Fifth Sunday of Easter – Last Supper Discourses: I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me
For perspective, this section of John’s Gospel is called the Last Supper Discourses. It takes place during the Last Supper, and follows Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, announcing Judas’s betrayal, and predicting Peter’s denial; before they get up and go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus is arrested. This is my personal favorite Gospel passage!
Because, if you have missed it all along – and remember, He was saying this to those in the upper room: his closest friends – if you have missed it all along: in the works, the miracles, the signs and wonders. With His words, words that no one else had ever spoken, and in a way that no one else has ever spoken…spoken with the authority of the Creator of the Universe. If you have missed all of that; passing it off as bravado or inuendo, or not real; it is right here that Jesus removes all doubt! In today’s world, this would be called “The Great Reveal”.
Now, it’s clear to me, to us, knowing the rest of the story, what Jesus was revealing, affirming here: that He is, in fact, God incarnate, come down from heaven for the salvation of the world. From the Apostles actions however, they didn’t get it! You can hear it in the tone of Thomas’s and Phillip’s questions. In the Garden during Jesus’ arrest: they deserted him. Not showing up at the cross during His crucifixion: they thought it had been a great ride, but it clearly didn’t end the way they wanted it to and they weren’t going to risk winding up on a cross as well. And then on Easter morning, not even considering resurrection as a possibility when Jesus’ body was missing on Easter morning. It is clear that even hearing these words during the Last Supper, they still did not get it: that He was the incarnate Son of God.
But I don’t think they could have gotten it; because they didn’t know the rest of the story. All they knew was what they saw in each moment. I don’t think anyone would have gotten it. And I think that was all part of God’s methodology. Because if the Apostles had gotten it, the lesson for us – the Gospel readings today – would not have been the same.
See, now, for us, reading, hearing, knowing what the Last Supper was (the Apostles didn’t know it was the Last Supper-Passover). We know Jesus was telling them He was God incarnate. We know what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane, when everyone deserted Him; but the Apostles clearly didn’t get it. We know, in hindsight, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension; and Pentecost – the Holy Spirit being implanted in each one of us from that day forward.
Knowing all of this as we do from reading and hearing the Gospels gives us the message we are now supposed to get! What is it they say about communication – a tree falling in the woods, it isn’t complete until the recipient receives the message and acknowledges it?
Knowing the whole story; having heard the whole story in context, it is imperative that “get it”!
Jesus said the words:
“You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way.”
Thomas said to him, (DIDN’T GET IT)
“Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him,
“Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.”
Well there’s our direction…there’s what He’s telling us
Knowing all of this, in context, I love CS Lewis’s quote:
“You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.”
So, we have no excuses! Even the Apostles, who were there witnessing everything firsthand; you can understand that they didn’t have the perspective that we have. They didn’t know how the story would end. They didn’t get it, they couldn’t have…likely by design; God’s methodology. But what if it all happened that way so that we would get all of this! We would hear these words.
So, now that we know. We have the whole perspective: the whole story, all in context.
You truly can ignore Him, shut Him up for a fool, spit on him and kill Him as a demon. Or, you can fall at His feet and call him Lord and God…the message He give us in the Gospel today.
And if you make that decision, then what does that mean – what are you going to do with that. What of these works that Jesus talks about? We just heard Him say that if we believe in Him we will do the works that He does and will do even greater ones! Ask yourself this question: What are those works for you?
If you believe that He is Lord and God, what are you going to change – whether you’re 18 or 80: if you believe that Jesus is Lord and God, what are you going to do differently with the rest of your life?!