WHAT?! NOT ME!

Jesus begins to wash the feet of the disciples, and he arrives at Peter in John 13:6. Some think that he starts with Peter, but I think he ends with Peter. This would mean that even Judas had accepted the Lord's washing of his feet - but not Peter.  Peter's angst rises inside him with each passing disciple until it explodes when Jesus arrives at him. Curling his feet up under him, he says, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" The words sound bland because we do not have any facial expression or verbal intonation to tell us much about Peter's response. However, we do have some clues in the Greek text to help us. The pronouns συ (you) and μου (my) are both emphatic in the sentence. Greek uses word order to emphasize certain words, but μου (my) is particularly stressed because of it's position before the verb. It is clear that Peter's primary concern is himself here.  "My feet" shows his pride.  Perhaps his voice even dripped with disdain for all the other feet Jesus had washed before him. Peter thinks the other disciples have failed in accepting the foot washing by Jesus.

The verb νιπτεις (wash) is a conative present which indicates an attempted action. So the best translation would be "Lord, are you trying to wash MY feet?" (Moulton, Howard, Turner, Grammar, Vol. 3, p. 63).  Peter's tone of voice would have been incredulous and offended.  Peter is incredulous on two counts - that he should need his feet washed and that the Lord should be the one to do it. This is pride masquerading as humility. We, too, can sound so humble in exalting Jesus with our words when we actually are too proud to accept his washing work in our lives. A few verses later, Jesus will highlight this truth by saying, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet" (13:10). He uses the same Greek word for wash but in a different form (νιψασθαι).  Here it is in the middle voice and indicates permission in this verse.  We could translate it, "He who has bathed needs only to let (allow) his feet to be washed."  We exalt Jesus the most when we allow Him to wash our dirty feet.  Jesus is most exalted when we welcome His cleansing.

LOVED IN FULL

John begins his description of the final Passover Supper with the words "having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end" (John 13:1). The word order of the Greek text is actually "to the end He loved them" placing the emphasis on the adverbial phrase "to the end."  What does John mean by that editorial comment? Is he simply saying that Jesus loved them until the end of His life? This seems rather obvious from the passage and hardly worth emphasizing, as John takes pains to do by placing the phrase ahead of the verb.  There is another way to look at the phrase and it powerfully moves our minds into the mystery of His love. The preposition, εις (to), indicates purpose (Moulton, Howard, Turner, Grammar, Vol. 3, p. 266). Jesus loved them with the purpose of loving them to the end - the end of His love! The noun, τελος (end), can also mean complete or full so the phrase can be summarized as completely or fully. He loved them in full. He loved them with the intention of loving them to the fullness of His love so "he gave them the perfect love token" (Blass/Debrunner, Grammar, p. 112). John's editorial comment introduces the foot washing that immediately follows this passage. The foot washing was Jesus' love token, showing that He purposely loved them in full - to the fullness of His love. What does it mean when an infinite God, with an infinite capacity to love, intentionally loves us to the fullness of His love?  No matter how great the marriage, a husband and wife do not love in full. There is always some element of selfishness in our love. Human love always falls some centimeters short of full love - but not Jesus. He loves us to the fullness of His infinite love. There is not a smidgen of love left unloved - for them - for me - for you!  Mind boggling!