Sermons

“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He showed them the full extent of His love.” The sentence is constructed in such a way to emphasize as much as possible Jesus' love for His disciples. The statement tells us that the entire history of Jesus relationship with His disciples was one of affection. Though the focal point of the sentence is undoubtedly the “full extent” of Jesus' love being displayed for the disciples, we cannot skim over this history of love as it is also in clear view. The full extent of Jesus' love ‒ from the foot washing to the crucifixion ‒ is like a mountaintop. But the history of His love expressed to the disciples was just as much a part of that mountain as the peak. And that is what John is communicating here: the strength and fervor of Jesus' commitment to the disciples over the last 3 1⁄2 years. So, we might ask, “In what ways was this strength and fervor of commitment and love expressed to them?”