It was before the Passover Festival. Passover was a festival commemorating the deliverance of the Israelites; the angel of death passed over the households of Israel on which door posts featured the blood of lambs. “Before the Passover Festival” means that Jesus, the true Passover Lamb, was about to be scarified; his hour had come.[1] This is the beginning point that unfolds the acts of Jesus Christ’s last three days on earth. The term ‘the last days on earth’ is in other words ‘death.’ The time of death is approaching for Jesus. John does not record that Jesus knew that his end has come, rather he records that “Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” He knew that he was returning to God.
The life of Jesus Christ was begun for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son to this world (3:16). Jesus also knew that “he had come from God and was returning to God” (v. 3; cf. 8:42; 16:5). This is the self-identity and self-awareness of Jesus. This is a summary of the whole mission of the Son. Indeed, it is a summary of the whole gospel.[2]
“Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (v. 1).
This is the first verse of chapter 13 and it may be regarded as a kind of headline for the remainder of this gospel.[3] The life of Jesus Christ was begun because of the love of God. Therefore, his whole life can be summarized in one word, “love.”
Even at the moment of death where he had to carry the cross, Jesus still loved.
What kind of love is this love of Jesus Christ?
To say that this is only a new category of love, or to insist that this was only divine not human love, may sound like the message of theGnostics. They constantly denied the humanity of Jesus. However, this love is not metaphysical and mysterious, not just divine love but it is the love that we also possess. Unlike us, Jesus simply loved unto the end.
That he loved them unto the end, eis telos means he loved ‘completely.’[4] This love was dedicating himself completely without leaving anything at all for his own. This unchanging love of Jesus swallowed even the impending death of the cross. He knew that he was returning to heaven. While he was hurrying there, he did not cease to love his own as before.[5]
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end”(v. 1).
If we remember that when the evangelist uses “his own” rather than “his disciples,” he wishes to include all believers down the ages.[6]
But we must not allow ourselves to think that this love for the world was in any way undifferentiated. This love with which Christ loved hisown in the world is individual as well as distinctive.[7] Jesus loved all, even the ones who are not worthy to be loved, including Peter who denied him and even Judas who betrayed him.
“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (11:5). In this list of Jesuses’ love, my name is also included and can be protracted to infinity.
[1] Comfort, I am the Way: A Spiritual Journey through the Gospel of John, 114.
[2] Stanley B. Marrow, The Gospel of John: A Reading (New York: Paulist Press, 1995), 227.
[3] R. H. Lightfoot, St. John’s Gospel: A Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960), 260.
[4] R. V. G. Tasker, The Gospel According to St. John: The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, 2nded. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), 154.
[5] Calvin, John, 319.
[6] Marrow, The Gospel of John, 234.
[7] Marrow, The Gospel of John, 225.