Wednesday 28 October 2009

Background

Chapters 13 to17 of John's Gospel tell the story of the last evening ofJesus' earthly life. Because it was the season of Passover (aJewish festival remembering the exodus of the Jewish slaves fromEgypt - Exodus12), he chose to spend this evening with his closest friends,sharing a meal and talking together. And in this conversation hegathered up everything he had tried to teach them during the(maybe) three years they had spent together.

In this passage Jesus turns to the future. He knows his friendswill face shocking changes, because he knows he himself is verylikely to die the following day. They will no longer be able tospeak with him in quite the same way again; in many senses theywill no longer be able to rely on Jesus to bail them out of acrisis, or tell them what to do next.

Most challenging of all, the fate which is about toovertake himwillstalk them in the days and years tocome, and he needs to prepare them for this.

Jesus' way of doing so seems a bit odd. He describes the impact ofhis preaching and ministry as divisive; some people respond warmlyand positively, others are deeply offended and do all they can tostop him. And, says Jesus to his friends, don't expect to betreated any differently yourselves.

All this seems a long way away from our theme this week: GraceAbounding. But at the very core of the gospel (the good news ofJesus) two claims sit cheek by jowl. In fact they are inseparable.One declares the free unconditional love of God; the other remindsus that love like that is costly, very costly indeed.

To Ponder

To what extent is today's Church living in fullrecognition of the tension between these two claims?

Are you ready for the shock of change as theChurch hears the Lord's message deep within?