One of the most amazing passages of scripture is found in John 13, when Jesus washes the feet of His disciples. The scene is set; John 13-17 is the Upper Room discourse where Jesus is less than 24 hours away from being put to death. The passage begins with a declaration: that Jesus, knowing His time was coming to an end, and that He was leaving this world having loved His own to the fullest, that He acts on that love. It is the greatest act of love that has ever been displayed in human history.

The passage says that Jesus got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After He poured water into the basin, He began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him. Following a brief dialogue, He returns to the table and asks them a single question, a super important question that we all need to wrestle with today and in our lives. This question has major implications for all of us: “Do you know what I have done for you?”

After Jesus does this amazing task of washing the disciples’ feet, He asks them, “Do you know what I have done for you?” This question is loaded with tension; it begs for a response. This question points to something much deeper taking place in that moment, something that Jesus is illustrating beyond the humble act of washing the disciples’ feet. In that moment, Jesus is more than just a humble servant doing a humble loving task. He is demonstrating His identity as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53; the one who would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.

Through this single act, Jesus transformed the Upper Room into the Holiest of Holies, the most sacred place that no ordinary person could enter, the place where sins were atoned for before a holy and righteous God. Jesus is demonstrating the cross; He pulls the disciples into the unfolding beautiful narrative of our redemption and the cleansing that would come through His death once and for all with Jesus Himself being the temple and the sacrifice that would be hung on the cross.

The foot washing is a precursor to what would be accomplished on the cross. It’s a sign of the mystery of God being revealed in the redemption of all things through Christ. He is demonstrating the cross, foreshadowing the place where human brokenness, sin, suffering, and death find defeat; where fear is extinguished and hope is ignited. The outward act of foot washing points to the inward cleansing of His blood through the cross. Jesus is demonstrating what He’s done for us on the cross by this one act of washing His disciples’ feet.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8

He took upon Himself flesh, becoming fully human in order to be the full representative for humanity. With His flesh He bore our sins and with His blood He cleansed us from them. After declaring it to be finished, He ascends back to heaven where He is now seated at the right hand of God.

Today Jesus is asking this same question