The remarkable particularity of the account of the stages of the
humiliation suggests the eye-witness. John carried them all in his mind
ineffaceably, and long, long years after that memorable hour we hear
him recalling each detail of the scene. We can see the little group
startled by the disturbance of the order of the meal as He rose from
the table, and the hushed wonder and the open-lipped expectation with
which they watched to see what the next step would be. He rises from
the table and divests Himself of the upper garments which impeded
movement. 'What will He do next?' He takes the basin, standing there to
be ready for washing the apostles' feet, but unused, and not even
filled with water. He fills it Himself, asking none to help Him. He
girds the towel round Him; and then, perhaps, begins with the betrayer;
at any rate, not with Peter.
Cannot you see them, as they look? Do not you feel the solemnity of the
detailed particular account of each step?
And may we not also say that all is a parable, or illustration, on a
lower level, of the very same principles which were at work in the
mightier fact of the greater condescension of His 'becoming flesh and
dwelling among us'? He 'rose from the table,' as He rose from His place
in 'the bosom of the Father.' He disturbed the meal as He broke the
festivities of the heavens. He divested Himself of His garments, as 'He
thought not equality with God a thing to be worn eagerly'; and 'He
girded Himself with the towel,' as He put on the weakness of flesh.
Himself He filled the basin, by His own work providing the means of
cleansing; and Himself applied the cleansing to the feet of those who
were with Him. It is all a working out of the same double motive which
drew Him downwards to our earth. The reason why He stooped, with His
hands to wash the disciples' feet, is the same as the reason why He had
hands to wash with—viz., that knowing Himself to be high over all, and
loving all, He chose to become one with us, that we might become like
unto Him. So the details of the act are a parable of His incarnation
and death.