St John introduces his account of the Last Supper and the Passion with these words: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (13:1). “To the end”—the Greek says eis telos, meaning “to the last”, “to the uttermost”. And this word telos is taken up later in the final cry uttered by Christ on the Cross: “It is finished”, tetelestai (John 19:30). This is to be understood, not as a cry of resignation or despair, but as a cry of victory: It is completed, it is accomplished, it is fulfilled.
