How Jesus Washes Us Today
Maundy Thursday| John 13:1-15, 34-35 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-32| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| April 17, 2025
“If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Jesus said to Peter when he refused to let Him wash his feet. Those are sobering words. If Jesus does not wash your feet, then you have no share in Christ! This is like what Jesus said to the Jews in John 6, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” Yet, Jesus did not institute a sacrament of feet washing, but as He clearly explains later, by washing each other’s feet, He intends for us to love one another as He has loved us. Nevertheless, Jesus’ words still pierce our ears and heart, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” How does Jesus wash us today?
Jesus washes us today with His means of grace. The means of grace are God’s instruments, which He uses to rescue us from sin, death, and hell by giving us all the benefits of Christ’s work of salvation for us, to be received through faith alone. These instruments are God’s Word and Sacraments. When the Gospel is preached to us and the Sacraments are administered to us, our faith holds fast to the promises God has attached to them and receives all their benefits for Christ’s sake. This is how Jesus washes us today.
Yet, when Jesus told Peter that if He does not wash him, he has no share with Him, Peter insisted that Jesus wash not only his feet, but also his hands and head. Yet, Jesus responded, “The one who has been washed does not need to wash except for His feet, but is completely clean. And you all are clean, but not every one of you.” (speaking of Judas who would betray Him). Here, Jesus distinguishes between the means of grace. All the means of grace give you Jesus, but they are used in different ways.
You are only baptized once (Ephesians 4:5). In Baptism, you receive the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-8; John 3:3-6). In Baptism you are completely clean. However, because of our sinful nature which we cannot get rid of until we die, and on account of the sinful world we pass through and the devil who harasses us, we still sin. And so, though we have been washed clean in Baptism, so that we are God’s children, we still need to wash our feet.
This is like the Levitical priests in the Old Testament. The priests were only consecrated once, when their bodies were washed with water and they were anointed with consecrated oil and clothed in holy garments (Exodus 40:12-13). They were not consecrated as priests a second time. However, there remained a basin of water for them to wash their hands and feet whenever they approached the tabernacle for service (Exodus 40:30-33). They did this, so that they would be ceremonially clean for their priestly service for God.
St. Peter says that we are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). Like Aaron and his sons, we were consecrated as God’s priests when we were baptized. We have now all been ordained to offer holy service to God. Yet, as Aaron and his priestly sons needed to wash before they offered their service, we too must wash our feet. And Christ has instituted for us a Sacrament, a means of grace, by which He washes our feet today. While the washing of the disciples’ feet was a metaphor to teach His disciples to love one another, the Sacrament of the Altar is no mere metaphor. Rather, in His last will and testament before His death, Jesus took bread, broke it, and gave it to His disciples and said, “Take eat, this is my body.” (Matthew 26:26) He then took the cup of wine and gave it to His disciples saying, “Take drink, this is my blood of the New Testament, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” as Matthew records (26:27-28).
Many claim that Christ’s body and blood cannot be present in the Lord’s Supper, because Jesus’ body can only be at more than one place at one time. However, they misunderstand what it means that Jesus is both God and man. And whatever His divine nature can do, so is communicated to His human nature, for He is one and the same Christ. We cannot set limits on Jesus’ body and blood, which we cannot also set upon His divine nature. And since nothing is impossible with God, so nothing is impossible for His body and blood. Others claim that Jesus did not mean to tell us to eat His body and blood, but meant it only as a symbol. Yet, when Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, He clearly explained what He meant by it afterward, that they should love one another, as He loves them. He does not explain the Sacrament as a metaphor for anything. Rather, He calls it His New Testament, which cannot be altered or changed. And Matthew, Mark, Luke, and St. Paul all record Jesus saying the same words, “This is my body; this is my blood.” St. Paul emphasizes, “The cup that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16) And in our epistle lesson, Paul says that those who eat and drink unworthily do not sin against bread and wine, but against the body of Christ.
And so, in the Sacrament of the Altar, Christ Jesus gives us a way to be joined to Him in the closest way imaginable, so that our flesh and blood participate with His flesh and blood. And as St. Matthew records Jesus’ words, “This is my blood of the New Testament shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” this Sacrament grants forgiveness of sins to those who receive it in faith. Jesus does not wash us with mere water, but as St. John writes in His epistle, “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) And so, we have this wonderful comfort in the Sacrament of the Altar, that the one who receives this washing is completely clean! How marvelous it is to hear from Jesus’ mouth, “You are clean!”
Yet, St. Paul warns against eating and drinking unworthily and therefore eating judgment to yourself. And Jesus stated that not all of them were clean, because Judas had let Satan into his heart. So, we too must examine ourselves lest we not discern Christ’s body and eat judgment to ourselves. So, let us briefly review how one receives the Sacrament worthily.
Worthily receiving the Sacrament of Christ depends on faith alone. You should not stay away because of a weak faith or because your sins trouble you greatly. Rather, such a person should be exhorted to come and be cleansed by Christ. However, faith does not simply refer to head knowledge, but a truly repentant heart, which confesses the truth. A person who does not hate his own sin and desire to do better should not receive Communion. A person who continues in sin without repenting, should not receive Communion until he repents. St. Paul says that we cannot be participants of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Therefore, we cannot participate at the Lord’s table if we are participating in false worship or false doctrine or are communing at an altar that confesses contrary to what we confess here.
St. Paul says that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. This means that we should not partake of the Sacrament if we do not confess with our hearts what the church teaches about Christ. Yet, it means that when we receive the Lord’s Supper, we are proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. And we are proclaiming that we are willing to die for Christ and for this confession. And since Paul says that we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes, we know that Christ intends His Christians to frequently eat His body and blood in the Sacrament until He returns.
Priests wash their hands and feet, so that they are clean for service in the Lord’s house. We are priests through our Baptism into Christ. Christ washes our feet when we come to hear the preaching of the Gospel and receive the Sacrament of His body and blood. This washing comforts our consciences with the forgiveness of sins won by Christ Jesus on His cross, which He gives freely to us. This washing also cleanses us for service in the Lord’s house. Our service, as Jesus told His disciples, is to love one another as Christ has loved us. This means that we forgive each other as we have been forgiven, that we are kind to one another, and patient. It means that we seek to help our fellow Christians when they are in need, instead of focusing only on ourselves.
When we realize that we are not doing this, we realize that we have not made good use of Christ’s washing. And so, we should do two things. First, we should repent and eagerly go back to be cleansed again by Christ’s washing in the Sacrament. Second, we should pray to God that He strengthen us through the Sacrament to do better. But if we do not want to do better, if we only want the washing, but do not want to do the service for which the washing prepares us, then we are unworthy of the washing. Then we are unworthy participants in the Sacrament and we should stay away until we desire not only to receive the Sacrament, but to live the Christian life for which the Sacrament prepares us.
And so, we should believe in the power of the Sacrament of the Altar. This is no trifle, but it is Christ’s last will and testament to His Christians, to be carried out until He returns. And by it, Christ joins us to Himself for our forgiveness and salvation and to ready us to serve as His priests here on earth, offering our very bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord and in service to one another. If Christ does not wash you, you have no part in Him. Christ washes you with His means of grace. The Sacrament of the Altar is a powerful means of grace through which we have certainty that we have a share in Christ. Amen.