Homily 70 — John 13, verses 1 to 11

“Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” [a]

“Be imitators of me,” said Paul, “as I also am of Christ” (First Corinthians 11, verse 1). For this is why he also took flesh from our own nature: so that by means of it he might teach us virtue. For it says, “God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8, verse 3). And Christ himself says, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11, verse 29). And he taught this not by words alone, but by actions too.

For they called him a Samaritan, and a man who had a demon, and a deceiver, and they threw stones at him. At one time the Pharisees sent servants to arrest him; at another they sent men to plot against him. And they themselves kept on insulting him, and that when they had no fault to find with him, but were even receiving constant benefits from him. Yet after such treatment he did not stop doing them good, both by words and by deeds. And when a certain servant struck him on the face, he said, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness to the evil; but if well, why do you strike me?” (John 18, verse 23).

But this was toward those who hated him and plotted against him. Let us see also what he does now toward the disciples, or rather what he now shows toward the traitor. Here was the man there was most reason of all to hate. He had been a disciple; he had shared the table and the salt; he had seen the miracles and been counted worthy of such great things; and he acted more grievously than any of them. He did not stone him, it is true, or insult him, but he betrayed him and handed him over. Yet notice how kindly Christ receives this man: he washes his feet. For even in this way he wanted to hold him back from that wickedness. It was in his power, had he wished, to wither him like the fig tree, to split him in two as he split the rocks, to tear him apart like the veil. But he would not turn him from his plan by force; he wanted him to turn by his own choice. That is why he washed his feet; and not even by this was that wretched and miserable man put to shame.

“Before the feast of the Passover,” it says, “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come.” It does not mean that he knew it only then; it means that he did what he did having known it long before. “That he should depart.” The evangelist gives his death a lofty name: he calls it a “departure.” “Having loved his own, he loved them to the end.” Do you see how, when he is about to leave them, he shows them greater love? For “having loved, he loved them to the end” shows that he left out nothing that one who loved deeply might be expected to do. Why, then, did he not do this from the beginning? He does the greatest things last, so as to make their attachment to him stronger, and to store up for them beforehand much comfort against the terrible things that were about to fall on them.

John calls them “his own” in the sense of close attachment, since he calls others “his own” too, in the sense of having created them, as when he says, “His own did not receive him” (John 1, verse 11). But what does “who were in the world” mean? It is said because the dead were his own too — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and men like them — but they were not in the world. Do you see that he is the God of both the Old and the New Testament? And what does “he loved them to the end” mean? It stands for “he went on loving them without ceasing,” and the evangelist mentions it as a sure proof of great affection. Elsewhere, indeed, he spoke of another proof, laying down one’s life for one’s friends; but that had not yet come to pass. And why did he do this now? Because it was far more wonderful at a time when he appeared more glorious in the sight of everyone. Besides, he left them no small comfort now that he was about to go away. Since they were going to be deeply grieved, by these means he brings comfort into their grief as well.

Verse 2: “And when supper was over, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas to betray him.”

The evangelist says this in amazement, showing that Jesus washed the man who had already chosen to betray him. This also proves how great his wickedness was. Not even having shared the salt held him back, though that is a thing most able to hold wickedness back; nor did the fact that his Teacher went on bearing with him right up to the last day.

Verse 3: “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God.”

Here too the evangelist says in wonder that one so great, so very great, who came from God and was going to him, who rules over all, did this thing, and did not scorn to take on even such a task as this. And by the “handing over,” I think John means the salvation of the faithful. For when Christ says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father” (Matthew 11, verse 27), he is speaking of this kind of handing over; as also in another place he says, “They were yours, and you gave them to me” (John 17, verse 6); and again, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him” (John 6, verse 44); and, “unless it is given him from heaven” (John 3, verse 27). So the evangelist means either this, or that Christ would be in no way lessened by this action, since he had come from God and was going to God and possessed all things.

But when you hear of “handing over,” do not understand it in any human sense. It shows how he honors the Father, and his oneness of mind with him. For as the Father hands over to him, so he hands over to the Father. Paul declares this when he says, “When he hands over the kingdom to God the Father” (First Corinthians 15, verse 24). But John has said it here in a more human way, showing Christ’s great care for them and declaring his love beyond words: that he now cared for them as his own. He was teaching them humility, the mother of all good things, which he said was both the beginning and the end of virtue. And it is not without reason that the words “he had come from God and was going to God” are added. They are there so that we may learn that he did what was worthy of one who came from there and was going there, trampling down all pride.

Verse 4: “He rose from supper and laid aside his garments.”

Notice how he shows humility not only by the washing but in another way too. It was not before they reclined, but after they had all taken their places, that he got up. Next, he does not simply wash them, but does it after taking off his garments. Nor did he stop there, but tied a towel around himself. Nor was he content with this, but filled the basin himself, and did not tell anyone else to fill it. He did all these things himself, showing by all of them that when we are doing good we must do such things not merely for form’s sake, but with all our zeal. [f]

He seems to me to have washed the traitor’s feet first. I gather this from the way it says, in verse 5, “He began to wash the disciples’ feet,” and then adds, in verse 6, “Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, ‘Lord, are you washing my feet?’”

He means: “With those hands, with which you opened eyes, and cleansed lepers, and raised the dead?”

This question is very forceful. That is why he did not need to say anything more than “you”; that word alone would have been enough to convey the whole. Someone might reasonably ask why none of the others tried to stop him, but only Peter — which was a mark of no small love and reverence. What is the reason? It seems to me that he washed the traitor first, then came to Peter, and that the others were afterward taught by Peter’s case. That he washed someone else before him is clear from the words, “But when he came to Peter.” Yet the evangelist is not a harsh accuser; the word “began” is how someone speaks who only hints at this. And even if Peter was the first, it is still likely that the traitor, being a pushy man, had taken his place at table even ahead of the leader.

His pushiness shows in another circumstance too: he dipped his hand in the dish with his Teacher, and when he was exposed, his heart was not pierced. But Peter, rebuked only once, on an earlier occasion, and for words he had spoken out of loving affection, was so abashed that, distressed and trembling, he begged another disciple to ask a question for him. But Judas, though exposed again and again, felt nothing (verse 24). So when Christ came to Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you washing my feet?”

Verse 7: “Jesus said to him, ‘What I am doing you do not know now, but you will know afterward.’”

That is: “You will know how great the gain from this is, what the lesson is worth, and how able it is to guide us into all humility.” What does Peter do, then? He still holds him back, and says, in verse 8, “You will never wash my feet.”

What are you doing, Peter? Do you not remember those earlier words? Did you not say, “Have mercy on yourself,” and hear in return, “Get behind me, Satan” (Matthew 16, verse 22)? Has not even that sobered you? Are you still so headstrong? He replies: “Yes, for what is being done is a great thing, and full of astonishment.” Since, then, he did this out of overflowing love, Christ in turn masters him by that same love. And just as there he did it by rebuking him sharply and saying, “You are a stumbling block to me,” so here he does it by saying, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.” What, then, does that hot and fiery man say?

Verse 9: “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” Vehement in refusing, he becomes still more vehement in consenting; but both come from love. Why did Christ not say why he was doing this, instead of adding a threat? Because Peter would not have been persuaded. If he had said, “Allow it, for by this I am persuading you to be humble,” Peter would have promised it ten thousand times over, just so that his Teacher would not do this thing. But as it is, what does he say? He speaks of what Peter feared and dreaded most, being separated from him. For it is Peter who keeps asking, “Where are you going?” (verse 36); and it is for this reason too that he said, “I will lay down even my life for you” (verse 37).

And if, after hearing, “What I am doing you do not know now, but you will know afterward,” he still persisted, he would have done so much more if he had learned the meaning of the action. That is why Christ said, “but you will know afterward”: he was aware that if Peter learned it at once, he would still resist. And Peter did not say, “Tell me, so that I may allow you.” Instead — and this was much more vehement — he could not even bear to learn, but opposed him, saying, “You will never wash my feet.” But as soon as Christ threatened him, he at once softened his tone.

But what does “you will know afterward” mean? “Afterward”? When? “When you have cast out demons in my name; when you have seen me taken up into heaven; when you have learned from the Spirit that I sit at the Father’s right hand — then you will understand what is being done now.”

What does Christ say, then? When Peter said, “Not my feet only, but also my hands and my head,” he answers, in verses 10 and 11, “He who has been washed does not need to wash anything except his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew who would betray him.”

“And if they are clean, why does he wash their feet?” So that we may learn to think modestly of ourselves. That is why he did not go to any other part of the body, but to the part considered less honorable than the rest. But what does “he who has been washed” mean? It stands for “he who is clean.” Were they clean, then, when they had not yet been set free from their sins, nor been counted worthy of the Spirit, since sin still had the mastery, the written record of the curse still stood, and the sacrifice had not yet been offered? How, then, does he call them “clean”? So that you would not think them clean in the sense of being set free from their sins, he adds, look: “You are clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” That is: “In this way you are clean so far: you have received the light; you have been freed from the error of the Jews. For the prophet also says, ‘Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the wickedness from your souls’ (Isaiah 1, verse 16, in the Greek Old Testament); so such a person is washed and is clean.”

Since, then, these men had thrown off all wickedness from their souls and had kept company with him with a pure mind, he says, following the prophet’s word, “He who has been washed is already clean.” For there too it means not the washing with water that the Jews practiced, but the cleansing of the conscience.

Let us, then, be clean too; let us learn to do good. But what is “good”? “Give justice to the fatherless, plead for the widow; and come, let us reason together, says the Lord” (Isaiah 1, verses 17 and 18). There is frequent mention of widows and orphans in the Scriptures, but we take no account of it. Yet consider how great the reward is. “Though your sins are like scarlet,” it says, “I will make them white as snow; though they are red like crimson, I will make them white as wool.” [l]

A widow is an unprotected person, and that is why he takes great care of her. For these women, even when it is in their power to marry a second time, endure the hardships of widowhood out of the fear of God. So let us all, both men and women, reach out our hands to them, so that we may never go through the sorrows of widowhood; or, if we should have to go through them, so that we may store up a great fund of kindness for ourselves. The power of a widow’s tears is not small; it can open heaven itself. So let us not trample on widows or make their misfortune worse, but help them in every way. If we do this, we will surround ourselves with great safety, both in this present life and in the one to come. For not only here but there too they will be our defenders, cutting away most of our sins because of our kindness to them, and enabling us to stand with confidence before the judgment seat of Christ. May we all obtain this, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.