The Last Supper: John Read online

sorrow.

  Then I called on the name of the Lord,

  ‘Lord, save me!’

  The Lord is gracious and righteous;

  our God is full of compassion.

  The Lord protects the unwary;

  when I was brought low, he saved me.

  Return to your rest, my soul,

  for the Lord has been good to you.

  For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,

  my eyes from tears,

  my feet from stumbling,

  that I may walk before the Lord

  in the land of the living.

  I trusted in the Lord when I said,

  ‘I am greatly afflicted’;

  in my alarm I said,

  ‘Everyone is a liar.’

  What shall I return to the Lord

  for all his goodness to me?

  I will lift up the cup of salvation

  and call on the name of the Lord.

  I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

  in the presence of all his people.

  Precious in the sight of the Lord

  is the death of his faithful servants.

  Truly I am your servant, Lord;

  I serve you just as my mother did;

  you have freed me from my chains.

  I will sacrifice a thank offering to you

  and call on the name of the Lord.

  I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

  in the presence of all his people,

  in the courts of the house of the Lord—

  in your midst, Jerusalem.”

  “Praise the Lord,” Jesus spoke when they had sung the last lines. “Rise, let us be on our way.”

  John rose in silence, picking up one of the candles on the table and following Jesus with the other apostles from the room. As they descended the building’s stairs from the upper room, candle light flickered on the walls, dancing shadows of the apostles’ forms and distorting their silhouettes. Cool air met John as he walked from the structure to the street beyond, sending a rush of chill up his back as his robe gusted in the breeze.

  They walked through the darkness, following Jesus through the dirt streets toward the Kidron valley and a garden in it where Jesus often took them to pray.

  As they walked, the candles the apostles held lit orange illumination over their forms. But Jesus walked before them, his light robe reflecting the beams of the moon.

  After a distance Jesus stopped, turning to them and speaking as he put one hand on Simon Peter’s shoulder and the other on Bartholomew’s. “I am the true grapevine,” he said, “and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch of mine that does not produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

  “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

  “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

  “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? ‘A servant is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me. They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated me without cause.’

  “But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.”

  Tears streamed down Thomas’ cheeks and Jesus walked to him, wiping the tears from his cheeks with his fingers. “I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith. For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God. This is because they have never known the Father or me. Yes, I’m telling you these things now, so that when they happen, you will remember my warning. I didn’t tell you earlier because I was going to be with you for a while longer.

  “But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.

  “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’ In a little while you won’t see me anymore. But a little while after that, you will see me again.” Jesus then turned and began to walk once more.

  Bartholomew looked to Simon Peter, his face illuminated by candlelight. “What does he mean when he says, ‘In a little while you won’t see me, but then you will see me,’ and ‘I am going to the Father’?”

  “What does he mean by ‘a little while’?” Simon asked, also confused.

  John listened and realized he also was confused. “We don’t understand, Lord,” he spoke.

  Jesus turned to them once more, a caring look in his eyes, “Are you asking yourselves what I meant? I said in a little while you won’t see me, but a little while after that you will see me again. I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy. At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use
my name. You haven’t done this before.” Jesus placed an assuring hand on John’s shoulder, and then another on Thomas’s. “Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.

  “I have spoken of these matters in figures of speech, but soon I will stop speaking figuratively and will tell you plainly all about the Father. Then you will ask in my name. I’m not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God. Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father.”

  “At last you are speaking plainly and not figuratively,” Philip spoke, stepping into the center of the candle light. “Now we understand that you know everything, and there’s no need to question you. From this we believe that you came from God.”

  Jesus stood silently for a moment as the apostles looked upon him. “Do you finally believe? But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

  John was speechless. Was the Lord truly leaving them?

  Jesus looked away from their eyes, looking upward toward heaven, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom