Hello, and welcome to the STC podcast. My name is Casey Strine, I’m a member of the STC staff, and I’m excited to be sharing a few of my reflections on the Gospel of John with you this week.

This week we will be looking at materials from chapters 12, 13, and 14 of the Gospel according to John.

This section of the Gospel of John includes Jesus’ final public conversation and some of the last conversations he has with his closest disciples. These passages are filled with the ideas Jesus wants to ensure his closest followers understand before his death because they are the concepts on which God will build a movement of people following Jesus and seeking to complete his mission.

REFLECTION:

With the beginning of chapter 13, the Gospel of John has taken us literally inside Jesus’ inner circle of disciples. Already, we saw Jesus wash their feet and expand the command to love others. Today, John tells us about the way the disciples react to these ideas.

The reaction of the disciples is represented by Thomas and Philip. Together, they express a sense of confusion that seems to be building among the group.

First, there is the rather cryptic suggestion by Jesus that he is preparing a place for these disciples. Thomas asks Jesus how they will know how to find these places. It is a logical question since they don’t know where this place is! Following the pattern in the Gospel of John, Jesus’ response evades the question and opens up another topic that is even less clear.

Here we encounter one of the most familiar statements in the Gospel of John: Jesus declares ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ It is yet another case where those who are familiar with the Bible, who have been Christians for some time, can become inoculated to how opaque this statement is. For those to whom this statement is familiar, the tendency is to gloss over any potential confusion and take the whole to mean that Jesus is the only way one can be saved. That isn’t wrong, but it does simplify the whole thing.

Lest one lose sight of that, Philip’s frustrated reaction reminds us of its reality. There is a tendency to read Philip’s response as one of disbelief. That is certainly possible. I think we can read it as less disbelief and more trepidation. Philip responds the way we do when we’re asked to do something: Is that really what I have to do?

One might interpret Philip’s request for Jesus to show them the Father as another way of saying ‘you can’t possibly expect us to do what you’ve done?’ Surely God is not like, like, THAT? I don’t blame Philip for that reaction, to be honest. It is how I feel as well when I read this passage.

Then I’m reminded of why I feel this way. Jesus responds with an answer that is just another form of ‘this isn’t complicated, but it is hard.’ If Jesus stopped there, then this would be massively depressing. He doesn’t.

Jesus also reassures Philip that he and the others will do even greater things than Jesus has done because Jesus will be interceding on their behalf in the heavenly throne room. Jesus trusts in their ability to do even greater things not because the disciples are greater than him, but because while they are doing these things on earth he will now be in heaven to win divine approval and power for them to do so.

This is why Christians pray things ‘in Jesus’ name.’ It is not a sort of magic formula, an abracadabra that works with God. It’s also not just a way of saying ‘and I’m done.’ Christians pray ‘in Jesus name’ because we believe that Jesus is our ambassador with God the Father who asks for divine power to be poured out for us so that we can accomplish those things he called us to do, but are beyond our ability to make happen on our own. Jesus wants us to know that we are not left on our own in our efforts to build God’s kingdom – and he will continue on to say more about that in tomorrow’s passage.

PRAYER:

King Jesus,