How should Christians respond when their country is attacked?

 In the last three years Ukraine has been attacked by Russia; Israel has been attacked by Hamas; Gaza has been attacked by Israel; Iran has been attacked by Israel and the USA.

 In the Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and Iran there are many Christians: how should they respond?

 Weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15)

 War is miserable and so the first response should be to draw alongside those who are suffering and weep with them. It is not the time for political, theological, or prophetic speculation.

 When a loved one has been blasted away by a soldier’s bullet, or their house blown up by a precision bomb, it is a time to mourn. To be a comforting and caring presence, with many tears and few words.

 To work for the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:60)

 Jesus taught that before His Second Coming God’s Kingdom would be out of the public eye. A seed in the ground, hidden, unseen; or leaven in bread. When war breaks out, the Kingdom of God is still active. The Christian’s task is to see how to proclaim the Kingdom: serving the victims of the bombing raid, opening our homes to the refugees, sharing our bread, explaining our hope of Christ’s coming Kingdom where there will be no more war.

 If the war is just, to support its cause (1 Peter 2:17)

 Nowhere in the New Testament do we find either John the Baptist, or Jesus, or the apostles telling soldiers to leave their profession. In the Bible it is taken for granted that in a fallen world there are wars, and so soldiers are necessary. Then Augustine and later Aquinas developed the doctrine of the ‘just war’, which finds itself expressed in the UN Charter as a war waged for self-defence. There is of course a lot of grey, but no Christian should feel guilty fighting to defend their country. If the war becomes clearly unjust, then the Christian has a case for withdrawing their support.

 To intercede (1 Timothy 2:1 – 3)

 There is no mystery as to how we are to intercede. We are to pray 'for all people’ and, crucially, ‘for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour’ (1 Timothy 2: 1 – 3). There is nothing here about praying for one king to be removed, and for another king to come. Indeed, the general emphasis in the New Testament is that believers should repect the government: Jesus 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's', Paul 'Be subject to the governing authorities', and Peter, 'Honour the Emperor', who at that time was probably Nero. 

Here are four Christian responses to the outbreak of war – to weep with those who weep, to work with the Kingdom of God, to be loyal to our government if the war is just, and to pray for people to have quiet lives. All can be found in the New Testament. 

If these four responses are embraced, this will help stop Christians getting drawn into commenting and speculating about a war.  This is when they claim to know what the political outcome will be; or what God is doing; or, that the war is the fulfilment of some prophecy in the Old Testament. This type of conversation swings the camera away from what Christ has called his followers to do - preach the Gospel, build up the church, serve the poor. If this happens, usually the focus goes to a nationalistic agenda where the political future of a particular country becomes more important than God’s Kingdom and His church. Ultimately this is a sub-Christian outlook, to be eschewed by genuine believers. 

 

June 2025

The Gospel of John: The Arrest and Trial of Jesus of Nazareth 18:1 - 19:16

 

John 18 starts the account of  the most famous arrest and trial in human history. John’s story and the Synoptic story is the same, but, as we would expect, there are differences. John’s telling of the story is distinctive.  

 First of all because of John we find out many more details. For example this writer tells us there were also Roman soldiers involved in the arrest (18:3), he tells us the name of the man whose ear Peter cuts off, it’s Malchus, and that he is the servant of the High Priest (18: 10).

 John explains how Peter got into the High Priest’s courtyard. In the Synoptics there is no explanation. As I said in my first lesson, this puts quite a question mark over John the son of Zebedee, the son of a Galilean fisherman being the ‘other disciple’, because it says, twice, that this disciple was known to the High Priest. The word for known used here is ‘gnosis’, which means much more than just an acquaintance.This man is so well known that the maid just sees him and lets him in – and then Peter. Later we find out that he knows that one of the people who challenged Peter was a relative of Malchus (18: 26). This writer has inside knowledge of the High Priest’s household. It was someone with authority in Jerusalem; and that was not John Zebedee.

 Then in this Gospel we also have much more about Jesus’ and Pilate. We are told about two fascinating conversations between Pilate and Jesus, inside Pilate’s residence (18: 33 – 38; 19: 9 – 11). How does the writer know about these conversations? One answer is that Jesus talked about this after his resurrection. Another is that as our writer was a very important man in Jerusalem, he had friends who worked with Pilate, and they were there when Pilate talked to Jesus. They told the writer.

 As well as more detail than the Synoptics, what also makes John’s account distinctive is the strong emphasis on irony and identity. I want to show you how these two subjects can be seen throughout our text which is from 18:1 – 19:16

 The first irony or contrast is that the scene begins in a what was probably a walled garden, probably lent to Jesus by a wealthy supporter In English we have the word Paradise, and this comes from the old Persian word, para daiza, which means a walled garden. It is a place of safety and tranquillity. The quiet of the garden, the noise of the soldiers. Contrast and irony. We will meet another garden at the end of chapter 19.

 The second irony is that these soldiers come with torches and lanterns and weapons. Torches for the light of the world.

 The next irony is that instead of having to find the man they want to arrest that man steps forward. So instead of them asking where Jesus is, Jesus steps forward and says ‘Whom do you seek?’.

 This begins the emphasis on identity. Who do you want to arrest? Who is this person? The whole Gospel has been asking – who is Jesus? Now in the trial we have to take sides. We cannot stay in the middle.

 The emphasis on identity continues. The soldiers say ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ and Jesus says ‘I am he’. There is something about how he says this that overwhelms them and the soldiers draw back and fall down. For this ‘I am’ is not just Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph the carpenter. In the ‘I am’ is the name of God. This is God in the flesh.

 Something strange happened when Jesus said ‘I am’. We don’t know exactly what. The soldiers fall, then recover, and then ask the same question and Jesus gives the same answer. Underlining again the identity of Jesus – fully man, Jesus of Nazareth; fully God, ‘I am’.

 Jesus wants to make sure his disciples can go, and then we have the irony that is Peter. It only starts here. It will get much worse. He is a warning to all of us. The irony is that he wants to be brave – but who does he attack? A servant who was almost certainly unarmed, not a soldier with a sword who could fight back. He wants to be a man, but he is more like a coward.

 And then there is the irony that – as always – Peter thinks he understands the situation. He has completely misunderstood, and Jesus tells him so. Don’t you understand that this is happening because this is what my Father wants to happen, this is the cup I have to drink. And that is who I am. I obey my Father.

 We stay with Peter and back comes the issue of identity into the story. Jesus told the soldiers who he was; but brave Peter doesn’t want to say who he is. So when the girl, not a big soldier, asks him whether he is a follower of Jesus like the other disciple (18:17), he said, ‘I am not’. Jesus says, ‘I am who I am’; but Peter here says, ‘I am not who I am’.

 And now what a contrast we have. Peter stands and warms himself by a charcoal fire with the very soldiers who were going to mock and possibly even take Jesus to the cross. He refuses to say who he is. That charcoal fire comes to epitomise Peter’s terrible failure, for around that fire, twice more (v. 25, and v.26) Peter denies that he knows Jesus. And he denies that he knows anything about what he did to Malchus. Peter is not telling the truth. Christ inside, I am, Peter outside, I am not.

 There is more to say about irony and contrast and identity in this appearance of Jesus before the high priest (18: 19 – 24)

 There is the contrast that the high priest is meeting at night, in secret, while Jesus spoke in the temple and in the synagogues in the day. Jesus works in the day. His enemies work at night.

 There is also the irony that Jesus knows more than the High Priest or his officers about the procedure for dealing with people who are accused. In the Jewish system, the judge had to first examine the witnesses before coming to the accused, but here the high priest tries to examine Jesus. But Jesus knows that this is wrong, and so it is Jesus who interrogates the High Priest, and tells him what the correct protocol is – ‘ask those who have heard me.’ And the soldier has no right to hit Jesus – as Jesus points out (v. 23)

 This then bring us to the deeper issue of identity.

 We are in the house of Annas, but he is not the actual High Priest; but the writer says that Jesus was examined by ‘the high priest’. So, was Caiaphas there? That is possible, but then in v. 24 we read that Annas sends Jesus to Caiaphas. So – we are a little confused. Who is the real high priest? I think the writer does this deliberately.

 And then, with the way the proceedings go, in secret, wrong procedure, with the hitting, we wonder – how can this man be the one who represent man before God.

 So again the question comes – who is the real high priest? And the answer is of course, the one who is accused. The false high priest is examining the real high priest, the man who will truly represent man before God.

 As said, Annas sends Jesus to Caiaphas (18:24), and the writer assumes that we know about the early morning meeting of the Sanhedrin from the Synoptics - Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 22. So the writer goes straight to the trial with Pilate (18:28)

 The Romans worked from dawn till about eleven in the morning. So the Jews with Jesus come to Pilate’s office, very early in the morning. And there is intense irony. The Jewish leaders think they will become defiled if they enter Pilate’s residence, this would mean they might have to wait a week till they became ritually clean, and so they would miss the Passover. In v.28 the writer doesn’t mean the Passover meal, because that was the night before, Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples. He means the Passover feast which lasted the week.

 They wanted to share in it, so here’s the irony. These Jews want to stay clean outside to be a part of the Passover; but they want to kill the Passover lamb.

 Now identity. Because they won’t go inside, Pilate has to go out to them (18:29), then he goes inside to talk more privately with Jesus (18:33); then he goes outside again (18:38); and then inside again (19:9); finally he comes out for the last time (19:13)

 Inside and outside. As so often in this Gospel there is another level of meaning here. Yes, this actually happened. Physically Pilate was going inside and outside. But this also underlines that Pilate is undecided, he is conflicted, he is double-minded. He both wants to release Jesus, but he also wants to stay a friend of Caesar. This ultimately is about identity. As we will see in this story there is a lot of emphasis on who Jesus is – but in asking who Jesus is, Pilate – and all of us – are deciding who we are. Are we going to be faithful to what we know is true, on the inside, and so define ourselves as someone of integrity; or are we going to give in to the pressure on the outside, and so define ourselves as someone who is dishonest and untrustworthy.

 Pilate has surely heard of Jesus and the claims that he is the Jewish Messiah, and he probably knew that the arrest had happened, because some Roman soldiers were involved. So the Jews are expecting him to now take the next step and sentence Jesus to death. They don’t want another trial.

 And so when Pilate asks, what accusation do you bring against this man, the Jews don’t give an answer. They just say this man must be evil because we have brought him to you. Pilate doesn’t like this and tells them to judge Jesus with their law. That’s no good for the Jews. They want Jesus dead, but they don’t want to kill him secretly because then the crowd would blame them. They wanted the Romans to execute him publicly, so they would then deal with any uproar from the crowd. And, as they say, correctly, in v. 31, that it wasn’t lawful for them to put anyone to death.

 There are at least three ironies here.

 First of all there is the irony that the Jews – the subject people – can answer the Roman governor, the representative of the king in such a rude way. He is evil because we have brought him to you, now do what you have to do. It makes us wonder who is really in control here – the Jewish leaders, or Pilate.

 But, secondly, then we have the irony that these Jews have to ask Pilate to deal with what Pilate rightly sees is essentially a Jewish matter. The Jews need the help of the Romans, the Jews – who in Chapter 8 said they were not slaves of anyone, cannot run their own affairs.

 And then in v. 32 we have the irony that while both the Jews and Pilate think they are the ones who are controlling events, it’s not. It is Jesus – the prisoner, the one who seemingly has the least power in the scene – he is the One who has determined how he is going to be executed. Back in chapter 3 he told Nicodemus that the Son of Man was to be lifted up. He repeats this after the Greeks come to see him in Chapter 12, ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.’

 The issue of Jesus’s identity is again underlined outside Pilate’s headquarters. Pilate says – ‘What accusation do you bring against this man? This man. Really? Is this just an ordinary man, Pilate? And the Jews answer, ‘If this man…’ Really Caiaphas, is Jesus just a man?

 As we go in with Pilate to his residence we see that in fact Pilate already thinks that Jesus is more than a man. He might be a king. So he asks (18:33). ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Who is Jesus?

 Now more irony. Pilate, the most powerful man in Palestine,

has asked Jesus a question. We expect Jesus to give an answer. But what happens – Jesus asks Pilate a question: are you genuinely asking me, or are you just repeating what you have heard? What irony. And that takes us to identity. Who is the most powerful person here, who in this scene really has power?

 Pilate says with contempt, ‘Am I a Jew?’ Of course I am not. But this brings more irony. For while throughout this account we see Pilate’s loathing for the Jews – yet, he eventually sides with them against Jesus.

 There is also the issue of identity. For Pilate asks, ‘Am I a Jew?’ and the simple answer is no, you’re a Roman, you’re a Gentile. You don’t belong to the people of God. It’s clear. Or is it? Because we have learned in the prologue that even though the Jews reject Jesus, if anyone accepts him, they can become children of God. Pilate can join God’s family. And in a very short time Jesus will invite him to do just that. So are you a Jew – a member of God’s family, we don’t know yet Pilate. The in and out of the narrative shows up that Pilate has not decided on his final identity.

 We stay with identity. Jesus now does tell Pilate who He is. He is a king, but his kingdom is not of this world. That is proved by the fact nobody is fighting for him after his arrest. We know that this means he is the King in the Kingdom of God.

 Jesus also adds something else about his Kingship. It is a kingship that bears witness to the truth – and we know that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. His kingdom is about what is trustworthy and real. He is the light of the world, and his light shines on what is true.

 Now we have a wonderful irony and a very sad irony.

 The wonderful irony is that Jesus has come to listen to Pilate ask him questions; but now Jesus invites Pilate to listen to him.

 Pilate – if you are of the truth, if you follow integrity, you will be listening to me right now, because everyone who is of the truth, listens to me.

 That must have been quite a moment. There must have been a pause. A silence as Pilate – a man made in the image of God – realised what Jesus was saying. Jesus was saying – Pilate, follow me, I am the truth That is wonderful.

 But Pilate’s response. What sad irony. Here is Pilate, standing in front of truth incarnate, and he says, ‘What is truth?’ It is the answer of a man who is starting to choose his identity, a man who rejects what he knows is true by trying to say there is no truth, there is no meaning to life. Pilate’s answer is full of cynicism, and this is hiding his rejection of God.

 Still Pilate goes out and tells the Jewish crowd that Jesus is innocent. Here is more and more irony. Here we have the Gentile ruler, the enemy, trying to save the Jewish Messiah from the Jews. And this particular ruler, Pilate, had a reputation for being cruel. We heard about that in Luke 13, about how he mixed the blood of executed Jews with the sacrifices.

 But there he stands saying Jesus is innocent. He will say this two more times.

 Irony – and identity. Pilate asks the crowd if they want him to release ‘the king of the Jews’. The writer will never let us forget that Jesus is a king. Jesus’ identity is clear. But what about Pilate. If he has authority, why is he asking the crowd? Is he the ruler or do the crowds have the last word. Who are you Pilate?

 The crowd want Barabbas. What contrast, what irony. Barabbas is a violent man, probably a murderer, probably a Zealot, that is what the Greek word implies. And the Chief Priests hated the Zealots because they threatened the status quo. And yet this is the man they want instead of the Prince of Peace.

 Pilate hopes by flogging and warning Jesus this will appease the Jews and they will agree to Jesus being released. This was not the flogging that came before a crucifixion. That was terrible. This was still bad, but lighter.

 In verses 2 – 3 there is more terrible irony and a further emphasis on identity. Pilate has mocked the idea that Jesus is ‘the king of the Jews’, now the soldiers do the same, with brutality. The crown of thorns, the purple robe, saying with malice, ‘Hail King of the Jews’, and then hitting him.

 They do this because they think that Jesus is just an upstart peasant Jew from Nazareth, but He is the King not just of the Jews, he is the King of the universe. And then the irony goes deeper. Because of their mockery, Jesus is showing the nature of his kingship – he is the king who suffers for others – for these very soldiers who are mocking him.

 After this beating, Pilate brings Jesus out again to the crowd, and again says that Jesus is innocent.

 v. 5 is very poignant and full of layers of meaning. It is an extraordinary verse. So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”

 The writer wants us to see Jesus coming out – his face full of blood, his eyes swollen, the mockery of the crown of thorns and the purple robe.

 It is an incredibly sad picture.

 And Pilate says – Behold. Pilate – the Gentile, the cruel ruler – he is telling the Jews to look. To see. To understand. We remember the first words of John the Baptist when he saw Jesus, ‘Behold, the lamb of God’. Behold, pause, take this in.

 Behold the man.

 For Pilate, he looks and it is easy, this man is no threat to anyone. But that is ironic, because man is very dangerous. Jesus here shows what man is like…this is what man does to man. And that violence is in our own hearts. It is also ironic, because this is the man who will judge the whole world. He will judge Pilate, He will judge you and me.

 The writer is also asking us to behold.

 Yes, we need to look at Jesus the man. Someone whose body was just like ours. We need to understand that he suffered.

 But we also need to see the crown of thorns and the purple robe. This is the King. He has become man, and this suffering are his robes of royalty. He did not deserve these robes, but he wears them, so we can have royal robes that we do not deserve.

 Some when they behold the suffering Jesus will bow in worship; others, as we see in v. 6 will say ‘Crucify him!

 This Gospel has always been black and white. From above or from below; from the devil or from God; jus. Either worship – or, ‘Crucify him’.

 For the third time (19:6) Pilate says Jesus is innocent, so again the same irony I have mentioned.

 But the Jews are determined. They now come out with the real reason why they have brought Jesus to Pilate. Blasphemy. And the punishment for that is death. It is written in Leviticus 24:16 ‘Anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death’.

 Jesus’ blasphemy is that he has made himself the Son of God. Again we – the reader – have to think about Jesus’ identity. Is He the Son of God? If so, then there is no blasphemy; but is He isn’t, then we have to side with the Jews. At this point there is no middle ground.

 This makes Pilate more afraid. This brings up another irony. The Jews, the people of God, have rejected Jesus as a charlatan, a deceiver, a pretender. They are not afraid of Jesus. But Pilate – the cruel pagan) ruler, he takes this seriously. Pilate, like other Romans, was superstitious, and he would have believed that the Jesus might be a sort of seer a holy man (that is what Pilate’s wife called him), someone who is in touch with the gods. And that unnerved him.

 We go inside again and Pilate asks a very important question about identity: ‘Where are you from?’ You see he is more open than the Jews. They just said – Nazareth. Pilate knows this, but he sees that there is more than Nazareth to Jesus.

 Jesus does not answer. Pilate closed down their earlier conversation with his cynical, ‘What is truth?’ So Jesus has no reason to engage in a serious conversation with him. This irks Pilate and – again with identity – he tells Jesus that he has authority to execute him, or not execute him.

 Jesus makes it clear about where authority comes from. It is from above. And that means that it is Jesus who has authority, which he now exercises before the man who is meant to have authority. It is Jesus who gives judgement about what is happening.

 Jesus says there is sin involved here – and that will mean judgement. The greater sin is with those who handed Jesus over – Annas, Caiaphas, Judas – but, ‘greater’ means there is a lesser sin, and there is no doubt what Jesus is talking about with this lesser sin. This is Pilate’s sin of not releasing a man whom he knows is innocent. Pilate, you are involved with sin. There will be judgement. Pilate understands, and so we read that he is now very keen, almost desperate to release Jesus. He is frightened of this judgement. But not frightened enough.

 For now the Jews play their trump card: ‘If you release this man who is claiming to be a king, you cannot be a friend of Caesar’. And they were right. If Tiberius heard that Pilate had released a man trying to be a king, Pilate would have immediately been sacked. In the Roman empire, the emperor had no equals, no other kings were tolerated.

 Now Pilate has to choose – between Caesar and Jesus. Again irony. He chooses Caesar, a temporary king, who was going to sack Pilate anyway in a few years. He rejects Jesus, the eternal king, who never sacks anyone who comes to him.

 Our passage ends with a scene of judgement. And again, irony and identity dominate this final scene (19: 13 – 16)

 Pilate has chosen to send an innocent man to his death for his own political future. And yet it is Pilate who comes now to sit on the seat of authority and judge Jesus. He is a wholly unworthy human judge, sitting above the man who will be the perfect judge. This is intense irony.

 The irony, as usual, puts light on identity. Who is Pilate? Who is Jesus? Such is the brilliance of our writer that it is not even clear who actually sits on that judgement seat. In the Greek it could read as Jesus, or Pilate.

 We assume it is Pilate. What a weak judge. The judge is meant to make the final decision, but instead he gives that final decision to the Jews, but in his question, he shows he has responsibility. He asks, ‘Shall I – shall I – crucify your king?’

 We end with three ironies.

 One irony we learned about in the prologue, that Jesus came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. It is much worse. They violently reject him. At the time of the Passover, the time when Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, these Jews send this Second Moses to the cross saying, ‘We have no king but Caesar.

 The second terrible irony. These Jews were sending Jesus to the cross for blasphemy. But what do we have here? ‘We have no king but Caesar’. Absolute blasphemy. For God was the only king for the true Jews. Not just blasphemy, but this killed faith in a coming Messiah. Even if they did not believe Jesus was the Messiah, they still should have said, ‘We have a king who is coming’. But they don’t. Their only king is Caesar. In sending Jesus to the cross, the Jews lose their own identity. They become like ordinary Romans.

 For most of this lesson we have been with Pilate, the man who went out and in, out and in, the double minded man Jesus’ brother, James talks about. And so at the end the final irony. Here is the man with the most authority in all of Palestine – but he has no authority. He delivers Jesus to be crucified because of the crowd.

 I hope you have seen how it is irony and identity that dominate the writer’s telling of the most famous arrest and trial in human history.

 Why is there so much irony? What is the lesson for us? It is about seeing. Jesus said ‘Come and see’, but there is so much that those around Jesus – Peter, Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, the crowd – there is so much they do not see. They think they know what is happening, but they don’t. And so we have torches going to the garden for the light of the world, we have secret hearings in the middle of the night, we have people intent on deceit and murder not wanting to be defiled, we have a man who does not understand that real authority must rest on integrity. It is all about seeing

 May God grant that we come to Jesus and see truly.

 And identity. Who is Jesus? Who is Peter? Who is the High Priest? Who is Pilate? Who is the judge

 And so – who am I in this story, who are you? We cannot encounter Jesus without having to decide who we are. As with Pilate, so with us, we have to make a decision.

 

Pilgrimage from the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit to the Cathedral of the Holy Family (second leg)

 Second leg: Poitiers to Toulouse (with Job)

 Last year my friend Donald Hirsch and I cycled from Guildford Cathedral to Poitiers, using the Portsmouth to Ouistreham ferry. The account of that ride is here –

 https://sternfieldthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/07/a-pilgrimage-from-cathedral-of-holy.html

 This year we took the same ferry, cycled to Caen, took the train to Poitiers, and here we began the second leg of our journey.

 To see our route for 2024 and 2025, please click here. Many thanks to Donald.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kyRGN-YC8lxs29pJJwmcrQIzQ3ySiSE-/view?usp=drive_link

Day 1: Monday 28^th April - Poitiers to Vivonne

 Short and simple

‘As I have seen, those who plough iniquity…reap the same’ (Job 4: 8)

 There was nothing onerous about getting to Poitiers. The ride from the ferry to Caen was a breeze, the train ride, via Tours, smooth, and once in Poitiers it was just fourteen-miles to the campsite. From the railway station there was a longish hill to climb with traffic growling past us, but soon we were out on a quiet French D road. Blissful. The campsite, by a river, was virtually empty. The tent went up with no issues, our day ended well.

 A naïve conclusion would be that this leg was going to be hunky dory, just like last year. It wasn’t. Quick and easy conclusions are often flawed. Like the answer of the friends to Job’s suffering. You must have sinned, repent and all will be well. Short, simple, and wrong for Job.

 Day 2: Tuesday 29^th April Vivonne to Mansle

 Google messed up

‘Have you not asked those who travel the roads’ (Job 21:29)’

 As the first part of our quiet route was fiddly, Donald had decided to use Google Maps. To begin with all was wonderful. We were on narrow, empty roads. But then those narrow roads became farm-tracks, and our pace slowed. Forty miles or so of farm-tracks was not going to work. We emerged on to a minor road, came to cross-roads, and got the map out. We needed a gentle road to the next town, Chaunay. As we were looking at the map an SUV drew up. A well-dressed lady got out of her car with her map, the navigation meeting became more intense, and a road was found. But then a cyclist arrived, an older man, and he joined this meeting at the cross roads. He had another opinion. The route the lady was suggesting would be problematic for us. There was a very long hill to climb. He suggested another way, which we took.

 We arrived in Chaunay later than we hoped for our coffee and croissants, and outside the Tabac was Oliver, smoking in the sun. He had lived in Northern Ireland and spoke good English. We nearly veered into one of those ‘Everything is terrible in the world’ conversations, but, thankfully, things were steered to matters of faith. He was an artist, a free spirit, a Gnostic: God is in everyone, he is God. I encouraged him to read John’s Gospel. He said he would. Asked by Oliver about his faith, Donald said he was agnostic. As we left, Donald had a riddle for me: why did silver separate him and Oliver? I should have got it, but I have never had a close relationship with the Periodic Table.

 We cycled on down the quiet roads, soon arriving at the small town of Civray on market day. A perfect place for our elevenses. We rode on into the country side. All so good, so peaceful.

 And then, a mile or so outside a small village, Donald had a puncture. We walked to change the inner tube under the shade of the church. It was the back tyre, so you have to lift the wheel quite high to get the wounded inner tube over all the gears. We got the new one in, but then, as Donald set off, there was a horrible noise. The chain was snarled up. Off the wheel came again to sort that out. Now we needed a bike shop, to get another spare inner tube, and, a new back tyre, because it looked a little worn out. This happened at ‘Intersport’ in Ruffec.

 After a rather hot afternoon ride, we arrived at our evening destination, Mansle. As we entered the town, Donald let out a cry of frustration. He had checked on the internet, but now a bill board announced that the campsite was shut till May. A tent pitch is about ten Euros. No campsite meant a hotel room, and all the eating places in the town were shut, so, it was the hotel restaurant. All perfectly reasonable and decent, but a bit more than ten Euros.

 Google, let us down today. Job’s friends with their ‘only sinners suffer’ mantra was like an AI chant. To this mantra Job counters that the opposite is true: it is the wicked who do well. They prosper, live in peace, and in death they are honoured. And then his sharp question: ‘Have you not asked those who travel the roads?’

 For our route this morning Google took us into fields, the kind lady only knew what was good for cars – but the man who cycled the roads, he knew.

 Day 3 Wednesday 30^th April: Mansle – Chevanceaux

 Things are not fixed

 ‘He who removes mountains and they know it not…who shakes the earth out of it place…. if it is not he, who then is it?’ (Job 9: 5, 6, 24)

 After our hotel rest, we were on the road early in the morning, full of energy. We made excellent progress, despite some longish hills. By lunch we had already clocked up forty miles. According to the plan we only had another ten miles to do.

 It is easy to feel a little precious when you have worked out a route, especially when changing it means finding new campsites. So I made my suggestion gingerly. I was worried about Friday, when we were due to ride sixty miles, with some stiff hills at the end. I suggested that we try and do at least another fifteen miles or so today, to lessen the pressure on Friday. Donald listened carefully and agreed – as long as there were campsites. There were. Donald, quite rightly, likes to plan carefully. But he doesn’t lock himself into a fixed system. He knows there has to be flexibility. So, the new plan became official, and off we rode.

 And then another slow puncture, this time it was Donald’s front tyre. We managed to get to the town of Barbezieux, and Donald said he was fine changing the inner tube by himself. So I went into the cool empty church for my midday snooze. I was woken up by a rather distraught Donald calling out my name. He couldn’t get the front wheel off. The thread had gone. That meant he had to walk it to the bike shop which was about two miles away. He walked fast, the bike shop found, the tyre was off, a new self-release clip put on, and now the front tyre had a new inner tube. On paper this should have been the last puncture for Donald’s bike.

 It wasn’t. That’s why this leg wasn’t hunky dory plain sailing. Donald had two more punctures. On the next day it was the back tyre – again. Our conclusion was that the new inner tube had a dodgy valve. And the day after it was the front wheel. That too needed a new tyre. Four days – each day a puncture. And the bike had been in for a thorough service at Evans in Guildford.

 We prepared well for this ride. We practised. When I got a pain in my left-hand calf muscle, I saw a physio, gave up tennis, and religiously did his exercises. We got our bikes serviced at Evans, a cut above Halfords. Donald had a plan A for the route, which, thankfully he wasn’t precious about because he has travelled the roads.

 Things seemed fixed – but they weren’t. Job’s friends tried to push all of life into one fixed system. But Job understood that life is not about a fixed system. We live in a world where God ‘removes mountains.’ It is unpredictable, often wild, definitely dangerous and wholly impossible to pin down. Just like the Creator.

 Day 4 Thursday 1^st May: Chevanceaux – Blasimon

 No watch

Oh that you would…appoint me a set time and remember me (Job 14:13)

 Just as we were about to leave the campsite, which had cost us a grand total of 8.60 Euros, I wanted to take note of the time. I looked at my wrist. No watch. I must have left it in the wash area. No, it wasn’t there. Nor was it in the shower. Nor was it where we had pitched out tent. So – it must be in either my panniers or small rucksack. I would find out in the evening when we unpacked.

 The cycling was tiring today, with plenty of long hills; but the scene of vineyards stretching wherever your eye looked was beautiful. Today was especially quiet. For the French take May Day seriously, most shops and cafes are shut. Thankfully we found a café open for our croissants and coffee, and we managed to get our lunch from a supermarket. We should have got our supper too, because by the time we got to our campsite, everything was closed. We made do with a leftover roll from lunch, and a few nuts. We were both fine, possibly because we had had such a fine lunch yesterday when Donald had a puncture. Just by a bike shop there was a picturesque restaurant looking over the canal. There we had a set three course lunch, served with a smile, costing I think about 16 Euros. It eased the pain of yet another puncture.

 Back to today. After getting the tent up and looking through both my panniers I declared my watch officially lost. I was annoyed, but I also wondered whether there was a message here. Perhaps a pilgrim should not be measuring time. We had to travel in the daylight, our bodies told us when to rest, our stomachs when to eat. There was no need for a watch. The need was to take in what was happening all around me, to listen carefully in conversations with Donald, to worship and pray when I dropped behind which often happened as Donald was faster than me.

 Surely there is a need also to see time in a less sliced up way. For apart from Job’s early morning prayers, there is nothing in the rest of the book about the time of day. We do not know whether his friends arrived to see him in the morning or evening. It’s the same for their conversations, even the arrival of God. The focus of the story is not on the time of day, but a grander, more serious focus on what time means. So, Job wants God to hide him till his wrath is past, and then ‘appoint me a set time, and remember me’. The time that matters is that yearning for that ‘set time’, that encounter, that appointment, not with a system, but with God.

 Day 5 Friday 2^nd May: Blasimon – Lac de damazon

 An unexpected event

 ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?’ (Job 38:4)

 Our goal was La Reole. This was where we would join the more than hundred-mile-long Le Canal Garonne cycle path to Toulouse and say good-bye to hills for the rest of our trip. We had our breakfast in Reole on some church steps, and then it was downhill to the canal.

 As I sailed through the town, I looked back and there was no Donald. Where was he? It had taken him a bit of time to get ready to move off after breakfast, but now what was going on? He eventually appeared and thankfully I suppressed the mild but rising irritation. For I was the reason for his delay. I had dropped my sunglasses in the street and he had rescued them from the traffic. Patience is always best for the pilgrim.

 It is impossible not to notice how well the French look after their country. As for their small roads and villages, so for this canal path. Unlike the tow paths in England which are often muddy and narrow, this was tarmacked, and wide. It was cycling heaven.

 Before Reole, there were quite a few hills to climb. When I was going up one slowly I felt a thud on my upper right arm. It was an unexpected event. And sudden. I looked, and there was a messy red pear shape on my arm. I wiped it away, and immediately knew this wasn’t blood. There was no smear. So, it was some sort of juice.

 Just before I was hit, a car had passed. Perhaps one of the passengers had finished their fruit and either decided just to throw it out, or, they aimed at me. The latter is possible, for I was wearing a helmet with the union jack on it. This was a joke Brexit birthday present from my brother. So – a nationalistic French man or woman, already perhaps angry about English tourists, saw the perfect target and took aim. I will never know for sure.

 In Chapter 38 God arrives out of a tornado and bombards Job with a hundred questions, all seeking to show that Job did not know much and could not do much. One of the first is the magnificent, ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?’ (38:4). His question to me if I started to fault His Providence could be much more pedestrian: ‘Do you know why you were hit with fruit when climbing that hill?’ We don’t know and the invitation from Job is to trust that God does know what He is doing.

 Day 6 Saturday 3^rd May: Lac de Demazon – Moissac

 God’s cathedral and choir

‘Hear this O Job, stop and consider the wondrous works of God’ (Job 37:14)

 From morning till early afternoon the wide gentle canal was our companion. The sunlight played on the water, and there were often magnificent views, across the flat fields to the hills in the distance. Standing guard along the banks of the canal were mature London planes, their new spring leaves sprinkling shadow over us. They were like the columns in a magnificent medieval cathedral.

 We were cycling from the cathedral of the Holy Spirit to the cathedral of the Holy Family – through God’s vast cathedral of creation, the ‘wondrous works of God.’

 And both here on the canal and for nearly all of our journey the choir were with us. The quietness of the French roads, and certainly this canal path, meant all the birdsong was easy to hear. It was constant but varied. Sometimes it was just a general chorus or tweeting and chirping, but every so often a soloist would rise above this singing demanding our attention – a cuckoo, a woodpecker, and others whose names I didn’t know. We were being encouraged.

 Elihu, the young man in Job’s story, is a difficult character. There is much to dislike about him. He’s self-righteous, angry, pompous, dogmatic, and long-winded. But, as with the other friends, he too has some gems, and one of them is the appeal to ‘consider the wondrous works of God’. Cycling is surely one of the best ways to do this, for we are constantly with creation. And, beyond our thinking, the beauty feeds our souls with thankfulness and yes, wonder.

 Day 7 Sunday 4^th May: Moissac

 Loyalty and kindness

He who withholds kindness from a friend, forsakes the fear of the Almighty (Job 6:14)

 This was a day of Sabbath rest from cycling. I enjoyed the service at the Abbey. The singing from the two hundred or so in the congregation was good, everyone knew the liturgy, and the priest was full of smiles as he walked up and down the aisle delivering is homily on John 21. You sensed his sincerity.

 After the service, a day of space and quiet. And a butterfly. In the afternoon, when I was sitting by my tent, it came and fluttered around me, finally settling on my arm. He or she was quite content there. Then the unnerving thought came that perhaps this was God’s messenger about my imminent departure. As had happened to the butterfly, we will all be changed in the twinkling of an eye. The butterfly flew away. I am still here.

 A restful day for me. Not for Donald. Once we had planned our trip, his aunt passed away and the date of the funeral was set for May 4^th. Quite rightly Donald wanted to be there, but he also wanted to finish this part of the ride with me. Rather than blank either his family or the ride he went more than the extra mile. On Saturday evening he got the train to Toulouse and flew back to Stansted. He stayed in a hotel there, and then got the train on Sunday morning to Guildford. From here he drove with his wife to Lewes for the funeral, where he gave a eulogy. His cousins deeply appreciated his support. Very early on Monday morning he drove to Heathrow and got an early flight to Toulouse. It should have been a train back to Moissac, but there was a strike on. So he got a taxi. All of this was not cheap, especially the taxi.

 Donald would not talk about 'forsaking the fear of the Almighty', but here was kindness for his family and his friend . This pilgrimage has thrown up many incidents to learn from, this is surely one of the most precious.

 Day 8 Monday 5^th May: Moissac – Toulouse, Job Street.

 Rootedness

Then came all his brothers and sisters…and ate bread with him (Job) in his house (Job 42:11)

 I clapped as the taxi drove up the drive to the campsite, with a beaming Donald. Rather than being tired from his early start, he was full of energy and enthusiasm for what would just be five more hours of cycling. The bikes were ready and we were soon breezing along by the canal for our forty-five-mile ride to Toulouse. The beauty of the canal remained, but as we got nearer the city, the surroundings became more commercial, the graffiti on the bridges more common,.

 Soon we were in busy streets. We were going to stay with an old university friend of Donald’s, Professor Paul Seabright, who lived near the station. So we went there first for a photo, and then we had a celebratory beer by the Basilica. The second stage of our pilgrimage was over.

 Paul’s house was in 4 Rue Job. And near to it was a Rue Zacharias. So I assumed this was an area where the council liked naming their streets after characters from the Old Testament. Completely wrong. The street was named after a man who had done well making cigarette papers. His initials were JB. And somehow an ‘O’ got inserted.

 With its enclosed garden and large well lived in rooms, Paul’s home was an oasis. It spoke of rootedness. This is where, after a season at Oxford and then Cambridge, Paul had put down roots after being appointed the Professor of Economics at Toulouse University. During our ride Donald and I had had a long conversation about rootedness. Donald travels a lot, but he belongs to Guildford. And that is an anchor for both his own family, and his wider family. I too have put down roots in nearby Farncombe. And I hope our home, 45 Green Lane, is a place of rest for our family. There has been some adventure and beauty about getting on our bikes and heading off into the wide spaces of France with just a tent and a sleeping bag, but that adventurous beauty is held firm by our homes and families. We should treasure rootedness.

 At the start of the story, Job was established in ‘the land of Uz’. The vicious crash comes, his wife tells him to curse God, he curses the day of his birth, the friends come and harangue him - but he stays in his house. We would have understood if he had moved. At the end of his story, in that same house, all is restored to him, and his brothers and sisters come and eat with him. The rootedness was there for the good times, the bad, and then the good again. Moving would not have helped. That physical rootedness speaks of Job’s spiritual rootedness. He never let go of the fact that God was Someone you could talk to. Indeed, in Chapter 19 the dark clouds draw back for a few seconds and we have the exquisite:

  ‘I know my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall see God.’

 The next day Donald and I got our bikes into bike bags and flew back to London and, fairly late on Tuesday evening, we put keys into our respective front doors. We were home. Grateful for the cycling, very grateful for our homes.

 

 

The Gospel of John: Jesus' Prayer 17: 1 - 26

 In his final teaching Jesus has told his disciples to pray; now he turns to pray. The prayer falls into four sections. From 17:1 – 5 Jesus prays for himself; from 17:6 – 19 Jesus prays for his disciples; and from 17:20 – 24 Jesus prays for those who will come to faith because of the disciples and then in 17:25 – 26 there is a summing up.

 We will look at these sections, but first I want to talk about a word glory that is at the heart of this prayer.

 Look at how the prayer starts in v. 1 v. 1, ‘glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you’, v. 4, ‘I glorified you on earth and v. 5, ‘glorify me in your own presence, with the glory I had with you before the world existed.’

 And then at the end of the prayer Jesus comes back to this subject. Jesus talks about the glory he has given his disciples and then in v. 24, Jesus prays that his followers will see his glory.

 Glory is important in this prayer, and glory is a very important word in John’s Gospel. It appears 23 times, and in this prayer, either glory or glorify comes 7 times. There is no such emphasis in the synoptics.

 The Greek word for glory is ‘doka’, which means full of honour and visible splendour. In Hebrew it is kaved, which means heavy. So glory is visible, heavy, splendour.

 And as we have seen in this Gospel, Jesus has very strong views about this subject of glory. Jesus does not accept glory from humans (5:41), or from another (5:44) or seek his own glory (7;18, 8:50) or glorify himself (8:54) or love the glory of humans (12:43). Instead he seeks the glory that only comes from God (5:44), the glory of the one who sent him (7:18). He sees that the most important thing about Lazarus’s illness is the glory of God (11:4). Long before we get to this prayer we have learned that there is only one thing that dominates Jesus’ thinking, there is only one issue that is of burning importance to him – it is the glory of God.

 So, it we were to ask what is Jesus asking for, this is the answer, he is asking for glory. For the Father, for the Son – and for us to see this.

Why glory? Because when all glory is given to God, then everything else falls into place.

Let’s look now at these sections.

17: 1 – 5 Jesus prays for himself

 How does Jesus pray physically? He lifts his eyes to heaven. That’s what he did in front of Lazarus’ tomb.

 Prayer starts with Jesus acknowledging that there is another world, there is another system – of angels and arch angels, and the throne of God the Father.

 And how does he address God? Father. It was the same in front of Lazarus’ tomb. It is of course the same when Jesus in the synoptics taught his disciples how to pray, ‘Our Father in heaven’.

 The intimacy that Jesus had just been talking about in the Farewell Discourses, now the disciples see this. It is possible.

 Jesus tells the Father that, ‘The hour has come’. We, the reader, always knew that this hour was coming, now it has come. This was true. As Jesus was praying, because of Judas’ betrayal, the soldiers are getting ready to come and arrest him.

 Jesus wants to pray about this hour – for himself and then for his disciples. His concern for himself is that in this hour he is glorified – because he obeys God – and so this bring glory to the Father.

 The Father has commanded that the cross must happen, the Father has commanded that Christ must be the lamb of God, that He must take the Father’s wrath for the sins of the world. So here Jesus is asking for help in prayer for this to happen. That he will be able to bring glory to God through his suffering.

 The prayer starts with great intimacy between the Son and the Father. That is v.1; but then in v. 2 the scene moves away from this intimacy to the vastness of Jesus’ authority. It is over all flesh, over all mankind.

Authority comes from intimacy. And how does Jesus use this authority? To give eternal life to ‘all whom you have given him’. We see that the issue of suffering is never separated from authority, because it is the giving of eternal life which is the cause of all of Jesus’ suffering.

 Jesus talks here about all that God has given him. We met this idea in chapter 6 where Jesus talked about those the Father had given him and in 6:44 he said nobody can even come to him, unless the Father draws him.

 Without doubt the Father chooses. However in 6:45 Jesus says everyone is taught by God, and anyone who learns from the Father comes to me. And so without doubt our response to God is also important. Here in John 17 we have God’s initiative here in v. 2, and then again in v. 6, 9, and 24. But Jesus is also praying, that means our prayer, our response is also important.

 In v. 3 we have an important definition of what eternal life is. It is not just life for the sake of life. It is relationship. It is knowing God the Father and God the Son.

 In v. 4 and v. 5 we are back with Jesus’ concern for glory. We see it has two sides. There is glory in the work that Jesus has accomplished on earth – the teaching, the miracles, but especially the suffering that is going to come. That is one side of glory. But there is another and Jesus wants that. He wants the glory He had before he was sent to the earth, before even the world existed. A wonderful heavenly glory. That is what Jesus wants.

 Let’s move to the second section.

 Jesus prays for his disciples 17: 6 – 19

 This is the longest section of the prayer. Before we look at some of the details it’s important to focus on what the actual requests are.

 The first request is in v. 11, Holy Father, keep them in your name., then the next request is similar, in 15, ‘keep them from the evil one’, and the third is also similar – ‘Sanctify them in the truth’.

 The disciples are to stay in the world and Jesus is praying that they remain as disciples, they remain loyal and holy to God. We can summarise the prayer in a few words:

  Father, please keep my disciples as Christians. It is then the faithful, holy Christian who is sent into the world (v18). First Jesus prays that we remain faithful and holy, then he sends us.

 Before making that first request in v. 11, Jesus explains who the disciples are and what their situation is. V 6 Jesus again affirms that the disciples have been given to him by the Father, and Jesus has ‘manifested his name’ to them. It is possible that Jesus actually taught them the name Yahweh, the name of God, but most people think that ‘name’ here refers to character. Jesus has shown the disciples the character of the Father – through the seven signs, through the teaching, through the washing of feet, and soon through the cross and resurrection. People ask, what is God like? This Gospel answers – He is like Jesus.

 Jesus then says that these disciples have accepted His word. Jesus here means they have shown themselves loyal to what Jesus has said. This was especially true at the end of John 6. Do you remember, when Christ started saying people had to eat his body and his blood and many disciples said that this was a hard saying, and they left. But these eleven stayed. They might not have understood all that Jesus taught, but they had understood the most important things. They know that Jesus’ words have come from God (v. 7) and that Jesus has come from God (v. 8)

 So it is this group who have shown loyalty that Jesus is praying for – not the world (9) This does not mean that Jesus is not concerned  about the world. John 3:16 tells us that the Father and the Son love the world. And later in this very prayer, Jesus talks about these disciples going into the world (v.18), and the world being impacted by their witness (v. 21). Jesus cares for the world, but right now it is important for him to pray for his own disciples.

 In v. 11 Jesus explains the situation of the disciples. He is now coming to the Father, but the disciples are staying in the world. Yes, we have learned that they will have the Holy Spirit, but that is not till after the crucifixion. And even then, though better, as Jesus explained, still it will be very different. So – Jesus is praying for the disciples in the specific background of his trial and execution and all the danger after that. It is a very specific prayer. It relates back to how he started the prayer – ‘the hour has come’. That is an hour of suffering for Him, but it is also an hour of testing for the disciples.

 And so he prays the Holy Father will keep them – in your name (11). The Greek says ‘in the name’ There is discussion over what Jesus meant by ‘in your name’. Some say this means ‘by your name’, i.e. God the Father can keep the disciples safe by the power of His name. And that name certainly has power, that is made clear in Psalm 54:1 – ‘O God, save me by your name’. However others think it means, keep them faithful to your name, to your character. Keep them loyal. This is what makes more sense to me. Especially because of what follows, when they are loyal, then there will be unity, oneness, with God and His Son.

 12. Jesus has kept them loyal while on earth, except ‘the son of perdition’.

 But even as Jesus chose his disciples, he knew that betrayal was going to be a part of the story, the Scripture had to be fulfilled. Jesus then is saying to His Father – I did my job. With me, these eleven are loyal. Now I am coming to you – please keep them loyal.

 13. The things that Jesus has been speaking about is probably referring back to the Farewell Discourses and especially the teaching about abiding in the vine, that is another way of saying, staying loyal. And Jesus taught this – as he prays now, so they would have joy in themselves. If you look at 15:11 you will see it’s very similar to this verse. Joy comes from staying loyal to Jesus. And so Jesus prays that his disciples will know this joy.

 Jesus goes onto explain their situation, which is again similar to John 15. Because these disciples are loyal to Christ’s word, so, the world hates them. Their remaining in Christ, means they do not belong to the world system.

 Let’s now take 15 – 19 as one. This is how Jesus ends his prayer for his own disciples.

 They are in a place where they are hated, and where there is spiritual opposition. Their life is not going to be difficult. The easy answer would be for Jesus to ask the Father just to remove them from the world. Escape. (15) But Jesus specifically says that He does not want the Father to take them out of the world. In fact, just as the Father sent Jesus into the world, so now Jesus is sending them into the world, the world that is in rebellion against God. That is where Jesus wants his disciples to be.

 But how? How does he want them to be there? He has two requests.

 1. He wants them to be protected from the evil one (15). He prayed this in the Lord’s prayer, ‘Deliver us from evil’; he prays it now.

 2. He wants them to be sanctified in truth (17). Sanctified means set apart, consecrated, completely loyal to God, separated. But that separation must no happen in a vacuum. That will not work. The world will come in. For there to be separation there has to be this constant living in truth, Christ’s words. And this does not just mean reading the Bible; this means living the Bible, for truth is teaching in action. The truth is not knowing that Jesus washed feet, the truth is washing feet. Christ’s truth in us separates us from the world.

 The prayer for the disciples ends in v. 19. Here Jesus explains that the sanctification of the disciples in truth this will happen because of his own consecration This surely refers to the cross. Jesus – like a consecrated sacrifice, set apart to be killed – will soon be facing death. Because his death that will bring the Holy Spirit who will work to bring about this sanctification of these first disciples.

 What a prayer for the eleven for this hour – that the Father keeps them, that they are protected (mohafezat), and kept separate, to then be sent into the world.

 Now let’s move to the last part of the prayer, when Jesus prays for those – like us – who have believed because of the witness of those first disciples.

 Jesus prays for other disciples 17: 20 – 26

 Jesus is confident that his prayers will be heard and that these first disciples will be a faithful witness, and so there will be future disciples. There indeed are. Today there nearly two and a half billion people call themselves Christians.

 What is Jesus’ prayer for these others, for us? Unity. This does not mean that everyone dresses the same and says the same sorts of things. That is a static unity. Everyone the same. This is not static unity. This is unity because we are in a relationship both with each other and with the Father and the Son. That’s what the repetition of the ‘in’ is all about. The Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, the believer in both the Son and the Father. This is a dynamic unity.

 The impact of this relating with God and each other on the world will be massive. It will result in people in the world saying – God is with these Christians.

 There is much discussion over what Jesus means in v. 22 about the glory he has given to his disciples, which will help them in this relationship. Probably the best way to understand this is that he has revealed his glory to them – through his miracles, through his teaching – and especially – in the future – in the cross and resurrection. That is why this author says – we have seen his glory, in the prologue. This revelation of Christ’s glory has a purpose – it is to bring them – us – into this relationship which makes this unity, this oneness. And again Jesus says that this will have an impact on the world. When they see the church in relation with the Father and the Son, that is when they will believe that Jesus is divine, that He has been sent by God – and here he adds something, v. 23 – that they are loved by Jesus, as the Father loves the Son. People in the unbelieving world will respond when they see that Christians know they are loved.

 So far Jesus has just prayed for that these believers may have this unity in relationship with God and other believers– it’s in v. 21, 22, and 23.

Now in 24 we have a different request. So again we read, Father.

  Father – there’s something else. And that is that Jesus wants his disciples – past and present – to be with him where he is, i.e. with the Father in heaven, and to see the glory that Jesus had before the creation of the world – and to see that this glory rests on the love of the Father for the Son. Jesus wants us to share in the glory and love of his relationship with the Father.

 It’s important to see that this for Jesus is the most important thing. Yes, he is concerned about our journey – that we are kept from the evil one, that we have unity – but he also keeps the focus on the destination. And the destination is seeing God’s glory.

 The prayer ends with v. 25 – 26. It is a summary

 Jesus proclaims the most important thing about the disciples. Because of what Jesus has done, they know that the Father has sent Jesus. They know that Jesus is from God. The world does not know, but these eleven do.

 And then in v.26, this is deepened. This knowledge is for a purpose. It is so the disciples – all disciples – can experience the love that God has for the Son, in them.

 They experience the love of God. Sharing the revelation of God, and experiencing the love of God, are intimately connected. Put simply – it is all about relationship.

 And that is what Jesus prays for all of us, that this loving relationship will be with us – and that is how we will make God known.

 We have reached the end of chapter 17, which ends the Farewell Discourses. This was a very intimate time Jesus had with the eleven. Chapter 18 will be very different.

 Let me leave you with three thoughts from Jesus’ wonderful prayer.

 First of all there is the importance of prayer for Jesus. When he had the opportunity to teach these eleven on the last night on this life there was an emphasis on prayer.

 Four times Christ says that the disciples can ask anything and it will be given 14:13, 15:7, 16, 16:23. So, he wants them to pray. He wants us to pray. Things will happen. This is followed by chapter 17, a whole chapter recording Jesus’ prayer before the storm comes. Surely there is an example here.

 Secondly remember what Jesus is asking for his disciples– he is asking that the Father keeps them so they stay loyal. That is what Christ is asking for – loyalty, separation from the world, and that will then bring oneness. The most important thing we can do is to be loyal and faithful to Christ.

 And then thirdly – it is from prayer, and from this loyalty, that we are sent into the world. Mission comes from prayer. Mission comes from a relationship. Mission says, come and see the love God has for me. And good things happen.

 After the quiet, the storm. See you soon for Chapter 18.

https://sternfieldthoughts.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-gospel-of-john-arrest-and-trial-of.html

The Gospel of John: The Farewell Discourses 13:31 – 16:39

 We have come to what are known as Jesus’ ‘Farewell Discourse’. It starts in 13:31 after Judas leaves, and finishes, at the end of chapter 16.

 We call it the ‘Final Discourse’, as if it is one long monologue. But it’s not. Yes, Jesus does most of the talking, but the disciples are very much involved They ask questions; and Jesus is concerned about how they are feeling. Whatever we call these chapters, they are very rich, for Christians to read again and again.

 We are going to look at this Farewell Discourse in three sections

 1. Comfort/reassurance for the troubled disciples – this runs from 13:31, to the end of 14

2. Encouragement to continue as a faithful disciple. This is chapter 15.

3. More comfort and radical encouragement, that’s chapter 16.

 As Judas goes out, Jesus says ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified’ ((31) The suffering starts with Judas’ betrayal. Jesus looks around and see the disciples are upset. Jesus is very gentle with them. He says, ‘Little children’ (13:33) and explains that he has to go somewhere they can’t come. The tone is very loving. The disciples would understand that He wants to help them.

 Peter then boasts that he would die for him (13:37), and again Jesus’ answer is just a gentle question, not a rebuke, – ‘Will you lay down your life for me?’ And we know it’s the exact opposite. Jesus will lay down his life for Peter.

 As chapter 14 opens Jesus is looking at the faces of men who think they are going to die. Their fear was real. Usually when a government crushes a political or religious group they kill not just the leader, but also his close followers. So, the disciples are thinking they are going to die. Their hearts are full of stress.

 So Jesus deals with the issue of death. Jesus’s reassurance is that death is not the end. There is the ‘Father’s house’, the place where man dwells with God, and that place has many rooms. And Jesus – by his dying, not theirs – is going to make sure they can get to those rooms. And then He will come again, and take them there. This is the Second Coming when Jesus returns and there is the resurrection of the dead.

The heart of what Jesus says here is that ‘where I am you may be also’. It is fellowship. It is being together. For the disciples to enjoy this this reality, they must trust in God and Christ. (14:1) They must trust that this is true

 Jesus then says, as a question: ‘‘You all know the way to this fellowship’.

Thomas says, ‘We don’t even know where you’re going to, so how can we know the way.’ So Jesus says that He is the way… ‘I am the way, the truth and the life, nobody comes to the Father except through me’. There has to be an encounter with Jesus – the I am. And an acceptance of His way. From the foot-washing we know that Jesus’ way is always the way of love and humility.

 Jesus is also the truth. That does not mean two plus two information. Truth in Hebrew ‘emet, which means trust-worthy Truth shows itself in action.

 This way and this truth bring life – as we have seen in the Gospel, life as wine in chapter two, as water in chapter four, as healing in chapter four and five, as bread in chapter six, as light in chapter nine, as resurrection in chapter eleven. Wherever Jesus goes, He brings life. So, the way to fellowship with God is walking with Jesus.

 Let me say something here about this verse’s exclusivity: ‘Nobody comes to the Father except through me’. This definitely means that no man or woman can have a relationship with God the Father apart from Christ. He is the only way to God. But does this mean that all the millions before and after Christ who have not called themselves Christians have no relationship with God?

 The answer to that question is that this is a mystery. We come to the Father through Jesus – and in John 1: 4 we read that Christ is ‘the light of men’, and in v. 9 that he gives light to ‘everyone’. This means Christ is talking in some way to everyone, so – without knowing His name – they can come to the Father, through Him. But we don’t know about this. We have to trust that God’s dealings with all of us in this matter are perfect.

 With this attitude of trust about the exclusivity of John 14:6 we can now focus on Jesus’ main aim here, which is to reassure the disciples that they can come to the Father. They can have a relationship with the Father.

 Philip then bluntly says, ‘Well, show us the Father’, and again Jesus emphasizes the same point. By being with me, by seeing me, you are having fellowship with the Father. Philip, please think about my teaching and my miracles – you have to conclude I am living in a relationship with God. (10 – 11)

 The reality of this fellowship will then be seen by the ‘greater works’  that the disciples do, and the reality of their prayer life (14: 12 – 13), a prayer life where they ask and receive. The greater works could mean greater miracles, but many people think this means the greater work of the spread of the Gospel and the church.

 Till now the fellowship can be with the Father and the Son. However, in v. 16, Jesus promises the Holy Spirit. The usual word used for Spirit in the New Testament is ‘pneuma’. But in this Farewell Discourse the word is ‘paraclete’. This means one who draws alongside to help you, especially in a legal situation. In English it is translated as Helper, Advocate, Comforter. The Holy Spirit then is an active presence to help us.

 As Jesus introduces the arrival of the Holy Spirit, notice where the emphasis is. It’s on the dwelling. That is what Jesus wants them to understand. He is a ‘Helper’ who will never leave them. He is going to dwell inside them (v. 17). It’s the being together, the fellowship. That’s been the emphasis all the way through.

 Then in v. 18 Jesus says, “I will not leave you as orphans.” You see how all the time he is wanting to reassure his disciples. They fear that they will be abandoned in this very hostile city. Jesus promises this will not be the case. Yes, there is ‘a little while’, but ‘I will come to you.’ The little while would be Friday and Saturday. Just two days. But on the third day, He came – not to the world, but to the disciples. To Peter, to Mary, to the two on the road to Emmaus. They – we – are just about never going to be left alone.

 Jesus is asking them to believe in ‘that day’, that Sunday.. They will be in a fellowship full of love. (14: 20). If you look at v. 21 – 23 you will Jesus again emphasizes the fellowship. He says they are in a relationship of love, not just with Him, but also with the Father (21), and this means that they – the Father and the Son, via the Spirit will ‘come and make our home with him’ (23). Do you see the word ‘home’, again? That is what this chapter is all about. There is a safe place to be, home – here on earth, and later in the Father’s house.

 You will have noticed that Jesus has been saying that this dwelling with God is for those who keep his commandments, those who keep his word – v. 15, 21, 23. And the question will arise – especially for the next generation of Christians – but what exactly are those commandments what is that Word?

  At the end of chapter 14 Jesus deals with that question. In v. 26 He says that the Paraclete - modafe will come and will help these first disciples remember all that Jesus said for themselves – and the next generations. Jesus is saying that the Gospels will be inspired by the Holy Spirit.

 So Jesus answers the question from Judas, son of James, as to why this relationship is only for those who love God…the ones who love God (v. 23) and the ones who keep His word. And so in v. 27, in the last verses of the chapter, we end where we began: let not your hearts be troubled.

That is why I say this chapter is primarily about Jesus wanting to comfort his disciples.

 So rather than having troubled hearts, Jesus gives his followers His special peace. Jesus’ peace is very different to a man-made peace. It is His peace. Peace with God. It is real. It lasts. Jesus also wants them to have joy, because He is going to the Father. He is going home.

 The statement, ‘for the Father is greater than I’ has been difficult for teachers throughout church history. Suffice to say it does not mean that Jesus is not fully God, but when Jesus was on earth – the Word became flesh – relying all the time on the Father, walking in obedience to the Father, then of course, the Father then is greater than the Son.

 In v 29 we see another aspect of Jesus’ comfort.He wants to prepare them for what is going to happen. And then he says the ruler of this world is coming. In other words the hour has come – the hour of betrayal (for Satan had entered Judas’ heart), and his hour of suffering.

 But – the ruler of the world is under God’s control. He has no authority over (be) Jesus at all, because Jesus – the perfect man – does all the Father commands him to do. Satan thinks he is controlling events, but he isn’t. God is in total control.

 Chapter 14 ends. I hope you have seen that the main emphasis of this chapter from beginning to end is that Jesus wants to bring comfort to his disciples. He wants them to know that they can dwell with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And not even death can stop this happening.

 That is their comfort, that is our comfort. We are involved in a never-ending fellowship of love – loved by the Father, loved by the Son, and loved by the Holy Spirit who lives in us right now.

 In the next section we are going to look at Chapter 15 and the title for this section is, ‘Encouragement’.

 At the end of Chapter 14 Jesus says, ‘Rise, let us go from here.’ The upper room was probably in the south of Jerusalem, so Jesus and his disciples would have left either by a city gate in the south and it is very likely they would have then passed vineyards on their way towards Gethsemane. It is very possible that Jesus then stopped and gave this famous teaching on the true vine or vineyard.

 Jesus has a specific aim with this teaching. He states it at the start of chapter 16:1. ‘I have said all these things to keep you from falling away.’

Jesus does not want to just give comfort to his disciples, he wants to encourage them to have fruitful Christian lives.

 The whole point of the vine is to bear fruit. That is where Jesus’ attention goes right at the start. If there is no fruit, the branch goes. If there is fruit, there is pruning, so there will be more fruit. And at the end of the teaching about the vine Jesus returns to this. Look at v. 16. Jesus chooses us – to bear fruit that will last.

 In the Old Testament Israel had been called God’s vine (Psalm 80, Isaiah 5). To underline this outside the temple there was the picture of a vine. But Israel had only given the fruit of nationalism. So now Jesus says, I am the true vine…and if anyone abides in me, there will be fruit.

 So – in contrast to Israel and the temple, that is what the Christian life is all about fruit. But - how do we bear fruit? And what is the fruit? The how is answered by one word in Greek – meinate, in English, ‘abide’. Where do we stay – in the vine, in Jesus, in the relationship that He has been talking about in chapter 14. This is the foundation – staying in relationship with Christ. And this abiding is defined, it is not a mystical spiritual state No, it is abiding in Jesus’ word (v.7), it is living in the Bible, and especially in the Gospels.

 It is this, and this alone, that will bear ‘much fruit’. It will happen as naturally as grapes come onto the branches of the vine. This is all we have to do. And if we do not stay in relationship with Christ, then life will drain away, just like a branch that has broken away from the vine. It will become dry, and the gardener will come and throw it in the fire. (15:6)

Always in this Gospel there is a clear choice. Either stay in Christ and we will go to the Father’s house; or we choose not to stay in Christ, and we will be burnt.

 What then is the fruit? Four things

 1. First it is a vibrant prayer life. Fruit means prayers that are answered. OK, we might not see all our prayers answered, but all of us as Christians should be able to point to some very specific answers to prayer.

 2. Then there is keeping Christ’s commandment to love. That idea runs from v. 9 – 13. Loving one another as Christ loved us – washing each other’s feet, even dying for one another, that is the ‘much fruit’.

 3. There is intimacy with God, being called friends. Another way of saying this is that a Christian receives revelation from God. How that happens is another subject, but it is very definitely a part of the ‘much fruit’. (14-15)

 4. There is a bitter-sweet fruit. This is the hatred of the world, and the ongoing witness of believers. This runs from v. 18 – 27. The fruit of our abiding is that we are different from those in the world who get their satisfaction from power and pleasure and money. People of the world hate this, and the focus of their hate is the name of Jesus, the name that stands for foot-washing, humility, self-sacrifice, forgiveness. And it is in that name that miracles happen (v. 24), whereby people can acknowledge that God is at work in Christ. Despite all the miracles, the Jews refused to acknowledge Jesus was from God, instead they hated him – without a cause, as Jesus says here.

 This happens. It happened then, it has happened throughout church history, and it is happening now.

 The hatred of the world is bitter; but the witness that believers give in these situations, that is sweet. And it is made all the sweeter because here Jesus promises his followers that they will have the help of the Holy Spirit. The world will throw its lies at Christians, they will reply with the Spirit of truth (26). Note here too that Jesus specifically mentions the witness of those who have been with him from the beginning (27). He wants us – the generations that have followed – to trust what they have said.

 How do we bear fruit? We stay in Jesus

What is the fruit? Prayer that works, loving like Jesus, friendship with God, and being persecuted.

 Jesus mainly comforts his disciples in chapter fourteen; here in chapter fifteen he has encouraged them to bear much fruit.

 Chapter 16 revisits a lot of what Jesus has been saying. There is both comfort and encouragement here.

 As a part of not wanting the disciples to fall away, he warns them (16:2 – 4) about how the Jews are going to treat them. It’s going to be rough. He wants them to be ready.

 Jesus sees that the disciples are still looking sad (16:6), and so now from v 7 – 15 Jesus seeks to encourage them with one fantastic truth. Yes, I am going away, I am not going to be with you – but the Holy Spirit can only come, once I have gone.

 In this Gospel the writer is insistent that the Holy Spirit comes to us because of Jesus’ death. Remember 7:39 when the writer says that the Spirit had not been given, ‘because Jesus was not yet glorified’ The cross had not happened.

 Then in John 19: 34, after the soldier put the spear into Jesus’ side, the writer says he saw blood – and water. He emphasizes this. The death has happened, the water flows, the river begins.

 Jesus is emphasizing this truth again for his discouraged disciples. Yes, I am going, this has to happen for the Holy Spirit to come. So, Jesus says, this is to their advantage (16:7). Why? Because the Holy Spirit will be with them – and is now with us – all the time. 24/7. This is surely a great encouragement.

 The Holy Spirit comes – and the Holy Spirit has work to do, for the world, and for the disciples. The work for the world is in 16: 8 – 11. The Holy Spirit will expose three things: That people are sinners; that Jesus is righteous); and that the devil has been judged.

 For Jesus the meaning of sin is not believing in Him. Sin is when we reject that which we know deep in our hearts is loving and true. That is to reject Christ. The Holy Spirit shows us this. He shows us that our heart attitude is all wrong. That is the first step to repentance and salvation. Sometimes people become Christians without this experience.

 The Holy Spirit also shows that Jesus is righteous In this Gospel we have seen that many saw Jesus as a liar, He is not who He says He is. It is the Holy Spirit who changes people’s minds about Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who shows us the significance of the resurrection and Christ’s ascension to the Father – that this means that Jesus is the righteous man.

 And it is the Holy Spirit who shows us the victory of the cross. To the normal way of thinking Jesus’ death on a cross was the world judging Him. It was a victory for the ruler of this world. However the Holy Spirit comes and completely changes our view of the cross. He helps us understand that Christ’s cross was no victory for the ruler of this world. It was where he was completely defeated and judged.

 All of this is wonderful encouragement for the disciples. They do not have to serve the world by themselves. Not at all. We all witness to the world with this ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit.

 As said, the Holy Spirit also has work to do among the disciples, this is from 16:12 – 15. Till now Jesus has been teaching them. What will happen now that Jesus is going?  Here is the answer. The Holy Spirit will teach them, under Jesus’ authority, and lead them into all truth. As one looks forward into the early history of the church, what an encouragement this is. Think of the controversy over circumcision (khatna) in Acts. Jesus was not there to give a decision; but the Holy Spirit was, and so we have the wise decision of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15)

 After this encouragement about the Holy Spirit, Jesus again brings comfort He wants to help them get through the very difficult time between his death and his resurrection.

 Jesus calls it the ‘little while’. In Greek the word is mikron. It comes six times in three verses, 16 – 19. A little while you will see me no longer, a little while you will see me again. The disciples don’t understand, so we hear the word mikron four more times.

 Why such a emphasis? Because just like in John 11 Jesus wanted to emphasize that Lazarus was sleeping; here he wants to underline that even though this is a terrible time, it is only a little while, just two days. Suffering happens, but it does not last. Typically though Jesus does not say it’s those two days between arrest and the resurrection. Instead he chooses to describe the ‘little while’ with the picture of a woman in labour (16:21). It is a perfect picture. Just like when a woman goes into labour, there will be terrible pain as they see Jesus mocked and crucified. And this pain will seem to go on for ever. But then the baby is born. Christ bursts out of the tomb. There is great joy, and all the pain is forgotten.

 The source of the joy is the resurrection, ‘I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you.’ (16:22) Verse 23 says, ‘In that day’. In the day of resurrection, in the day that we know we still living with the joy of the resurrection. How? Again because of our prayer life. We will ask the Father for things in Jesus’ name, and we will receive them. And every answer to prayer will point to the risen Christ and the truth of his words here.

 In the next verses Jesus emphasizes how sweet this fellowship is going to be. There is going to be much more revelation. They are going to hear much more from Christ. He will no longer talk in riddles, but plainly. This word in Greek is parresia which means plenty. Jesus’ point is that there is a lot more teaching to come, which they will understand.

 We are now nearing the end of the Farewell Discourse. We see (16:29) that the disciples are in much better shape. Rather than looking glum and confused, they are talking about their faith in Jesus. There is though some irony here. That is typical in this Gospel. The disciples say they believe and Jesus questions that, because he knows that their faith will not be strong enough to stay near him during the arrest. All will leave him. But Jesus is not despondent. Yes, his disciples will leave him – but the Father is with him (32).

 The last verse is a conclusion. It is magnificent. It reminds us again what the point of this long teaching section has been for: to give comfort and encouragement. Again Jesus reassure these disciples who are just about to enter a terrible storm. In me you have peace. Stay in me. Stay connected to me. Don’t lose your peace.

 Surely his message is the same today. Jesus’ last words to his disciples in this sermon sum up all that he has wanted to do. He wants them to have strong hearts. True then, true now. Jesus wants us to read these chapters, and then get up to whatever next life has in store for us – with strong hearts. This is not sentimental strength. It is based on fact. The one who washed their feet, the one who goes to the cross, this is the One who is victorious.

 Whatever you are facing, even if it is death, you have fellowship with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He is living in your heart right now. And He says – be strong in your hearts.

Not least because Jesus has prayed for us, that's in the next chapter. See here - 

https://sternfieldthoughts.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-gospel-of-john-jesus-prayer-17-1-26.html