That They May All Be One

Easter Saturday, April 14 –  Read John 17

In his prayer, it is clear that Jesus knows that he has finished his work on earth. He has faithfully cared for all the followers that God has given him, losing only Judas, the one it was ordained for him to lose. For John, eternal life is not only, or even mainly, a future experience that happens when we die. It is a reality that we experience when we recognize what God is doing in Jesus and come to believe that Jesus is actually God’s son. When this happens an entirely new life opens up for us. Remember Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in the middle of the night? (See February 28^th) We are born anew by being “sired from above”.  When we recognize who Jesus is, we are connected to God – we abide in God – in such a powerful way that the old fears and temptations don’t frighten or tempt us with nearly the same power. Instead, we live within the peace of Jesus Christ. Our joy is complete and nothing can take our joy from us. It is not just Jesus who is resurrected – we are resurrected in the here and now! This is what Jesus knows he has accomplished as he faces the cross. So his last prayer is that all of his followers will be one – those who have accompanied him in his time on earth and those who will follow him much later. He prays, “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” The unity of his followers will be one of the signs that help future believers see and comprehend and come to faith. And this is certainly something that the Church needs to reflect and act on today. At the last, Jesus sees ahead to eternal life as it is in heaven. He remembers the glory he had in God’s company before the foundation of the world, and he prays that when the time comes that his followers might dwell in the unity of that glory. May it be so!

Reflection Questions: Having come to the end of our readings, who is Jesus Christ to you? As you reflect on his ministry and teachings, his death and resurrection, do you see in him the hand of God at work? Can you abide in him and experience the peace that he promises?

Prayer: Dear God, thank you again for the life and ministry of Jesus. Thank you for the way his living presence keeps bubbling up in my life like a spring of living water. Help me to abide always in him. In his powerful name of love I pray. Amen.   

The Spirit of Truth

Easter Friday, April 13 –  Read John 16

In Chapter 16 the tone changes to one of challenge. The Gospel of John was written in a time of persecution when believers in Christ were being turned out of synagogues and sometimes harassed and killed. Often in his Gospel, John refers to “the Jews” in negative terms and in Chapter 14:6 he records Jesus as challenging the Jewish community by saying that “no one comes to the Father except through me”. Centuries later, the Christian community is vastly more numerous and powerful than the Jewish community. Now we have our own terrible legacy of the persecution of Jewish people during many episodes in history including the crusades and especially the Holocaust. One of the tragedies of history is how words written in one time can be used as a flimsy excuse for actions taken in another, and the shame and arrogance of the Christian community is enormous – continuing today in part in the way we are tempted to take for granted God’s will that we triumph over and order Muslim nations. This is not what Jesus intended! What he does intend in Chapter 16 is to give the assurance of his continuing presence in the Holy Spirit. That Spirit will be there with his followers in good times and in bad. And indeed, that has been the experience of countless Christian martyrs who died trying to practice their faith and trying to prepare the way for Christ’s kingdom of love and justice and peace to finally come. Here, think of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Archbishop Oscar Romero, and Jean Donovan, Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clarke, and Ita Ford of the Maryknoll order who were caring for desperately poor children when they were raped and murdered by one of the death squads in El Salvador. The promise of Chapter 16 is that through the Holy Spirit, God will be there when we need help. The challenge is for us to listen to the Holy Spirit in the midst of fear to accurately discern what is the true will of Christ.

Reflection Question: Jesus concludes Chapter 16 by saying, “In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!” What does this assurance speak to you?

Prayer: Dear God, give me the peace that you promise so that I can listen, not to my fears, but to the counsel of Christ. Amen.

I Am the Vine

Easter Thursday, April 12 – Read John 15

In chapter 15 the word that jumps out at us is “abide”. Jesus uses the image of a grapevine and its grower to help us understand what it means for us to abide in him. He is the vine; we are the branches; God is the grower who prunes the vine and nurtures it. We need to stay connected to Jesus to receive the nourishment that branches receive from the vine and the roots. Without that we will wither away. Further, we are to abide in Jesus’ love. The greatest love is found when a human being lays down her life for her friends… just as Jesus is about to do with his life. When we abide in the love that Jesus gives us, then we are no longer servants, but his friends. Our joy is complete.

Reflection Question: How do you consciously abide in Jesus’ love?

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for grafting me onto the vine of Jesus’ love. Keep pouring your love into me through his living presence. Amen.

In My Father’s House

Easter Wednesday, April 11 – Read John 14

In the last four days of Easter Week we will close our journey with Jesus by looking at four profound chapters in the Gospel of John. Chapters 14-16 form a long sermon given by Jesus to his disciples following the foot washing and last supper. Chapter 17 is his final prayer with them. Although Jesus has tried to warn his disciples that he will be put to death, he knows that they have not been able to understand or accept this fact. He knows that for them, his death will seem like a complete catastrophe – as if everything they have been trying to accomplish has been lost. So the first thing Jesus does is to offer words that will sustain them in this time of loss. Passages from John 14 are often quoted in funerals. “In my Father’s house are many mansions… I am going there to prepare a place for you and if I go, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am there you may be also. I will not leave you orphaned. I am coming to you… on that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you… Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Therefore let not your hearts be troubled and neither let them be afraid.”

Reflection Questions: Reflect on Jesus’ promise that “I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.” How do you experience that? How does it bring peace, not like anything the world can give?

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for these promises of Jesus. May I live secure in the peace that he gives. Amen.

Resurrection! John

Easter Tuesday, April 10 –  Read John 20:1 -- 21:25                     

John’s Gospel is the last to be written. It contains many of the same elements as the others and adds other stories. John focuses first on Mary Magdalene and her personal encounter with Christ risen. At first she also has trouble recognizing him, but knows Jesus at the sound of his voice. The reference to the gardener makes us remember another garden at the beginning of Genesis. In I Corinthians 15:45-49, Paul has already proclaimed Jesus to be the new Adam and said that just as we have borne the image of the old Adam, we will also bear the image of Christ, the new Adam. John goes on, then, to tell of Jesus mysteriously appearing in the midst of his disciples as they huddle, frightened of the religious authorities, in the upper room. There he breathes the Holy Spirit into them, not waiting until the Day of Pentecost as Luke has it in the Book of Acts. Thomas is not with the other disciples and misses seeing Jesus. He refuses to believe their story, saying that he will only believe if he can touch Jesus’ hands and feet and put his hand in the wound the spear made. A week goes by and Thomas suddenly gets his wish fulfilled, allowing John to make the point that we are blessed if we can recognize who Jesus is and believe in him without making the same demand as Thomas. Finally, there is the story of Jesus meeting his disciples in Galilee, helping them catch fish and cooking breakfast for them on the beach. And then the story of his last encounter with Peter, who denied him three times. Another three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Each time Peter affirms his love, Jesus gives him the same charge: feed my sheep. The genius of these personal stories of encountering Jesus is that each of us stands in their shoes. At one time or another each of us is Mary Magdalene, each of us is Doubting Thomas, and each of us is certainly Peter.

Reflection Questions: Which follower of Jesus do you most identify with today? How do you most need to meet the risen Christ and what do you need to hear and see from him?

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for raising Jesus from death and putting him back in our world to stay. Amen.