Good-byes are difficult.  As a child, I hated saying good-bye and leaving an event, leaving people behind.  I remember when Walter would come to visit me and then on Sunday evening he would leave for Bible school.  Sadness and loneliness would leave an empty place in my soul. 

Jesus was spending one last Passover meal with His twelve disciples, His closest friends and brothers.  Special arrangements were made and they gathered to celebrate.  Although Jesus had explained to them He would be leaving, these men who had spent three years with Him, didn't understand. 

John, one of the disciples who wrote the Gospel of John, recorded some unique and intimate moments that he and the other eleven men experienced together.  Chapter 13 is the only place in the Bible where we can glimpse a special event just prior to the Passover meal.  

"Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world. and return to His Father.  He had loved them during His ministry on earth, and now He loved them to the very end." (verse 1)

As Jesus is preparing to say good-bye to His disciples and leave them with His final words, it is really without words that He imparts the most meaningful impact.  In seven actions, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, speaks to His followers then and to us as His followers now:

1.  "So He got up..." (verse 4a)  Jesus intentionally got up from the table where they were reclining and eating the Passover.  He was the leader, a rabbi, and should expect to be served and waited upon throughout the meal.  By standing up, Jesus was disrupting the order of things and captured the attention of the twelve.

In Genesis 4:8, we read how Cain and Abel were in the fields together.  With intention, premeditation, Cain got up, rose up and acted violently towards his brother.   "Cain spoke to Abel his brother.^[a] And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him."  While Cain got up with evil in his heart, by contrast, Jesus stood up with pure love.  

2.  "...took off His robe..." (verse 4b)  To our way of thinking, we might wonder if Jesus was too warm in the crowded room.  Or maybe, He wanted  more freedom of movement during the meal.  What is the significance of His removing the robe, His outer garment, while indoors?

If we read Philippians 2:6-8  ^"... who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,^{[b] 7} but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant,^[c] being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled Himself..."  When Jesus submitted Himself to the plan for salvation, this involved Him laying aside and stripping off His divinity to become a man.  He willingly chose to remove and refuse to function with His full divine nature, knowledge and power in order to become a human being.  Taking off the robe was a symbol of His humility and submission to the Father.

Not only did He remove the robe but His garment was gambled for by the Roman soldiers while He hung on the cross.  Truly Jesus allowed Himself to be completely stripped of all self, our greatest human battle, and fully surrender to powerlessness as a lamb. 

3.  "...wrapped a towel around His waist..."  (verse 4c)  To further humble Himself, Jesus took a towel, a symbol of a servant, and wrapped it around His waist.  This action clearly identified Him as the lowest and least among them.  The role of a household servant was to do the most menial and disgusting tasks for the master and his family.  Cooking, cleaning, bathing and bathroom duties were among these tasks.  For Jesus to lower Himself to wash the dirty, smelly, unpleasant feet of the disciples was  not only unacceptable but shocking for these Jewish men to comprehend!

Again in Philippians 2, Paul writes that Jesus..."emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant..." and then proceeded to serve His friends with this simple and humble act.

4.  "...and poured water into a basin."  (verse 5a) Jesus did not symbolically tie the towel around Himself; He actually poured out the water for washing into the appropriate basin.  Jesus did not love with words and speech only, but with actions and truth. (1 John 3:18) His pouring the water showed the extent to which He poured out His very life for the disciples, and for all of us.  

In John 4:14 and later in John 7:37-39, Jesus used the imagery of water as life-giving, eternal, refreshing.  Every human being can relate to thirst and that basic need for water.  We all understand the need for cleansing outwardly but most importantly, inwardly and spiritually.  By this action, Jesus showed that He was willing to pour out His all and get involved in our filth and mess to save us.

5.  "Then He began to wash the disciples' feet..."  (verse 5b) With His own hands, Jesus washed the dry, cracked, dusty and dirty feet of these men, who walked everywhere in the deserts of Israel.  His holy hands touched the flesh of sinful men.  How many others did Jesus touch to bring healing, love, acceptance and freedom?  He touched lepers, adulterers, tax collectors, lame and  blind  to deliver them from their affirmities and afflictions.  

Ephesians 5:26 tells us of the significance of the cleansing work of Christ.  " that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word..."  As Jesus demonstrated with this physical act of washing, He would provide the spiritual cleansing we all need from sin and its effects.  In 1 Corinthians 6:11, we also see this cleansing at work to free us from guilt, shame and condemnation to declare us holy and righteous.  " And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."  

6.  "...drying them with the towel He had around Him..." (verse 5c)  In another version of the Scriptures, the term "wiping" is used, indicating the action of removing the dirt and the water and leaving the objects dry and clean.  Jesus fully removes our sins and the reminder is that " as far as the east is from the west,  so far does He remove our transgressions from us."  (Psalm 103:12)  

Another image is that Jesus will one day " He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”  (Revelation 21:4)  The gentle hand of our Saviour will comfort us and wipe our tears, removing sorrow and grieving as we celebrate our salvation with Him in eternity.

7.  "After washing their feet, He put on His robe again and sat down..."  (verse 12a)  As Jesus completed the life lesson of humility and servanthood to His disciples, He put on His robe once again and sat down.  Such a beautiful picture that He is Lord.  That He will once again be exalted and glorified as the King.  The His work would soon be finished. The cross was still ahead of Him but He demonstrated that He would sit at the right hand of His Father and have completed His assignment on earth.  

Revelation 3:21 "The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne."  

What an incredible picture of the gentle and loving Messiah, our Jesus, who would humble Himself and wash our feet?  

Jesus' lesson was that we do the same.  

What will that look like for me to wash others' feet?  Who am I to serve today, this week?