursday, 27 March 1975).
What Christ did for his own may be summed up in this sentence: “He loved them to the end.” It shows the intensity of his love—which brings him even to give up his life (cf. Jn 15:13); but this love does not stop with his death, for Christ lives on after his resurrection and he continues loving us infinitely: “It was not only thus far that he loved us, who always and forever loves us. Far be it from us to imagine that he made death the end of his loving, who did not make death the end of his living” (St Augustine, In Ioann. Evang., 55, 2).
13:2. The Gospels show us the presence and activity of the devil running right through Jesus’ life (cf. Mt 4:1–11; Lk 22:3; Jn 8:44; 12:31; etc.). Satan is “the enemy” (Mt 13:39), “the evil one” (1 Jn 2:13). St Thomas Aquinas (cf. Comm. on St John, in loc.) points out that, in this passage, on the one hand we clearly see the malice of Judas, who fails to respond to this demonstration of love, and on the other hand great emphasis is laid on the goodness of Christ, who reaches out beyond Judas’ malice by washing his feet also and by treating him as a friend right up to the moment when he betrays him (cf. Lk 22:48).
13:3–6. Aware that he is the Son of God, Jesus voluntarily humbles himself to the point of performing a service appropriate to household servants. This passage recalls the Christological hymn in St Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant …” (Phil 2:5–7).
Christ had said that he came to the world “not to be served but to serve” (Mk 10:45). In this scene he teaches us the same thing, through specific example, thereby exhorting us to serve each other in all humility and simplicity (cf. Gal 6:2; Phil 2:3). “Once again he preaches by example, by his deeds. In the presence of his disciples, who are arguing out of pride and vanity, Jesus bows down and gladly carries out the task of a servant […] This tactfulness of our Lord moves me deeply. He does not say: ‘If I do this, how much more ought you to do?’ He puts himself at their level, and he lovingly chides those men for their lack of generosity.
“As he did with the first twelve, so also, with us, our Lord can and does whisper in our ear, time and again: exemplum dedi vobis (Jn 13:15), I have given you an example of humility. I have become a slave, so that you too may learn to serve all men with a meek and humble heart” (St Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, 103).
Peter understands particularly well how thoroughly our Lord has humbled himself, and he protests, in the same kind of way as he did on other occasions, that he will not hear of Christ suffering (cf. Mk 8:32 and par.). St Augustine comments: “Who would not shrink back in dismay from having his feet washed by the Son of God.… You? Me? Words to be pondered on rather than spoken about, lest words fail to express their true meaning” (In Ioann. Evang., 56, 1).
13:7–14. Our Lord’s gesture had a deeper significance than St Peter was able to grasp at this point; nor could he have suspected that God planned to save men through the sacrificing of Christ (cf. Mt 16:22ff). After the Resurrection the apostles understood the mystery of this service rendered by the Redeemer: by washing their feet, Jesus was stating in a simple and symbolic way that he had not come “to be served but to serve”. His service, as he already told them, consists in giving “his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28; Mk 10:45).
Our Lord tells the apostles that they are now clean, for they have accepted his words and have followed him (cf. 15:3)—all but Judas, who plans to betray him. St John Chrysostom comments as follows: “You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. That is: You are clean only to that extent. You have already received the Light; you have already got rid of the Jewish error. The Prophet asserted: ‘Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil from your souls’ (Is 1:16).… Therefore, since they had rooted out all evil from their souls and were following him with complete sincerity, he declared, in accordance with the Prophet’s words: ‘He who has bathed is clean all over’ ” (St John Chrysostom, Hom. on St John, 70, 3).
Also, when our Lord speaks about the apostles being clean, now, just before the institution of the Blessed Eucharist, he is referring to the need for the soul to be free from sin if it is to receive this sacrament. St Paul repeats this teaching when he says: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:27). On the basis of these teachings of Jesus and the apostles, the Church lays down that anyone who is conscious of having committed a grave sin, or who has any positive doubt on that score, must go to confession before receiving Holy Communion.
13:15–17. Jesus’ whole life was an example of service towards men, fulfilling his Father’s will to the point of dying on the cross. Here our Lord promises us that if we imitate him, our Teacher, in disinterested service (which always implies sacrifice), we will find true happiness which no one can wrest from us (cf. 16:22; 17:13). “ ‘I have given you an example’, he tells his disciples after washing their feet, on the night of the Last Supper. Let us reject from our hearts any pride, any ambition, any desire to dominate; and peace and joy will reign around us and within us, as a consequence of our personal sacrifice” (St Josemaría Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, 94).
Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome
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