June 2, 2021: We Are Bathed in the Blood of Jesus but There Are Times We Need Only to Wash Our Feet.

In the Book of John, Jesus is with His disciples receiving the evening meal just before the Passover Festival. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus. Jesus used this last time with His disciples to show them what it meant to be a true disciple of His.

John 13: 2-5

And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

As Jesus approached Peter, he was not going to let Jesus wash his feet. Jesus told Peter that if he did not allow Him to wash his feet, then Peter had no part of Him. Then Peter said to Jesus: “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”, (v. 9).

John 13: 10-11

Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”11 For He knew who would betray Him; therefore, He said, “You are not all clean.”

Jesus knew that Peter fully understood and believed in who Jesus was...his Lord and Messiah. But the one thing that Peter did not understand was that he was still "full of himself". Jesus knew that Peter would later that evening deny Him three times, but Jesus still believed and loved Peter. The world still had a "foot-hold" of Peter's life.

We too as Christians can be saved and fully believe in the "lordship" of Jesus in our lives, but many times we need to wash off the "dirt of this world" from our feet. We are already bathed in the blood of Jesus, but we have not fully surrendered all of ourselves to Him.

This world can have a great pull on the heart strings of our life, but without the full power of the Holy Spirit controlling us, those strings can never be broken.

PERSONNAL COMMENT:

We must be willing to give all ourselves to God. We must come to "full and absolute surrender" to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, so that we can find our "true rest" we seek in Him. (Matthew 11:28-30)