Jesus had spent the past three years with his closest disciples, and his teaching while residing in their physical presence was about to come to an end. He was about to be arrested and then executed within hours. He had one more lesson for these disciples, and it was the greatest lesson of all. Learning this lesson would completely change their lives, and also completely change the world.
If one were to summarize all of Jesus’ teaching during those three years into one simple command, it would be this:
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)
While the command to love others was not new, since it existed in the Law of Moses, loving others as Jesus did was something new! The world had never seen a love like the love that Jesus possessed and demonstrated. And Jesus’ intention was that his disciples would exhibit this same kind of love – that the world would recognize his disciples by the very love that he himself had taught and demonstrated.
So now the time had come for his last lesson, and it began in an upper room in Jerusalem during the Passover, known as the “Last Supper.” John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, records this last meeting with the disciples in John chapters 13 through 17. Understanding the principles that Jesus taught during this last meeting, is the key to ultimate health and wellness as taught by the greatest teacher that ever walked on the face of this earth.
