The Farewell Discourse

All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

                                                                                     John 17:10

In these Pandemic Lenten days, I’ve theologically sheltered-in-place with the 14th through 17th chapters of John’s gospel also known as the Farewell Discourse. The context of these chapters is the Last Supper (or was it the first?), the night Jesus was betrayed and the night before everything went to hell, even Jesus. You can know trouble is coming but still act like it will never find you--not you! Every time Jesus referenced his suffering and death, the disciples dismissed it, assured him that they would never let anything bad happen and said they certainly would never betray him. It’s no better in the other gospels either as the disciples fall asleep several times as Jesus pleads with them to stay awake for the hour has come. 

 We may be in that upper room again, unable and unwilling to face what is ahead. Despite communities around the world warning, instructing and pleading that we all do our best to be contained and maintain physical spacing, we yet gather on beaches and find ways to interact and carry on with life as we want it to be. Of course we do. So many of our actions feel justifiable as we try to mitigate the painful realities that our businesses and our societies are enduring. Understandably, there is increasing debate amongst leaders, media commentators and politicians about what is necessary and what is unnecessary for the living of these days. I understand the argument, but it’s still dangerous. We like to say politics shouldn’t be in the pulpit. Let’s be as quick to police politics out of sound medical advice, too. We don’t know what is to come so every life is worth every measure until the way forward is clear. 

The disciples were so frightened. We still are frightened too. Yet, Jesus never stops reassuring us that we belong to him. The entire 17th chapter is Jesus praying that we would all be one. Let’s see how we can try to make Jesus’ prayer come true by acting now as one for all.  

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