Context is important to understanding a story. In our passage of John 13-17, there are different levels of contexts. The first, of course, is the physical context, namely Jerusalem (12:12), during a supper (13:2), just before the Passover celebration (13:1), the night before His betrayal and death (18:1). From the parallel passages in the other gospel accounts we know this “Upper Room” discussion took place in a large upper room of the house belonging to an individual whose name is unknown to us (Mark 14:15). The room had been prepared for the Passover meal by an advance team of two of His disciples (Mark 14:13).

The literary context, on the other hand, looks at the placement of this passage in the flow of John’s gospel account. In contrast to the other accounts, John focuses on only a few events in the life and ministry of Christ. For example, only seven of the miracles of Christ are recorded. But the telling of each event is accompanied by an extended discourse or explanation, relating the event to spiritual truth. Here we have the event, without miracle, extending five chapters, a significant amount for a book of 21 chapters. John explains his rationale for the material he included: “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:30–31).

The amount of space given to this Upper Room discourse is the longest we have of Jesus’ teachings in all of the gospel record and so deserves the special attention we are giving it. We learn of the passion of this Man with His most intimate followers, on the penultimate day of His ministry, the day before His once-for-all-time sacrifice, as the book of Hebrews so carefully describes it. This day in the Upper Room is preparatory to the greatest day in the existence of this universe, the day God provided the final solution to what began in the Fall in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3).

The personal context is that of the writer himself, the apostle John. We know him to be the author because of the humble references to “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7) correlated with the complete absence of any named reference to John in the book along with the placement of the other disciples. Early Christian tradition names him as the author and the earliest manuscripts we have attach his name as the author. To be sure, the Upper Room discourse is written for us as an eyewitness testimony of one who was especially beloved of the Lord.

Lord, help me know for sure that I too, am a beloved disciple.