278 SECT. clxix. Jesus rises from supper, and washes their feet. as they sat at table with Jesus, which of them them should be acshould be accounted the greatest in that kingdom counted the greatest. Luke of which he had been speaking, and which XXI.24 they interpreted of a temporal dominion that should succeed his approaching sufferings. (Compare Mark ix. 34, and Luke ix. 46, Vol. VI. p. 486.) John he was come from God, and went to God. 4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself. [And] upon this, though Jesus knew that the JOHN XIII. 3. [And] Xil. 3. Father, by the sure engagements of an immuta- the Father had given Jesus knowing that ble covenant, had given the government of all all things into his things into his hands, and was just going actu- hands, and that ally to invest him with all power both in heaven and upon earth; and that, as he came forth from God as his Messenger to men, so he was returning to God again; yet, conscious as he was of so great a dignity, he was nevertheless willing to give his disciples an example of the deepest humility in this his last interview with them. 4 before hispassion: With this design, and in order to shame them out of that ambitious contention which he observed among them, in a more forcible manner than any words alone could do, he riseth from supper; and whereas it was only usual for the head of the family at such a time to wash his own hands, he lays aside his upper-garments, and taking a towel, tied it 5 round him like a kind of apron; And then pouring water into a large ewer, or sort of and began to wash the cistern commonly used on these occasions, he disciples' fect, and to began himself to wash the feet of [his] disciples, wipe them with the and to wipe [them,]after they were thus washed towel wherewith he with the long ends of the linen cloth with which he was girded, which hung down to his feet. Then when he had done with those who sat nearest to him, he comes to Simon Peter; and, offering to do the like for him, [Peter] was so 6 was to betray him after the Eucharist, He riseth from supper.] As it is here 5 After that he poureth water into a bason, was girded. 6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter; and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash affected my feet? (Harm. Evang. lib. i. cap. 14. § 1.) or Dr. Edwards, (Exercit. on Luke xxii. 21.) that after the paschal lamb they eat another distinct supper; and that this washing happened in the interval between them. Though Vossius is pleased to call this a very little lamb (unus Agniculus,) I cannot but think (especially considering how early the ewes yean in Judea) that it might be big enough plentifully to sup thirteen people; and as all which remained uneaten till morning was to be burnt, (Exod. xii. 10.) one cannot suppose that our Lord would be inclined to multiply dishes on this occasion, especially as the former part of the night was to be spent in watching and prayer. But Peter is unwilling he should wash his feet. Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou know est not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. 279 SECT. clxix. affected at his condescending to perform such a mean office, that he says to him, Lord dost thou go about to wash my feet? It is a thousand times John fitter that I should wash thine; nor can I bear XIII. 7. to see thee demean thyself thus. Jesus answered and said to him, Thou knowest not now the design of what I am doing, but thou shalt know hereafter; and as I shall presently explain the meaning of this action, so the time will quickly come when many other things in mine undertaking and conduct, much more mysterious than Peter saith unto this, shall be cleared up to thee. Yet stills him, Thou shalt never Peter refused, and said to him, with more warmth wash my feet. Jesus than before, Lord, whatever be the intent of answered him, If 1 wash thee not, thou the action, I cannot suffer it by any means, and hast no part with me. am determined thou shalt never wash my feet. But Jesus answered him, Alas, Peter, that was rashly spoken; for there is a sense in which, if I do not wash thee, thou hast no portion with me; intimating thereby, that if he were not cleansed from sin by his blood and Spirit, he could never partake of the happiness of his people; and that, in the mean time, it became him to submit in this instance to his direction. Upon which, 9 Simon Peter, struck with so awful an admoni tion, immediately says to him, with that eager affection so natural to his temper, Lerd, if this washing is to be a token of my interest in thee, I most gladly acquiesce in it, and am heartily desirous that thou shouldst wash, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head too; for I desire that all my intellectual and all my executive powers may be sanctified by thy grace, and be entirely devoted to thy service. Simon Peter saith my feet only, but also my hands and my head. unto him, Lord, not 10 Jesus saith to ed, necdeth not, save Then Jesus, willing to lay hold on a hint 10 him, He that is wash- which gave him an opportunity of pursuing so to wash his feet, but useful a thought, says further to him, He that is is clean every whit: washed already, or that has just been bathing", and ye are clean, but needs only to wash his feet, which may indeed easily be soiled by the shortest walk, and when that is done, he is entirely clean; as if he should have said, The truly good man needs not that deep repentance and universal change which is not all. He that has been bathing.] This rendering of the word 2284: is confirmed, by Elsner (Observ. Vol. I. p. 337, 338), and gives as it were a compendious paraphrase upon it. Clarius has well observed that, as the anodulptor, or room in which abso they dressed themselves after bathing, was e You 280 He explains his design, and cautions them against ambition. SECT. absolutely necessary to others though he should, clxix. by renewed acts of penitence and faith, be John 11 who should betray cleansing himself from smaller pollutions, which XIII.10. are in some degree inseparable from the infirmity of human nature: and, in this sense, I know that you, my apostles, are clean; but vet For as he was 11 For he knew I must add, You are not all so. acquainted with the secret dispositions of their him; therefore said hearts, so he knew who would betray him (com- he, Ye are not all pare John vi. 64, Vol. VI. p. 436); and there, clean. fore he said, You are not all clean, because he knew the heart of Judas was polluted with reigning sin, and was so far enslaved under the power of the devil as to have consented to the perpetration of the vilest wickedness. 12 XXII.25 12 So after he had set unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? LUKE XXII. 25. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them, are called When therefore he had thus washed their feet, washed their feet, and and had taken his upper-garments, and put them had taken his garon, he sat down at the table again, and said to ments, and was them, Do you know the meaning and design of down again, he said what I have now been doing to you in the form of Luke a servant? And, to explain the matter, he said to them, I must again remind you of what I formerly told you, but what you seem so ready to forget (see Mat. xx. 25, 26, and Mark x. 42, 43, p. 135), The kings of the Gentiles do indeed lord it over them; and they that exercise the most magisterial and arbitrary authority upon them have a set of flatterers about them who encourage them in it, as an instance of true greatness of mind, and give them the vain title of grand 26 benefactors to nations and men f. But you, my disciples, [shall] not [do] thus; for you are to shew yourselves the friends of the world, not by governing, but by serving: be not ambitious younger; and he that therefore in contending for superiority, but let is chief, as he that him who is eldest among you be as humble and obliging as if he were the youngest and most de e You are not all clean.[ Some have ob- whether he declined it from aconsciousness pendent benefactors. 26 But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, him be as the let doth serve. turally suggests such suspicions and pre cautions. f Have the title of benefactors.] It is indeed possible that our Lord may here refer to the title of plat, given to some of the Ptolemies and Seleucidæ, or to the ambiguity of the Hebrew word '', which (as Beza has observed) signifies both princes and benefactors: but the general much more probable, especially on comsense given in the paraphrase seems to me paring it with the Syriac version, there is no such ambiguity, though one would most of all have expected it. b Who where He gave them an example to do as he had done. greater, he that sitteth 281 cixix. pendent of all; and he that presides over the SECT. rest in any office of peculiar trust and influence, [let him be] as humble and condescending as a Luke 27 For whether is servant. Of this I have now been giving you XXII.27 an instance, which surely you cannot quickly forget: for which of the two is naturally accounted greater by a stranger who happens to come in, he that sits at the table, or he that stands and waits upon the guests? Is it not evident at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. JOHN XIII. 13. Ye call me Master, and Lord and ye say well; for so I am. : 14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one that it must be he that sits at the table? But I am among you as one that waits on the rest; and you have just how seen me putting on the form of a servant, and performing to you while you sat at the table one of the lowest offices of menial attendants, in the very garb and posture in which any of the least of them could appear. You call me indeed your Teacher and Lord; and John therein you say well; for [so] I am, and such XIII.13. authority have I received of my Father. If there- 14 fore I, who am [your] Lord and Master, and whom you know to be a divinely inspired Teacher, have condescended to so mean an office, and have thus washed your feet, and in all other instances have shewn my readiness in love to serve you, surely you also ought to wash one another's feet, and should be ready to submit to all the humblest offices of mutual friendship. For I 15 have in this instance given you an example, that as I have done to you, you also should do on all proper occasions to one another i. And to en16 Verily, verily, gage you to the like humanity, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The I servant is not greater say unto you, as I have formerly said (Luke vi. than 40, and Mat. x. 24, Vol. VI. p. 396), The ser another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Who is the eldest among you, &c.] As Mw is here opposed to vale, the youngest, I render it eldest, as it is rendered Rom. ix. 12. See Gen. xxv. 23; 1 Sam. xvii. 14, Septuag. and compare 1 Kings ii. 22. h Performing one of the lowest offices, &c.] This was so to a proverb. See 1 Sam. xxv. 41, and Grotius, in loc.-Dr. Evans well observes. Christian Temper, Vol. I. p 81) that our Lord chose this kind office, though not absolutely necessary in itself, more strongly to impress the minds of his disciples, and to shew that they ought to regard, not only the necessary preservation, but the mutual comfort of each other. I have given you an example, &c.] Some have understood these words as ordaining this to be a continued rile among Christians; and Barclay insists in his Apo vant logy (p. 467-470) that this ceremony of 16 282 clxix. John Reflections on Christ washing his disciples' feet. very than he that sent him. 17 If ye know ye if ye do them. SECT. vant is not greater than his Lord, nor is the mes- than his Lord, neither senger greater than he that sent him; it will he that is sent greater therefore ill become you to disdain any XII. 17. thing which I have not disdained. These are plain instructions, but remember they are capable of these things, happy are being improved to the noblest practical purposes; and if indeed you know these things, and form a right conception of them, you are happy if you practise them: for nothing will conduce more to your honour and comfort than an obedient regard to my instructions and example, especially in all the instances of humility and condescension; but if you neglect to act agreeably to them, your seeing them, and hearing them, will be worse than in vain. IMPROVEMENT. WHAT a mournful reflection is it that corrupt nature should still prevail so far, even in the hearts of such pious men as the apostles in the main were, that after so long a converse with Luke Christ they should still be so unlike him, and bring their eager xxii. 24. contentions about superiority, in a state of temporal grandeur they John xiii. 13, 141 3 were never to see, into the last hours they spent with their Master, and even to one of the most holy and solemn ordinances of religion! Such are the vain dreams of ambition, and with such empty shadows does it amuse the deluded mind. But let us turn our eyes to him whom we justly call our Teacher and our Lord; for surely, if any thing can effect a cure, it must be actions and words like these. The great Heir of all things, invested with universal dominion, and just returning to his heavenly Father to undertake the administration of it; in what a habit, in 4, 5 what an attitude, do we see him! Whom would a stranger have taken for the lowest of the company, but him who was high over all created nature? Blessed Jesus, it was not so much any personal attachment to these thy servants, as a regard to the edification of thy whole church, which engaged thee to this astonishing action: 15 that all thy ministers, that all thy people, in conformity to thy example, might learn a readiness to serve each other in love! But why are we so slow to receive this lesson? And why is our practice often so contrary to it? Surely to cleanse us from 8 these dregs of pride and carnality we need in a spiritual sense to be washed by him. Let us gladly submit to that washing, if we desire to secure any part in him. Which of us in this view may 9 not see reason to cry out with Peter, Lord, not our feet only, but also our hands and our head? May our whole nature be thus puri |