CHAPTER THIRTY:  ABIDING TRUTHS

            The
meal on Wednesday evening was not elaborate, and the mood was more somber than
celebratory. After two days of confrontation with authorities and some people
in the crowds, the disciples wondered what could be next.  Especially prominent in their minds was
Jesus’ parable about the workers in the vineyard and the son returning to the
vineyard.  Of course ever since Isaiah
wrote the original parable about the vineyard, Israel had been accustomed to see
itself as God’s vineyard.  And so it was
as if Jesus had read their minds when he sat up on the couch and began to
instruct them once more saying:

          “I am the genuine vine, and my Father
is the vinedresser.  He cuts off every
branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he
prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of
the word I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I will abide in you. No branch
can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain
in me.

          “I am the vine; you are the
branches. If a person abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart
from me you can do nothing.  If
anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and
withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in
you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s
glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the
Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now abide in my love. If you obey my
commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands
and remain in his love.  I have told you
this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command
is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this– that he
lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s
business.  Instead, I have called you
friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear
fruit–fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in
my name. This is my command: Love each other.

“If the world
hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love
you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you
out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke
to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted
me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey
yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not
know the One who sent me.

“If I had not come
and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin.  Now, however, they have no excuse for their
sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well.  If I had not done among them what no one else
did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles,
and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is
written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’   When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to
you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will
testify about me.  And you also must
testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

This teaching
session was less lengthy than some, and none of the disciples much felt like
probing things further as they were all very tired.  So Jesus concluded the evening with a
prayer.   He looked toward heaven,
lifting up his hands, and prayed: “Father, the time has come.  Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify
you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give
everlasting life to all those you have given him. Now this is everlasting life:
that they may know you, the only true G-d, and Jesus the messiah whom you have
sent.  I have brought you glory on earth
by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your
presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

          “I have revealed you to those whom
you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they
have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes
from you.  For I gave them the words you
gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you,
and they believed that you sent me.  I
pray for them.  I am not praying for the
world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.  All I have is yours, and all you have is
mine. And glory has come to me through them.  I will remain in the world no longer,
but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, protect them by the power of your
name–the name you gave me–so that they may be one as we are one.  While I was with them, I protected them
and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one
doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

          “I am coming to you now,
but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the
full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world
has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them
from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  Sanctify them by the truth; your
word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

“My prayer is
not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their
message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in
you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent
me.  I have given them the
glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:  I in them and you in me.  May they be brought to complete unity to let
the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“Father, I
want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the
glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and
they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will
continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in
them and that I myself may be in them.”

            The
prayer was long, but heartfelt, and somehow the disciples had felt both
comforted, and yet had gained an enhanced sense of foreboding after this
prayer.  It seemed clear that Jesus was
telling them that his ministry was coming to an end.  But where was he going?  And why couldn’t they come with him?  Jesus told them as they were arising and heading
to where they would lie down for the night that they would celebrate the
Passover the following night, and that Eliezer had arranged a place for them to
do so within the city walls.  In order
not to draw too much attention to themselves, an arrangement had been made that
there would be a special signal and a person for them to follow so they would
know where to go.  This puzzled the
disciples even more since Friday evening in this case was both Shabbat and Passover’s
beginning, so why would they celebrate the meal on Thursday evening, the
beginning of the Day of Preparation, the Day of the slaughtering of the
lambs?   None of this seemed very clear,
but Jesus was not explaining and the disciples were afraid to ask.