Love is the key

April 9, 2021

13:1-35 Loving one another, just as Jesus loves us

Read John 13:1-5

Life and light are keywords in John 1-12. In those chapters, words related to life occur fifty times, to light thirty-two times, and (surprisingly perhaps) to love only six times. But that emphasis is turned on its head in John 13-17, with only six references to life, none at all to light, and thirty-one occurrences of words related to love. Love is the keyword – and the key action – to look out for as we go through these chapters.

Our experience of God’s love, and our love for others, are both rooted in Jesus’s love for us. John 13-17 begins with a declaration that “he now showed them the full extent of his love” (1). It’s clear from the context that this goes far beyond the lowly act of foot-washing (4-5). The Passover feast was at hand, recalling the Exodus from Egypt, a rescue marked by a lamb’s blood. Now the Lamb of God was about to achieve a far greater salvation for them through his sacrifice (John 1:29; 1 Cor.5:7). This would be the fulfilment of the purpose for which he had come from God and after which he would then return to him (1,3; Luke 9:31).

His washing of their feet is certainly a wonderful example of the servant-humility which should characterise his followers (13:14-15). But it is far more than that – it is a sign of the cleansing which he will provide through his imminent death, and therefore a sign too of the full extent of his love for us (Rom.5:8). It’s this humbling of himself even to death that is the basis of the call for Christians to love and to serve one another in the same sacrificial way. But the starting place for that has to be the knowledge of how much each one of us is loved by him.