Commentaries:
People's Commentary (NT)
John 13:4
He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments. Shortly after
they had sat down to the table, he arose, laid aside his outer robe,
girded a towel upon him, and began the lowly office of washing the feet
of twelve men, without a word of explanation. Something more than
ordinary must have caused so remarkable an act. The fact that the cause
has been lost sight of, has caused many to misunderstand the
significance, and to think the Savior was instituting a church
ceremonial, rather than giving a deep, practical, spiritual lesson for
all ages. I will endeavor to explain the circumstances: (1) The
disciples still expected the immediate manifestation of the kingdom.
When they sat down to this Supper they felt it was a kind of state
occasion, and a strife arose among them for precedence. Each wanted the
"chief seat at the feast" (compare Mark 12:39). An account of this
unseemly controversy over the old question, "Who should be greatest"?
is found in Luke 22:24-30. (2) Their sandals had been laid off
according to custom. They sat down to the table with dry and dusty
feet, but no one brought water to wash their feet, an eastern duty of
hospitality made necessary by their hot, dusty climate. No apostle
volunteered to attend to the office, the duty of a servant. (3) Then,
while they were filled with their ambitious, envious feelings, and had
engaged in strife right at the Lord's table, after waiting long enough
to have it shown that no one would condescend to the menial, but
needful duty, the Lord, full of conscious divinity, arose, girded on
the towel, and began the office. A rebuke to their ambitious strife,
far more powerful than words could have spoken: such a rebuke that
never again do we see a hint of the old question, "Who should be
greatest"? It was Christ's answer to their unseemly conduct, and a
lesson to those Christians "who love the pre-eminence" (3 John 1:9)
for all time. It said, "Let him that would be greatest become the
servant of all" (Mark 10:44).
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Matthew 18:2
Luke 22:24
John 13:4
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