John 13 · a question people ask
"You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand later" (13:7). When is later?
The chapter doesn't say. When he had washed their feet and sat down again, Jesus asked them, "Do you know what I have done to you?" (13:12), and called what he had done "an example" (13:15). John's Gospel also tells of things the disciples understood or remembered only afterwards: "When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this" (2:22), and "His disciples didn’t understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered" (12:16). These notes set the verses side by side and don't say which later Jesus meant.
The verses
“Jesus answered him, “You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand later.””
“So when he had washed their feet, put his outer garment back on, and sat down again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me, ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord.’ You say so correctly, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should also do as I have done to you.”
“When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.”
“His disciples didn’t understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him, and that they had done these things to him.”