Not Trust. Love.

He had loved His disciples during His ministry on earth, and now He loved them to the very end. (John 13:1 NLT)


Loving people can be difficult, especially when you're not "feeling the love" back.  As I was reading during my personal devotional time, I found this statement above rather striking.  I paused to think about it a bit.  He loved them to the very end.  The "disciples during His ministry on earth" were numerous.  You could start with the twelve, chosen after an all night prayer-fest with the Father.  You could consider the 72, whom he sent out two by two performing miracles and preaching the kingdom of God.  You even could consider the thousands and thousands in the crowds who came to listen to him, then believed in him.  Jesus had a bunch of disciples at various levels.  He loved them to the very end.


I started to struggle over this concept because my daily readings had me in an earlier chapter of John a few days ago.  It said something that seemed to contradict this statement here, so I looked it up.



Meanwhile, he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast. Many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing. And they believed in his name. But Jesus did not fully trust them. He knew what people are like. He didn't need others to tell him what people are like. He already knew what was in the human heart. (John 2:23-25 NIrV)

He didn't "fully trust them."  The NIV renders states that he "would not entrust himself to them."  He didn't trust them, yet he loved them.  Not only that, he loved them to the very end.

I began thinking about how he kept these two concepts together in his ministry.  Peter was praised one moment, then told "get behind me Satan" in the very next conversation.  Jesus knew Peter was going to deny Him three times that night.  Jesus probably knew that Thomas was going to doubt.  Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot was going to betray him that same evening.  Jesus asked eleven of his twelve to pray with him in the garden of Gethsemane and asked three of them to come "a little further" to pray with him.  They fell asleep. 

Jesus knew what he could rely on and what he couldn't rely on in the people around him.  That didn't change  his mission.  That didn't change his ministry.  That didn't change his love.  He loved them...to the very end.