John 13:1

A dramatic break in the outline of this Gospel appears here. The previous chapters related to Jesus' revelation to the chosen people who rejected him, and with significant overtones of revelation to the entire world. Beginning here, the narrative develops Jesus' special revelation to the disciples who received him, despite the betrayal by Judas and Peter's denial. This chapter details the washing of the apostles' feet (John 13:1-11), the statement of Jesus' purpose in the painful disclosures about to be made (John 13:12-20), the identification of the traitor (John 13:21-30), the new commandment (John 13:31-35), and the prophecy of Peter's denial (John 13:36-38). This section, which begins here and extends through John 20, records the events of the final week, climaxed by the resurrection.

Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them unto the end. (John 13:1)

Before the feast of the passover ... We take these words in their simplest and most obvious sense as declaring that the supper about to be narrated occurred in advance of the Jewish Passover; and, although it resembled the passover in so many details, it was nevertheless not technically the passover. Jesus was crucified on the Preparation (John 19:31), and the passover was eaten after sundown the day Jesus died. There is no way the Passover itself could have been called the Preparation. The synoptics are in perfect harmony with this, Matthew making it clear that Jesus ate this meal reclining (Matthew 26:20), which he would not have done had it been the passover. See my Commentary on Matthew, Matthew 26:19.

Knowing that his hour was come ... Christ was fully aware, throughout his ministry, of the Father's ordering of all of his steps and was fully conscious that the moment of his offering upon the cross was at hand.

He loved them unto the end ... might also be rendered, "unto the uttermost." See the marginal reading. The true meaning probably includes both thoughts. It was the great love of Jesus for his own that motivated his supreme act of giving himself up to die for the remission of sins.