John 13 - Wiersbe Study Bible

13:1 This was the hour that Jesus recognized was the time when He would be glorified through His death, resurrection, and ascension. From the human point of view, it meant suffering, but from the divine point of view, it meant glory. Jesus would soon leave this world and return to the Father who sent Him, having finished His work on earth (17:4). When the servant of God is in the will of God, He is immortal until His work is done. They could not even arrest Jesus, let alone kill Him, until the right hour had arrived.

13:1–5 Jesus had entered Jerusalem on Sunday, and on Monday He had cleansed the temple. Tuesday was a day of conflict as the religious leaders sought to trip Him up and get evidence to arrest Him. These events are recorded in Matthew 21–25. Wednesday was probably a day of rest, but on Thursday He met in the Upper Room with His disciples in order to observe Passover.

13:3–5 The Father had put all things into the Son’s hands, yet Jesus picked up a towel and a basin! His humility was not born of poverty, but of riches. He was rich, yet He became poor (2 Cor. 8:9). A Malay proverb says, “The fuller the ear is of rice-grain, the lower it bends.” Jesus celebrated the glory ahead by stooping to serve.

13:8 The Lord cleanses us through the blood of Christ, that is, His work on the cross (1 John 1:5–10), and through the application of His Word to our lives (John 15:3; Ps. 119:9; Eph. 5:25,26). The water of the Word can keep our hearts and minds clean so that we will avoid the pollutions of this world. But if we do sin, we have a loving Advocate in glory who will hear our prayers of confession and forgive us (1 John 2:1,2).

13:10,11 When the sinner trusts the Savior, he is “bathed” and his sins are washed away and forgiven (see 1 Cor. 6:9–11; Titus 3:3–7; and Rev. 1:5). “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 10:17). However, as the believer walks in this world, it is easy to become defiled. He does not need to be bathed all over again; he simply needs to have that defilement cleansed away. God promises to cleanse us when we confess our sins to Him (1 John 1:9).

13:11 John was careful to point out that Peter and Judas were in a different relationship with Jesus. Yes, Jesus washed Judas’s feet! But it did Judas no good because he had not been bathed all over. Some people teach that Judas was a saved man who sinned away his salvation, but that is not what Jesus said. Our Lord made it very clear that Judas had never been cleansed from his sins and was an unbeliever (6:64–71).

13:12–17 The servant (slave) is not greater than his master; so, if the master becomes a slave, where does that put the slave? On the same level as the master! By becoming a servant, our Lord did not push us down. He lifted us up! He dignified sacrifice and service. You must keep in mind that the Romans had no use for humility, and the Greeks despised manual labor. Jesus combined these two when He washed the disciples’ feet.

13:15 We today, just like the disciples that night, desperately need this lesson on humility. The church is filled with a worldly spirit of competition and criticism as believers vie with one another to see who is the greatest. We are growing in knowledge, but not in grace (see 2 Pet. 3:18). Jesus served His disciples because of His humility and because of His love. Examine John 13:1 with 1:10,11 and 3:16: Jesus “was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” “For God so loved the world. . . .” In the Upper Room, Jesus ministered in love to His own disciples, and they received Him and what He had to say. The Greek text says in 13:1, “He loved them to the uttermost (to the very end).”

13:18–20 Jesus was concerned that Judas’s treachery would weaken His disciples’ faith. This is why He related it to the Word of God: When the disciples saw all of this fulfilled, it would make their faith stronger (see 8:28). Judas had been disloyal, but Jesus expected them to be loyal to Him and His cause. After all, He was God the Son sent by God the Father. They were Christ’s chosen representatives; to receive them would be the same as receiving the Father and the Son. What a privilege, to be ambassadors of the King!

13:26 When Jesus gave the bread to Judas, it was interpreted as an act of love and honor. In fact, Judas was seated at the place of honor, so our Lord’s actions were seen in that light. He was bestowing a special honor on Judas. No wonder, after Judas left the room, the disciples got into an argument over who was the greatest (Luke 22:22–24).

13:31 The instant Judas was gone, the atmosphere was cleared, and Jesus began to instruct His disciples and prepare them for His crucifixion and His ultimate return to heaven. It was after Judas’s departure that He instituted the Lord’s Supper, something that Judas as an unbeliever certainly could not share. Judas was out in the night, controlled by the prince of darkness, Satan, but Jesus was in the light, sharing love and truth with His beloved disciples.

13:35 This section begins and ends with love: Jesus’ love for His own (13:1) and the disciples’ love for one another. It is love that is the true evidence that we belong to Jesus Christ.