ACC ~ John 13 v1b

JESUS LEAVES NOTHING LEFT UNDONE

CHRYSOSTOM: This was not his first inkling that his hour had come. He had known long before that he was going to depart. The Evangelist is most eloquent in calling his death a departure. … Being so near to leaving his disciples, he shows greater love for them. “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end,” means that he left nothing undone that one who greatly loved should do. Why then didn’t he do this from the beginning? He reserved this for the end so that their love might be increased by it and to prepare them by this consolation for the terrible things that were coming. John calls them “his own” in the sense of personal attachment. … The word was used in another sense in the beginning of the Gospel, “His own received him not.” [1] HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 70.1. [2]

[1] Jn 1:11.

[2] NPNF 1 14:257**.

HE CAME FOR THOSE IN THE WORLD

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The Evangelist says that the Savior, before enduring his suffering for our salvation, was aware that the time of his translation to heaven was now close, “even at the doors,” [1] and he gave a proof of the absolute perfection of his love for his own that were in this world. … All things made by Christ our Savior, all intellectual and reasonable creatures, the powers above, and thrones, and principalities and all things related to these, inasmuch as they have all been made [by him], belong to Christ our Savior as his own possessions. Furthermore, all the rational beings on earth particularly belong to him, inasmuch as he is Lord of all, even though some refuse to adore him as Creator. Therefore he loved his own that were in the world. “It is not with angels that he is concerned” [2] according to the voice of Paul … but rather for the sake of us who are in the world, he the Lord of all has emptied himself and assumed the form of a servant, called to this by his love for us. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9. [3]

[1] Mt 24:33.

[2] Heb 2:16.

[3] LF 48:172**.

THE PASSOVER CROSS, OLD AND NEW

BEDE: He loved them so much that by that very love he would end his bodily life for a time and soon pass from death to life, from this world to the Father. “Greater love has no one than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends.” [1] And so, each passing over—the one under the Law and the other under the gospel—was consecrated with blood, the former with the paschal lamb, the latter with “Christ, our Passover, who was sacrificed for us.” [2] The latter had his blood poured out on the cross, the former had its blood sprinkled in the manner of a cross in the middle of the lintel and the middle of the door posts. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.5. [3]

[1] Jn 15:13.

[2] 1 Cor 5:7.

[3] CS 111:44**.

CHRIST IS THE END. AUGUSTINE: For what do these words “to the end” mean but “to Christ”? “For Christ is the end of the law,” says the apostle, “for righteousness to everyone that believes.” [1] He is the end that consummates, not that consumes. He is the end that we are aiming for, not our end where we perish. It is exactly in this way that we are to understand the passage, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed.” [2] He is our end. We pass into him. For I see that these Gospel words may also be taken in a kind of human sense, that Christ loved his own even unto death, so that this may be the meaning of “he loved them to the end.” This meaning is human, not divine, for it was not merely up to this point that we were loved by him who loves us always and endlessly. God forbid that he whose death could not end should have ended his love at death. Even after death that proud and ungodly rich man loved his five brothers. [3] And is Christ to be thought of as loving us only till death? God forbid, beloved. He would have come in vain with a love for us that lasted till death, if that love had ended there. But perhaps the words “he loved them unto the end” may have to be understood in this way, that he so loved them as to die for them. For this he testified when he said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” [4] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 55.2. [5]

[1] Rom 10:4.

[2] 1 Cor 5:7.

[3] See Lk 16:27-28.

[4] Jn 15:13.

[5] NPNF 1 7:299-300*; CCL 36:464.

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