Come Follow Me LDS- John 13 Part 1

'Clean Feet, The Beloved & Joshua x 3'
- Why Jesus washed the disciples' feet
- Why was John called 'Beloved'
- Jesus as the Third Joshua
- Jesus gives a Patriarchal Blessing, a fatherly discourse

 

 

Come Follow Me New Testament

LDS Mormon Gospel of John Bible

 

all right in this episode we're going to

talk about clean feet the beloved and

Joshua times three here we go so in this

episode we're gonna focus just on John

thirteen we'll leave the rest for the

next episode and here we have the Last

Supper

now I've already covered this in Easter

episode number four I highly recommend

that you go back and listen or watch

that episode to get a little bit more

focus on the specifics of the Last

Supper but what I'm going to do this

time is talk about some of the

principles and events that happened this

night during the Last Supper that I did

not cover in that last episode first of

all I want to talk about the washing of

the feet I don't want to make a whole

lot of speculation on this I know

there's a lot of people that talk about

second comforter and a lot of other

things I'm not going to go into that

with this what I do want to talk about

is maybe why he is doing this and I

think that there are two primary reasons

number one is that this is a high priest

ritual in other words the high priests

in purifying themselves for the day of

atonement would need to wash their hands

in a ritual washing and need to wash

their feet in a ritual washing this is

different from any purification that

Jesus and His disciples would have made

prior to this Last Supper this is a

separate event a separate ritual and it

appears to do more with being a high

priest and it appears more about maybe a

preparation for what is about to happen

later this night which is the sacrifice

of Jesus Christ in the garden of gifts

and so they're being prepared in a sense

going through this ritual that the high

priests would go through before they

would go through the ritual of the Day

of Atonement again as I've mentioned

several times the Day of Atonement is

during the Feast of Tabernacles it used

to be the most important ritual to the

ancient Israelites in the first Temple

period two goats were brought one was

purified by the high priest the sins

were put on the second goat that was the

scapegoat that goat was sent out of the

city and off of a cliff the other goat

was purified would be sacrificed along

with an ox and their blood would be used

to purify the temple to purify the land

to purify the Holy of Holies even the

Ark of the Covenant to purify the altars

and to purify even the people that's the

blood of Christ and so this is a ritual

that they may be going through to

prepare for the day of atonement and of

course if we look at the day of

atonement in Jewish terms where the day

begins at sundown then we would say the

day of atonement did all take place on

one day which would have been Friday so

Thursday evening is the beginning of

Friday so Gethsemane this not the night

after the Last Supper and then of course

Friday morning to early afternoon on the

cross would also be part of the same day

the other reason I think that the

washing of the feet takes place here is

there is a very John has a very specific

agenda about showing Jesus as the

servant remember that this is a

fulfillment of the servant song from

Isaiah this is a messianic poem or song

very possibly part of a temple drama

that is repeated in the Book of Isaiah

it is a foretelling of the atonement and

there

the servant the Lord is called the

servant the suffering servant and that's

an important title the early Christians

used the title of the servant for Jesus

often and remember that the word in

Aramaic which is the language that Jesus

and His disciples spoke because it's

what the language that was brought back

from Babylon the Aramaic word for

servant Talia is the same word as lamb

so when we hear the phrase or title the

Lamb of God that is a play on words and

it is also the servant of God in other

words the servant that is prophesied of

in Isaiah is the Lamb of God we can even

look at this in the in the last episode

where we talked about the parable of the

sheep and the goats and what

distinguished them what distinguished

them was that those that went out and

loved others that served others that

clothed the naked and fed the hungry and

helped the poor

that's the distinguishing factor between

the sheep and the goats

it's the servants so the servants are

the Lambs same word or the Sheep and

they're distinguished from the goats who

are not the servants who are not the

Sheep not the Lambs and so John is

showing Jesus as the servant here he is

lowering himself here below everyone

just like he will do when he takes on

the sins of the world he is the lowest

he is the servant in a sense serving all

of us but he's also the servant of the

Father he is showing a specific

hierarchy here and he always gives the

glory to the Father he always shows that

he is below the Father and the servant

of the Father and in fact the servant of

everyone else he is the least among all

of us which makes him the greatest among

all of us he is the least because he

lowered himself below all of us he

served

and took on the burden on top of him of

everyone that's why he's the least

that's why he's the lowest because all

of the burdens were placed on top of him

all of us were put on his back so to

speak and so this title of the servant

is linked to that temple drama that we

speak of often in the ancient Israelite

religion during the Feast of Tabernacles

that is one of the titles of the King

one of the titles of Jehovah one of the

titles of the Lord is the servant who

would be sacrificed to the suffering

servant so when Peter says to Jesus when

Jesus says he wants to wash his feet

Peter says in verse 8 thou shalt never

wash my feet and Jesus answered him if I

wash thee not thou hast no part with me

so in other words you can't be a part of

what I'm going through and bonded to me

in this sense because we have to go

through this ritual this high priestly

ritual to prepare you and purify you for

what I'm about to do if he's not

prepared then he's not gonna have any

part of this makes a lot of sense and

then Peter says to him Lord not my feet

only but also my hands and my head the

hands and feet at least for sure and

maybe the head also are all part of this

high priestly ritual that takes place

before the Day of Atonement down in

verse 16 we get a confirmation of this

hierarchy again hierarchy very big part

of the gospel verse 16 says verily

verily I say unto you the servant is not

greater than his Lord Jesus he is the

servant neither he that is sent greater

than he that sent him so the Father the

Son and then those that serve him the

high priests really is what would be

next but those that follow the Savior

the disciples and then in verse 18 Jesus

talks about the betrayal of Judas he

says this I speak not of you all I know

whom I have chosen but

the scripture may be fulfilled he that

eateth bread with me hath lifted up his

heel against me

remember that lifting up your heel

against someone would be used to crush

someone and interestingly enough he's

referring to the bread here so this may

be the soft that is used at the cedar

meal if this is a cedar meal this Last

Supper it would have been the soft that

would be used it would be dipped into

the bitter herbs probably horseradish to

show the betrayal this would be

obviously very bitter but it's linked to

the bread and it's linked then to the

last Passover remember in the last in

the very first Passover just prior to

the very first Passover all of the

disciple disciples were called the

twelve were called and then in the

following Passover the year before what

we're covering now Jesus had the theme

of the manna from heaven and he talks

about the bread and he feeds the 5,000

and what happened shortly after that

well as he describes how the bread is

his body and the water his blood they

can't quite handle what he's saying I

think they're really the people that are

following him don't like what they're

hearing not about cannibalism not

something they can't understand about

eating his body but they don't like the

idea that he is the savior of the world

and a lot of them leave they leave Jesus

behind they take off and Jesus is left

with many much fewer disciples and

that's when he has to go back to the

twelve and maybe some other disciples

and say who do you think I am Do You

Know Who I am they don't believe in Who

I am

Do You Know Who I am and Peter then is

given the response that yes ye are the

you are the Christ the Son of God and

that gives you the distinction right

there between what the disciples or

those that are listening and then take

partaking of the bread that Jesus

miraculously produced it's not

cannibalism that I've seen

brought up is the issue they couldn't

understand that it was his body it's

about him it's always about him being

the Son of God and taking on the sins of

the world and Peter makes that very

clear with his response so all of these

followers of Jesus leave him they betray

him right and now we come to the third

Passover here at the Last Supper and

here is the betrayal again this is Judas

that is going to betray Jesus and so the

three different Passover's here would

follow themes that were often brought up

a three-year set of themes he had the

calling of the twelve in the first

Passover we had the bread and

the manna from heaven that was the theme

of the next Passover and then here is

when the disciples are going to partake

of the cup partake of the blood the vine

of Christ and the reference to lifting

up your heel to me is a reference back

to psalm 41:9 those are the specific

words that are given at that time which

are part of the temple drama and then

another thing that is brought up here is

the description or maybe something else

but the description of one of the

disciples the Beloved Disciple the loved

one so Jesus says here in verse 23 now

there was one leaning on Jesus bosom one

of his disciples whom Jesus loved so

this is the beloved this is likely John

the author of this gospel so this has

brought up a few different times and

remember again John is likely a high

priest he probably comes from a high

priestly family there are many things

throughout the Gospels that show that he

is probably a younger high priest and so

you loved' could very well be a title

remember that's basically what Dave

means the term the name David David may

not have even been Solomon Solomon's

father's name it could very well have

just been a title the beloved this is

the title basically that Abraham gives

to Isaac or the author Moses or whoever

the original author is of the story of

Abraham Abraham refers to Israel refers

to Isaac as the one he loves so this is

very likely a title and it's probably a

royal high priestly title which changes

our understanding a little bit about the

term that the father uses when he

introduces Jesus Christ this is my

beloved Son in whom I am well pleased

wouldn't that make everything just so

much richer to understand that we are

that even the father is tying everything

back together to these titles of royalty

with Jesus that he is the king that has

been prophesied of throughout all time

since the time of Adam that he is the

air just like Isaac was the heir to

Abraham and not Ishmael Jesus is the

Davidic King he is the beloved and here

where John is likely a high priest it

could very well be that in that priestly

role that high priestly role that he is

called the beloved so an interesting

take on that term and then lastly we get

something interesting here with the

patriarchs and with fathers we yet we

get oftentimes in Scripture a discourse

kind of a patriarchal discourse that is

given before the time of their death we

get it with Adam in the book of Moses we

read that Adam had all of his posterity

gathered together

and he gave out blessings and gave a

discourse and here starting in verse 33

we get something very similar where

Jesus is acting as the father and giving

a patriarchal blessing which is full of

advice prophecy and love to those that

are around him remember we don't know

exactly who is at the Last Supper this

could be a very large room think banquet

room it could be just the twelve it

could be there are 15 in other documents

of for example the community rule

from the Damascus document from another

sect religious sect they show that there

were 12 and then above those 12 there

were three others just like we have the

first presidency and then the quorum of

the twelve so they had 15 that would

have been there and maybe a 16th that

actually led everything or there could

have been even more were there spouses

that could have been here at the Last

Supper we don't know but Jesus begins to

give one of these fatherly patriarchal

discourses and he starts it off like

this in verse 33 little children just

like a father you had a little while I

am with you ye shall seek me and as I

said unto the Jews whether I go he

cannot come so now I say to you so he's

leading off this discourse as the father

remember that Abinadi describes

Jehovah Jesus as the father as well as

the son and he says that he is the

father to those that believe in him that

accept him that we become his seat and

in that role he is our Father and that's

the role he's playing right here so

Jesus says whether I go you cannot come

so now I say to you he goes on with the

discourse we'll get to that in a second

in many ways

Jesus is the third Joshua here

it's the first Joshua that leads the

Israelites into the Promised Land Moses

doesn't do it because those that are

wandering in the desert have been too

wicked to be able to come into the

Lord's rest as he calls it they can't

come into the Promised Land it's Joshua

that has to do that and remember that

the name Jesus is the same name as

Joshua so Mary called her son Yeshua

which is the Hebrew Joshua not Jesus

Jesus is the Greek version of Joshua

so the first Joshua was able to bring

the Israelites into the Promised Land

and then when the Jews or those of the

kingdom of Judah will call him were

taken into exile into Babylon they were

led back to Jerusalem in the land of

Judea by another Joshua we see that in

the book of Ezra so they're brought back

into the promised land and here Jesus is

trying to lead us to the promised land

he's the third Joshua but we can't go

with him yet but he is going to provide

the way for us to go into his rest to

end up in our spiritual land of promise

whether I go you cannot come so now I

say unto you so he's going to about to

make basically open the gate for us to

be able to do that and that brings us to

the beginning of this Passover discourse

this patriarchal discourse and the

famous scripture which says a new

commandment I give unto you that ye love

one another as I have loved you that ye

also love one another this is likely the

Hebrew word has said has said is used

oftentimes in the Old Testament it is

love and it comes with a bond with a

covenant or is often tied to

a bond or a covenant and it is likely

the way I see it the same word that

would be used for that Paul uses for

faith hope and charity very similar type

of a thing this is kind of like the

higher law that includes charity and

love that would be necessary to be able

to reach the promised land that Joshua

Jesus is leading us to and he is about

to perform the greatest charity that

will ever be performed and so to open up

that gate first he's gonna do what he

has to do but then he gives us a

commandment which is to love one another

to have charity for one another and of

course just as he says in the famous

scripture that you love one another as I

have loved you he is leading by example

and it's us that should take the

sacrifice that he's about to perform as

not only something we can have faith in

and lean on as a principle for our

progression but also an example of

charity that we need to take on

responsibility that we need to take on

burdens of others that we need to share

in their grief and be servants like him

to be like the Sheep or the servants or

we clothe the naked we feed the hungry

and we lift others up around us as Jesus

has done for all of us I'll talk to you

next time