Thematic Studies
Upper Room Discourse
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.
I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:14-17)
Because all power in heaven and earth had been placed in the hands of Jesus, he was, in a sense, directing his own death.
He was in command throughout all this amazing series of events.
The passage known as the Upper Room Discourse in the Gospel of John, chapters 13 through 17, takes us into the intimate thoughts of Jesus just before his Crucifixion. Some have called this the "holy of holies" of Scripture. That is, if you think of Scripture as a temple, this is the sanctuary, where you come into the very presence of God himself. By means of his words to his disciples, we are permitted here to enter into the thinking and emotions of Jesus just before his own crucifixion. Within hours of this event, the Lord was hanging upon a cross. In less than twenty-four hours he was dead and buried. These therefore constitute the last words of Jesus before his own death.
As we look carefully, then, at this passage--a few verses at a time--we will begin to see more clearly into the heart of our Lord, into his total understanding of our needs: to see his preparations and provision for us, and to understand more clearly how we are to bear the fruit which remains.
