vs 31
Jesus takes his own glory, and that of God, very seriously. And yet it is in this act of betrayal that he sees a fulfilment, or a culmination, of the glory that his work has brought to God.
vs 32
Because God is glorified, so the Son will be glorified, and it will happen immediately. There us still a fulfilment to occur, but the wheels are in motion.
vs 33
He's going to die. The disciples could support Jesus in a lot of ways I guess (although their primary role was to learn from Jesus), but they could not follow him to death. Not yet, anyway. A lot of them would. But not yet. Later.
vs 34
The command which John never forget. It sounds so simple, but it is truly profound. It does not come after the washing of their feet by accident either - because this is an act of love which Jesus expects his disciples to follow in.
vs 35
This is how Jesus expects his message to be spread - in and through love. This command is more than just an acceptance, a tolerance, a friendship, or even an intimacy. It is a service. The footwashing is the representation of the love Jesus expects them to have for each other. It is a submissiveness. Such a love will be apart from anything the world knows. It will stand out as something special. Something peculiar. Something desirable.
vs 36
Peter, did you even hear me? I said Love one another. I said you can't come, so deal with it. But oh, no, Peter is locked on this idea that he's going to be separated from Jesus, and he wants to show how big and tough a man he is. Jesus tells him it's not going to happen. Not now anyway. Later, Peter, you will suffer and die, will that make you happy? You know, it probably did. Because by then, he probably understood a whole lot more.
vs 37
But at the moment, he's frustrated. Where can Jesus be going that Peter won't follow. He'll follow him to death if he has to! He's passionate, he loves his master, and he will do whatever it takes.
vs 38
Ouch. Peter really does love Jesus, and to hear this is probably a knife in the chest. It's all well and good to say such things, see, and Peter did know that Jesus' life was on the line. But I don't think he really believed Jesus was going to die. He was prepared to fight for Jesus, and perhaps die in battle. But he doesn't expect what's about to happen. And now, he is going to be marked forever as the one who denied Jesus 3 times. All the disciples ran off - who knows what their stories were - but we all remember Peter.
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1 comment:
Well sure Peter was prepared to fight - he even scored and ear in the garden later that night.
It hadn't really occured to me until recently that the two most visible, tireless, zealous and passionately devoted builders of the 1st century church were Peter and Paul: the ones who had, in very different ways, the most to "make up" to God, who had the deepest sense of forgiveness for their particular betrayal of God. He who has been forgiven much will love much... Not saying that other pillars like James and John weren't zealous, etc, so don't impugn me on that account :)
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