Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Can you remember what you ate last week? The quick lunches, the guilty snacks, the healthy dinners?

Probably not. But you did eat, for sustenance and pleasure.

That’s how I feel about the nine months we’ve spent in John’s gospel. It’s been a sustaining and pleasurable meal each week, reading the text and praying a prayer. But most of it is lost in the fog of my life. Don’t count on me for memorable new insights. John didn’t deliver life-transforming mountaintop experiences for me this time.

Did I expect better from John? Not really. Eugene Peterson wrote a book titled A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. That’s my life these days. Not the erratic starts and stops of my youth. Not the tired, grudging work of my middle years. But now, a settled and orderly journey that seeks God each day.

Before I move on from John, let’s consider my least and most favorite parts of the book, and see how that fits my long obedience.

My least favorite is still Jesus’ prayer in John 17. This time, I tried to think about it under the title “Union with God.” But that was too complex and too mystical for me.

So I simplified the title to, “Jesus Prays.” That didn’t make his prayer any easier to understand, but perhaps after another decade of long obedience, I’ll connect more strongly with Jesus’ prayer.

Father Thomas Green, whose books on prayer I read, said that as he grew older, John became his favorite gospel, partly because it is more philosophical than the others. That’s not what impressed me.

This time, it was the people and stories. Nicodemus. The woman at the well. The blind man. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Thomas the doubter. Peter the fisherman. Jesus, the chef, cooking breakfast on the beach.

Each shows me something about how to interact with Jesus, and what it means to follow him. Pictures of people paint a thousand words for me. Stories of Jesus help me see clearly.

Let’s pray.

O Jesus, I still have not understood your sermons and prayers and teaching in John’s gospel. But I want to interact with you like the people John describes.

Like the woman at the well, be my water in a dry land.
Like Nicodemus, teach me the mystery of being born again.
Like the man born blind, be the light in my darkness.
Like Lazarus who you called from the tomb, be my resurrection and my life.
Like Thomas, come to me in my doubts and show me your hands and side.
Like Peter, who denied you three times, meet me on the seashore and speak to me of love.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you have a vocation? Something you feel called to do? Something that suits your gifts and disposition? I spent 33 years in computing, which was a good fit for my on-the-spectrum personality.

Meanwhile, God formed me over those years in a vocation of prayer. That’s what I do now in retirement. Not like in a monastery, where monks pray all the time. But prayer is central to my heart and life.

In the last chapter of John, Peter discovered something about his heart and his vocation. Having denied Jesus three times, he went back to fishing. In the morning when Jesus called from shore, Peter was excited enough to walk on water. But that wasn’t one of his skills, so he jumped in and swam to shore to meet Jesus.

After breakfast, Jesus talked with Peter. Three times he asked, “Do you love me?” Three times Peter replied, “I love you.” And each time Jesus responded, “Care for my sheep” (21:15-17).

Jesus didn’t mention the denials, nor did Peter ask to be forgiven. Three statements of love, one for each denial, healed the relationship.

I wonder why Jesus didn’t talk to Peter about fishing? The stage was set with a fishing scene at dawn, Peter and crewmates hauling in a netful of 153 fish, and Jesus serving fish for breakfast. An amazing opportunity for Jesus to give Peter a fishing vocation. “Do you love me? Become a fisherman for people.”

But Jesus had shepherding in mind. He called himself the good shepherd, not the good fisherman. After Peter’s final fishing expedition, Jesus gave him a vocation as shepherd. A shepherd of people.

Let’s pray.

O Jesus, our childhood fantasy was to become a doctor or scientist or fire fighter. Later when power and money seduced us, we supersized our dreams to become business owners or politicians or high-powered executives.

But as we grow older and wiser, we settle into the smaller tasks, lower wages, simpler life you call us to.

Help us be faithful in our jobs and marriages and churches. And help us find the work you call us to, the vocation where we serve you and others.

Teach us, like Peter, to be fishers and shepherds. To be people who pray, and practice hospitality. Friends of God, and followers of you, Jesus.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you fish? My father taught me fishing, but it never caught me. I gave up fishing when I couldn’t go with him.

Jesus had fishermen disciples. After the resurrection, Peter thought denying Jesus disqualified him from serving Jesus, so he said to his friends, “This disciple-of-Jesus gig looks done. I’m going fishing” (21:1-3).

I’ve sometimes been like Peter, when I’ve thought, “I’m no good at following Jesus. I need to try something else.”

So Peter and friends spent an unsuccessful night fishing. In the morning, a stranger on shore shouted, “Hey, how’s the catch?”

“No luck, we haven’t caught anything” (21:5).

“Try the other side of the boat,” the stranger suggested.

Really? Why would professional fishermen take random advice from a land-lubbing stranger? But they did, and they caught a huge netful of fish.

Then they got it.

Remember three years ago, after another fishless night, when Jesus borrowed Peter’s boat to preach a seaside sermon. After, Jesus said to Peter, “Why don’t you row out and try fishing again?” (Luke 5:5).

Peter replied, “After working all night? Fish aren’t likely to come in the daytime.” But he rowed out, dropped his nets, and landed a boatful. That’s when Jesus invited Peter to a new vocation, fishing for people (Luke 5:8-11).

Now, three years later, with Peter’s net full of fish again, John said, “That’s not a stranger on the shore. That’s Jesus!” Peter jumped into the water and swam to shore to meet Jesus who was cooking bread and fish.

Then Jesus had an amazing suggestion for Peter and the others. He said, “You fishermen look like a crowd for breakfast. Bring some more fish to cook” (21:10).

I like that in Jesus. This wasn’t a time to sit at his feet like Mary did, while Martha slaved in the kitchen. This wasn’t the time to have a deep talk with Peter about his denials and about his future. This was a time for action. A crowd for breakfast. Time to collect and cook more fish.

Let’s pray.

O Jesus, Peter denied you and went back to fishing. He thought he was done being a disciple, but you weren’t done with him.

You showed up after his night of failed fishing. You gave him success in the morning. You showed him that his heart wanted you, not fish.

And so for us. After long nights when we despair of spiritual life, call us, come to us in the morning. Help us, like Peter, to swim to you through broken dreams and repeated failures.

We set out to be your apprentices, Jesus, but we didn’t have the courage and wisdom and patience to succeed. But following you changed our heart. We love you, and not much else matters.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you think the gospels are incomplete? John did. He wrote, “I’ve written about some of Jesus’ miracles. Just enough so you can believe that Jesus is God’s son, and find the life he offers” (John 20:30-31).

John didn’t write to entertain. His words lead to life. And now in chapter 20, his theme of life comes full circle. In chapter 1 John said,  “In the beginning was the word. . . . In him was life, and that life was the light of human kind” (John 1:1,4).

Jesus brought life and light to God’s people in Palestine. His wine put new life into a wedding. His voice brought Lazarus back from the dead. His words gave the woman at the well a source of living water. When Nicodemus needed to get a life, Jesus recommended he try being born again.

But here we are in 2026. Where will we find life, we who didn’t see Jesus’ miracles or hear his teaching? To us, John’s gospel is a gift. “I write that you may believe and have life,” he says.

Fair enough. But how do two-thousand-year-old stories give us life?

To religious leaders, Jesus said, “You search the scriptures because you think they give eternal life. They point to me, but you won’t come to me. You don’t let me give you life” (John 5:39).

When I want my dog to pick up his ball, I point and say, “There’s your ball.” But he wags his tail and looks at my finger. He doesn’t get the point of my pointed finger. Like the Pharisees with scripture. They didn’t get the point that scripture pointed to.

Much of modern scholarship is like the Pharisees’ study of scripture. We ask, “What does the Greek mean? What do archeologists say? How do literary critics explain this passage?” These investigations help us understand the text. But the text is only a pointer.

What do you see when you look at John’s gospel? Stories? Or do you go where the stories point?

Let’s pray.

O Jesus, John’s gospel is a powerful story. But John says it’s merely a pointer to you. “These are written that you believe, and that believing, you may have life.”

Help us read John’s book with a heart that chooses faith. Help us see beyond the stories to you, our Christ, who is still alive and doing miracles. Help us move beyond a fascination with history to experience your life and power today.

O Jesus, cure the deadness of our souls. Cast off the unbelief that clings to us. Help us go where scriptures point us, to you. May the stories come alive to us, teaching us to live a new and better story where you teach us and give us the miracle of life.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

The first time Jesus met his disciples after the resurrection, Thomas was absent.

When they told him they’d seen Jesus, he wasn’t convinced. He said, “Whatever! I won’t believe unless I see him alive in the same body he died in. The one with nail scars in the hands and a spear hole in the side” (v 25). 

That’s an odd picture of resurrection. I hope one day when my cremated remains are resurrected, that my body will be changed. Maybe I’ll lose my sagging stomach and  brown age marks. Maybe my friend with an amputated leg will be made whole.

But Jesus accepted Thomas’ assumption that his resurrected body should look just like his buried body, so when he met Thomas, he said, “See my nail-scarred hands? Go ahead . . . touch the spear wound in my side. You can believe it! I’m back from the dead” (20:27). 

Shocked and surprised, Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28).

Did you hear that? Thomas’ statement in five little words is the simplest, clearest, and most unequivocal statement in John’s gospel that Jesus is God. In one breath, Thomas calls Jesus, “Lord and God.”

This may be the climax of John’s gospel. John wrote about signs and wonders and testimonies that made Jesus special. He called Jesus God’s son, Messiah, good shepherd, bread of life. He wrote about Christ’s miracles, about people worshiping him, and about how he borrowed God’s special name, “I AM”. But now, at last, someone–the doubting disciple, no less–calls Jesus “Lord and God”. That was a God-moment for Thomas.  

And then follows my favorite verse in John’s gospel, when Jesus says to Thomas, “You have seen me and believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe” (20:29). 

That’s me. Not seeing Jesus in the physical world, I see him by faith. 

I once said to my mentor, “I’m full of doubts. I don’t have much faith.” 

He replied, “Your faith is evident in the way you live. But in your thinking, if there’s no room for doubt, whatever you have is not faith. It’s knowledge, or something else.” 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, I live in the mystery of believing in you whom I have not seen. Of praying to an invisible God. Of feeling the wind of your Spirit, but unable to catch it. 

Thank you for Thomas’ gift of doubt. Thank you for showing him your hands and side. Thank you for inviting him to believe. 

You invite us too. “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” For two thousand years your disciples have not seen you, but hope and faith continue. 

Accept our faith. Accept our worship. Accept our service. May our doubts turn ever more to believing, until we see you face to face.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.