When [Judas] had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.  Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

—John 13:31-35

If you knew you had one day left to live and you were healthy enough to do anything, what would you do? I suppose the answer depends on your view of your purpose. Jesus had no doubt about His purpose and He spent His last day striving to accomplish every item on His list.

Calendars describe today as Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday, tomorrow as Good Friday and Sunday as Easter in remembrance of Jesus’ last Passover meal, death and resurrection, respectively. Matthew, Mark and Luke move quickly through the events of that Thursday, but John pauses to describe the most amazing evening of teaching ever recorded.  

John was there. He experienced the teaching, knew the intimacy, witnessed shattered trust and experienced shattered expectation. While other gospel writers move quickly through the evening, pushing towards the agony and resurrection to come, John places tremendous value on the events of that Thursday, and he fills six chapters recording them – John 13-18.

I encourage you to read the chapters. In this, your umpteenth day of quarantine, you may have exhausted your reading resources and Netflix viewing list. I encourage you to turn to John 13, and before you begin reading, please pray asking God to open your eyes and ears and heart to receive His holy word, to enlighten the eyes of your spirit, and to fill you with His clarity.

This evening was the culmination of it all. Jesus had been moving towards this evening throughout His ministry. Jesus knew God the Father “had given all things into his hands” (John 13:3). He knew what was about to happen; He knew His time with the disciples was short; and He knew that the disciples did not really understand what He was talking about. They were not at all ready for the events that were about to unfold around them. They were still surprised by His teaching; yet the time had come for this evening.  

Jesus demonstrated loving service through a parable in action. He assumed the wardrobe and position of a slave, and He washed the disciples’ feet. The disciples were stunned. They were extremely uncomfortable seeing their Lord humble Himself and kneel before each of them. They could not bear the thought of their Lord washing their feet. This was the task for a slave, not their Lord. It was beneath Him. Peter refused. He said, “You will never wash my feet” (John 13:8). Then he relented.

Jesus finished, put back on His normal clothing, returned to the table and said, 

“Do you know what I have done for you? You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:12-15).

A little later in the evening Jesus said,

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35).

The command to love one another was not new. It was as old as Leviticus, which says, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). But by demonstrating what humble loving service looks like, Jesus took the command to places the disciples never imagined. To love one another meant more than refraining from being mean, or feeling kindness or compassion towards another, or thinking compassionate thoughts about another, it meant kneeling, getting dirty and taking action to physically demonstrate kindness, compassion and love. To love one another as Jesus loves us means laying down our life for other people, even people we may not know and even people we may know but dislike.

This is not human. Fortunately, Jesus continues teaching that He is the embodiment of God and that He sends the Holy Spirit to us, so while we are being asked to behave in a superhuman way, we have His Presence enabling us to do what would otherwise seem impossible. He explains, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). He embodies the path leading to God, He embodies redemption, salvation, wholeness, life.  

And He teaches about the Holy Spirit saying, 

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides in you, and he will be in you.” John 14:16-17

Later Jesus continues saying,

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you of everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”  John 14:25-27

And He continues teaching and teaching important lesson after important lesson. Each sentence is deep and weighty and powerful, but some of the lessons are quite painful to hear. He foretells the betrayal and denial that will soon happen, and after using the image of a grapevine explaining the relationship between God the Father, Jesus Christ, His disciples and love and tangible evidence of love (see John 15:1-17), Jesus shifts to discuss hatred.  

“If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world – therefore the world hates you.”  John 15:18-19

The world hates me? But I want to be liked. I want my social media posts to be liked. But “you do not belong to the world…” While that is painful to hear, it gets worse. Jesus promises persecution to those associated with His name.

He teaches on and on and on, powerful, life-changing lessons one after another. At one point He says, 

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:12-14

Each sentence of the evening is full and powerful. We can mine each for meaning the rest of our lives here on earth and never fully understand their depths. They are quite simply beyond our human comprehension, but Jesus tried to explain the mysteries to the eleven who remained and through John’s writing, to us. To fully comprehend the message is a superhuman task. Fortunately, “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into the truth.”

This evening was the culmination of Jesus’ teaching. It is amazing to read how Jesus chose to spend His last evening on earth in fully human form. He worked and worked trying to complete His purpose, and at the end, it was more than mere humans were capable of comprehending, and the Holy Spirit continues helping us today.

May you receive His Holy Spirit in fullness. May you receive His wholeness, His peace and His strength. May you receive His love, light and life fully so that He flows out of you influencing the world around you. May He enlighten the eyes of your spirit so that you know Him with new intimacy. In Jesus’ holy name I pray, Amen.