29th July 2026

29th July 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (John 13:1-17 focus v6-11)


Message (Alan Burke)


I was off to use the little boys’ room at the church hall a while back, and there was someone in there with the blue gloves on, fishing out sweetie wrappers, crisp packets that some wee fella had put down the toilet after using it, along with some brown stains that had ended up on the floor, obviously from some ‘chocolate’. The person in question had gone to the little boys’ room, saw the mess, without saying anything to anyone, went and got gloves, some disposable towels, a bag, and a mop, and was in the process of sorting it out when I arrived. Would you have done the same? There are all kinds of things that we think are beneath us, that are someone else’s job, our status in life, our sense of pride, persona— all play a part in that. In Jesus’ day, one of those things that many people believed was beneath them was washing the feet of others. It was the task of a servant, regarded as one of the lowest household tasks. 


Peter’s response to what Jesus was doing was to vehemently protest to his master, before him dressed not as a conquering king but in a servant’s towel. His response reveals just how shocking what was unfolding would have been to the disciples that night. Peter found even the thought that Jesus would wash his feet as absurd; this was a servant’s task; he did not feel worthy that his master should be acting like this towards him. He said to Jesus, “You shall never wash my feet,” and Jesus counters his adamance by saying: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” Whatever Peter's own expectations may have been, Jesus’s repose makes it clear that he must accept Jesus in the path that God has chosen for him to follow. He hears what Jesus has said, but again, Peter fails to understand, and he moves protesting that Jesus would wash his feet to say: “Not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”. The explanation that Jesus gives is that after one has bathed, he only needs to wash his feet for his whole body to be clean. The imagery would have been easy for the disciples to understand; feet were constantly soiled by the dust of the ground. The imagery used by Jesus speaks of how they are clean; they are clean because they have faith in him, for it is through Christ Jesus, through his life, and his death and resurrection yet to come that we are made clean. For it is through his blood that we are cleansed (see 1 Jn 1:7). 


For those among them and who have trusted in the saviour, they have been cleansed by his atoning work through the ignominy of the cross. We are clean, cleansed completely. Just as the disciples were cleansed not because they have purified themselves and made themselves worthy, it is the same for us; it is through what Jesus has done that we are made clean, in his surrender of himself on the cross. Brothers and sisters, it is only through what Jesus has done for us that we are made clean; we are washed in his blood; cleansed by him. Yet on this side of glory, we remain sinners; the effects of sin are daily apparent to us, apparent in our relationships, in our bodies, in every part of our lives. Hence Jesus says: “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean…”. In our lives it is important that we come daily to our Father and we confess our sin because our continuing sin affects our fellowship with our Father. We need to do this, because our “vigour, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depend on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh” (John Owen Mortification of Sin).


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q25 How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?
A. Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us.
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