had made Him
wholly theirs, and though standing on the brink of death He was
disengaged to do them the slightest service. His love was love, devoted,
enduring, constant. He had loved them, and He loved them still. It was
their condition which had brought Him into the world, and His love for
them was that which would carry Him through all that was before Him. The
very fact that they showed themselves still so jealous and childish, so
unfit to cope with the world, drew out His affection towards them. He
was departing from the world and they were remaining in it, exposed to
all its opposition and destined to bear the brunt of hostility directed
against Him--how then can He but pity and strengthen them? Nothing is
more touching on a death-bed than to see the sufferer hiding and making
light of his own pain, and turning the attention of those around him
away from him to themselves, and making arrangements, not for his own
relief, but for the future comfort of others. This which has often
dimmed with tears the eyes of the bystanders struck John when he saw his
Master ministering to the wants of His disciples, although He knew that
His own hour had come.

Another side-light which serves to bring out the full significance of
this action is Jesus' consciousness of His own dignity. "Jesus, knowing
that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He came
forth from God, and goeth unto God," riseth from supper, and took a
towel and girded Himself. It was not in forgetfulness of His Divine
origin, but in full consciousness of it, He discharged this menial
function. As He had divested Himself of the "form of God" at the first,
stripping Himself of the outward glory attendant on recognised Divinity,
and had taken upon Him the form of a servant, so now He "laid aside His
garments and girded Himself," assuming the guise of a household slave.
For a fisherman to pour water over a fisherman's feet was no great
condescension; but that He, in whose hands are all human affairs and
whose nearest relation is the Father, should thus condescend is of
unparalleled significance. It is this kind of action that is suitable to
One whose consciousness is Divine. Not only does the dignity of Jesus
vastly augment the beauty of the action, but it sheds new light on the
Divine character.

Still another circumstance which seemed to John to accentuate the grace
of the foot-washing was this--that Judas was among the guests, and that
"the devil