John 20:1-31:

John offers four people as being certain about the risen Christ and they are Mary, Peter and John, and Thomas. Mary explains her experience to the other disciples in 20:18 and states that: "I have seen the Lord." She has seen and believes. Thomas also believes because he saw.  The other occasions are actual sightings of the resurrected Jesus

Jesus says future believers will have the witness of those who did see him (20: 30-31). Mary sees both angels and Jesus but only believes when she hears him call her name. Thomas also requires something more than sight to believe and to touch Jesus' wounds.

Peter later describes such believers: "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:8-9).

Now we head to Sunday when it all becomes clear to folk who have decided that they need to get away from Jerusalem, away from their failure, and away from the cross, because the one who they believed would be their mighty, warrior, conquering king had died, and, with, him, so had their hope.

John 19:17-25a:

The betrayal of Judas ,the denial of Peter, the interrogation and trial of Jesus in which Pilate was persuaded to condemn a man he believed to be innocent, and the decision of the Sanhedrin that Jesus must be destroyed, becomes a fact. The beauty of this decision though will ultimately result in Jesus, not being crushed under a heap of stones, but by being lifted up for all to see so that he may draw all people to himself! On the cross Jesus reigns.

As we know the death of Jesus is his own act of love and obedience to the Father. The mighty work of Jesus is done. The sacrifice is complete, his death not defeat, but victory. The final cry issued by Jesus is: “It is finished”. Here we are able to comprehend and understand is that the death of Jesus is in itself the source of life. It is by the dying of Jesus that the life-giving and cleansing power of God is released into the life of the world. The chapter comes to an end with Jesus lying in the tomb. We will soon learn a new creation coming forth from the tomb.

John 17 1-26:

As always, we closed prayer in our home group last night by commending our families to God as well as the respective member’s journey home. Jesus here lifts his eyes to heaven and prays for himself and the disciples prior to his journey home. This prayer leads us into the very heart of the ministry of Jesus as he consecrates himself to the Father, and his disciples to be sent into the world so that it too may believe.

Now you would have noticed that we, in this weeks devotionals, have not gone deep into the implicit detail of each section as, if we were too, it would be a daily ‘sermon’ not a daily ‘devotional’! What we are looking at are the elements of the role that the disciple’s redefinition of hope plays both in their lives and ministry, and, ultimately, plays in ours. For the disciples it will be ‘hope when life hurts most’ (thanks Louie for the DVD message last night) as what is to come for them is so devastating that it will literally put them over the edge. Times like this happen to us all, but, when they do, we need to know to whom we can turn.

Jesus prays that God would glorify us so that we might glorify him. What we, and the disciples, often miss is that sometimes glory involves a cross; sometimes it really hurts, but glory it remains nonetheless. In John 17:1 Jesus prays: “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you”.

In John 17:14 Jesus then says that:”They are not of the world any more than I am of the world” which basically means that we are to embrace God’s character in a world that does not know nor understand him, and glorify him.

Finally, when John uses the word glory he speaks of the word logos which means tabernacling (dwelling) among us. This gives us a picture of Jesus dwelling in the midst of his believers as the bearer of the love of God which the world does not know, and by which the world is to be saved. Tomorrow the victorious passion.

In John chapter 16:16-18 Jesus tells the disciples that: “"In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” Some of his disciples said to one another, "What does he mean by saying, 'In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" They kept asking, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We don't understand what he is saying."

I suspect that a number of us find ourselves in a similar situation to that of the disciples here when we see the direction God is taking us and ‘don’t understand what he is saying’! Though when we stop, listen, and allow ourselves to both hear and take in what he is laying on our hearts, he addresses our confusion. For the disciples, Jesus addresses their confusion by speaking about the impact that what is to come (his death and resurrection) is going to have on them. While I imagine them nodding their heads in agreement, they do not really understand what he is getting at.

Their confusion, we note, remains evident though and only really becomes clear to the disciples later. Jesus tells them that they need not “sweat the small stuff” but that the grief they are about to experience will turn to joy. He explains too what effect his departure will have on them.

In John 16: 23-28 Jesus speaks of the disciple’s relationship with God going forward, and, that through his (Jesus) death and resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit, their relationship with the Father will be made possible. He informs them that they will then be able to ask God in his name and receive answers to their prayers.  Jesus went to the Cross so that we, through his death and resurrection might have a personal relationship with God and that we might know its power in every area of our lives.

In reading the passage it seems as though they, at this point, say: “Now we get it!” But do they? In verse 30 they state: “This makes us believe that you came from God.” Remember these words as we negotiate the next four days!

At the centre of all this though the cross looms ever closer, and the thought that crosses our mind is, if they will be able to continue believing amidst what we know is about to come?

Jesus adds then that “I have told you these things, so that in me (Jesus) you may have peace.” Note that he says in him; not the world, not a human being, not a circumstance, and definitely not themselves, but in “Jesus”. Their hope needs to rest in him. This will become clear to them. When the bottom appears to fall out of their world shortly, their focus will need to be on the cross, and on Jesus-nowhere else. There is no holier place that we can ever hope to come to - the Cross is the place "to where heaven’s love and heaven’s justice meet". Tomorrow-the Consecration.