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

In John 13, after Judas left the Last Supper to betray Jesus, Jesus made two pointed statements: First he said, “I am going away, to a place where you cannot come” (John 13:33) and then he said, “I give you a new command: love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). 

Which statement do you think Peter wanted to discuss? How he could love his brothers better? Or where Jesus was going that Peter wasn’t invited? Peter said to Jesus, “I’m your disciple. You can’t go places I won’t follow. I’ll go anywhere with you even if I die doing it.” But Jesus said, “Really? I think by tomorrow morning you will say you don’t even know me.”

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “I’m going away to prepare a place for you. You know where I am going and how to get there.”  Thomas said, “Hold it, we don’t know where you’re going and we don’t know the way to get there.” 

Jesus replied, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). 

What did Jesus mean,“I am the way, the truth and the life?” Did he mean that the truth is available in the scriptures? Did he locate truth in Paul’s doctrinal statements in the New Testament? Or did he really mean he was the way and the truth and the life?

Jesus’ statement addresses three problems the disciples had. We modern followers share these problems. Let’s look at them. 

1. The first problem is this: Peter was confident he had the commitment and courage to follow Jesus anywhere, any time, into whatever lay ahead. Peter’s path, his way was to go where Jesus was planning to go. Our modern version of the way is to read the New Testament and do what it tells us to do. But at the last supper, Jesus didn’t say to Peter, “Follow me.” He said, “I am the way.” It was not enough for Peter to trace Jesus’ footsteps. It is not enough for us just to do what we’re told. If Jesus himself is the way, we need to participate in him, not just obey his commands. 

2. Second, Thomas wanted a clear statement of the truth. Just like today we want the right interpretation of scripture and the right doctrinal statement. But Jesus said, “I am the truth.” What Jesus offered Thomas was not an infallible book or a carefully constructed belief system. The truth Jesus offered is himself. He is the truth. To learn the truth, we need to share in Jesus’ life, not just agree with statements he or others made.

3. Third, the disciples wanted life. Peter said he was prepared even to sacrifice his life to follow Jesus, perhaps hoping for a gift of resurrection like Lazarus recently received. But what Jesus offered him was not a concrete and external gift of something called “life”. Instead, Jesus invited the disciples as he invites us to find life by sharing his life. “I am the life,” he said. “It’s me you’re looking for.” 

Let’s pray. 

Jesus, it is a mystery how you can be the way and the truth and the life for us today. For the way, want a clear map, like Google provides. For the truth, we want a rational and systematic statement of what to believe. For the life we live, we want success and comfort. 

Jesus, we give up our view of how the way and the truth and the life should work. We come instead to you. Share  yourself with us, until you are our only truth, our only way, and all our life.

Amen. 

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

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

In John 13, Judas left the last supper early to betray Jesus. Today we look at Judas’ point of view.

As chief accountant for the disciples, he managed the generous money gifts Jesus attracted, and he was aware of Jesus meagre living expenses. As a disciple of Jesus, I  Judas probably felt that an occasional contribution from the common purse to his own ministry and personal expenses was reasonable. Some people, like John who wrote the gospel, took a narrow view of this and called it stealing. But Judas was a practical man, and in the air of super-spirituality that was consuming Jesus and the disciples he was the only one who had the foresight to think about things like salaries and pensions. 

Perhaps Judas saw more clearly than the other disciples when things began to go sideways. Jesus had damaged his own cause by offending the whole Jewish political and religious establishment, and he wasn’t interested in doing damage control or in improving his  public relations skills. He just kept thumbing his nose at the leaders, doing healings on the Sabbath and parading into Jerusalem. Life with Jesus was becoming a walking disaster. Judas didn’t want to walk into disaster. A bit of planning and management was in order.

Judas also had a lot of respect for Jesus’ skill. Jesus was an amazing miracle-worker, and he had other strange powers, like the time he just walked away from that crowd that was trying to push him over a cliff. So if the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, surely he would just walk away again. In fact, Judas rather liked the irony of his plan: he would take a bit of money to betray Jesus, and then watch Jesus walk away from the betrayal. And Judas would walk away from Jesus. It was too bad that Jesus didn’t offer the disciples a separation package if they quit, but Judas worked around that. He got the Pharisees to fund his package with 30 pieces of silver.  

I wonder if the Last Supper was the last straw for Judas. Jesus stooping to wash the disciples dirty feet? Silly thing to do, acting like a servant. That’s not the ministry Judas signed up for. And that bit where Jesus called the wine his blood and the bread his body? Judas was ok with a feast, but this was getting a bit weird. 

John describes what Judas did: “As soon as he had taken the bread he went out. And it was night.” Yes, it was night. Judas went into the night to betray Jesus. Soon Jesus would go into the night and begin his journey to the cross. The disciples would go into a night of fear and disillusionment and denial. In a few years, Jerusalem and the temple would go into a night of Roman destruction and spiritual darkness.

Let’s pray. 

Jesus, the world in our time is headed into night. Can we avoid it by going off the grid, as Judas wanted to do? Or should we follow you into the night? Will your body be bread for us? Will your blood be our drink? Is faithfulness to you and to your community of disciples a higher value than survival and escape? Jesus, in the night it seemed you threw away your life. We are not yet willing to throw ours away. Help us not to join Judas in choosing a separation package and Plan B. Help us to follow you into whatever night is coming and to wait with you for the dawn. 

Amen. 

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

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

In Genesis, when Abraham had three visitors, he gave them water to wash their feet. When I saw my podiatrist, she didn’t give me water to wash my feet. She put on plastic gloves to keep a sanitary, professional and impersonal distance from my feet.

In John 13, Jesus didn’t give the disciples foot-washing water like Abraham, and he didn’t keep a professional distance like the podiatrist. Instead, he wrapped a towel around his waist, knelt before the disciples one-by-one and washed their feet–Thomas the doubter, Judas the traitor, Peter the denier, John the lover. As he studied their dirty feet and applied the water and towel, what message did he communicate?  I think he was saying three simple things:

1. First, he was demonstrating, “I love you enough to serve you in dirty, menial ways.”

2. Second, his action pointed out that the religion he was teaching is not all about morality and healing and resurrections and miracles. It’s also about doing very mundane acts of service, in very personal ways. 

3. And third, he told his disciples, that it is an option for them to do the dirty work. No need to wait for the servants and the janitors and the cleaning lady. Step right up, folks. You too can get your hands dirty. 

I am drawn to the symbolic meaning of footwashing. When Jesus stooped to wash Peter’s feet, Peter said, “This isn’t appropriate for you to do, Jesus. I don’t want you to wash my feet.” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”  Peter replied, “Then wash all of me–feet, hands, and head.” But Jesus said, “If you’ve had a bath, you’re clean enough. All you need is a touch up on the feet.” 

Jesus discouraged two solutions for dirty feet, and offered one solution. 

First, Jesus had no time for a religion focused on keeping feet clean. That was the Pharisees religion–rules and control that tell you how to manage your behavior to keep yourself clean. Jesus message to the Pharisees was, “Your solution doesn’t work. Your feet are as dirty as everyone else’s.”

Second, Jesus discouraged minimizing the problem of dirt. He knew that it’s dirty out there, and he knew that dirt clings to you. Kneeling in front of the disciples with bucket and towel, he invited them to believe that the dirt of the world had made you dirty again. 

The solution Jesus encouraged is to bring the dirty feet to him. He says to us, “I’m here every day to wash your feet.” Go into the world without fear, live in your human culture with all its moral muddle, walk on the dirty roads, be my followers there. And then come to me, and let me wash away the dirt, and serve you bread and wine for supper.

Let’s pray. 

Jesus, we liked it when you showed your power–healing the sick and feeding the crowd and criticizing the religion of the Pharisees and predicting who will betray you and who will deny you. But when you kneel in front of us with bucket and towel, we shrink back. Shouldn’t we hide our dirty feet, or deal with them in private, or cover them with clothes? You’re not a servant, why are you suddenly acting like one?  

But still you touch our feet and wash them with your hands and wipe them with your towel.

Jesus, we need this. We bring to you relationships where we have dirtied ourselves with envy or jealousy or gossip or fear or avoidance. We bring to you private thoughts where we have betrayed you and your law. We bring to you deep seated fears that expose our unbelief and anxiety. O Jesus, kneel before us, wash our feet again, teach us the father’s love. 

Amen. 

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

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

John 12 marks the end of Jesus’ public ministry, and the beginning of the story about his death.

Up to this point, Jesus has been interacting with many people in many ways: making wine at the wedding, advising Nicodemus to be born again, offering living water at the well, healing the paralytic and the blind, feeding and lecturing the crowd, and finally  raising Lazarus from the dead. 

John 12 begins with Jesus attending a party at Lazarus’ home, where Mary anointed his feet with a pint of very expensive perfume. Judas, the accountant in the crowd said, “Hey, that’s a waste. We should have sold the perfume and given the money to the poor.”  Jesus replied, “She has anointed me for my burial.”

Anoint Jesus for burial? Is he planning his funeral? 

The story got briefly onto a better track when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, to the wild cheers of the crowd who said, “Blessed is the king of Israel.” King Jesus? Is he now a political celebrity? Apparently miracles and free lunch get out the vote every time. 

But Jesus wasn’t consulting the polls and playing to the crowd. Instead he said, “I will draw everyone to myself when I am lifted up on a cross.” And he said, “A grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die.” 

The crowd replied, “Moses said the Messiah will live forever. What’s this about death?”

Jesus said, “I have come as light. Believe in the light, so you won’t keep walking in darkness.” 

When they heard this, some people believed openly, some believed privately, and some didn’t believe at all. John, astounded at pervasive unbelief in the face of momentous miracles, explains it by quoting the prophet Isaiah. 
God has blinded their eyes
            and hardened their hearts,
    So they cannot see with their eyes
              nor understand with their hearts (John 12:40, quoting Isaiah 6:10).

Jesus opened the eyes and the hearts of the blind man and the paralytic and Lazarus. But many eyes and hearts remained closed.

Let’s pray. 

Jesus, we love your public ministry in John. Winemaker of Cana, whip maker at the temple, lunch maker for the crowd, giver of new birth and living water. You called Lazarus from the grave and rode like a king into Jerusalem. 

But in every success, you hinted of impending disaster. Will you be a victim of the whip you used in the temple? After free lunch, is the next menu your body as meat and your blood as wine? Does Mary’s anointing prepare you for the grave? Are you the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies? 

Jesus, in our troubled times the strong and arrogant raise themselves to kingship–Donald Trump, Vladmir Putin, Xi Jinping. When you were strong and popular, leading the parade into Jerusalem, why didn’t you raise yourself to kingship?

And why is John’s gospel so insistent on dividing people into those who believe and those who don’t? Is there some hidden meaning in this story of your life that only faith can understand? Is there some unexpected turn in your road where only believers can follow? Will your light and life soon give way to darkness and death? Jesus, help us walk with you where John takes us in your journey. Help us walk with you where you take us in our journey.

Amen. 

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

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

In John 11, Lazarus was very sick, so his sisters sent word to Jesus. He said to his disciples, “This sickness won’t end in death. It is for God’s glory.” Then he ignored the sisters’ request for two days, and finally said to his disciples, “Ok. Time to head south to Judea.”

The disciples said, “Whoa! They tried to kill you last time you went there.” Jesus said, “Not a problem. And by the way, Lazarus has died. But good news! What happens will increase your faith.” 

The disciple Thomas said, “Let’s get on with it then. We can follow Jesus to Lazarus’ death, and his death, and probably ours too.” Not much faith there. 

When Jesus arrived in Judea, Lazarus’ sisters said to him, “If you had been here, our brother wouldn’t have died.” Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And Jesus wept. Perhaps he wept for the sorrow of death, perhaps out of compassion for the sisters, perhaps he wept for the lack of faith everywhere he looked. 

Then he went to Lazarus’ grave, got them to roll the stone away from the entrance, and he said to the decomposing body, “Lazarus, come out.” And out he came, wrapped in linen grave clothes. 

When the Pharisees heard, they were not impressed and they said, “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take our temple and our nation.” Caiaphus, the high priest, said, “You’re right about that. It would be better for this man to die, and the nation will be saved.” 

John, the gospel writer, explains that this was an unintentional prophecy. He says, “Caiaphus was right. Jesus will die to save the Jewish nation, and not only that nation, but also the scattered children of God. He will bring them together and make them one.” 

Let’s pray. 

Jesus, along with Lazarus’ sisters, we wonder why you don’t show up sooner in our sickness and pain and sorrow, before death does its final work.

With Thomas we are tempted to despair and cynicism. “We’re going to die anyway. Might as well follow Jesus to Lazarus’ death, and his own death, and probably ours too.”

With the Pharisees we want religion. But not religion out of control. Jesus, your person and teachings push the boundaries of everything that makes life stable and predictable for us. You challenge our view of sickness, of religion, of faith, of death.

We hear you say, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus, we believe in the resurrection of the body. But what do you mean, that you are the resurrection and you are the life? We come to you looking for healing not death, for clarity not questions, for a religious system we can believe in, not a person who throws our lives into turmoil and weeps over the grave. 

Jesus, today we receive you as you are, the man of resurrection and life. We receive you into our dying bodies, into our troubled minds, into our wayward spirits. We trust you to bring the scattered children of God together and make them one. Jesus, be our life in this age and in the age to come.  

Amen. 

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