To Become Completely One

Week Eight - Day 6

Today's Reading

Gospel according to John 16:25 to 18:16a

It is almost the annual Passover celebration, the remembrance of God's mighty act of deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery and the beginning of the journey towards the Promised Land.  In writing his gospel account, John has placed Jesus in Jerusalem for a total of three Passovers, a point used by some to argue that the earthly ministry of Jesus occurred over a period of three years.  The other gospel writers only mention Jesus attending one Passover during the period of his ministry.  So did Jesus witness to God's love, preach the Kingdom of God, and perform his healings and miracles over a period of three years or one year or so other length of time?  Well, there's no way for us to really know. What we do get the sense of, however, is that it was not over an extended number of years.  He gathered his disciples and drew the attention of the people and the authorities in rather short order.

The impact of his life and teachings must have seemed like a bit of a whirlwind that swept people up in its movement.  It all was coming to an end too quickly, and Jesus needed to wrap up his time with the disciples.  He has completed a long period of instruction, and now he enters into an extended period of prayer to the Father (chapter 17) on the very night that he is to be betrayed.  Although his prayer is long, his point is simple: "Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one" (17:11).  This unity is not just for the disciples whom he has chosen and who have followed him during his ministry, but for "those who will believe in me through their word" (17:20.  But more than that, Jesus prays that it is"so that the world may know"he has been sent so that people will know God has "loved them" even as God has loved him (17:23).

It is now time for the next step to play out in this cosmic drama.  Jesus is betrayed.  The leaders of his  religious opponents have had him arrested in the middle of the night and in a place away from the adoring crowds.  Jesus is taken to the high priest's house to await questioning, and Peter and another of Jesus' disciples follow along, probably at some distance.  Jesus is taken into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stakes out a place outside the gate.  Best not to get too close, even for a disciple who has pledged to stand with Jesus, even unto death (see 13:36-38).