John 13:31- John 14: 14
Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial
31When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33"My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
36Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you
going?"
Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you
cannot follow now, but you will follow later."
37Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."
38Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going."
Jesus the Way to the Father
5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
The words I say to you are not just my own.
Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe
me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least
believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
12I tell you the
truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do
even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And
I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the
Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
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We
were all confused that evening, we all had questions, and although he had
answers for us we still didn’t understand…
He
told me I would deny him, and I didn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe it, but we
all know that I did. That is something I will never forget…
As
for Thomas and Philip, they were simply brave enough to ask the questions that
were forming in all our minds…
We
look back now, and much of it makes sense, BUT I still have questions, I
still have doubts….
You
see following Jesus has not been an easy breezy walk in the park; it wasn’t
when he was here amongst us, flesh and blood present; we had so many questions
and he had so few answers for us. When he did answer he told us stories, and
often left us to figure them out…
We
still tell those stories to one another, and are still surprised by them, each
new telling brings new questions, and I am left wondering how something so
simple can be so deep….
And
now we are following a Jesus we can’t see and touch, a Jesus we can’t hear,
well not directly anyway…
Yes
we were all confused that evening, but we haven’t got everything sorted out
now, it isn’t all pinned down in black and white, we don’t have clear cut
instructions or a how to manual…
What
we have is a glorious recollection of his work amongst us, a record of his
teaching (though we each remember it slightly differently) and prayer…
Without
prayer I don’t know where we would be, because there is something amazing about
prayer that rekindles hope…
Even
in my darkest times when hope seems far away and the questions are too numerous
to count, prayer helps…
And
when I can’t pray for myself, and there have been times like that believe me,
but when I can’t I know that others will ….
As
time goes on I am beginning to see that doubts are not necessarily bad things,
because doubts can make me dig deeper for understanding, when I was young I
wanted everything to be certain, everything to be answerable and easy, now I am
aware that life is full of grey areas, full of mysteries….
…and
mystery can be a place of peace and rest, a place where God is close, a place
where being surrounded by his presence we know that we cannot know all things,
but that all things are truly in his hands….
But
that does not mean that we should cease to question, for this world is a perplexing
place; injustice abounds, violence seems to rule, and bad things do happen to
good people….
So
yes, I still have questions, still have doubts, and sometimes those doubts can
be as black as the mid-night sky…
But I also have hope, because somehow deep in my heart Jesus has kindled a flame that will not die away, it did not die away, even when I reached my lowest point. Even when I denied him, he did not let me go….
