Coming Forth, Going Back, Wrapped Up

 

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God…” John 13:3.

 

As we considered a few reflections ago, there is an Inclusio of Identity in the Upper Room in which we see Christ Jesus coming from the Father and going back to the Father (John 13:1 – 3; 14:3,12; 16:28; 17:5, 8, 11, 25 – 26). We also see Jesus taking us up into Himself, into His journey, and drawing us into the koinonia of the Trinity. That is, Jesus wraps our lives up into Himself, He envelops us, drawing us to “where I am” (John 14:3; 17:24) so that we might see and participate in His glory (John 17:22 – 24).

 

One of the ways Jesus expresses this is when He says, “Abide in Me, and I in you…I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (see John 15:1 – 11).

 

We also see in John 13:3 that Jesus was “knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands”. Therefore, after the Resurrection when Jesus gives us the Great Commission He says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Mt. 28:18). We “go” and “make disciples” in the authority of Jesus Christ – not on our own authority, not in our own volition, not by our own ingenuity (see also 1 Cor. 1:17 – 31).

 

In our passage, consider that not only is Jesus about to be betrayed, but that His betrayer is with Him, eating with Him during one of the High Holy Feasts of Israel – Passover. Consider the method of execution that awaits Jesus – how many times have Jesus and His disciples witnessed a crucifixion in their travels? How many times have they prayed for the condemned and suffering victims of crucifixion as they endured those excruciating slow and shameful deaths – stripped of all dignity and humanity?

 

Considering what awaits Jesus, does it really seem as if “all things” had been given into His hands? Well, if we consider that He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36); if we consider that Jesus came for this very “hour” (John 12:27 – 28; 13:1; 17:1); then yes, perhaps we can see that all things have been given into His hands. If we see this, then perhaps we will also begin to glimpse the incredible love that Jesus has for us – that having all power and authority He dies for us, bearing our sins for us, bearing our sinful selves – becoming sin for us that we might become “the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

 

Jesus has all authority and all power, and He uses that not for self – preservation but for the salvation and blessing of others – O dear friends, what do we do when we are given authority and power and ability? Jesus eats with His betrayer, with the agent whose heart and inner being have been given to evil (John 13:2, 27; 17:12). Jesus washes the feet of His disciples, even the feet of Judas. How can He do this? How can we do this?

 

Friends, Jesus, even in the agony of soul (John 13:21), abides in the peace of God – and He gives that peace to us. “Peace I leave with you; My peace do I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27). Again, Jesus speaks these words in the midst of betrayal and impending crucifixion, a crucifixion which is a crucifixion not only of body, but of soul – a crucifixion beyond our experience or comprehension in which He will cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” as He becomes our sin bearer.

 

So then, can we eat with our betrayers? Are we able to wash the feet of those around us when the veil of suffering and isolation is descending upon us? When those around us are unaware of what is actually transpiring around them? When God is making us sacrifices for the deliverance of others?

 

Of course we can…in Christ, for this is our calling…as we abide in Him.

 

In Christ, we participate in His coming from the Father and going back to the Father, for our lives are wrapped up in Christ. Paul writes, “…your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Therefore we can live in the assurance of our eternal life in Jesus Christ, an assurance that in Him we are secure in our purpose and destiny, that we are sharers with Him in His inheritance (Romans 8:14 – 17, 28 - 30) and that this inheritance includes doing the will of our Father as we are transformed into the image of His Son.

 

We do not understand these things, we cannot really explain them, but we can participate in them in Christ. We are becoming who we are in Christ and He is becoming our All in all. Paul writes, “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4).

 

John writes, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” (1 John 3:2).

 

Until then, let us learn to live with Jesus in the Upper Room (John chapters 13 – 17). It is a place of destiny and transition, a portal into the Holy of Holies. It is a place in which the inside is much larger and grander than the outside.

 

Loving To The End

 

 

“Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would 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 does it mean that Jesus “loved them to the end”? It could mean that He loved them to the end of His life on earth. But would that mean He loved them up until the Crucifixion, or that He loved them up until the Ascension? In either case, He certainly continues to love them as the Resurrected Christ. So it could mean that He loved them up until the end of the first part of His ministry, up until the Crucifixion; or up until the Ascension.

 

Could it mean that He loved them up until the completion of His work on earth? If that is the case, then He still continues to love them up until the consummation of all of His work on earth, in and through His Body, the Church, and beyond…whatever “beyond” may mean. In other words, “end” may be chronological or it may refer to “goal” and “purpose.”

 

Or, of course, we may be looking at both meanings, at two sides of the same coin; and I think that is likely the case – after all, who can understand the fulness of the ways of God?

 

So here we are, in the Upper Room with Jesus on the night of His betrayal, on the eve of His Crucifixion, and what is Jesus doing? He is loving His own and He is loving them to the end – an end that extends beyond the Upper Room down through the ages as well as beyond the Upper Room in terms of spatial and dimensional transcendence. After all, He will soon enter into the Heavenly Tabernacle on our behalf (Hebrews 9:23 – 25), as He will enter into His People (John 14:23; 17:23).

 

As He is loving His own, He is praying for His own:

 

“I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given me; for they are Yours…I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word…” (John 17:9, 20).

 

You see, dear friends, Jesus is loving and praying for us, He is loving and praying for you and for me. We are the “joy that was set before Him” that caused Him to “endure the Cross and despise the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus had us as the “end” in view, in His heart, in His “being” on that night in the Upper Room.

 

But now we have the question, “Are we loving others to the end?”

 

After all, Jesus tells us, He tells me and He tells you, He tells His People:

 

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34 – 35).

 

Then He says, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.” (John 15:12 – 14).

 

Is not the end purpose of our lives to love others as Christ Jesus loves us? And are we not to love in this sacrificial fashion until the end of this physical life?

 

May it be said of us all who are in Christ, when we have breathed our last in this world, that we have loved others until the end.

 

Our God has given us others to love; in our families, churches, workplaces, schools, communities – some will love us back, some will not; some will be kind to us, others will not; some will scatter when betrayals come, perhaps some will not.

 

What will be said of us?

 

Will it be said that we have been faithful to our heavenly calling, and loved others until the end?

 

O heavenly Father, dear Lord Jesus, teach us to love others to the end of life and for the end purpose and destiny that You have for us all – may it be said of us, that we love others as Jesus loves us…until the end.