Chapter 6: The Upper Room

Thursday morning Jesus sent Peter and John ahead into Jerusalem with specific instructions. They would meet a man carrying a water jar and were to follow him. In that culture, carrying water was women's work, so a man with a jar would stand out immediately. They were to follow him to his house and ask the owner for the guest room where Jesus could eat the Passover with his disciples.

They found everything exactly as he described. They prepared the meal in a large upper room.

That evening Jesus arrived with the twelve. Before they reclined at the table, he spoke.

JESUS“I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”— Luke 22:15-16

He knew what Thursday night would lead to. He had chosen to be here anyway.

Then he stood up from the table. He took off his outer robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin, and began washing his disciples' feet one by one.

Washing a guest's feet was the job of the lowest servant in the household — not a guest, not a host, and certainly not a rabbi. What Jesus was doing was not just unusual. It was shocking.

He worked his way around the table until he reached Peter. Peter pulled his feet back.

PETER“Lord, do you wash my feet?”— John 13:6

JESUS“What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”— John 13:7

PETER“You shall never wash my feet.”— John 13:8

JESUS“If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”— John 13:8

Peter's resistance collapsed and swung to the opposite extreme.

PETER“Lord, then not my feet only but also my hands and my head.”— John 13:9

Jesus told him that a person who has already bathed only needs their feet washed. Then he added something quietly. Not all of you are clean. He was speaking about Judas.

When he had finished washing every pair of feet, he put his robe back on and returned to his place at the table.

JESUS“Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.”— John 13:12-14

The point was not about foot washing becoming a ritual. It was about direction. The one with the most authority in the room had just taken the position of the least — and he was asking them to live by the same logic. The meal continued. What came next, no one at that table had seen before.