He Loved Them to the End

[Read John 13:1]

The older I get, the more I realize the numerous ways in which we are shaped by culture beyond what we actually understand. To be honest, that can be both a good thing and a bad thing. If we're shaped by a culture that is bringing us into conformity to Jesus Christ, then it's a good thing. However, if we're shaped by a culture that is continually drawing us away from Christ, that's a bad thing.

One of the ways we're heavily shaped by culture is our understanding of words and the meaning of words in particular. There are certain words that I can say where it's just assumed that we know what that word means. Yet, if we try to dig deeper into what we mean when we use certain words, we soon find out that people mean a variety of things when they use those words.

One of these words is "love." What do we mean when we use the word "love"? In order to get a better idea of how our culture defines, or understands, the word "love" I decided to dive into some of the top love songs of the past couple years, and the top love songs of all times. I go to music because I think songwriters are the poets of our day and I think these songs become popular because they resonate with something inside large groups of people so, if a song is popular, that means its message is popular with a bunch of people. In my quick search through some of these songs, I noticed two overwhelming themes come across.

Let me share some of these lyrics with you. I'm not going to read the entirety because I don't have time and I don't want to. Most of these songs aren't great. One recent song says, "Let me deep in your love. Wrap your heart around me" (Deep In Your Love, Bebe Rexha). Another newer song says, "And I hate that I don't hate it. The feeling, the feeling inside" (Dance You Outta My Head, Cat Janice). The most well-known of these songs says this, "I wanna know what love is (Love that you feel inside) I want you to show me (I'm feeling so much love) I wanna feel what love is (And you know, you just can't hide) I know you can show me" (I Wanna Know What Love Is, Foreigner). They all had a theme, but the last one makes it very clear. What is love? It's a feeling. Something you feel inside. Something that you feel inside as a response to someone else. That's what they think love is.

The other theme is close but different. One recent song says, "But you don't need me like I need you. Pray that I won't be alone" (Like I Need U, Keshi). Another well-known song says, "When a man loves a woman Spend his very last dime And trying to hold on to what he needs He'd give up all his comforts" (When a Man Loves a Woman, Michael Bolton). A golden oldy says, "Woah, my love, my darling I've hungered for your touch A long, lonely time And time goes by so slowly And time can do so much Are you still mine? I need your love I need your love God speed your love to me" (Unchained Melody, Righteous Brothers). Notice the theme? Love is when you recognize there's another person you NEED, you cannot live without them.

Now, of course, there's a level of truth in some of these songs, which is why they resonate with so many people. Yet, notice the focus of each of these songs. It's all very selfish. It's all about me, me, me. I want to feel a certain way and you make me feel this way. So, I want you. I need you. I "love" you. Yet, is it possible that they really only love themself? Is it possible that the reason we have so many relationship problems in our culture right now is because we've completely misunderstood the meaning of love? Is it possible that we have been trying to turn "love" into something it was never created to be? We're going to learn a few things in our passage this morning.

This passage begins with many ominous reminders. If we were watching a movie, this is when the music would change to something much more serious, much more dark, sounding much more like a funeral dirge. It begins by saying, “Now before the Feast of the Passover...” (John 13:1, ESV). Don't forget that the Passover is coming. Don't forget that a lamb is going to be killed. Don't forget what John the Baptist said WAY back at the beginning of this Gospel: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, ESV).

It goes on to say, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come...” (John 13:1, ESV). Remember what we talked about a couple weeks ago. When Jesus finally said that his hour had come, what did he teach his disciples? That a grain of wheat must die and be buried in order for it to produce much fruit. So, this is another reminder. Don't forget that it's Jesus' hour. Don't forget that he knows he's going to die.

And, just in case you didn't pick up the theme yet, we read, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father...” (John 13:1, ESV). He's going to depart out of the world and enter into the presence of the Father, through his death. The word "depart" is often used to talk about death and dying.

Everything about the way this passage begins is written to remind us that Jesus is going to die. This verse marks a transition in the Gospel of John. That's why it's written this way. We're being told that the story is moving into the next phase of Jesus' life. We're moving from Jesus' life on earth to the story of Jesus' death and everything from this point on in the gospel is being written for that purpose and with that in mind. Jesus is going to die.

It's also important to recognize how important/significant John sees this event. John's gospel has a total of twenty-one chapters and seven of those chapters are devoted to the death of Jesus. John wants us to know that this is the work that Jesus came to do on earth. He came to live, but he also came to die. So, John focuses a ton of time on this subject.

We also read this powerful line, “...he loved them to the end.” (John 13:1, ESV). This is talking about his people--the people of God. So, not only is the rest of the gospel about Jesus' death, it's also being framed as showing us the way in which Jesus loved his people. And it's important to know that the word "end" can be translated a couple different ways. It can mean “end,” but it can also mean "completely". Because John loves to play with words, I think he's meaning both when he uses this word. Jesus loved his people completely--to the full, as much as you can love someone. How did he love them fully? He loved his people fully by dying on the cross. Notice the wording in this well-known passage: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13, ESV). Notice the word "greater." No greater love. No love more complete. No love more full, than willing laying down his life for his people. Jesus loved his people fully, completely by laying down his life.

Yet, as I already mentioned, I think John has a double meaning in mind here. Not only did Jesus love his people completely and fully, but “...he loved them to the end.” (John 13:1, ESV). This was a love that didn't quit, didn't fade. Throughout scripture, this love is often described as God's steadfast love and faithfulness--a love that doesn't quit.

In Hebrews, it's described as a love that finishes the race: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:1–4, ESV). Jesus' love finished the race, despite all of the trials and difficulties and hostilities he faced, he finished the race. He didn't grow weary or fainthearted. Rather, with joy before him, he endured the cross and loved his people to the end.

This understanding of love is completely contradictory to the way our culture understands love AND our natural inclinations. All of those song lyrics about love at the beginning have no idea what to do with this kind of love. Where is the song about loving someone so completely that you are willing to lay down your life for them? Not because you need them, not because it makes you feel better, but because you love them. Where's the song? Where is the song that talks about lovingly laying down your life to the end, with quitting removed from the table? Jesus is showing us what true, full love looks like. Since he's the one who created it, we should pay attention to what he has to say. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13, ESV).

Here's something connected with this that I realized a few weeks ago. If true and full love means laying down your life for someone, it also means true and full love requires some level of suffering. It requires suffering because you are giving a piece of yourself every time you show love to someone else. That means it's never going to be easy. It's always going to hurt a little. But that's what true and full love IS and through the suffering and giving of ourselves comes something beautiful (remember the fruit that comes from the dead seed).

It's important to realize that I'm not just talking about romantic love between a husband and a wife. I AM talking about that, but I'm talking about so much more. We're commanded to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Another way of saying that is we're commanded to love God with a true, full love. What does that look like? “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1, ESV). Loving God with a true, full love isn't about warm fuzzy feelings, it's about laying down your life as a sacrifice, giving yourself to him, and that means there's a level of suffering, but also something beautiful. It's the same way we love our neighbor as ourselves. How do we do that? “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13, ESV). We lay down our lives for our neighbors by giving of ourselves for them. That involves a level of suffering, but it's a suffering and death that bears much fruit and turns into something beautiful.

Because true, full love involves a level of suffering, John has to say in one of his letters, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18, ESV). It's easy to talk about love, but it's much harder to actually love, to lay down our lives and love someone. That's why we're tempted to keep talking about it, but never actually doing it. That's why it's easier to listen to the songs and watch the Hallmark movies, than to actually do the thing. Yet, John reminds us that Love is a lot like Faith. Just like Faith without works is dead, Love without works is also dead. True, full love requires us to lay down our lives to the end.

There's one more part to this passage that is important not to miss. We read this line, “...having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (John 13:1, ESV). Jesus didn't just love his people to the end, he loved them while on earth--that's why it says "having loved them." But that's not the part that I want to emphasize here. John emphasizes that he loved his people who were in the world. For John, the world is a negative place. Remember what we read in the first chapter of this gospel, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” (John 1:10–11, ESV). The world rejected its creator. The world is a place of rebellion against God and, as a result, a place of trials and tribulations and difficulties. And John is especially reminding God's people that Jesus loved them even in the midst of that world, even in the midst of those trials and tribulations. And he not only loved them, but he loved them to the full, and he loved them to the end. He loved them in the midst of their trials and difficulties by laying down his life.

I realize this doesn't necessarily make sense for most people. How does Jesus dying help us in the midst of the trials and difficulties in this world? Or to connect it with this morning's passage, how does Jesus love us in the midst of our trials and suffering by laying down his life?

The first answer to that question comes from a passage I already shared in this message. John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, ESV). When Jesus lovingly laid down his life, he loved us to the full by taking away our sin. Because of Jesus' life and death, we can look to him in faith, trust him, and have our sins taken away and cleansed, and then have our lives shaped and molded into his image. I think the only reason why anyone wouldn't understand the powerful love in this act, is because they don't fully understand their own sinfulness. This IS the way he loved us in our trials and difficulties by his death.

We're also given some other ways Jesus' death helps us in our trials and tribulations. Eventually, we'll read this from Jesus, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, ESV). We're promised that we will have trials and difficulties and suffering in this world. It's going to happen. Yet, we can have peace. How? Because we know that Jesus has overcome the trials and the sufferings of this world. How did Jesus overcome? Through his death (and yes his resurrection). Jesus overcame by lovingly laying down his life for us. That's how he loved us in our trials and difficulties by his death.

Let me share one more way Jesus loved us in our trials and difficulties through his death. We read this, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32, ESV). When we see the way that Jesus lovingly laid down his life for us, we can see clearly that he refused to withhold anything from us. He was even willing to lay down his life for us, because he loved us. And because we know that Jesus' love doesn't quit, it will continue to endure to the end, we also know that Jesus still loves us NOW in the midst of our trials and difficulties. And that means that he will not withhold whatever we need to endure whatever trial and difficulty we face. We have whatever we need to endure whatever comes our way in this world.

Not only do we have whatever we need to endure the trials and difficulties that come our way, but we will have whatever we need to love our God and our neighbor completely by laying down our lives for them. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, this is how we were created to live our lives. This is what love looks like. It's loving people to the full, and loving them to the end by laying down our lives for them. We begin by laying down our lives and giving them to our God by faith, and from there, by faith, we go out lovingly laying down our lives for our neighbor.