You Can Read the Bible Guided Podcast

Time slows now for John’s Gospel, and the next seven chapters cover just 36 hours of earthly time.  Today’s reading is of a dinner scene, the Passover feast, celebrated by the children of Israel “as a memorial day” since the first month of the first year of their nationhood – when the LORD had delivered them out of Egypt.

These chapters are set against an intimate background of the unseen.  Jesus knows that “His hour had come.”  “The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot…to betray Him.”  And Jesus, “knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands… rose from supper…”

The spotlight here focuses on the disciples’ responses to this background.  The plot is pushed forward with a few staccato phrases:

“You shall never wash my feet.”  Peter affirms his subordinate status by recognizing that Jesus has no business doing the work of a servant.  But Jesus lets him know that he’s missing the point.  This short event is the backdrop for the “new commandment” Jesus levels on his followers. 

Not all of you are clean.  You may have noticed that every time John mentions Judas – so far in chapters 6, 12, and early in 13 – he makes sure you know that “this is the one who betrayed Jesus.”  It’s as though just mentioning Judas’s name scrapes a wound that John doesn’t want to forget.  He shares the encounter when he first learned about this – referring to himself only as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” – with cryptic details: a nod, a whisper, and a morsel of bread.  Seat yourself at that table as the rest of the disciples try to figure out what’s going on. 

Let not your hearts be troubled.  As Judas departs into darkness, Jesus tells the eleven “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.”   These men are sharing the same food around the same table, yet they are experiencing twelve different evenings.  The rising confusion and fear are evident in each question.  Yet Jesus answers by driving the wedge clean through: the things in which you had placed confidence are passing away.  Here – in Me – is where your trust should lie. 

Our verse for this week is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

John chapters 13 and 14.  Now let’s read it!

One of our key motivators at YouCanReadTheBible is to allow the Biblical story to unfold on its own.  We bring in outside information sparingly, always looking backward for referents rather than forward, because that’s how the Bible itself was revealed.  

We have chosen to approach the Gospels in the same way.  While the Gospel writers possibly shared information and referred to the same sources, each of them sets out to tell a unique story, drawing our attention to the episodes, patterns, and themes that serve their purposes.  There are four simultaneous stories being told about this one Jesus, and, as John says later on, if all that Jesus did could be written, “I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that could be written.” 

So when we turn to chapter 11 today and are introduced to “a certain man” named Lazarus, and to his sisters, Mary and Martha, try to put out of your mind anything else you know about them from the other Gospels.  John uses their appearance here to bring about the close of His Gospel’s first act. 

Remember the issues that have been swirling thus far.  The Jews have insisted that Jesus is a Samaritan, demon-possessed, a blasphemer.  Jesus has insisted that His miracles are all the proof they should need to believe that God has sent Him.  Yesterday the Jews challenged Christ with: “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”  Today Jesus will answer, standing in front of a grave at Bethany.  And the Jewish leaders will answer as well, with a plot to put the question of authority to rest once and for all. 

The tension resolves a bit as the second act opens in chapter 12: Six days before Passover.  Some time has passed between these chapters and the tension has abated a bit.  Listen as John revisits the Pharisees’ love for “the glory that comes from man,” and contrasts it with Jesus’ insistence that it was the Father, and not He himself, who would lift Him up.  Listen as the theme of authority again rises to the surface.  And listen, along with the crowd, for a voice that sounds like thunder. 

Our verse for this week is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” 

John chapters 11 and 12.  Now let’s read it!