as I have loved you, so

John13:1 doesn't get anywhere near the press it deserves, but it is one of the single most beautiful verses in all the world. It is written with this melancholy of passing, a knowingness that change was coming, had come. There is an expression of love that Jesus loved those He loved in the world so much, leaving for Heaven was almost done out of sorrow. There is an expression of love that knowing the grief and separation He was to endure, leaving for Heaven was almost done with some trepidation. But the singlest expression of love comes at the end, the statement of loving them loving us loving me to the end. To the end. Leaving for Heaven was done with complete and utter adoration for all the earth, singleminded in His love to the cross. There simply is no more beautiful expression of love in all the Word.