Jesus and His People

¹ Now before the feast of Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he would depart from this world to the Father, and having loved his own in the world, loved them to the end. ²And as a dinner was taking place, when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot that he should betray him, ³because he knew that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he had come forth from God and was going away to God, ⁴he got up from the dinner and took off his outer clothing, and taking a towel, tied it around himself. ⁵Then he poured water into the washbasin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them dry with the towel ⌞which he had tied around himself⌟. ⁶ Then he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will understand after these things.” ⁸Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet ⌞forever⌟!” Jesus replied to him, “Unless I wash you, you do not have a share with me.” ⁹Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed ⌞only needs⌟ to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you.” ¹¹(For he knew the one who would betray him; because of this he said, “Not all of you are clean.”) ¹² So when he had washed their feet and taken his outer clothing and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done for you? ¹³You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you speak correctly, for I am. ¹⁴If then I—your Lord and Teacher—wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have given you an example, that just as I have done for you, you also do. ¹⁶Truly, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷If you understand these things, you are blessed if you do them.