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Author: Stephen Weller
665 words, 4 minutes read time

Peter’s Resistance

Scripture: John 13:6-11

In the previous lesson we considered the experience of having one’s feet washed. In this lesson Jesus comes to wash the feet of Peter and encounters resistance.

^{Jn 13:6} He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand 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 share with me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

As Peter watched Jesus going from one disciple to the next, he would know that he would be included, but he still asks the question, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” The question should have been, “Lord, why do you wash my feet?” based on the response Jesus gives.

Jesus answers, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Not understanding on the part of the disciples and the people has been encountered several times in our study. Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4 ESV). The woman at the well said to Jesus, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4:15 ESV).

Both Nicodemus and the woman took Jesus literally and thus misunderstood what was being said. Frequently Jesus would use physical items to teach about the unseen spiritual world. “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him” (John 12:16 ESV). Many of the things Jesus said were not understood until after the cross and resurrection. In verse 7 Jesus told Peter, “afterward you will understand.”

Peter is not willing to have Jesus wash his feet and said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” to which Jesus responds with, “If I do not wash [your feet], you have no share with me (or do not belong to me).” Peter breaks at this point and his pride turns to humility and he said to Jesus, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” This foot washing is to symbolize the washing necessary for the forgiveness of sins, in anticipation of the death of Jesus for his people. It was through his death that our sins are washed away by his blood.

In response to Peter asking Jesus to also wash his hands and his head, Jesus said, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” This was said in anticipation to being made completely clean of our sin at salvation, but as we walk through life we will commit further sin which needs to be forgiven. The foot washing that Jesus was doing symbolizes that forgiveness that will be needed.

Conclusion

As a lead into a future lesson, Jesus indicates that one of the disciples is not clean, the one who will betray him. Judas had made a deal with the Pharisees, for thirty pieces of silver, to find a time when they could arrest Jesus when he would be away from the people. That opportunity is just hours away.