He Loved Them to the End

"Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end."  --John 13:1

Life with Jesus is life immersed in the gracious love of God-- embracing, drenching, challenging, shocking, strong yet tender, moment-by-moment, decision-by-decision, transforming agape love-- given without demanding anything in return.    This love destabilizes his disciples in one way while rooting them deeply in an alternative way of living.
When Jesus gathers his disciples for the Passover, he knows that "his  hour has come;" that the time he has been preparing them for is here.  And how do the twelve arrive?  Hopelessly wrongheaded, it would seem, their minds full of assumptions about their own privilege in God's emerging kingdom, bickering with each other over which positions each will hold in the new administration, blissfully deaf to the passion of his sharing.  Later in the evening, as Jesus pours out heart and soul to the Father in prayer, the ones who share life with him will fall asleep.  But they are not hopeless.

Having loved his own who were in the world, heloved them to the end.  Jesus sees them differently than they outwardly present themselves.  He knows them, and it is his commitment that they will someday know themselves as well, and as lovingly, as he knows them.

He kneels down and washes their feet; each one of them.  He invites them to learn how to do the same for one another.  John says that Jesus washes their feet "knowing that he had come from God and was going to God." In other words, the humble footwashing is a deep expression of God's giving.

The NT word translated "end" can mean completion or fullness.  Jesus loves them to completion, loves them to fullness, loves them wholly.

Jesus loves us all.  He loves us to the end of our misconceptions.He loves us not just in our stubborn illusions but to the end of them. He loves us to the ends of our inattentions and sleepiness; to the ends of every betrayal and denial, to the end of every barrier--and beyond!  He loves us into the wonder of our true, God-made, Spirit-inspired selves!  God loves us beyond every end, into the new beginning , into new life in the risen Christ.  He loves us this way, and shows us how to do the same with one another. Because such love is the defining characteristic of a believer.