Unshaken: Chapter a Day

John 13 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

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A basin on the floor, tension in the air, and a King who kneels. We step into John 13 to trace how Jesus reframes power, purity, and love in a single evening. From the shock of foot washing to the quiet unease around a betrayer, this chapter reads like a play where every gesture carries eternal weight—and we unpack each scene with care and candor.

We start with the scandal of servant leadership. Jesus rises from supper, ties on a towel, and does what only the lowest servant would do. Peter’s pushback exposes our instinct to reject love that stoops, and Jesus’ reply reveals a deeper truth: salvation cleanses once, but walking through a broken world requires ongoing washing. That becomes a blueprint for spiritual life—confession not as re-punishment but as relational renewal with the One who serves us. We reflect on how that rhythm restores joy, softens pride, and keeps a community honest.

Then we face the mystery of Judas. John shows both human choice and demonic influence without relieving the tension, while Jesus remains resolutely sovereign: “What you are going to do, do quickly.” The disciples still don’t suspect Judas, which says volumes about Jesus’ even-handed love and the subtlety of hidden sin. From there, the tone shifts as Jesus gives a new command: love one another as I have loved you. Not love as sentiment, but love as a pattern—visible, sacrificial, and practical. This is the church’s signature in the world, the test of our discipleship far more than words or branding.

We close with concrete applications using a SPEC lens—naming pride to repent, embracing the promise that love is our witness, adopting Jesus’ humility as our model, obeying the call to deliberate, inconvenient love, and resting in the knowledge that God steers history even through betrayal. If you’re hungry for a faith that looks like something, this conversation will hand you a towel, point to the cross, and invite you to start with the person right in front of you. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help others find it.

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Holland. And we are going to go through John chapter 13. We're going to make some observations. We're going to make some interpretations. We're going to finally land the plane with an application for you to take along with you today. So let's break it out. We've got John 13, verses 1 through 3. Jesus knows his hour has come. Fully aware that his time to depart to the Father approaches. Jesus loves his own to the end, a little prologue to the ending. And he knows the Father has given him all things, and he sort of sets it up that they're about to get to uh the last supper. Or they're going to rise from supper and wash some feet. So rising from supper in uh John 13, 14 through 7, 4 through 17, Jesus washes the disciples' feet. Peter, of course, says, You will never wash my feet. Then Jesus said, if you don't let me wash your feet, I will have no part of you. Then Peter's like, wash all of me. He's like, I still don't think you get this if if you're already clean, but not all of you are clean. I only need to wash your feet. Which then gets into his betrayal. Jesus foretells the betrayal in verses 18 through 30, and he fulfills Psalm 41:9. Jesus announces a betrayer among those who share his bread. Then in verses 31 through 35, he talks about a new commandment and his glorification. And with Judas gone, Jesus declares the Son of Man's glorification now begins as he returns to the Father. Then Jesus predicts Peter's denial. Peter boldly asks where he goes, and he will always follow him. Jesus is like, nah, you're going to deny me. And that is a problem for Peter. All right, so let's get into some observations. What do you got here for some observation?

Pastor Holland:

All right. So this is the kickoff of the next section of John, upper room discourse. So the next few chapters, John 13 through 17, are Jesus with his disciples, this kind of intimate time before the crucifixion. So just interesting to note or important to note, this is kind of a new section here, these next four chapters, five chapters.

Pastor Plek:

I love um Peter here. He has extravagant swings of like the pendulum goes for like, Lord, you won't wash my feet to Lord, wash all of me. Then, you know, just I'm ready to do anything. And then he's actually gonna deny. Yeah. So it's kind of wild how he's just sort of all over the place emotionally, spiritually, which is fitting, I guess, for the situation.

Pastor Holland:

Also, you see, Satan really featured here. Number one, it says in verse two that the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas to betray him. So the devil put something into his heart, but then it says in verse 27 that after Judas had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him.

Pastor Plek:

How does Satan enter into him? That's the thing I want to know. Was he possessed at this point?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, I mean, it seems like he it's a demonic possession by the chief of demons. So Satan one he puts something into his heart first through his lies, through his deception, right? But then Satan himself enters into Judas. And it's interesting, you know, when Jesus said to him, What you're going to do, do it quickly. He's saying this to a uh a Satan-possessed Judas. And even commanding him, you know, uh of going like it kind of like showing his sovereignty over the whole deal. You know, Satan's like, Oh, I'm gonna get you, and Jesus is like, Yeah, you work for me. Go do this thing because I need to be crucified to save.

Pastor Plek:

Um that's really good. Okay. Um, yeah, it's it's wild how Judas really goes this just deep intimacy of the the Last Supper to then this just I just don't get the satanic possession. It's wild to me. Yeah, I I wish I could wrap my head around that more of like what it means or what it meant and how how he was like now controlled by Satan completely. Anyway, um, what about the other disciples? They're all murmuring, they don't know who it's gonna be, yeah. And they're like, Is it me? Is it me? You know, yeah. I I think it's kind of like uh and do they recognize how big of a deal Jesus is? I mean, they've gotta know he's a big deal. You just had everyone, you know, essentially worshiping him, Hosanna, uh blessed are you who comes the name of the Lord. Like you've got that. Um, so you gotta imagine they're pretty much on a high horse or high horse, on a high experience here, but there's this impending doom that Jesus keeps talking about that they're trying to wrap their heads around.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And even though, you know, they've been walking together for three years now, and so the fact that none of them knew it was Judas says a couple things. One, Judas was really good at faking it. Yep. Right. And two, Jesus was really good at loving Judas like he loved the other disciples. Yeah, they had no idea.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't like, okay, Judas, you know, nobody was like that. It was like Jesus, like, when he's gonna betray me. And why doesn't he just go like it's Judas? Maybe they would have like tried to kill him or something and prevent him from doing his thing.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's um extra good point. And even after Satan enters into Judas, they still don't know it's him.

unknown:

Right?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, I wonder if like he grew horns or something, like he just like you know, became really darkened. I don't know. Verse 28 says, No one at the table knew why Jesus said it to him. Yeah. Um because he leaves quickly. Yeah, he obeys really well. So that's very interesting that you know Satan can enter into someone and other people not even notice. And I love that they thought Judas was going to pay off some poor person.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Or like, you know, not pay him off, but like, you know, go give to the poor.

Pastor Holland:

Or like what he was in charge of the money bag. He did make the complaint in the previous chapter about oh, we should have given this to the poor. He at least had the reputation of being a guy who cares for the poor. You know, yeah. So really interesting.

Pastor Plek:

All right, let's get into some exodus. Uh, sorry, let's get in some some truth about the nature of man.

Pastor Holland:

Uh Satan can put stuff in our hearts. Ugh. Yeah. And even possess people. We can be possessed by demons. Not as Christians, I would say. Right. I agree. So I think this is, you know, one of those proofs that Judas is not really a Christian. Right. Um if uh this was before Pentecost, though, before the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Um, but so like I would say today, those light cannot dwell with darkness, right? If you if the spirit of God dwells inside you, you can't be possessed by a demon. But non-Christians who don't have the Spirit of God can be possessed. Would you agree? Yeah. Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Uh yeah. How about this? Uh we don't like a God who is a servant. Like Peter is repulsed by the idea that Jesus would flip. And is this like Proverbs? Like uh when a is it a fool becomes king or or something like that? When a servant becomes the master, it's a problem. And I wonder if Peter is going back to sort of that mentality, but Jesus is showing a way to lead that's so different, so unique, and so humbling, uh, that it should make everyone go, wow, Jesus is awesome.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Yeah, I love that. And uh man, when have you ever had your feet washed before? Yeah. What was that like for you? It's weird. Definitely weird. My uh wife, when we were teaching this passage to uh our kids, was like, Hey, I'm gonna wash everyone's feet. And she got to me and I found out I'm really ticklish on my feet. And I was like losing my mind. I could not, anytime she touched my foot, and so I was like, man, I it just made me wonder if any of the disciples were ticklish. Like if Jesus, I would just be so embarrassed if Jesus was washing my feet and I couldn't sit still. And I was like, uh don't know why I'm bringing this up, but it's just uh it's what I think of with this passage now is like I'm so ticklish on my feet.

Pastor Plek:

Well, what's unique about this? Remember, you gotta remember about the feet during that time. It wasn't like they were wearing socks, it was like they were walking around and poop all day. And so when they get up to the upper room because of like animal camel poop and donkey poop on the ground and you're walking in sandals.

Pastor Holland:

It's just disgusting.

Pastor Plek:

So you gotta imagine the bunions, you gotta imagine the like gross toenails, all that is like and he That's why it was a lowly servant. It was like a servant's job. Like you hired someone, like their sole job was just to wash feet. Like, I just need to sit here, and your whole job during the whole day is to wash feet. Yeah, gross.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, and Jesus says, I gotta do it. And you know, the the response I think is is neat. You know, again, what it teaches about people here. He says, Um, if you've already had a bath, you're clean right, you're clean. But you just need to wash your feet because it's like you've been walking around, you gotta clean your feet, but the rest of you is clean. And so it's like when we're saved, we've been washed right of our sins, but we're still walking around in the world. And so we still need to come to Jesus for ongoing cleansing, sanctification.

Pastor Plek:

Is that how you would interpret that? Yeah, which is what we usually do with I mean, it happens, doesn't happen only at um communion, but that's a great time to do it for us where you confess your sins and wash your feet, so to speak.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. So we need, even as Christians, we need ongoing spiritual foot washing from Jesus as he cleanses us from walking in this broken world.

Pastor Plek:

Nice. Okay. Uh what about God now? Teach about God? Yeah, we can go on to about God. Uh okay. What does this teach about God?

Pastor Holland:

Jesus serves us. God serves us. Even though he is Lord, even though he's above us, he is, you know, all powerful, he uses his power for our benefit. That's awesome.

Pastor Plek:

How about Jesus is loyal even when we are not? With with Judas, like he loves him even to the point like nobody knows that he is betraying him. Like he is so kind to him. And even after G like Judas rebukes Jesus, he doesn't call him Satan then. Like he calls Peter Satan, but he doesn't call Judas Satan for uh rebuking his receiving of the worship and the the the nard.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

And which I love that like Jesus is loyal even when we're not, and so even when Peter, you know, he's gonna lose it as well, and Jesus still is faithful to him.

Pastor Holland:

God is really into love. Yeah, we know from first John, it's written by the same author, God is love, right? Right. And then here he says, I give you a new commandment, love one another. And you know, the this it's not the concept of loving your neighbor wasn't new. That's in the old testament. But Jesus is saying, I want you to love one another the way that you've seen me do it. Yes. And so he he's saying, I lived out this love among you, you know, as you have seen me. Um, or what's he say? Verse 34, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. So he he really shows us what it looks like to truly love someone. Um, how about this?

Pastor Plek:

I love how Jesus has just such command of the Old Testament. Psalm 140, Psalm 41, verse 9. Uh, even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. Um and just kind of if you go back, uh this is where you look. It's it is it's a psalm of David, Blessed is the one who considers the poor. In the day of trouble, the Lord delivers him. Lord protects him, keeps him alive. He's called blessed in the land. Uh Lord sustains him. Okay, then keep skipping down. For uh uh all who hate me whisper together about me. They imagine the worst for me. They say a deadly thing is poured out on him, he will not rise again from where he lies. Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. But you, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up that I might repay them. And so there is this like prophetic thing of Psalm 41 that when whenever David speaks, um, like Jesus goes and claims it. Like that's me. Or even when whenever whenever the word of God speaks, he he's like Psalm 82 was of Asaph last time. And uh so Psalm 41, what a powerful thing of like here's how betrayal works that was seen in David's time as a prophetic utterance of one day the Messiah would be betrayed as well.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, wow. It's awesome. Uh God cleanses us, He He loves us, He serves us, He cleanses us. Yeah, it's good.

Pastor Plek:

Um He you know, and this probably gets into an application, but just as I have loved you, so you also must love one another. Does this mean that foot washing is a part of something that every Christian should do?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, there are, aren't there some denominations that do like foot washing like on a regular rhythm? Yeah, I think so. I think like um man, I I don't want to say the wrong one actually, but I've I've heard of uh like an annual foot washing thing where you celebrate as part of Holy Week. You know, you have um not just Good Friday and Holy Saturday and Resurrection Sunday, but you also have, you know, you the the is it Thursday is footwashing? Monday, Thursday. Yeah, something like that. Um and so uh they do foot washing stuff. And uh so yeah, there's some traditions who take it literally. Uh I think the spirit of this text is that you ought to serve one another and not consider yourself above any kind of job that your brother needs.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. So if you want to know who does it, Church of the Brethren. Okay, I thought it was Covenant Brethren Church, uh, Mennonites, yeah, primitive Baptists, old regular Baptists.

Pastor Holland:

That's I guess that's that's a great denomination, right?

Pastor Plek:

They're that old regular Baptists, uh and the Pentecostal and holiness groups, uh, some assemblies of God are church gods. Uh and then Seventh-day Adventists, they do it quarterly. So there you go.

Pastor Holland:

Um yeah. I now I think um I think there is power in doing this literally. Obviously, Jesus did it and it made a powerful, sent a powerful message, but I think the spirit of it is even more important than the specific symbol. The spirit of it being like you need to serve one another and not and and not consider yourself too good or too great. In fact, greatness is getting down and doing the thing, you know, that nobody wants to do um uh if it needs to be done, you know.

Pastor Plek:

So let's get to our application then. Uh all right. So we have our application using spec, sin to avoid or confess, a promise to claim, example to follow, command to obey, and knowledge to believe. Um, how about a sin to avoid? We Peter's presumptuous barrier to God's grace. You shouldn't, you are no way will you you clean me. No way. And that in a sense, what you say, no way you'll go to the cross for me. Uh recently we had a guy um who dressed up as a demon, ironically, uh came to church and we talked, we shared the gospel, and I was like, Jesus, I wouldn't let him die for me. I am too bad. I would not let him do that for me. And it was kind of interesting that I said, that's just pride. And he goes, huh?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, another another type of pride um to avoid or repent from is you know being unwilling to wash someone's feet. Right. There's one form of like, no, you can't wash my feet, but there's also the other form of like, no, that's beneath me. I wouldn't I wouldn't stoop to do something like that. That's beneath me. That's good.

Pastor Plek:

Uh how about um a command to obey? A new command I give you, love one another. Yeah. Just as I love you, so you're also too. Love one another. There's a cult we need to cultivate deliberate love in community, letting it eclipse our personal agendas. That's good. Um simple one, example to follow imitate Jesus' humility. Uh serve without a claim. Uh allowing, you know, put the towel around your waist and get to work.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, I also think the humility of you know, verse 25, that disciple, which most people think is is John here, leaning back against Jesus said to him, Lord, who is it? Like, this is you know, the disciple whom Jesus loved. Most scholars would agree that's John, the author of this, and that he just, you know, really clung to that idea of like, Jesus loves me, and that's my identity, that's what's most important to me. But even him, he's going, Who is it? Is it me? You know? Um, and I think that humility of going, like, it could be me. I'm capable of the most painous sin ever. Left alone, you know, left to my own devices, left to my own, you know. I I got I'm a sinful person. It could be me. Yeah. Um, not to think too highly of yourself.

Pastor Plek:

Man, that's good. Um, yeah, I I really feel like that. That's that's pretty good. Um, how about just promise to claim? Uh everyone will know that you are a disciple of Jesus if you have love for one another. So that's like there's a there's a reality that when you love the church really well, when you love people really well, then people are gonna go, huh, you must be one of his disciples.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. I I love this. Um, when Peter, when Peter said, uh, I will lay down my life for you. And there's some sense in you know in which Jesus is rebuking him of going, You're gonna deny me, actually. But eventually, when he's restored, Peter does lay down his life for Jesus. And um, by the by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit working in him, right? Peter faithfully lives out his calling as a shepherd to the church. He authors two books of the New Testament and is eventually crucified upside down, according to you know Christian history. Eusebius. Yeah, um, because he didn't, you know, feel worthy to be crucified in the same way as his Lord. And so he eventually did lay down his life for Jesus. And I go, man, that's an example to follow for us as well. Be be willing to give your life for the Lord. I think we can end on that.

Pastor Plek:

Hey, give your life for the Lord today. Uh, we'll see you next time on a chapter a day.

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