“Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”
It was just before the Passover festival, and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world — the entire Gospel reaches its terminus here, the moment when Jesus enters the final phase of his glorification through death. The phrase "having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end (eis telos)" is not merely chronological but theological: "to the end" means with completeness, with total self-gift, to the uttermost limit of love. The Passover context echoes Israel's founding redemption and positions Jesus' death as the true Passover lamb, the definitive act of liberation. This verse frames the entire Farewell Discourse as the outpouring of Jesus' love in the hour of his departure.
Church Fathers on John 13:1
Our Lord being about to depart out of this life, shows His great care for His disciples: Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the end.
The Jews had many feasts, but the principal one was the passover; and therefore it is particularly said, Before the feast of the passover.
though there is remarkable agreement of the two languages in it. The Greek word to suffer being pascha has been thought to mean passion, as being derived from the above word. But in Hebrew, pascha is a passing over; the feast deriving its name from the passing, of the people of God over the Red Sea into Egypt. All was now to take place in reality, of which that passover was the type. Christ was led as a lamb to the slaughter; whose blood sprinkled upon our doorposts, i.e.…