Approaching Covenant

When Jesus was answering His disciples concerning their question of the future (Matthew 24), He spoke of the deception of the evil one and of man. The writings of the apostles warn of deception. For many years, as I listen to people quoting Scripture without understanding the foundation of covenant, I have felt that Satan's robbing the world of covenant understanding has been the greatest of deceptions. To believe in covenant to get riches and blessing without understanding covenant response has also been a deception. Covenant response keeps us from making a religion of God's Word and so robbing ourselves of His Life.

We saw in Genesis 15 the approach by God to making a covenant with Abraham. I see the same approach in the first three verses of John 13. Before a covenant can be cut, there must be a receptive response. Human nature had to give way to His Lordship over its response and control. You see the total unity with the Father in Jesus as He entered the covenant mode in these verses. John 13:1-3 (NLT) 1 Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. 2 It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.

The wording in this is very important. The New International Version says, "the evening meal was being served". This implies it had not yet been eaten, so the ceremony of the Passover meal had not yet started. I don't want to distract you from the main message to be seen in this portion, but John most clearly gives us a time sequence that is only hinted at in the other gospels. Notice it starts out "Before the Passover celebration". Jesus had instructed the Passover feast be celebrated one day earlier than the time everyone else would be keeping the Feast. As the Lamb of God, He would be giving His Life for us at the same time the lambs were being slain for the keeping of the Passover by everyone else. I just threw that in so you could see how important it was to God that His Feasts were kept as the vehicle of His Will being carried out to complete His purpose. John wanted us to see the whole covenant procedure and so He includes this approach for us.

Jesus entered the covenant mode and deliberately interupted the "normal" Passover procedure to wash their feet. Nothing hits the old human nature as hard as foot washing. This was not an uncommon procedure for these men, but washing feet was given as a duty to the lowest ranking of the slaves. They met each person at the door to wash the filth of the street off of the feet of those who would enter the house. For Jesus to take this role was offensive to the men who respected Him as their Messiah. It brought out responses from their human nature. We see it cemented Judas' attitude and forced him into action. Jesus was preparing these men to face what was to come but also introducing a teaching of humility that would serve them as leaders of His church. I do not believe Jesus was establishing a new ritual for the church but a necessary attitude for receiving His Power and Authority to establish and minister to His church. There are times when the Spirit leads and directs a time of foot washing but I do not see the ritual as a command but the attitude of heart certainly is a command.

Just as Abraham had to be instructed and met by God before he could enter covenant with God, so these disciples had to be prepared for the New Covenant that would be cut for them. We need to be very alert in the Spirit and heeding every Word that comes from God as the Spirit prepares us for The Day of the Lord. We are in precarious times. Spiritual warfare is greater than ever as Satan knows his time is short. God is bringing His Church up to maturity and perfection. The two forces are producing trying times for us much as the disciples faced at the meeting of the two forces in their day. Trust and rest in Him are our greatest defense and also our greatest offensive weapons.