John 13:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

You will say, then, that we must wash one another's feet, and therefore even the feet of slaves? What is remarkable if even those of slaves?

Here slave and free differ only in name. There, the difference is in the very reality.

Christ is Lord by nature, and we are slaves. Yet He did not refuse to do even this.

But now we must be content if we do not treat even free men as slaves and purchased bondservants.

What shall we say then, we who have examples of such long-suffering, yet do not imitate them at all?

Instead, we act in the opposite way, exalting ourselves without measure and failing to render what is due.

For God, having first done this Himself by washing feet, made us debtors to one another.

Yet we are obliged to render to one another less than what He did. He is Lord, while we, if we do this, do it for fellow servants like ourselves.

He indicated this very thing by the words, "If I then, the Lord and Teacher," and again, "so also you."

He should have said, "How much more you, who are servants." But He left this to the conscience of the hearers.

Why, then, did He do this now? Because the disciples were soon to be counted worthy of honor, some greater and others lesser.

Therefore, so that they would not exalt themselves over one another and say as before, "Who is greater?" and so that they would not be indignant against one another, He removes arrogance from them all.

He says, in effect, "Even if you are very great, you must not exalt yourself at all over your brother."

He did not say the greater thing: "If I washed the feet of the betrayer, what great thing is it if you wash one another's feet?"

Rather, having shown this by the deed itself, He left the spectators to judge it.

Therefore He said, "Whoever does and teaches them shall be called great" (Mt 5:19), because to teach truly means to fulfill by the deed itself.

What arrogance will such teaching not destroy? What pride and haughtiness will it not overthrow?

He who sits upon the cherubim washed the betrayer's feet. And you, man, earth and ashes, dust and dirt, exalt yourself and think highly of yourself?

What Gehenna, then, will you deserve?

If you truly wish to have lofty thoughts, come, and I will show you the way, because you do not even know what it means.

Whoever clings to present things as though they were something great has a low soul.

Therefore humility of mind can exist only with greatness of soul, and arrogance only from lowness of soul.

Little children are attached to trifles, to balls, hoops, and bones, and cannot even conceive of great things.

So it is here. Whoever pursues wisdom will count present goods as nothing. Therefore he will neither wish to have them himself nor take them from another.

But whoever does not pursue wisdom will think otherwise. He will be attached to a spider's web, to a shadow, to dreams, and to what is still more worthless than these.

This is what He promised to reveal to you later, when the Teacher and Lord frightened you by washing your feet, so that you would allow Him to do it.

We have learned humility, brothers, from the Most High. Therefore let us, the humble, do to one another what the Most High humbly did.

This is a great commendation of humility.

Brothers do this to one another openly when they show hospitality to one another, for among many there is a custom of humility that reaches even to such an act.

Therefore the Apostle, when praising a worthy widow, said that she "received strangers" and "washed the feet of the saints" (1 Tim 5:10).

Wherever the saints do not have this custom, they do in the heart what they do not do with the hands.

This is so if they are among those to whom it is said in the song of the three blessed men: "Bless the Lord, you righteous and humble in heart" (Dan 3:87).

But it is much better, and beyond doubt more certain, that this also be done with the hands.

A Christian should not consider it unworthy of himself to do what Christ did.

For when the body bends toward a brother's feet, the feeling of humility is awakened in the heart and strengthened if it was already present there.

But besides this moral meaning, we remember that we explained the depth of this act of the Lord in another way.

When the Lord washed the feet of the disciples, who had already been washed and cleansed, He indicated something because of the human affections that do not leave us in peace on earth.

However far we have advanced in the understanding of righteousness, we must know that we are not without sin.

He washes this sin from time to time by interceding for us, when we ask the Father in heaven to forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (cf. Mt 6:12).

But how can this understanding be related to what He Himself explained later?

He disclosed the meaning of His act, saying, "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 as I have done to you" (Jn 13:14).

Can we say that a brother also can cleanse a brother from the defilement of sin?

No. We know that the depth of this act of the Lord calls us to confess our sins to one another and to pray for one another, as Christ also intercedes for us (cf. Rom 8:34).

Let us hear the Apostle James, who prescribes this with all clarity, saying, "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another" (Jas 5:16).

For this the Lord gave us an example.

If He who has no sin, who had none and will have none, prays for our sins, how much more ought we to pray for one another!

If He forgives us, though we have nothing to forgive Him, how much more ought we to forgive one another, since we cannot live here without sin!

What did the Lord seem to indicate in that deep mystery when He said, "For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you" (Jn 13:14)?

Did He not indicate what the Apostle said with all clarity: "Forgive one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; as the Lord forgave you, so you also" (Col 3:13)?

Therefore let us forgive one another's trespasses and pray for one another because of our trespasses. In this way, after a certain manner, let us wash one another's feet.

It belongs to us, by His gift, to carry out the ministry of love and humility.

It belongs to Him not to neglect us, but to cleanse us from every defilement of sin through Christ and in Christ.

Thus what we forgive others, that is, what we loose on earth, may be loosed in heaven.

He used this outward action as a symbol of His love, which spiritually cleansed and sanctified them. So they also must act with the same self-denying love toward one another and toward all believers, seeking moral cleansing and sanctification. In the person of the apostles this commandment is given to all believers, for such love is the moral foundation of all Christianity. This is why the Lord told Peter that, if he would not submit to this foundation of the new law, he would have no part with Him. Yet the whole history does not allow us to take this saying in the direct literal sense of Christians washing one another's feet. We do not see this custom as universal, even among the apostles themselves. In apostolic history it appears only as one form of the virtue of hospitality (1 Tim 5:10).

The Apostle Paul, having in view the Lord's lofty example, teaches us: "Do nothing from strife or vainglory, but in humility count one another better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own things, but each also to the things of others. For you should have the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:3-4).

The highest degree to which he can aspire is to be like his Teacher. Self-abasement on your part will not be great if you carefully consider who you are. Yet it will bring you glory if, remembering Who I was, you do what I did. Therefore let us humble ourselves, and let us know that we shall never humble ourselves to the measure in which Jesus Christ abased Himself. For this poor man to whom we show works of mercy, this poor man who asks alms from us, this poor man before whom we humble ourselves, is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. Every work of mercy, He says, which "you did to one of the least of these My brethren, you did to Me" (Mt 25:40). The Fathers of the Church see in the washing of feet an image of the inner cleansing needed for worthy approach to the Holy Table. Alas, while we are in the world, it is impossible not to fall into certain transgressions, however small, which darken the beauty of our soul. Therefore we must use every effort to receive forgiveness, even for these pardonable sins, through sincere repentance before we receive within ourselves God, Who is holiness itself.