John 13:1
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
From chapter 13 to chapter 17, Jesus is alone with His disciples.
His own — the 12 disciples
He loved them — Even with the knowledge that all would abandon Him, one would deny Him and one would betray Him.
to the end — can also be translated “to the utmost.”
Knowing full well that He was soon to suffer and die, Jesus’ main concern was for His disciples. He expressed His love by service — washing their feet — as a foretaste of His greater service soon to come.
It would be natural for the disciples to conclude that His ministry unto them was also ended. But not so. It would continue, and that is what this blessed section of John’s Gospel is primarily designed to show us. He loves these disciples (and us) not only unto the Cross, but “unto the end.” His return to the Father would neither terminate not diminish the activities of His love for His own: in Heaven, He is still occupied with the interest of His people. — Pink, page 292.
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“Now before the feast of the Passover,” immediately before, for on the morrow Christ was to die as the true Lamb. The “Passover” itself was eaten at the close of the fourteenth day of Nisan (Exodus 12:6, 8); but “the feast,” which lasted seven days, began on the fifteenth (Numbers 28:17). What we have here, then, transpired on the eve before our Lord’s death. — Pink, page 294.
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