Jesus Washes us Clean
7th March 2025
This week, I recommend to you F. B. Meyer's commentary on the Gospel of John. In Chapter XXXVIII of that book, he writes about the time Jesus washed His disciples, as described in John 13v1-17. He compares this act of cleansing to the laver, or washbasin, that stood outside the ancient temple at Jerusalem. The ancient Israelite priests always washed before entering the Holy Place. So must we. We cannot stand in the presence of God unless Jesus Christ has washed us clean. Thus Jesus washing His disciples' feet was both an act of humble service and a prophetic act.
Hebrews 10v22
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water..
Revelation 7v14
... they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Towards the end of this chapter of Meyer's commentary, he writes:
This is the key to every act of daily cleaning. - We have been washed - once, definitely and irrevocably, we have been bathed in the crimson tide that flows from Calvary; but we need a daily cleansing. Our feet become soiled with the dust of life's highways; our hands grimy, as our linen beneath the rain of filth in a great city; our lips - as the white doorstep of the house - are fouled by the incessant throng of idle, unseemly and fretful words; our hearts cannot keep unsoiled the stainless robes with which we pass from the closet at morning prime. Constantly we need to repair to the Laver to be washed. But do we always realise how much each act of confession on our part involves from Christ on his? Whatever important work He may at that moment have on hand; whatever directions He may be giving to the loftiest angels for the fulfilment of his purposes; however pressing the concerns of the Church or the universe upon his broad shoulders - He must needs turn from all these to do a work He will not delegate. Again He stoops from the Throne, and girds Himself with a towel; and, in all lowliness, endeavours to remove from thee and me the stain which his love dare not pass over. He never loses the print of the nails; He never forgets Calvary and the blood; He never spends one hour without stooping to do the most menial work of cleansing filthy souls. And it is because of this humility He sits on the Throne and wields the sceptre over hearts and worlds.
He then writes:
This is the key to our ministry to each other. - I have often thought that we do not often enough wash one anothers' feet. We are conscious of the imperfections which mar the characters of those around us. We are content to note, criticise, and learn them. We dare not attempt to remove them. This failure arises partly because we do not love with a love like Christ's - a love which will brave resentment, annoyance, rebuke, in its quest, - and partly because we are not willing to stoop low enough.
None can remove the mote of another, so long as the beam is left in the eye, and the sin unjudged in the life. None can cleanse the stain, who is not willing to take the form of a servant, and go down with bare knees upon the floor. None is able to restore those who are overtaken in a fault, who does not count himself the chief of sinners and the least of saints.
We need more of this lowly, loving spirit: not so sensitive to wrong and evil as they affect us, as anxious for the stain they leave on the offender. It is of comparatively small consequence hos much we suffer; it is of much importance that none of Christ's disciples should be allowed to go on for a moment longer, with unconfessed and unjudged wrongs clouding his peace, and hindering the testimony which he might give. Let us therefore watch for each other's souls: let us consider one another to provoke to love and good works; let us in all sincerity do as Christ has done, washing each other's feet in all humility and tender love. But this spirit is impossible save through fellowship with the Lamb of God, and the reception of his holy, humble nature into the inmost heart, by the Holy Ghost.
Wonderful words.