Again what can we liken the Kingdom of God to?
As always the text will only skim through the full meaning of the message, because it's listeners were already well grounded in its background, had a pre understanding we do not have access to.
Which stretches right back to Genesis.
People in the Ancient Near East would immediately recognize the first three chapters of Genesis as, not as a description of the origins of creation, but as the building of a temple. That is the document format in which temple building is described. Ancient texts of the religions of that time follow this format. The last step in the building is the installation of the image of the deity in whose honour the temple is constructed, reflecting, informing visitors about his identity . Finally, God takes up residence, just as anyone would take up residence of a house they build. Even that example is a bit weak. Better still is the idea of a person who builds a ship or a carriage and then USES it, saving himself from walking or swimming. This becomes obvious when we realise that God doesn't need rest. It's just the old way of saying God commissioned, operationalized creation, setting in motion a system that did exactly what He designed it to do.
It follows then that the rest that God gives men is from doing what their spirit informs them they were created to do, be blessings to the world, but are unable to do, because of the unsubdued body they are attached to. As Paul says, it is not I who sin, but sin in me.
I repeat, all the promises made to God's people must be viewed in the context of the promise made to Abraham.
Reaching the Promised Land is the outward manifestation of what happens when God's people are exposed to His training and disciplining (drinking from the Rock, Christ) and avoid disloyalty and own the task, share God's interest in it, have a circumcised heart.
Even David, in Psalms 95 said there remained a Sabbath rest to be entered. Remember, Israel has already lived in the physical Promised Land for quite some time. Yet David reminds Israel of the rest each one of God's people must enter.
Joshua could not bring them into that rest. Only God could. The same way He brought them closer and closer to the physical rest. By works and words , miracles and revelations. First through Moses, who convinced Israel that God's presence was with him, so that they prised themselves out of the toxic security of Egypt, then through Joshua, when Moses did not glorify that Presence. The first century church would also be brought out of the compromised security of the world by the word Jesus speaks to them, because He glorified God by saying all that he did could not be credited to him but to God. No one is going to listen to the words or be impressed by the deeds of men the way they would by those of God. That's only logical.
Towards justification, cleaning by bathing.
Towards sanctification, by foot washing.
These meanings can be seen in the text? Yes, with God's help. I used to say with the help of the Holy Spirit, but it sounded so boastful, but really it's an admission of weakness. I hope my alternate choice of words avoid this impression.
Was Judas clean? Nope. But that's another topic.
Was Peter clean, justified? He responded correctly to the word God spoke through Jesus, so yes. Was Peter sanctified? Not yet. Foot washing, more words and works, would do that. They would deal with different aspects of loyalty: complaining, immorality, self preservation, sin bearing through love. Great topics, each deserving it's own discussion.
That's the modus operandi. Words and works manifested were so apparently having its origin in God that Nicodemus confessed God was with Jesus. This is how the mind is renewed. Confirmation that the source of the signs and words of knowledge was God, therefore reliable, and therefore worthy of placing confidence on. Towards becoming more and more loyal. Israel knew God was present in the works they saw, but it did not move them to be loyal:
Hebrews 3:
9“
There your fathers tested me and tried me, and they saw my works for forty years.
Ditto Jerusalem:
Matthew 11:
21“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
This is how the heart ( Hebraism for mind) is circumcised, made sensitive to God, responsive to His teachings. Through conviction, changing of mind, 'meta noia', vaguely translated as 'repent'.
The writer of Hebrews addresses the same issue. He recognises that there is a 'Today' in every believer's life.
Hebrews 4:
1Therefore we must be wary that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, none of you may seem to have come short of it.
2For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in with those who heard it in faith.
3For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “
As I swore in my anger, ‘
They will never enter my rest!’” And yet God’s works were accomplished from the foundation of the world.
4For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this way: “
And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,”
5but to repeat the text cited earlier: “
They will never enter my rest!”
6Therefore it remains for some to enter it, yet those to whom it was previously proclaimed did not enter because of disobedience.
7So God again ordains a certain day, “Today,” speaking through David after so long a time, as in the words quoted before, “
O, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts.”
8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken afterward about another day.
9Consequently a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God.
10For the one who enters God’s rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works.
11Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.