Scripture reading: John 13:1-20.

Sermon text: John 13:21-38.

“He who hesitates is lost.” I remember watching the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean” for the first time. I loved the line near the end of the movie where Captain Jack Sparrow said to Will, following his failure to kiss his true love: “If you were waiting for the opportune moment, that was it.”

As much as hesitation may sometimes cost us, in the account of St. John we’ve read today, I think we can safely say someone should have hesitated and considered the cost of his actions.

As we read last week, St. John had now begun to tell about Jesus’ final days before His crucifixion. Jesus knew the Jewish leaders had plotted His arrest; He knew where this arrest would lead. Jesus also knew that regardless of His human desire to avoid the suffering ahead, His desire to follow His Father’s plan for our salvation would require Him to achieve our redemption through His suffering.

Many people believe Jesus’ suffering began in the Garden of Gethsemane, but St. John clearly describes the beginning of Jesus’ suffering even before the final meal of His life before His crucifixion. The passage today describes Jesus’ grief over the loss of one of His disciples, a man He had treated as a friend and brother, a man He had trusted. The knowledge of Judas’ impending betrayal started a series of moments in which Jesus’ suffering would escalate until it culminated with the excruciating agony of His crucifixion.

St. John describes Jesus’ final moments as a divine plan. Jesus “knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father.” Jesus knew that His entire life had led to this moment, to the moment He would suffer death but rise again victoriously. Even with His death now an imminent reality, Jesus, “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Jesus had loved the disciples since He first called each of them; this love would only increase during the night.

However, “the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him.” We’ll never know Judas’ intentions at this moment. Perhaps the embarrassment he suffered in Jesus’ rebuke as Mary anointed Him pushed Judas away from Jesus; perhaps, as some have speculated, Judas saw Jesus as losing the inevitable confrontation with the Jewish authorities and Romans and decided to cut a deal to save himself. Regardless, Judas had already considered the possibility of betraying Jesus — and Jesus knew it.

Even with Judas’ betrayal occupying His mind, Jesus had a lesson of true love to teach to the disciples. “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”

The meal with the disciples apparently was so secret — remember that Jesus and the disciples held this feast literally within sight of the high priest’s house — that the owner of the house had dismissed all the servants that night. The streets of Jerusalem, like all roads of the first century, were a mess. Since Passover usually fell toward the end of the rainy season, the streets would be either covered in dust or mud. Most wealthy residents employed servants to wash the feet of the guests, but not on this night. On this night, no servants remained in the home. Yet, the job of washing the grime from the bare feet of Jesus and His disciples remained. (Before you wonder whether they wore sandals, the answer is yes, and yes, sandaled feet in Jerusalem still accumulated a lot of dirt.)

We can tell a lot about the disciples from Jesus’ action. Why did no disciple bother to wash the feet of his Master? Why, after so many lessons of humility on the road to Jerusalem, did the disciples still consider serving another beneath them?

Jesus’ action probably silenced any conversation in process. You’ve probably experienced this yourself: You see someone do something that first silences the conversation; then, the embarrassment of realizing you should have thought to do the action overtakes you. You really wish you had thought to do whatever needed doing. Simon Peter’s reaction probably exemplified what every disciple there felt that night: “You shall never wash my feet.” No statement from any disciple would deter Jesus, though: “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter demonstrated his desire to remain with Jesus: “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”

Notice that Jesus washed 12 pairs of feet that night. Even as He knew his thoughts, Jesus washed the feet of Judas, His betrayer. Hope still remained that Judas would repent and turn from his evil thoughts.

Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, then He taught the lesson: “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” What did Jesus want His disciples to learn?

The lesson wasn’t to wash each other’s feet when we arrive at church. And, contrary to some people I remember from the churches of my youth, the lesson wasn’t the necessity of a foot washing to celebrate Holy Communion. The lesson revolved around Jesus’ willingness to humble Himself to serve the disciples. It bothers me to see people in the Church put themselves on pedestals, refusing to serve others because they feel it would demean them in some way. If Jesus, Our Lord, can humble Himself and demonstrate love through serving others, so can we.

Following the lesson of love and humility, Jesus returned to the impending dilemma of the betrayal to come. He had kept it to Himself as long as He could; Jesus now said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” If anything could shock a group, this statement would do it!

“The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke.” Simon Peter had to know, and he thought he knew how to learn. John apparently had a place beside Jesus, so Simon talked John into asking Jesus to identify the man. Interestingly, we don’t know that John later told Simon the true nature of Jesus’ action. When Jesus gave the dipped bread to Judas, only He and John knew the truth of the action. In most instances, this action signified that the host had honored the recipient of the morsel of bread. This time, Jesus didn’t honor Judas; He instead showed him that He knew what was coming.

“Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, ‘What you are going to do, do quickly.’” Judas finally reached the point of no return as he left the table. Judas would now miss the most important words Jesus would give His disciples, words of love, truth, and life. Only Jesus and Judas knew where Judas would go and to whom he would speak when he arrived. Again, Judas didn’t go far; Caiaphas’ home sat within a few minutes’ walk from the site of the Last Supper.

After Judas left, Jesus gave the disciples some of the greatest teachings of His ministry. First, He prepared them for the upcoming events: “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” Remember last week’s sermon? Jesus had prayed that God the Father would glorify His name, even though that glorification would require His own suffering. Jesus had now realized His suffering was imminent; within 24 hours, He would lie dead in a borrowed tomb. The Father’s glorification would also bring the Son’s glorification as well, though: “Now is the Son of Man glorified.”

This glorification would come at a horrible cost: “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’” Jesus would go through death, resurrection, and then ascend into heaven. At that point, the disciples would not be able to go where Jesus had gone, not until their own deaths. However, the disciples would glorify Jesus through their own ministries as they carried the gospel throughout the world, both through the Roman Empire and beyond.

Jesus knew the disciples would face trials, persecution, and mistreatment as they spread the good news of His death and resurrection; they would need the support that could come only from one another and from other believers. Jesus told them, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Do you see what Jesus just said? Do you understand the impact of this statement? Jesus had just watched His betrayer walk out the door to sell Him for a slave’s price, and yet, He’s telling the disciples to love one another — even though one of them just essentially signed His death warrant. This last commandment of Jesus, to love one another, gives us a great statement of those things we should “do quickly.”

Some people act as if loving one another serves more as an optional statement of Jesus rather than as a definitive commandment. Jesus taught that “all people” would know His “disciples” by watching them in action with one another. The love His disciples demonstrate toward one another will identify us as His followers more than any identity we give ourselves. Congregations spend thousands of dollars trying to select a catchy name, planning their services to the second, and assuring an “experience” for attendees. Jesus didn’t recommend any of these attempts at identity; instead, He said we must — we must — love one another.

This love will first draw us to Jesus Himself for our salvation. We cannot love others as Jesus commands until we first love Him and confess Him as Lord of our lives. When we come to Jesus and accept His love for us, He sends the Holy Spirit into our lives to help us love one another with a godly love beyond anything we can accomplish on our own.

When the Holy Spirit works within us, we can love everyone we meet and know. Think of everything you see people do quickly when harassed, or when experiencing persecution, or even thinking they’re undergoing persecution. Most people tend to leap to defend themselves, some will even attack their persecutors. Agape love, godly love, applies to the attackers as well as to those who support us. Jesus loved Judas as much as He loved the disciples who stayed with Him. Jesus loved His betrayer as much as He loved the disciple John, the man He would later entrust with His own mother (John 19:26-27).

Loving someone doesn’t mean we ignore their opposition, nor does it mean we fail to stand for true doctrine and teaching in the Church. Still, we must love all those God brings into His Church, and we must understand the importance of loving everyone we meet. It’s easy to love everyone who loves us, but we must love everyone God puts into our lives.

If we’re to do anything quickly to demonstrate our love for others, we must quickly forgive those who hurt us. We must also quickly pray for those hurting in some way even as we help them. Godly love for others will also require us to quickly make right anything we do to offend or hurt others through our own selfishness.

Given a choice between loving Jesus and leaving Him, Judas quickly chose to leave Jesus and sell Him into the hands of those who would kill Him. Simon Peter loved Jesus, but in the intense pressure of the next 24 hours, Peter would deny he ever knew Jesus. Jesus would demonstrate the love He wants us to show toward one another through His death on the cross. Love one another so everyone we meet will quickly identify us as disciples of Jesus, Our Lord.