Now although I have said that we never rightly understand our Lord's
actions if we are always looking for dogmatic or doctrinal purposes,
and thinking of them rather as being lectures, and sometimes rebukes in
act, than as being the outgush of His emotions and His human-divine
nature, yet we have also to take into account their moral and spiritual
lessons. His acts are words and His words are acts. And although the
main and primary purpose of this incident, in so far as it had any
other purpose than to relieve Christ's own love by manifesting itself,
and to comfort the disciples' hearts by the tender manifestation, was
to teach them their duty, as we shall presently see, yet the special
aspect of cleansing, which comes out so emphatically and prominently in
the episode of Peter's refusal, is to be carried all along through the
interpretation of the incident. This was the reason why Jesus Christ
came from heaven and assumed flesh, and this was the reason why Jesus
Christ, assuming flesh, bowed Himself to this menial office—to make men
clean.
I venture to say that we never understand Jesus Christ and His work
until we recognise this as its prominent purpose, to cleanse us from
sin. An inadequate conception of what we need, shallow, superficial
views of the gravity and universality and obstinacy of the fact of sin,
are an impenetrable veil between us and all real understanding of Jesus
Christ. There is no adequate motive for such an astounding fact as the
incarnation and sacrifice of the Son of God, except the purpose of
redeeming the world. If you do not believe that you—you individually,
and all of us your brethren—need to be cleansed, you will find it hard
to believe in the divinity and atonement of Jesus Christ. If you have
been down into the depths of your own heart, and found out what
tremendous, diabolic power your own evil nature and sin have upon you,
then you will not be content with anything less than the incarnate God
who stoops from heaven to bear the burden of your sin, and to take it
all away. If you want to understand why He laid aside His garments and
took the servile form of our manhood, the appeal of man's sin to His
love and the answer of His Divine condescension are the only
explanation.
Again, let me remind you that there is no cleansing without Christ. Can
you do it for yourselves, do you think? There is an old proverb, 'One
hand washes the other.' That is true about stains on the flesh. It is
not true about stains on our spirits. Nobody can do it for us but Jesus
Christ alone. He kneels before us, having the right and the power to
wash us because He has died for us. Kings of England used to touch for
'the king's evil,' and lay their pure fingers upon feculent masses of
corruption. Our King's touch is sovereign for the corruption and
incipient putrefaction of our sin; and there is no power in heaven or
earth that will make a man clean except the power of Jesus Christ. It
is either Jesus Christ or filthiness.
If I might pass from my text for one moment, I would remind you of the
episode which immediately follows, and suggest that if Jesus Christ is
not cleansing us He is nothing to us. 'If I wash thee not, thou hast no
part in Me.' I know, of course, that it is possible to have partial,
rudimentary, and sometimes reverent conceptions of that Lord without
recognising in Him the great 'Fountain opened for sin and for
uncleanness.' But I am sure of this, that there is no real, living
possession of Jesus Christ such as men's souls need, and such as will
outlast the disintegrating influences of death, unless it be such a
possession of Him as appropriates for its own, primarily, His cleansing
power. First of all He must cleanse, and then all other aspects of His
glory, and gifts of His grace, will pour into our hearts.
No understanding of Christ, then, without the recognition that
cleansing is the purpose and the vindication of His incarnation and
sacrifice; no cleansing without Christ; no Christ worth calling by the
name without cleansing.