John 13:7

‘Jesus answered him,
“You don’t know what I am doing now,
but you will understand later.”’
(John 13:7)

Often we struggle to understand what God is doing in our lives, but later things make sense. Our grasp of His truths also develops over time. The same was true for Jesus’ disciples here.

It was towards the end of Jesus’ time in ministry, at the last supper, shortly before His crucifixion. So the disciples had been with Him for quite some time. Even so, they still ‘didn’t understand’(John 12:16) the full significance of much that He’d said and done. It wasn’t until after the resurrection that Jesus clarified for them the things prophesied in the Old Testament ‘Scriptures… concerning Himself’(Luke 24:27, cf. 18:31-34 & John 20:9, etc.). Then later, the ‘“Holy Spirit”’(John 14:26) reminded and enlightened them further about what they’d been ‘“witnesses”’(Acts 1:8) to, as Jesus promised would happen.

Here was one such recollection. John strikingly records that ‘Jesus, knowing that… He came from God… began to wash the disciples’ feet’(John 13:3-5)! Peter reacted with characteristic forthrightness, ‘“Lord, do you wash my feet? … You will never wash my feet!”’(John 13:6&8), but Jesus interjected, ‘“You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand later”’.

Interestingly, there were several independent yet related things for them to ‘“understand later”’. One Jesus explained almost immediately, at least in part. It was a lesson in humility, through ‘“example”’(John 13:15), perhaps in response to the heart attitude of the disciples at the meal – arguing about ‘which of them was… greatest’(Luke 22:24)! Our Lord, acknowledging that they were quite right to call Him ‘“‘Lord’”’(John 13:13), nevertheless humbly washed their feet, adding, ‘“do as I have done”’(John 13:15). He didn’t of course mean that they should literally wash each other’s feet, necessarily. The key thing to understand was the humility. Later, after the crucifixion, this promised ‘Holy Spirit’(1 Corinthians 2:13) helped Paul to express beautifully how Jesus, although in essence ‘God… humbled Himself… to… the cross’(Philippians 2:6-8), and that His followers are to adopt a similar frame of ‘mind’(Philippians 2:5, cf. Matthew 16:24).

This last supper foot washing was obviously in the context of Jesus ‘“going”’(John 13:33ff.) via the cross, which ‘Peter’(John 13:36) and the other disciples didn’t understand at that stage, nor that it would happen because God ‘“so loved the world”’(John 3:16). However, by the time John came to write up his gospel account, he knew to introduce this episode with: ‘Jesus, knowing that… He would depart from this world… having loved His own… loved them to the end’(John 13:1ff.), recalling that after the meal Jesus had also said, ‘“love one another. Just as I have loved you”’(John 13:34), and had added shortly afterwards, ‘“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends”’(John 15:13, cf. v12).

That brings us to the deepest ‘hidden’(Luke 18:34) meaning behind Jesus’ foot washing here, hinted at by His remark to Peter: ‘“If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me”’(John 13:8). He was hinting at what became clearer later, that we’re ‘washed… from our sins by His blood’(Revelation 1:5), shed on the cross, which was why at this meal Jesus took ‘the cup… saying, “… drink it, for this is my blood… poured out… for the remission of sins”’(Matthew 26:27-28) – since without the ‘shedding of blood there is no remission’(Hebrews 9:22). It similarly became clear why this had all happened at the time of ‘Passover’(John 13:1), because Jesus is ‘our Passover… sacrificed in our place’(1 Corinthians 5:7), and we’re cleansed by ‘“the Lamb’s blood”’(Revelation 7:14), just as John the Baptist had prophesied would happen: ‘‘“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”’(John 1:29).

We’re not living through unfolding revelation like the disciples, but we will find that our understanding of such things deepens over time, as we follow Jesus, assisted by the Holy ‘Spirit’(1 Corinthians 2:14), and progress from ‘milk’(1 Peter 2:2) to ‘meat’(1 Corinthians 3:2) spiritually. We’ll find some truths ‘hard to understand’(2 Peter 3:16), at least at first. There are some things we won’t ‘fully’(1 Corinthians 13:12) understand until eternity dawns – true even for the apostle Paul!

Likewise, no doubt we’ll find some events in our lives perplexing, just like the disciples here, with close friends ‘“going”’(John 13:36) and other people or things being ‘“taken”’(Job 1:21) from us for reasons known only to God. At such times we can remember these words from Jesus: “You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand later”’, and say with confidence, like Job, ‘“I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end… I will see God”’(Job 19:25-26).

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