The Full Extent of His Love

"It was just before the Passover feast.  Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father.  Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love... He got up from the meal, took off His outer garment and wrapped a towel around His waist... poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him."  (John 13:1-5)

John's gospel is my favorite.  In it I discover a deeply intimate portrait of the love of Christ, especially as John writes about the Passover meal Jesus shared with His disciples in the Upper Room just hours before His crucifixion. 

Did you know that John never referred to himself as "the disciple Jesus loved" until after Jesus washed his feet that last meal?  Penning his gospel decades later I think John grasped it - the full extent of His love - as he remembered this last night with our Lord.  Jesus, knowing His death was imminent, chose to kneel before His disciples and wash their feet.

Picture it with me:

Jesus removes His outer garment - the one with tassels all Jewish men wore symbolizing God's authority.  In its place He wraps the towel of a servant around His waist.  Kneeling before each disciple He washes their feet, drying them on the towel.  As He does this He transfers the dirt from each of them onto Himself.

Perhaps John's experience in the Upper Room that last evening brought him to a deeper realization of the full extent ot Jesus' love.  After all, it would not be until he looked back on the evening after the crucifixion that he would realize Jesus also washed the feet of the one who would betray Him - Judas.

A few hours later Jesus would do for us what He had, in a sense symbolically done for His disciples.  The Sinless One who had taken off the robe of a king and put on the garb of a servant willingly transferred the dirt and filth of our lives onto Himself, hanging on a Cross to die, paying a debt He didn't owe, so we could be washed clean by His blood.

"The disciple Jesus loved..."  a simple yet profound identity.

When you stand in the grace of God, that is what you are too...

...the disciple Jesus loves...