From the very beginning, God has shown Himself to be a missionary God. As soon as man rebelled and sold himself into slavery to sin, God put into place His already conceived plan for reconciliation. God created a special nation from the man Abraham in order to bless the whole world.
John 1:9-13 records the plan being set into motion, “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (NASU) Jesus, God With Us, came into the world and His special nation rejected Him. However, according to God’s divine foreordained plan, access into the kingdom of God, as children no less, was thrown open to anyone who would receive Jesus.
On the night before He was crucified, Jesus did something very interesting for His disciples. Knowing that Judas would betray Him, knowing that Peter would deny even knowing Him, and knowing that the rest of the disciples would scurry away in fear, Jesus still took on the job of the most lowly slave and washed their feet.
The biblical record set up the scene marvelously in John 13:1-4, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them *to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.” (NASU, *to the uttermost eternally)
Jesus turned His attention to His own. What a precious title for us! We are “His Own”. Kenneth Wuest in his expanded translation renders verse one, “Now, before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus, since He knew that His hour had come the purpose of which was that He should pass over out of this world to the Father, having loved with a divine, self-sacrificial love His uniquely-owned ones, those in the world, He loved them to the uttermost.” Jesus knows that His disciples will betray Him, forsake Him, and deliver Him over to be killed and yet He continues to love them to the uttermost. Furthermore Jesus knows that you and I will betray, deny, and forsake Him and yet He continues to love us. You and I have failed Jesus many times but He still loves us. There has never been a time when He did not love us. There is not a time when He does not love us. There will never be a time when He does not love us. Nothing we have ever done and nothing we will ever do will cause Him to love us any less. We can’t possibly understand that kind of love but we can honor, love, and worship Him precisely because of that unfathomable love.