As you know, Maundy Thursday comes from the latin word for mandate. On that Thursday, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). This is then an appropriate day to meditate on just how Christ has loved us. I’d like to recount how He loved us on that very significant Thursday.
Jesus’ new commandment follows an astounding summation of Christ’s love in the first verse of the same chapter: “…having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”
There are numerous commentators who would say this captures both the idea that Jesus loved them to the last minute and that He loved them as much as He could. The following chapters (13-17) bear out both in that Jesus spent His final moments caring for the disciples and doing all He could for them. Yes, Jesus loved them—loved us—to the uttermost.
With that clause—“He loved them to the end”—John telecasts the loving provisions Jesus put in place to see us through the time between His departure and His glorious second coming.
So how does He lovingly provide for us. Three main ways:
Jesus shares what is His. The list includes:
Jesus shares His Spirit. John 14:16-17: And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Jesus had been with the disciples for years, and for that reason, the Spirit had been with them. But when Jesus went to be with the Father, the Spirit would dwell inside them. And what a magnificent gift this indwelling of the Spirit is.
For example, later the disciples were distraught because Jesus was leaving. In John 16:6, Jesus says: But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. The help that the Helper gives is so strong and powerful that the Spirit inside of us is better than Jesus beside us.
And this Spirit does wonderful things. He teaches us all things, bringing to our remembrance what Christ has said, according to John 14:25-26. He guides us into all truth. He takes the things of Christ and declares them to us, according to John 16:12-15. By all this, He helps us to love Jesus more. He shares His Spirit.
Jesus shares His mission, which is to love us. As already noted, Jesus gives a new commandment in John 13:34, “as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” While we may not naturally get excited about loving one another, those with experience in the Christian life know that loving one another – doing what Jesus does – is the prime pathway to joy. If we set that commandment on a shelf, we cut ourselves off from tremendous joy. Which he also shares…
Jesus shares His joy. His joy is rightfully His joy. When I get something good, I have a sinful tendency to want to keep it to myself. That little bit of cookie dough ice cream left over? I want to hide that in the back of the freezer. Not Jesus. He wants to push His good things on others. In John 15:11, He says, I’ve said these things to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
Some of us have a joy deficit. Maybe some of us have only ever known joy in creaturely things. Imagine a taste of divine joy! That’s what Jesus shares. And it’s a non-circumstantially contingent joy. That is, it’s a joy that doesn’t depend upon things going “well” your life. Consider what is on Jesus’ horizon as He talks about His joy in John 15. He’s about to endure pain and suffering like no one ever has or will. But He has joy. This is what He shares – His divine joy.
Jesus shares His destiny. Jesus was going to the Father. Consider John 14:1. 1 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
This is the great Christian hope – that Christ is coming again to take us to be with Him forever. He comforted the disciples by saying, “I’m leaving, but I’m going to prepare a place for you, and I WILL RETURN to take you to myself that where I am you may be also.”
Jesus shares His plan. He didn’t keep us in the dark. He didn’t keep the eleven in the dark. He gave them the details including the suffering that awaited them. In ch15, He warned them, warns us, “the world is going to hate you, just as it hated Me first.”
It’s such a loving thing to share that. He says in 15:15, No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
“I’ve told you what to expect,” Jesus says. “I’m in control. Be comforted knowing that I’ve chosen you for this, and I’ve chosen the outcome – that you will bear fruit for the Father’s glory. You will have everything you need to accomplish the mission I’ve given you.”
Jesus shares His peace. How was Jesus able to do all this, say all these things, calmly go to the cross, and die there without completely falling apart? Among other things, He has peace. His soul is at rest in the Father. He shares that with us, too.
John 14:27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. “Don’t settle for the peace of the world. I give you something completely different. This is MY peace.”
John 16:33: 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."
All this is to say that Jesus provides for us by sharing what is His.
Another way that Jesus provides for us…
He intercedes for us. In the High Priestly Prayer of chapter 17, there are numerous things the Lord prays for His disciples. A couple are needful to note in this short article. First, v20: "I do not ask for these only [meaning the eleven], but also for those who will believe in me through their word,” So, this prayer is explicitly not only for the eleven, but for you and me.
Now, consider one verse of this prayer that again shows us the heart of Christ for us. V24: Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Jesus was going to accomplish redemption. He could retire, so to speak. He could do whatever He wanted, be with whomever He wanted for all eternity. What did He want in eternity? For what did He petition His Father just before the cross? To spend eternity with us, showing us the glory lovingly given Him by the Father.
Hebrews 7:25 indicates that Jesus continues to intercede for us. There is no reason to think that He prays for us anything different than He did on that Thursday: that we will spend eternity with Him on the basis of His finished work on our behalf.
One more way that Jesus provides for us.
He died for us. Of course, this provision took place on Friday, not Thursday. Yet, He knew on Thursday that it was coming. On Thursday, He knew everything that would happen to Him, and yet He spent Thursday preparing His disciples for life after Friday.
And all of this is for naught if we’re still dead in our sins. But Jesus loved us in such a magnificent fashion that He climbed a hill with a cross, He was nailed to that cross, He bore the awful wrath of God for our sins, He died, and He was raised from the dead…that His own…upon repentance and faith might receive His life eternally.
How true it is that having love His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end! May our meditations and worship be rich as we consider these things this week.
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