Interpreters usually understand this speech as a summary of Jesus' earlier speeches. Jesus' ministry in the light of day is over. The Evangelist proceeds to narrate the Passion in the proper sense of the word, and the transition fixes in the reader's mind the essential content of His teaching when He was in the world and the light of the world.

Chapters XIII-XVII

Hl. XIII—XVII.

The night of the Son's ascent to the Father begins with a long passage of chapters XIII-XVII, which is both externally and internally one whole. It opens with the narration of the washing of the feet, the interpretation with which the Lord accompanies it, and the indication of the betrayer (XIII. 1-30). In the construction of chapters XIII-XVII, this narrative part has the meaning of a symbolic act, from which the subsequent teaching departs, beginning with XIII. 31 and embracing chapters XIV-XVII, of which the passage XIII. 31-XVI. 33 contains the Lord's Farewell Discourse with the disciples, and Chapter XVII contains the High Priestly Prayer inwardly and externally connected with it. This construction is quite similar to that which we observed in Chapters V and VI, where in both cases the passage begins with a narrative episode that has the meaning of a symbolic starting point for the subsequent teaching. However, the teaching is not limited to the simple disclosure of the symbol, it deepens it and raises the reader to such dogmatic heights that the symbol allowed to foresee only partially.

XIII. 1-3.

The account of the washing of the feet was introduced by vv. 1-3, which, being closely related to the washing, can also be understood as a general title to the entire passage of Jn. XIII-XVII. First of all, the reference to the Feast of Pascha deserves our attention. In XI. 55 the nearness of Pascha is noted. In XII. 1. The Bethany anointing is introduced by a chronological indication: "... six days before Easter." In XIII. 1 it is simply: "... before the Feast of Easter." Easter was coming. The "hour" of Jesus has also come. But here the "hour" of Jesus is defined as the hour of His transition from this world to the Father. In the world there is the devil, who buried in the heart of Judas the intention to betray Jesus. There are also students in the world. And "Jesus, having loved His own who are in the world, loved them to the end." The closest expression of this love is the washing of the feet. But the symbolic act of washing the feet introduces the subsequent teaching, and with it the whole narrative of the Passion. It is all placed under the sign of the Lord's love for the disciples. But Jesus knew not only that the hour of His transition from this world to the Father had come. He also knew that "the Father had given Him all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God." He thinks of Jesus' transition to the Father as His return. But if the Father has given everything into His hands, then this "all" applies first of all to the disciples (cf. XVIII. 6, 9), and His ascent is also the raising up of the disciples.

XIII. 4-11.

The Lord washes the feet of the disciples "at supper" (v. 2). Some details require our attention. First of all, the ablution itself. Not forming part of the Old Testament Paschal ritual, it is sometimes referred to as a work of love (1 Tim. V. 10, cf. also Lk. VII. 44). This is how it appears in our case: an image of service in love and humility. Next is the image of girdle. It is expressed in the New Testament by various verbs from the root ζώννυμι (in our case, διαζώννυμι). In Luke. XVII. 8 is περιζώννυμι. We are talking about a slave returning from the field, whom his Master calls to serve: "... prepare me to dine and, girded up, serve me." Like ablution, <it is> a form of service. The verb ζώννυμι can have the same meaning in the words of the Lord to Peter Jn. XXI. 18: "When you were young, you girded <έζώννυες, a simple verb> and went where you wanted." Also service or even physical labor. And in our time, in the East and in the South, manual workers tighten themselves for work with a long tight belt. In the light of these parallels, the image of the girdle emphasizes more strongly the idea of service in the image of ablution. But in the same verse, Jn. XXI. 18 The image of girdle, expressed again simply by the verb ζωννύμι, occurs secondarily and refers to the Apostle Peter not in his youth, but in his old age: "When ... when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you <ζώσει> and lead you whither you will not" (v. 18b). And the evangelist explains: "This he said, making it clear by what death he would glorify God" (v. 19). The image of the girdle is not only the image of service, but also the image of death, and, what is especially important, in Jn. [69]. It is permissible to think that when the Lord washed the feet of His disciples, He thought not only about service, but also about death: about the ministry that is realized in death. In the hour of the Passion, this service carried out in death is difficult to understand in any other way than the service of the Passion.

If for Jesus the washing of the disciples' feet is an image of His Passion, the question arises, what significance did it have for the disciples themselves? The first answer to this question is a negative answer. The washing of the feet was not the cleansing of the disciples, or, to be sure, the cleansing of the disciples was not the main purpose of the washing. Here we encounter the critical problem of v. 10, which has come down to us with many variant readings, and Codex N and some other sources do not have the words ει μή τους πόδας ("except his feet"). Without these poems, it would sound in Russian translation: "... there is no need to wash the washed[70]." This would deny any purifying significance for the washing of the feet. But objective data (to which the evidence of ξρ66 has now been added) do not permit us to give preference to this brief form. To some extent, the washing of the feet has the meaning of purification. But the Lord limits him with only his feet. Why is not explained. Is it because the dust of a hostile world sticks to your feet? In this case, it would be a Johannine parallel to the synoptic shaking of the dust from the disobedient city (cf. Matt. X. 14; Mk. VI. 11, etc.). And if the image of water would make you think about purification in the first place, the very use of water in our case raises a number of questions. And first of all, if Jesus came by water, then the testimony of John the Baptist as a testimony by water has already come to an end. This was shown to us by the analysis of X. 40-42. Since the washing of the feet was not part of the Jewish Passover ritual, the use of water in Jn. XIII could not have had the significance of the abolition of the Old Testament system as it had in other cases of the mention of water in Chapter 1-X. For some reason, the Evangelist needed the image of water. But the story of ablution does not give an answer to this question. An analysis of the Farewell Talk will open up some possibility of an answer. Now we must return to the disciples.

A positive answer to the question of the meaning of the washing of the feet for the disciples can lead us to the interpretation of certain details of the symbolic act. And first of all: that the washing of the feet took place during the supper. As we know, the supper in both the Old and New Testaments is an image of the Kingdom of God. This includes the image of reclining in the Kingdom (Matt. VIII. 11; Lk. XIII. 29), and such a parable as the parable of the Great Supper in Lk. XIV. 16-24, about the wedding feast of the king's son in Matt. XXII. 2-14, of the ten virgins in Matt. XXV. 1-13 and much more. In Jn. The XIII disciples recline with Jesus at the supper, which the Lord interrupts for washing and continues after washing. Second, when Peter tries to restrain Jesus from washing his feet, the Lord retorts: "What I am doing you do you do not know now, but you will understand later" (v. 7). This "later," μετά ταΰτα, requires comparison with such passages of John as II.22 and XII.16, which were discussed in due time: the understanding of the misunderstood in the experience of the Passion. Peter continues to resist and the Lord says to him: "If I do not wash you, you have no part <μέρος> with me" (v. 8). Parts – in what? Obviously, in the way Jesus is walking. This is the path of the Passion that leads to Glory. Washing the feet of the disciples means communing them with the Passion of Jesus. For the Synoptics, this communion is achieved by their participation in the Eucharistic Meal. John does not narrate the institution of the Eucharist. But he gives the doctrine of the Eucharist in the Capernaum Discourse, Chapter VI, and introduces into the story of the Last Supper the narration of the ablution, which in the context has the same significance as the institution of the Eucharist has in the synoptic tradition. This idea of the disciples' communion with the Passion of the Teacher is not expressed by the Evangelist: it is the reader of the Gospel himself who comes to it, delving into the individual details of the symbolic act.

XIII. 12-20.

But the Lord does not limit Himself to this. At the end of the ablution, He Himself explains to the disciples the meaning of His last actions. He draws a practical conclusion from ablution. In the washing of the feet, He, the Lord and Teacher, gave the disciples an example of love. If He has washed their feet, they must also wash one another's feet, for "the servant is no greater than his master, and the messenger <άπόστολος> no greater than the one who sent him" (cf. vv. 12-17). Jesus' subsequent speech is interrupted again by a warning to the disciples about the presence of a traitor in their midst. Jesus knows whom He has chosen, and the Scriptures must be fulfilled, and He is telling them now, before they come, "that you may believe when it is fulfilled that I am," believe in His divine dignity (vv. 18-19). But the example of love that Jesus gave to his disciples must be realized in the union of the disciples, which Jesus thinks of as a union of love, which multiplies in history: "... if I send anyone, he who receives Him receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent me" (v. 20). The term "Church" is nowhere given, just as it was not given in the parable of the Sheepfold and its interpretation (Chapter X), and how it will not be given until the end of the Gospel. But the union of love of the disciples around the Teacher is the union of the Church.

XIII. 21-30.

In v. 21, Jesus again speaks of the presence of the betrayer among the disciples. The union of love is opposed to the traitor. The students are perplexed. Peter asks the disciple whom Jesus loved. The disciple, falling on the chest of Jesus, asks him a question and receives the answer: "He to whom I dip and give this piece." Jesus gives it to Judas. "And then after that piece, Satan came into him. Jesus said to him, "What you are doing, do quickly." The disciples do not understand these words, and Judas, taking the piece, went out immediately. "It was night" (vv. 29-30).