After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him (John 13:5).
There can be little doubt that in this passage Jesus is deliberately working out a parable for the instruction of His disciples. He is dramatizing for them the truth of His own ministry, of His own redemptive mercy. He is showing them by this means what He had come into the world to do. You can trace the parallel in the events that John records: First, Jesus rose from supper, just as He had previously risen from His throne of glory. Then He laid aside His garments. Paul tells us that He laid aside His glory when He came into the world in the incarnate state. He laid aside the exercise of His own deity. He did not come to act as God; He came to act as man indwelt by God (see Philippians 2:5-11).