Reflective Bible Study

As John’s gospel shares about the last supper Jesus and His disciples experienced prior to His arrest and crucifixion, John opens the event with a very interesting phrase. At the end of verse 1, John tells us: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he [Jesus] loved them to the end.”

The first thing that happens next is that Jesus bends down and begins to wash the disciples’ feet. While this was not the extent of Jesus “loving His own to the end”, it was definitely a start. While Jesus had served His disciples in many ways up to this point, never before had He taken the role of the lowest servant who happened to have the responsibility of washing the feet of those who entered a home.

However, Jesus “loving the disciples to the end” doesn’t stop with simply washing the disciples feet. Pretty much everything that happens afterwards, from teaching the disciples, from promising them the Holy Spirit, from requesting their escape when the mob arrives, through all the torture all the way up to death on the cross, everything is an example of this one short phrase. Jesus loved “His own who were in the world to the end.”

When I read this line the first time, I realized something offensive: Jesus only says that He loves those who are His. Nothing in Jesus’ statement here implies that Jesus loved His enemies to the end. While there are other places in scripture that imply having love for those who you disagree with, we don’t see that here. However, if John uses the phrase “His own” to describe how Jesus is one of humankind, then we get the picture that Jesus loved all of humankind to the very end – which does sound like something in harmony with the rest of the Bible.

The other phrase that jumped out to me in this how this statement ends: Jesus “loved them to the end”. A quick reading of this verse makes me think that John wants us to focus in on how Jesus loved everyone through the entire experience of the cross, but is that what John means when he says “the end”.

I wonder if this subtle detail is a promise we can claim because Jesus did not end at the cross. While He died, he was only briefly in the tomb before God raised Him back to life. Because of this detail, I am inclined to believe that “the end” does not refer to the cross.

“The end” could mean the end of history, when God ultimately judges the world, but we run into the same challenge with this angle on this phrase: Those who God has saved and redeemed will be living for eternity, and that extends past the end of history.

The only angle that makes sense in my mind for this last phrase is that Jesus loves those who He has redeemed forever. No gap or break exists in His love for each of us who have accepted Him into our hearts. Jesus loved us through the betrayal, the rejection, the pain, the torture, and the cross and He chooses to love us (all of humankind) forever!

One of the most out of place illustrations Jesus ever has been said to share is the one in this passage. The illustration – since it is debated whether this is a parable or a description of something that actually happened – is not given any context, and it is unique from other teachings, stories, and parables Jesus told during other parts of His ministry.

One of the big ideas some people use to say this is more teaching about an actual event, and less a illustrative parable, is that Jesus never used a name in any of His parables. If this parable was written as “The Rich Man and the Beggar”, then we could see a parable in the making, but by including the name Lazarus, Jesus must be pulling a historical story into supporting His truth. This is what some people think about this passage.

But what if Jesus deviated from His normal way of telling parables as a way of setting up something that was going to happen in the future: the resurrection of His close friend whose name was Lazarus. This is a good counter-argument that still allows for Jesus to be speaking in parable form – but also tying the punch line of the story to something that was going to be very real in the coming weeks/months.

However, another thought that enters my mind is about how this parable describes the one character it names: Lazarus. Verse 20 says, “Lazarus was a beggar. His body was covered with sores.” Knowing Jesus, and how He traveled around healing people, it was unlikely that the real Lazarus would have been left to beg with sores all over his body.

While Jesus did delay His coming when Lazarus was sick, a close reading of the text about Lazarus’ death tells us that the news arrived to Jesus too late: He waited two days and Lazarus was in the tomb for four days when Jesus had arrived. Jesus could have left Lazarus begging with sores all over his body, but what would that say about God?

Jesus came to show us what God is like, and because of this, I really doubt that a close friend of Jesus would have been left sick while Jesus is actively healing everyone He comes in contact with.

However, if this was simply a parable and not Lazarus’ current situation, then the people hearing Jesus would have clearly understood this to be figurative. Only after Lazarus’ sickness, death, and resurrection would people have then begun to put the pieces together to see an incredible truth:

Not only is Jesus a healer and a teacher, and not only can He bring the dead back to life, but He also knows the future. Jesus tweaked with this illustration to predict a future event: resurrection. He even wrapped the theme around believing when seeing resurrection happen – foreshadowing Lazarus first, then Himself to follow. Someone like that is worth believing in, because we can then know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our eternity is safe with Him!

On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, the gospel of John spends a significant amount of space dedicated to the time between the last supper the disciples had with Jesus, and the time Jesus was betrayed and arrested. Part way through the last teaching opportunity Jesus had with the disciples prior to the cross, Jesus promises us that even though He is leaving, He will send us help. John records Jesus’ promise by saying: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever. That helper is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it doesn’t see or know him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you.” (v. 16-17)

One big thing that I see in this description of the Spirit of Truth that Jesus promises us is that the world cannot accept Him because it doesn’t see or know Him. In contrast, Jesus tells the disciples that they will be able to know this Helper because He will live with them and be in them.

This prompts me to wonder if Jesus was simply promising this helper to those original disciples, or if Jesus’ promise extends beyond the first generation of believers. Tucked at the end of verse 16, is the timeframe for this promise. Jesus tells us that the helper that the Father sends to them “will be with you forever.” (v. 16)

Skeptics might say that the emphasis for this promise was on those original disciples, but Jesus uses the word “forever” which is significantly longer than “for the rest of your lives”, which is another time span that Jesus could have said.

I believe Jesus uses the word forever because as long as there are Christians alive on earth and who are sharing their faith with others, they will have help from the Spirit of Truth. The world doesn’t see or know God’s Holy Spirit, and because of this, the world cannot accept the truth about God, but this is because the world is not interested in Jesus.

As followers of Jesus, we have been called to live in a way that makes the Christian life look attractive to others. We are called to share our faith with those God brings into our lives. And we are called to depend on and learn from the Spirit of Truth as we go about our daily lives living for God.

As Jesus was teaching the disciples that they should always be ready for His return, Jesus illustrates this idea like a homeowner waiting for a thief. Luke’s gospel describes Jesus illustration like this: “Remember this: If the owner of the house knew what time a thief was coming, he would not allow the thief to enter his house. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at a time when you don’t expect him!” (v. 39-40)

Reading these two verses might make me think that Jesus will return secretly, steal His people away from the earth, and leave everyone else behind. But while this does describe the behavior of a thief, it is not the characteristic of the thief that Jesus wants His disciples focusing on.

Both the context of this illustration as well as the immediate explanation for this parable focus our attention onto the unexpected nature of Jesus’ return. Thieves try to arrive when we don’t expect them and ideally while we are away or asleep. While Jesus isn’t waiting for us to leave Him or fall asleep before He returns, He tells all His disciples that His return will be at a time they did not expect.

This tells me that while Bible study is important, the goal of our studying should be focused on growing closer to Jesus and not on uncovering a secret code or explanation for a prophecy that would lead to setting a date for His return. Rarely does prophecy make sense before it has been fulfilled, and while God may have placed clues regarding His return in the Bible and/or in the natural world, it is foolish for us to focus on uncovering them.

Discovering the true date of Jesus’ return before it happens would be just as harmful as it would be helpful. If we knew Jesus was returning 40 years from now, we might let our relationship with Him slide, thinking we have time — but unknown to us is that we only might be alive for 10 of those years. The date our lives end should remain just as unknown as the date of Jesus return because when we don’t know the dates of each, we can better focus on building the relationship with God that He desires to have with us.

Jesus’ return will surprise everyone. It will be unexpected. And it has intentionally been set at a time that is unexpected for those living in the world, but will make perfect sense for those looking back on the event.