The Pulpit Commentary on John 13:1-3

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Farewell token of Christ's love to his disciples.

We are now to trace the development of faith in the body of the disciples, responsive to the supreme manifestations of his love to them during his earthly ministry.

I. OUR LORD'S KNOWLEDGE OF HIS APPROACHING DEATH. "Jesus knowing that his hour was come."

1. This knowledge was strictly prophetic. It was no mere forecast, grounded on a calculation of the extremeness of Jewish hatred. He had often evaded arrest, because "his hour was not yet come."

2. It is a solemn thing to know the hour of our death.

II. OUR LORD'S INCREASING TENDERNESS TO THE DISCIPLES IN VIEW OF THE FINAL SEPARATION. "Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the uttermost."

1. The disciples, in spite of their many faults, were the objects of Christ's supreme love. Doubly dear because they were "his own," as given him by the Father.

2. His love was redoubled at the thought of his approaching separation from them.

(a) The devil has power to inject evil into the hearts of men. There is great mystery in the methods of his operation, but the facts of his influence over men are without dispute among those who believe in Scripture.

(b) Yet the responsibility of Judas for his wicked act was in no degree diminished by this temptation of Satan. He was perfectly free to resist or to yield to the tempter.

(c) The fact that Jesus washes the feet of Judas, his betrayer, throws a vivid light upon this last token of Christ's tenderness.

(a) It was because of his Messianic greatness that he now humbled himself to fulfill the office of the lowest. The sense of absolute sovereignty is all the more impressive from the thought of his approaching death. He" was crucified in weakness." The thought of

(b) his Divine origin and

(c) his Divine destination made his act all the more impressive, with a force of example that was designed to act irresistibly upon the minds of his disciples through all time.

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