JOHN 13.3-5: Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, (4) rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. (5) Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (ESV)
Previously in the ministry of Jesus, He taught His disciples that they were not to be leaders in the same way that the leaders and rulers of society at large typically behaved. Jesus’ way of leadership is the exercise of service to others combined with humility. In Mark 10.42-43 Jesus taught His disciples, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.”
So the disciples were going to be entrusted in the near future with leadership in the Kingdom of God after Jesus returned to heaven. And they were to be leaders who followed the example of leadership that Jesus demonstrated. There is to be no self exaltation, but rather the conduct of being a servant to the ones being led, together with humility as the frame of mind.
Jesus spent much of His time during His ministry teaching His disciples how He wanted them to conduct themselves after He was gone. Jesus taught them the mysteries of the Kingdom of God and gave them opportunities to experience and see the power of God working tangibly in the real world.
These insights and experiences and revelations could have made it easy in the future for the disciples to engage in self exaltation and seek their own personal self interests above the interests of others. But behavior in the Kingdom of God runs contrary to the behavior of society at large in a wide variety of ways. And Jesus pressed this point during His Sermon on the Mount. There must be no self exaltation. No self promotion. No self centeredness. No self reliance above reliance upon Christ.