He Loved Them to the End

This past week we remembered the death and resurrection of Jesus. I spent some time meditating on John’s account of the night before Jesus’s arrest. He begins with these words, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

What did it mean for Jesus to know that “his hour to depart out of this world had come?” At least it had to mean that he knew in a very short time he would be arrested, abandoned by his friends, betrayed by Peter, abused, humiliated, tortured, crucified, take on our sin, be separated from the Father and Spirit, and die. We might have expected that at that moment Jesus would be distracted by what he was facing. We would have understood if his focus turned inward on himself. But he was not distracted. His focus was not on himself. It was unwaveringly on those he came to love. He loved them to the end.

In these unsettled times of pandemic, financial crisis, and upheaval we may be tempted to turn inward and to focus on our own situation. We can easily be consumed with anxiety and fear. May it not be so. Instead of turning inward and focusing on our anxiety let us continually turn our fears over to God. Let us remember that “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). We can trust God. We can trust him to graciously give us
everything we need for “life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

And, because we can trust him to take care of us, let us turn our attention outward. Let us focus unwaveringly on those that God has put in our path, on how we can love and care for them.

Much love,

Barry