the fifth sunday of easter
the PRAYER …
O Lord God, you teach us that without love, our actions gain nothing. Pour into our hearts your most excellent gift of love, that, made alive by your Spirit, we may know goodness and peace, through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
the READING …
[Jesus said,] “Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’” john 13:31-35
the DEVOTION …
There are seven Sundays in the season of Easter. And each year – with an exception or two – the gospel readings, each week, come from John. This year, the first three Sundays are about Jesus-AFTER-the resurrection. In the garden. Behind the doors. Along the sea. But the last three are about Jesus-BEFORE-Easter! For that matter, they’re about Jesus BEFORE, even, the cross! Jesus-in-the-night-in-which-he-was-betrayed. And if we aren’t careful, we might think he’s saying something he may not, actually, be saying.
You see, chronology matters when we read the bible. And reading this week’s PRE-easter passage – AFTER the resurrection – leaves the impression that it’s about forever! An endTime, lastDays, kind of thing! “I am with you only a little longer,” Jesus says. “Where I am going, you cannot come.” And if Jesus had, actually, said these words on this side of the resurrection … in the garden … behind the doors … along the sea … they might mean exactly that. But he didn’t. He said them on the holyWeek side of things, at the beginning of his “Farewell Discourse.” Five chapters … A hundred fifty-five verses … Thirty-six hundred words … of leave-takings and goodbyes. Jesus was about to be betrayed, denied, abandoned, to suffer and die. It’s, then, that he looks into the eyes of his friends and says, “I am with you only a little longer.” Nothing supernatural. Otherworldly. This is as far as we go … together. “Where I’m going, you cannot come.” So, I want you to do what I have done. I want you to love each other …