Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 13:1-3

"Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto his Father, having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon`s [son], to betray him, [Jesus], knowing that the Father had given all the things into his hands, and that he came forth from God, and goeth unto God," — John 13:1-3 (ASV)

1. Previously, the Evangelist presented some of the events leading to Christ’s passion and death; in this part, he shows how Christ prepared His disciples before His passion.

   1. He prepared them by His example.

   2. He comforted them with His words: let not your hearts be troubled (John 14:1).

   3. He strengthened them with His prayers: these things Jesus spoke, and lifting his eyes to heaven, he said (John 17:1).

   Regarding the first point, His example, the Evangelist does two things:

   1. He presents the example Christ gave for His disciples to imitate.

   2. He shows the weakness of the disciples, who were not yet ready to follow Him: when Jesus had said these things, he was troubled (John 13:21).

   Regarding the first of these, the presentation of the example, he does three things:

   1. He presents the example itself.

   2. He shows that the example was useful: he came therefore to Simon Peter (John 13:6).

   3. He shows Jesus asking them to imitate it: then after he had washed their feet . . . he said to them (John 13:12).

   Regarding the first of these, the example itself, he does two things:

   1. He describes the love of Christ, who is giving the example.

   2. He describes the action in which He gave the example, and when supper was done.

   Regarding the first of these, the love of Christ, he mentions three things:

   1. The feast about to be celebrated.

   2. The approaching death of Christ.

   3. Christ’s burning love.

2. The approaching feast was the Passover, so he says, now before the festival day of the Pasch.

   Here we should note that some say the word ‘pascha’ comes from the Greek word for passion, and that this feast is called the Pascha because it is when we celebrate the passion of our Lord. In fact, the word ‘pascha’ in Greek means “to suffer.” Yet the primary origin of this word is from the Hebrew word ‘pesah,’ which means a ‘passage’: it is the pesah, passage, or a passing over, of the Lord (Exodus 12:11). This is the meaning the Evangelist gives it here because of two passings over. The first was the passing of the angel striking down the firstborn of the Egyptians and sparing the firstborn of the Hebrews (Exodus 12:12); the other was the passage of the children of Israel through the Red Sea. So it was reasonable to call this feast the ‘pascha’.

   We can say that our Passover takes its meaning from both languages, Greek and Hebrew, for the passage of Christ from this world to the Father took place through His passion. He passed about doing good and healing all (Acts 10:38). Again, all of us who follow Christ have our own passage: either through reform and martyrdom, according to the saying, we have passed through fire and water and you have brought us to a place of refreshment (Psalms 66:12); or by the desire of our minds aspiring to heavenly things: pass over to me all you who desire me and be filled with my fruits .

3. This, however, is called the festival day by way of preeminence. The Jews had three great feasts when they gathered in a place chosen by the Lord: the Pesah, when the lamb was sacrificed; Pentecost; and the Feast of Tabernacles, that is, the Skenopegia (Exodus 23:14). But the greatest feast was that of the Passover.

   A problem arises as to why he says here, before the festival day of the Pasch. The feast of the Passover is when the lamb was sacrificed, that is, on the 14th day of the month. So since he says, before the festival day of the Pasch, it seems that this was taking place on the 13th day, the day before the 14th. Indeed, the Greeks accept this. They say that our Lord suffered on the 14th, when the Jews were supposed to celebrate the Passover, and that our Lord, knowing His passion was near, anticipated the celebration of the Passover and celebrated His own Passover on the day before the Jewish feast.

   Because it is commanded in Exodus 12:18 that from the evening of the 14th day to the 21st day the Hebrews should not have any leavened bread, they further say that the Lord celebrated not with unleavened bread, but with leavened bread. This is because it was before the festival day of the Pasch, and the Hebrews did have leavened bread on the 13th day, that is, before the Passover. But the other three Evangelists do not agree with this, for they say the time was the first day of unleavened bread, when the lamb was to be sacrificed (Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:7). It follows from this that our Lord’s supper took place on the very day that the Jews sacrificed the lamb.

4. The Greeks respond to this that the other Evangelists did not report this accurately, and so John, who wrote the last of the Gospels, corrected them. But it is heresy to say that there is anything false in the Gospels, or indeed anywhere in the canonical Scriptures. Therefore, we must say that all the Evangelists state the same thing and do not disagree.

   To clarify this, it should be noted that the feasts of the Jews began on the evening of the preceding day (Leviticus 23:5). The reason for this was that they counted their days according to the moon, which first appears in the evening; so, they counted their days from one sunset to the next. Thus for them, the Passover began on the evening of the preceding day and ended on the evening of the Passover day itself. We celebrate feasts in the same way; for example, something that takes place on Christmas Eve is said to have happened on Christmas Day. And so the other Evangelists, using this way of speaking, said that the supper took place on the first day of unleavened bread, meaning it took place on the evening before the first full day of the feast.

   But here, John the Evangelist regards the Passover as the entire daytime that was celebrated, not including the evening before, which was also part of the celebration. Thus he says, before the festival day of the Pasch. Consequently, it is clear that our Lord’s supper took place on the evening of the 14th day.

5. The death of Christ, which was approaching, was His passage from this world by His passion. Regarding this, he says, Jesus knowing that his hour had come. This feast was a symbol of the passion of Christ: all these things happened to them as symbols (1 Corinthians 10:11). So he immediately mentions the reality, that is, the passion of Christ. And as a way of showing that the word ‘pascha’ came from ‘pesah,’ meaning a passage, he mentions Christ’s own passage: that he should pass out of this world to the Father.

6. Here the Evangelist mentions three things about the passion of Christ: first, that it was foreseen; second, that it was fitting; and third, that it was a source of benefits and exaltation.

   It was foreseen and not accidental, so he says, Jesus knowing. In effect, he is saying, “Jesus suffered knowingly and willingly, not unexpectedly and unwillingly.” Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him (John 18:4). The opposite is said of us: there is great affliction for man because he is ignorant of things past, and things to come he cannot know in any way (Ecclesiastes 8:7).

7. The passion of Christ was fitting, first, in its timing. Regarding this, he says, that his hour had come, which was the time of the Passover, when His passage would be by the cross: there is a time and opportunity for every business (Ecclesiastes 8:6). This is the hour of which He said, my hour has not yet come (John 2:4). Yet this hour was not a matter of fate, as though governed by the course and arrangement of the stars; it was determined by the disposition and providence of God. I say, therefore, it was determined for the Jewish Passover because it was fitting that the reality should follow the symbol. That is, when the lamb, which was a symbol of Christ, was sacrificed, Christ, who was truly the Lamb of God, should also be sacrificed. You know that you were ransomed . . . not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot (1 Peter 1:18–19).

   It was also fitting to the situation, for Christ was now glorified: now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him (John 13:31). He had already revealed the Father to the world: I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world (John 17:6). What remained, therefore, was to accomplish His passion and the work of human redemption, about which we read: it is consummated, followed by, and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit (John 19:30).

8. The passion of Christ was a source of benefits and glory, not of defeat, because it was so that he should pass out of this world to the Father, by making His human nature a sharer in the glory of the Father: I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God (John 20:17). This does not mean that He would pass from one place to another, since God the Father is not contained by any place: do I not fill heaven and earth? (Jeremiah 23:24). Rather, just as Christ is said to have come from the Father, not by leaving Him, but by assuming an inferior nature like our own, so He is said to have returned to the Father insofar as, even in His human nature, He became a sharer in the Father’s glory. The life he lives he lives to God (Romans 6:10); every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:11).

9. When he says, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end, he highlights the intense love of Christ, and this on four points.

   First, His love was primary, according to not that we have loved God, but that he has first loved us (1 John 4:10). Regarding this, he says, having loved his own, suggesting that this was in advance of our love. I say He loved us before He created us: for you love all things that exist, and have hatred for none of the things which you have made . He loved us before He called us: I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have drawn you, taking pity on you (Jeremiah 31:3). And He loved us before He redeemed us: greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

10. Second, His love is highlighted as fitting, because he loved them.

    Here we should note that God loves people in various ways, depending on the various ways they belong to Christ. A person can belong to Him in three ways. First, by creation; God loves these by preserving their gifts of nature: he came unto his own, and his own, by creation, received him not (John 1:11). Others are His by dedication, that is, those given to Him by God the Father through faith: yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word (John 17:6); He loves these by preserving their gifts of grace. Finally, some are His by a special devotion: behold, we are your bone and flesh (1 Chronicles 11:1); He loves these by consoling them in a special way.

11. Third, Christ’s love is highlighted because it was needed, since He was having loved his own who were in the world. Those who were already in the glory of the Father are His, because even our ancestors were His insofar as they hoped to be set free by Him: all his holy ones are in his hand (Deuteronomy 33:3). But these did not need such love as much as those who were in the world; so he says, who were in the world—that is, in body, but not in mind.

12. Fourth, His love is highlighted because it was perfect, so he says, he loved them to the end. Now, there are two kinds of ends: the end in intention and the end in execution. The end in intention is that to which our intention is directed; this end ought to be eternal life, according to the verse, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life (Romans 6:22). Again, this end should be Christ: for Christ is the end of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified (Romans 10:4). But these two are really one end, because eternal life is nothing other than enjoying Christ in His divinity: now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (John 17:3). From this point of view, he says, he loved them unto the end, in order to lead them to Himself as the end, or to lead them to eternal life, which is the same thing. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have drawn you, taking pity on you (Jeremiah 31:3).

    The end in execution is the terminus or outcome of a thing; in this sense, death can be called an end. Thus he could say, he loved them unto the end, that is, up to death. Used in this way, it can have three meanings. The first, mentioned by Augustine, is a very human interpretation, meaning that Christ loved His own until He died, but no longer. This meaning is false, for Christ, who was not ended by death, by no means ends His love at death. Another meaning would take the word unto as indicating a cause; then it would mean, he loved them unto the end, that is, His love for them led Him to death: he loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20). A third meaning would be this: although Christ had already shown them many signs of His love, yet to the end, that is, at the time of His death, He showed them signs of a greater love: but I told you not these things from the beginning, because I was with you (John 16:4). He would be saying, in effect: “It was not necessary then to show you how much I loved you, but now that I am leaving it is, so that my love and the memory of me might be impressed more deeply into your hearts.”

13. When he says, when supper was done, he describes the act by which Christ gave His example.

    1. He mentions the time of the action.

    2. He mentions the dignity of the one acting: knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands (John 13:3).

    3. He mentions His humility: he rose from supper (John 13:4).

    He describes the time in two ways:

    • As the time of Christ’s love.

    • By emphasizing the sin of Judas: the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him.

14. Regarding the first point, the time of the action, he says, literally, when supper was done. Note that both permanent things and successive things are said to be “done” or “made.” A permanent thing is said to be done or made when it has reached the perfection of its proper species and form; thus, a house is said to be done or made when it has its proper form. But a successive thing is said to be made or done when it is over or finished; thus, the world is said to have been made when it was completed. However, even things like this can be said to be made or done when they receive their appropriate species.

    So when he says here, literally, when supper was done, he does not mean it was finished and over with, for after Christ washed the disciples’ feet, He returned to His place and gave the morsel to Judas. Rather, when supper was done means that it was prepared and had reached its proper stage, for the group had already begun to eat, and then Christ got up. Thus, Christ washed the disciples’ feet during supper.

    We read about such a supper in Luke: a man once gave a great supper (Luke 14:16). A breakfast and a supper are different. What is given at the beginning of the day is called a breakfast, while what is given at its end is called a supper. Likewise, the spiritual nourishment suitable for beginners is like a breakfast, while the nourishment appropriate for the spiritually advanced is more like a supper.

15. When the Evangelist says, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him, he describes the time by emphasizing the sin of the traitor. He mentions this sin for two reasons. First, to better highlight the evil of Judas, who, in spite of so many signs of love and humble service, considered committing such a great sin. The Psalm says: even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me (Psalms 41:9).

    Second, to better show the wonderful love of Christ who, although knowing this, treated him with love and humility by washing his feet: with those who hated peace I was peaceable (Psalms 120:7).

16. But can the devil put anything into our hearts? It seems he can, for a Psalm speaks of things sent by evil angels (Psalms 77:49).

    To explain this, we should note that what is in a person’s thought and will is said to be in his heart. So the statement, when the devil having now put into the heart of Judas, should be understood to refer to his will.

    Understood this way, something can be put into our heart in two ways. First, directly. In this way, only one who has the power to move our will from within can put something into our heart. Only God can do this; consequently, He alone can directly move our will: the king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand, that is, in the power, of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will (Proverbs 21:10). But because the will is also moved by an external object perceived as a good, it follows that anyone who brings to mind or suggests that something is good is said to put something into our heart indirectly. This happens by making us perceive something as good, which in turn moves our will.

    This indirect influence happens in two ways. It can happen by an external suggestion, in which case one person can put something into another’s heart. Or it can happen by an internal suggestion, which is the way the devil puts something into our heart. For our imagination, since it is a physical power, is subject to the power of the devil when God allows it. So, whether we are awake or asleep, he forms certain images in our imagination which, when perceived, move our will to desire something. And so the devil puts something into our heart, not directly by moving our heart, but indirectly, by suggestion.

17. Next, regarding the dignity of the one acting, he says, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands (John 13:3), for the greater you are, the more you must humble yourself . Therefore, the Evangelist, before speaking of Christ’s humility, first discusses His great dignity. He considers this dignity from four perspectives.

    1. First, His dignity is seen in His knowledge, saying, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands. For spiritual gifts are such that they are not unrecognized when given: now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God (1 Corinthians 2:12). Thus, Christ knew what had been given to Him by God, and the Evangelist mentions this so that Christ’s humility would be more admirable. For sometimes a person of great dignity does not realize it because of his unawareness. If such a person were to do something humble, it would not be regarded as worthy of great praise: if you do not know yourself, O fairest among women (Song of Solomon 1:8). But if someone knows his own dignity and is still inclined to what is humble, his humility should be praised. This is why the Evangelist says, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands; and still He did not neglect to do what was humble.

    2. Second, we see His dignity in His power, because the Father had given all things into his hands, that is, into His power. God gave to Christ as man, in time, what was in the power of the Son from eternity: all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me (Matthew 28:18). He says, the Father had given all things into his hands, for two reasons. First, to show that Christ did not suffer against His will. For if all things were in his hands, that is, in His power, it is clear that His enemies could do nothing to Him against His will. Second, because when a person of little importance is honored, he easily becomes proud and does nothing humble, lest it seem to diminish his dignity. But when one of great dignity is honored, he does not neglect humble things. And so Christ’s dignity is mentioned here.

    3. Third, we see His dignity in His nobility, when he says, that he had come from God and was going to God: living with God .

    4. Fourth, His dignity is seen in His holiness, because He was going to God, for our holiness lies in our going to God. He mentions this because since Christ is going to God, it is His special role to lead others to God. This is done especially by humility and love, and so He offers them an example of humility and love.