John 13
MorJohn 13:1-38
The Gospel According to John John 13:1-38 - John 14:1-31 John 13:1-20. We now begin the third and last division of the Gospel. And particularly, we begin a section occupying five chapters, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen and seventeen. For the devout student of the oracles of God, the wonder of this section never ceases. Like the alternating lights and shadows on the Urim and Thummim upon the breastplate of the high priest of old, the story proceeds, radiant with glory, and yet almost terrible with deep darkness.
A group of thirteen men is seen, presently and quickly becoming twelve, as one of the number is excluded. All the way the central figure is that of Jesus. The other six names are those of Peter, John, Judas, Thomas, Philip, and Jude. These presently become five, leaving six of the twelve unnamed. These are all seen grouped around our Lord. Our attention throughout is held by Jesus Himself. The others are seen in their relationship with Him.
He was now about thirty-three and a half years of age. The pathway of His earthly life was ending. The pathway of ministry had been brief indeed, only three and a half years. In these five chapters we have glimpses into the mind of Jesus that are very revealing. I cannot help thinking that as He talked, He was remembering His own childhood, thinking of His mother. I think His own mother was in His mind in the course of His discourses when He said, “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world.” When He looked at that little group, He called them teknia, “Little children.” It is the only time recorded that He used that name for them.
It was the diminutive plural of the word Mary had used for Him when she found Him in the Temple at twelve years of age, “Child.” Now He called the group “little ones,” or “little children,” perhaps catching the accents of His mother’s tender voice. In the seventeenth chapter we discover the quietness of His soul in the sense of life well lived, and perfect service rendered; as He talked to His Father.
The key phrase to this section is “His own.” The thirteenth chapter begins, “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the end.” His public ministry completed, our Lord devoted Himself for a brief period of a few hours to the inner circle of His apostles, those here designated “His own,” those whom God had given Him, as He said presently in talking to His Father, out of the world. “Thine they were, and Thou hast given them to Me.”
This period is divided very clearly into two parts as to location. During the first period, chapters thirteen and fourteen, they were together in the upper room. The occasion was that of the Passover feast observed, and then relegated to the past. At the end of chapter fourteen it is recorded that He said, “Arise, let us go hence.” Unquestionably they then left the upper room. Then follow chapters fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, when the location was elsewhere. The paragraph now under consideration deals with an incident at the Passover feast. John gives us no account of the Passover feast itself; nor does he give any account of the institution of the new Feast. It was the hour of the merging of the old and the new, and John has recorded incidents in connection with the two Feasts, the old and the new, the Passover and the Eucharist. The first incident is an unveiling of His grace. The second is an unveiling of His government. In the first we see Him girded with the towel, the badge of slavery; in the second we see Him excluding the traitor.
Here, as everywhere, is that infinite and marvellous merging of meekness and of majesty, but He is with His own. The world is shut out. All the clamour of the voices of His foes is silenced, all the hubbub of the curious and questioning crowd is hushed.
The first thing that impresses us is the consciousness of Jesus which led to the symbolic act of grace. The symbolic act was that of the washing of the feet of the disciples; but the consciousness of Christ is the arresting thing in the story as John tells it. Let us read those opening sentences once more, putting an emphasis on certain words.
“Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He came forth from God, and goeth unto God, riseth.” In that emphasis the consciousness of Jesus is revealed. The causative consciousness of Jesus, that is, the consciousness that led Him to the action recorded here is revealed in the word “knowing.” The resultant consciousness is revealed in the word “loved.”
What then were the things that John said our Lord knew? First that the hour was come. His first recorded reference to that hour was when He said to His mother, “ Mine hour is not yet come." Now He knew “that His hour was come.” He knew too that it was the hour when “He should depart out of this world unto the Father.” Not a word is said here and now about the way of His going, but only the fact that His going would bring Him to the Father. ‘When the Greeks came, He said, “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified.” So here the reference was not to the method of His going, but to the fact, and to the issue of it. “Knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father.” It is of supreme importance that we should understand the Scripture’s teaching about the mind of Jesus as He approached His Cross. Too often the death of Jesus is spoken of as a martyrdom, the heroic surrender to the inevitable in circumstances. There is no scintilla of truth in that view of the Cross. The New Testament accounts all reveal Him as moving with the mien and attitude of One carrying out a Divine programme; His soul troubled, but always seeing through the gloom to the glory. “Knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father.”
But again, “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands.” That statement is significantly placed: “The devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands.” Judas had willed, and the devil had willed; but Jesus knew that He was already by the Father’s appointment in supreme authority. Presently He will say to this self-same group, “All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.” He knew it now.
Thus, when the strident voices of His foes were hushed, and the hubbub of the curious crowd was still; and He was alone with His own, He knew that the hour was come; He knew the issue of the hour, He was going to His Father; He knew His Father’s confidence in Him, He had given all things into His hands. Moreover, He knew the certainty of His victory. “Knowing . . . that He came forth from God, and goeth unto God.” And “knowing,” He “loved.” “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” The words, “unto the end,” eis telos, mean to completion. It has been rendered beautifully, “to the uttermost.” I am going to dare to render it in another way, which I maintain reveals the very spirit of it. “Having loved His own which were in the world He saw it through.” The hour was come. The issue was that He was going to His Father. His Father trusted Him, confided in Him, had put all things into His hands. He was proceeding with the consciousness of certain victory. He had come from God.
He was going back to God. Yes, but He had said, “Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour?” And a little later, though John does not tell us the story, beneath the sombre shade of the olive trees in Gethsemane, He said, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass.” Now John, writing after the event, says, “Having loved them “He saw it through, “He loved them to the uttermost, He loved them to the end,” eis telos, to perfection, to completion, to realization. So I dare to use the phrase which is not translation, but which is interpretation, “Having loved His own, He saw it through.”
“Love perfecteth what it begins.”
Thus the mind of Jesus is revealed!
Of this He gave them a revelation, a symbolic unveiling. Three words mark the activity, riseth, girdeth, washeth.
“He . . . riseth from supper.” He broke in upon the ritual of the Passover feast. The washing of the feet was not the ordinary washing of the feet of guests. This was something new, something startling, something intended to arrest their attention. He took a towel and girt Himself with it. The towel girt about the loins in the East was the sign and badge of slavery. They saw Him rise, and gird Himself with a towel. They saw Him assuming the badge of slavery. And then He bent down, and poured the water, and began the washing of their feet.
Now Peter protested. Nobody knows the order in which He washed their feet. There is a legend that He went to Judas first. There is no proof of it. I think it was to Peter that He first went. I think if some of the others had submitted, he would not have been so vehement. Peter said, “Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?” The emphasis should be placed on the two pronouns to understand Peter. “Thou . . . my.” The amazement of it, his “Teacher,” his “Lord,” the One Who had instructed him, the One to Whom he had yielded himself! “Dost Thou wash my feet?”
The pronouns were used again when Jesus replied, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt understand hereafter.” The same contrast is recognized. But He said more: “But thou shalt understand hereafter.” Full of self, Peter did not understand Him then. But he would understand.
Peter was still vehement. “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” Jesus was equally emphatic. “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.” “If I…thee…thou…Me.” Peter at once yielded: “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” It was a great word, showing that to Peter the thought that he should have no part with Him was intolerable.
Then again the words of Jesus tenderly corrected and explained. His own were already clean, because they were His. The act was symbolic of that which ever will be necessary, the cleansing of defilement contracted by the way. The whole picture is that of the Roman baths. When men walked from the bathing place to the dressing place, they might contract some dust by the way, and so always the last thing, after the robing, was the washing of the feet in order to remove the dust that had been contracted on the march from the central pool to the dressing room.
Then our Lord applied what He had done. First He asked a challenging question. Do you know what I have done? He had told Peter that he did not know. “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt understand hereafter.” So He was going to help Peter, and began with a question. Do you know what this means? I rose, girt Myself with a slave’s apron. I have taken the place of a slave, the lowest place of service possible. Do you know what I have done? Then, resuming the relationship of dignity and authority, He said, “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
Now there are certain sections of the Christian Church even to-day who take that very literally, and observe this ritual as carefully as the Lord’s Supper and baptism. While we may not share their practice, we must at least not lose the significance of it. Said Jesus, As I have done, so ought ye to do. What had He done? Stripped Himself of dignity, taken the lowliest place of a slave to serve them, in their highest interests. So ought we to do for each other; strip ourselves of all our dignities, and take the lowliest places of service. He ended with a beatitude, “If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them, happy are ye if ye do them.” In effect Jesus said, the theory of service is no use, it is its practice which is of value.
In conclusion. I turn to the first letter of Peter in chapter five and verse four (1 Peter 5:4). “And when the chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise ye younger, be subject unto the elder. Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility.” The King James’ Version reads, “clothe yourselves with humility.” Peter, where did you learn that? I think if I had asked him, he would have said. On that Passover night, in the upper room I saw Him do that.
I saw Him gird Himself with humility. It is a remarkable word that Peter used here, rendered in the Old Version “Be clothed with,” and in the Revised, “Gird yourselves.” The Greek noun from which the verb is derived has as its root a word signifying “Knotted.” Being clothed or girded, is being dressed in a knotted garment. The Greek noun for that garment is used in two applications. It was the garment of a slave, but it was also the garment of princes. Whether the garment was a slave’s or a prince’s depended upon the material of which it was made.
It seems to me that possibly Peter saw the knotted garment of slavery on Jesus, and before He was through, he saw that it was the knotted garment of royalty. He was writing now to young people, and to old people; and he gathers us all up, and says, “All of you, put on humility as a slave’s garment,” and so learn to wear the garment of true royalty. I think he learned this in the upper room, when Jesus rose, and girded Himself, and washed the feet of His disciples, both as Servant, and Sovereign. John 13:21-35. John gives no account of either the Passover or of the institution of the new feast. Some account of these may be found by a study of the other evangelists. John does record incidents that took place on that memorable night when He-according to the desire of His heart, as He said, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you,"-was with them at the Passover feast, and then instituted the new feast of the Christian Church.
At this point a question arises, which I am not proposing to discuss, but to which I am bound to make passing reference. Was Judas present at the observance of the new feast? There has been a great deal of discussion around that question; and the findings are by no means unanimous. However, I think I am warranted in saying that the general consensus of careful and scholarly opinion is that he did not partake of the new feast, that he was excluded before it was observed. Personally that is my conviction.
In this paragraph we have the account of our Lord’s action in excluding Judas from the company of the twelve. In it there are two movements. Verses twenty-one to thirty, give the account of the exclusion. Verses thirty-one to thirty-five give the account of the comments of Jesus, as the result of that exclusion. Everyone realizes the tragic solemnity of this story. It is not possible to come to it without that consciousness.
Many have felt the story of Judas to be a difficult one; and there have been attempts to exonerate him from blame. I suppose the principal one was that of Thomas de Quincey. Based upon de Quincey’s article, a novel was written by Marie Corelli, in which she strenuously sought to prove that Judas meant well, but failed. With that view Dr. Parker in one of his volumes agreed. I refer to these to show that there have been honest differences of opinion.
Let us note three plain statements of the New Testament about Judas; two of them from the lips of Jesus, one found in the book of the Acts. The first is found in this Gospel of John, in its sixth chapter. When our Lord was referring to His disciples as chosen, He said, “One of you is a devil.” The other equally plain saying was a reference to Judas, recorded in the seventeenth chapter, where He called him “the son of perdition.” In the Acts, in chapter one, the inspired writer tells us that he went “to his own place.” The references are: John 6:20, John 17:12, Acts 1:25. I believe each one of those statements to be literally true. I do not believe Judas was a man as other men. I believe he was a devil incarnate; I believe he was the son of perdition; and I believe that after his death, by his own hand, he went “to his own place.” My own conviction has long been that Judus was raised up to do the darkest deed in human history, and that he was actually a devil incarnate.
Now if that were so, his story is not without significance for us, because Judas is nevertheless presented to us as a human being, acting on human levels, using human intelligence, mastered by human emotion, deciding with human volition. As Jesus was God incarnate, and the reality of the humanity of Jesus no one will question, who nevertheless believe that He was the Word made flesh; so the reality of the humanity of Judas equally cannot be questioned, even though he were a devil incarnate.
So we proceed to look at the story. It is graphic and tragic. In the earlier part of this chapter, in the eighteenth verse, there is a reference to which we turn. Jesus said to them, “I speak not of you all; I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth My bread lifted up his heel against Me.” I have only referred to it to show that our Lord knew all the truth about Judas.
But now mark how this story opens. “He was troubled in the spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me.” He knew; and He was troubled in the spirit. We have had that same word about Him twice already in the course of our readings. At the grave of Lazarus He was troubled. When the Greeks came, and He spoke of His approaching hour, He was troubled. There is a difference, however, in the form of the statements. At the grave of Lazarus the reading should be “He troubled Himself.” There He was first moved with indignation in the presence of death, and all that of sin which made death inevitable.
He was angry; and then He troubled Himself. He took upon Himself all the sorrow. When He broke out into that great cry in the twelfth chapter, “Now is My soul troubled,” it was “My soul,” the area of the mental. Here our Lord is seen in the presence of evil at its worst, of treachery beyond all treacherousness, and He was troubled in spirit. Here trouble had reached its deepest depths. That is the spirit in which our Lord approached this action.
But the hour had come when it was absolutely necessary to take action, and therefore He " testified " to the group sitting there around Him, as I believe, the Passover feast ended, and the new feast not yet instituted. He said, “One of you shall betray Me.” Troubled in spirit, He testified. The hour had come for action. Then John tells us about the twelve with great naturalness. They looked at one another. They were speechless. They were filled with consternation. They were conscious of their own failure oftentimes, but that one of them should betray Him seemed incredible. John reclining on Jesus’ breast, partly turned toward Jesus in response to Peter’s suggestion that he should tell them who it was. Then John leaning further back, asked, and the Lord gave him a sign. “He it is, for whom I shall dip the sop, and give it him.”
The act of the giving of a sop must be interpreted by the customs of the East, and of that particular time. In our country, people, at a banquet or a dinner, have the habit, if wine is being drunk, of lifting the glass, and saying, I drink to you. That is exactly what the giving of the sop was at an Eastern meal. It was a sign of friendship. We do not understand this incident if we miss that. That is what Jesus did.
He was troubled in spirit. He knew what the issue would be. But foreknowledge is not causation. He knew from the beginning who it was who should betray Him; and yet up to the last, He gave Judas the chance to halt, to turn from his wickedness. If he was a devil, he was a devil incarnate, and in his human life he was representing responsibility and opportunity. Up to the last our Lord was keeping the door open for him.
Judas took the sop. He responded to the friendly gesture. Then Satan entered in. How did he get in? Judas let him in. Judas sat there, the nefarious purpose in his heart. He had already made up his mind. When Jesus handed him the sop, He said by the action, The door is still open to come back. Satan was on hand. There does not seem to have been hesitation; but for a moment at least, Judas stood between the friendly gesture of Jesus, and the appeal of Satan to carry out the nefarious business. He yielded. Satan entered. In that moment his doom was sealed. The sop was his last opportunity.
Then followed the command of Jesus, “That thou doest, do quickly.” That was authority ratifying a choice. It was as though our Lord had said: I offered thee the symbol of friendship; thou hast made thy choice; now do not hesitate. “That thou doest, do quickly.” Judas immediately went out; and the arresting sentence follows: “It was night.” He went out into the night. He that had eaten bread with Jesus had lifted up his heel against Him. Our Lord had clung to him all through, had taken him about with Him, had given him every opportunity. Evil incarnate had now manifested itself in its ultimate, and at its worst.
Then what followed? “When therefore he was gone out.” “He was gone out.” The very form of the statement shows that his going was voluntary. It was self-excommunication. I have spoken of our Lord’s excluding him. That is true, but the method here was that which is always the method of the Divine. God never excludes a man from His heaven. It is the man who excludes himself; and God ratifies his choice in the necessities of the order of the universe. “God willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that all should return to Him and live.” We talk about God sending men to hell. There is a sense in which that is so; but God never sent any man to hell that did not send himself there. He ratifies human decisions.
It was necessary now, however, that evil should be put out; and so we have the group without Judas, which means that treachery was absent. Evil expelled, was compelled to co-operate in the purposes of God. That is the meaning of what our Lord said to him, “That thou doest, do quickly.” The word rendered betray in our New Testament is a remarkable word. The Greek word means to deliver up. It is used of the action of Judas. But in a little while, six weeks or a little more, Peter, talking about the Cross to which Judas betrayed Him, or delivered Him, says He was “delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” Evil will deliver up Christ, but the infinite love and compassion of God will over-rule that betrayal, so that it becomes the very means by which redemption is provided for a race.
Thus Judas, and the devil behind Judas, are seen under the control of God. He was over-ruling all. Expelled was evil, and so compelled to carry forward the Divine programme.
Then Jesus said: “Now is the Son of man glorified.” It was night, and Judas had gone into the night to carry out the purposes of darkness. A little later on Jesus said to a company of men, with Judas leading them, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” He went out into the night, and when he was gone, He said, “Now is the Son of man glorified.” The hour has arrived, the great “Now.” The process was working itself out, even in the going of Judas, and in the nefarious business he had on hand.
That is the last occasion which John records on which Jesus used the title “the Son of man “for Himself. The first is found in chapter one. When Nathanael came He said to him, “Ye shall see . . . the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” There the great title emerged in this Gospel. Ten times John used it on the way through. That is the first. This is the last.
Now He was at the end. He had said to the guileless Nathanael, “Thou shalt see . . . the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” Now, tragedy on the human level, darkness all about Him, treachery hounding Him to death, He says, “Now is the Son of man glorified.” The rainbow arch was shining around the dark thunderclouds. All the wickedness of humanity in treachery, had gone out into the night. To that little group of His followers, He said, Do not look on the darkness merely. Know that through that very process, and in the very way, in all that results from the thing so dark, the Son of man is glorified.
And more, “God is glorified” in the same way, and by the same process. And yet again, “God shall glorify Him in Himself, and straightway shall He glorify Him.” Who? The Son of man. Here then, as presently in His great prayer in chapter seventeen, He saw beyond the darkness to which He was going, His return to the glory of which He had divested Himself. God would take Him back to that glory, but this darkness was the process through which the glory would be gained, and God would be glorified.
Thus He saw through, He saw Himself taken back to the glory that He had with the Father ere He came, but taken back to it as the Son of man. So that, for evermore identified with God, at the heart of the universe, is humanity, as represented in Him.
Then He dropped into infinite tenderness in speech as He said “Little children.” He had never talked that way before, so far as the records reveal, teknia, “Little children.” It is a word of infinite tenderness. It is the diminutive plural of the word His mother used to Him when she found Him in the Temple, having lost Him. She called Him “Child,” always a word of tenderness, and always a word that recognized peril, and the necessity for care over the little one. The very method of address is suggestive of all that was in His heart at the time. Troubled in the presence of treachery, confident as He moved along the line of a Divine programme of victory to glory; and then He looked round to those that were left, and He said, Little ones; I am with you for a little while. “Ye shall seek Me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say unto you.” He said something to the Jews He did not say to these. To them He said, “Ye shall die in your sins.” He did not say that to these men.
He was simply stating the fact that the way He was now going, they could not come. He was going alone; they could not travel with Him then.
But “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” Judas the traitor was gone, but that little group of eleven were still with Him, and He gave this command as the sum total of everything. “By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
When He said, “A new commandment,” what did He mean? There is a sense in which it was not a new commandment. In the Mosaic economy the word is found, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might; “and” Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” What did He mean when He called it new? This word for new means something that is fresh, as opposed to that which is effete. When He said that they were to love as He loved, the word indicates result, having the value of the phrase “seeing that.” If we love, seeing He has loved, it is true that our love will be on the pattern of His. That is the sequence.
But the point is this: I am giving you, said Jesus, a commandment that is new in its inspiration. Seeing I have loved you, let My love for you be your inspiration for loving each other; and then consequently, of course, it will mean love of the same nature. Stripped of His dignities, girded with a towel, the badge of slavery, He had washed their feet; and He had said, What I have done to you, you ought to do to one another. This then was His one, final, and inclusive commandment, that they love one another.
Then followed the arresting statement, “By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples.” Not by the creed you recite. Not by the livery you wear. Not by the hymns you sing. Not by the ritual you observe. But by the fact that you love one another. Tertullian tells how in those early days, the exclamation that was made about the Christians was, “See how these Christians love one another.” The measure in which Christian people fail in love to each other is the measure in which the world does not believe in them, or their Christianity. It is the final test of discipleship, according to Jesus.
The Passover had been observed and superseded. The new feast had been instituted and observed. Then immediately converse followed between our Lord and the group gathered round about Him, Judas being excluded. These men were in trouble, and what wonder. Four of them spoke. The rest listened, and shared unquestionably in the troubled feelings, expressed by the four, and answered by Jesus. When we reach the end of the chapter, we find them quiet, hushed into peace.
In this paragraph we have the account of their questions, and of our Lord’s replies. There are four questions and answers recorded between verse thirty-six of chapter thirteen, and verse twenty-four of chapter fourteen. Right in the heart of this we have the seventh sign of our Lord in the realm of words. In what remains, verse twenty-five to verse thirty-one (John 14:25-31), we have the summing up of Jesus at the close of those intimate conversations.
It is very arresting that all the questions were concerned with super-earthly matters. Their supreme consciousness at the moment, a poignant one, a painful one, filling them with sorrow, was that our Lord was going. He had been telling them about this for six months, insisting upon it since Caesarea Philippi; and the way of His going He had clearly indicated; that it was to be the way of suffering and death, leading to resurrection. Those men had never understood the reference to resurrection. It was quite self-evident to them that He was going. Of course, they could not have listened to Him without knowing that His attitude was never that of despair, but rather that of a consciousness of majesty, as He was moving along a Divinely marked course.
But for them the terror of it was He was going; that soon, as they thought, He would be dead, and with them no longer. All their questions therefore moved into the realm of super-earthly matters; Peter, “Whither goest Thou?”; Thomas, “Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; How know we the way?”; Philip, “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us”; Jude, “What is come to pass that Thou wilt manifest Thyself to us, and not to the world?” Every one of them moved in a high realm, the realm of super-earthly consciousness.
The story of Peter begins at the thirty-sixth verse (John 13:36-38), and runs through chapter fourteen and verse four (John 14:1-4). The cause of unrest in the soul of Peter was that of the absence of Jesus from the earth. “Lord, whither goest Thou?” The Lord was going away. Where? It is patent that he knew by this time, as they all did, that Christ was going to death. So Peter said, Where are You going? We shall not have you here. Where will You be?
Then came the remarkable answer of Jesus, all of which must be considered. The first thing He said to him was not a definite answer as to where He was going. He said, “Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow afterwards.” Peter never said a finer thing than he said in response to that. “Why cannot I follow Thee even now? I will lay down my life for Thee.” He was perfectly sincere. The difficulty was that he did not know himself, nor understand the weakness of his nature.
This the Lord proceeded to declare to him as He said, “Wilt thou lay down thy life for Me? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me thrice. Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me.”
I recognize that objection may be taken to reading these sentences thus in close connection on the ground that in the first verse of chapter fourteen the pronouns are plural, while the pronouns are singular at the end of chapter thirteen. That is quite true; but when He said, “Let not your heart be troubled,” while He took them all in, He did not exclude Peter. Luke tells how on this same occasion He said to Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you”-plural-“that he might sift you”-plural-“as wheat; but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not”-singular. But He did not exclude the others from His interest and prayer by saying that. So here. He began with the individual, and including the rest, He did not exclude Simon.
Simon had said, I will lay down my life for Thee. To which our Lord replied in effect:-Is that so? Is that how you feel? Is that your will? Simon, I know you better than you know yourself. I know the worst that is in you. I know before the flush of morning is on the Eastern sky, you will have betrayed Me; but do not let your heart be troubled.
Then He told them the condition upon which their heart might be free from trouble as He said, “Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” Our translators, most of them, have rendered that sentence with one indicative, and one imperative. “Ye believe in God,” indicative; “Believe also in Me,” imperative. I think they should both be rendered as imperatives. “Believe in God, believe in Me.” He thus asked for equal confidence in God and Himself.
Then He gave the larger answer to Peter’s first question. He said, “In My Father’s house”-that is in the whole universe, “are many abiding places. If it were not so, I would have told you.” If this earth were the only abiding-place, I would not have deceived you. You are all troubled as to where I am going. I am only going from one abiding-place in My Father’s house, to another. I am going “to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” He was telling him now where He was going. He was going, still in the Father’s house, to some other abiding-place; and He was going to prepare it for Peter and the rest. I am going from this abiding-place, to another; so that when you come, you will be at home there, for you will find Me there. I am going to prepare it for you. I will be there when you come. And if I go, I come,-not I come again, but I come,-and will receive you unto Myself.
Now again quite simply and bluntly, to review the whole movement. I am ready to die for You, said Peter. Peter, said Jesus, is that your will? You will not be equal to it. Before the morning dawns, you will deny Me thrice. But let not your heart be troubled; believe God, believe Me. I am going to prepare a place for you, and if I prepare a place, I will come and get you. In other words, I know the worst that is in you, Peter, but if you trust Me, in spite of the worst that is in you, I will realize all your highest aspirations, and fulfill your life for you.
In all this we have a great revelation of His attitude towards life. These men were earth-bound in their thinking, engaged in a quest, asking strange questions in an honest, blundering way; and He flung round them the vastness of the universe; and the fact that it was unified as being the Father’s house; and therefore the fact He was out of sight, did not mean He was lost to them. I come to you. Now how are we to interpret that “come”? There have been various ways. I think they are all included. He came to them in resurrection. He came to them in a full and new sense when the Paraclete came. He came to receive the majority of them as they passed to Him through violent death. He met them as they passed over. The ultimate reference was undoubtedly to His second Advent.
Peter had said, Where are You going? What is the mystery of this life that lies beyond? Can’t You tell us something about it? If there were nothing beyond, said Jesus, I would have told you. There are many abiding-places in this house of My Father. I am going out of sight, but I am coming for you, and I will prepare the home for you; and in the meantime I come to you, and at last I will receive you to myself. And He ended by saying: “Whither I go ye know the way.”
Then Thomas the magnificent, the honest-the man who would not pretend to have a faith he had not, or a knowledge he lacked-bluntly contradicted Jesus, broke in upon what He was saying, and said, We do not know where. You have not answered Simon. You have not told us where. How can anyone know the way who does not know the destination?
Then in answer to that honest expression of disagreement with Jesus, came that great claim; “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” The implicate of that is that He had said to them incidentally, that He was going to the Father. I am the way unto the Father; therefore I am the way to all the abiding-places in the Father’s house. I am the truth about the Father, and therefore ultimately about all creation, all the universe, all being. And I am the life, the very life of the Father; and therefore the One in Whom, as Paul put it presently, “all things consist,” or hold together. That word of Jesus illuminated all the darkness that was resting upon the minds of these men. Whether they entered into it then or not, who shall say?
Peter’s Where are You going?; Thomas’ How can we know the way?; Philip’s Show us the Father; Jude’s What means the method of hiding the manifestation of Thyself from the world?; the whole realm of difficulty was illuminated by this claim. I am the way to the Father, and to all the universe. All the highways that baffle our thinking, and leave us dreaming dreams and seeing visions, are unified in Me, I am the way. I am, moreover, the truth, the ultimate interpretation of everything. And finally of all that universe, I am the life.
When we commenced these studies, I insisted upon, and I want to emphasize again, the fact that the works we call miracles, do not demonstrate His Deity. They do demonstrate the fact that God was working through Him. It is His words that demonstrate His Deity. Put these words into the lips of any other than Jesus. It is unthinkable and impossible. In the midst of that little group, hell outside through priests and enemies, and Judas’ treachery, waiting to murder Him and to those enquiring souls who were trying to know something about the life beyond, Ht said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Follow Me, and you have direction anywhere in God’s universe.
Follow Me, and you have, ultimately, the interpretation of all secrets, the ultimate in truth. Follow Me, and you will know the fellowship of the ages, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” He was going to the Father. He was the way there. He was the truth about the Father. He was the very life of the Father.
Then Philip spoke, and I never read this word of Philip without feeling that whatever he may have meant, it was the great cry of humanity voicing itself through this quiet, simple, unobtrusive man, because that is what Philip was. In a myriad tones still, many of them discordant, many of them wails of agony and sobs of distress, that is what the world is saying. Show us God and it sufficeth us.
Now listen to Jesus. “Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Thus He claimed to be the Revealer of God. When we introduce some man or woman, youth or maiden, to Jesus Christ, we are bringing such face to face with God. That is what Christianity means.
He did not finish there. He went on to show that if in Himself was the revelation, by the coming of the Holy Spirit, there should be an interpretation of the Revelation. “I will send another Comforter,” an Advocate, and His business shall be that of interpreting Me. As the Spirit interprets the Christ, men find God. “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.” The Spirit shall be the Interpreter of the Revelation. That is the only way in which humanity’s need will be met. Men will never find God by groping after Him in Nature. A man tells me he has given up going to Church, and worships in the country.
He is deluded. He never gets near to God in that way, so as to meet humanity’s dire need. A man may have an aesthetic titillation of his senses in the country, but for God’s sake don’t let him call that religion. Don’t let him imagine that so he is dealing with God. “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” I will send the Spirit, and He shall interpret Me, and so men will find God. There is no other way.
And then He spoke of manifestation, and Jude fastened upon the word “manifest,” How is it come to pass that You are abandoning the world? “What is come to pass that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?”
The answer was not in some senses a direct answer, but it was a complete answer. His answer to Jude’s enquiry was to talk about love, and the keeping of commandments. He went on to tell Jude and the rest of them that when they, or any, loved Him, and proved it by keeping His commandments, something would happen. What? “We”-My Father and I-“will make Our mansion with him.” The word here rendered “abode” is exactly the same word Jesus used, when He said, “In My Father’s house are many abiding-places.” He had said that, referring to the whole universe. Now He said in effect: You ask Me, Jude, why I have abandoned the world? I have not abandoned the world. My Father and I are coming to dwell in you, and in all who shall, like you, love Me.
The implicate of that statement is the answer to Jude’s question. Given a man or a woman in whom God and Christ are living, the world receives illumination. One of His great claims in one of the earlier days of ministry was, “I am the light of the world.” It is not in John’s record, but in His ethical Manifesto He had said to those disciples, “Ye are the light of the world.” Thus He answered Jude by showing He was not abandoning the world, but finding those in whom God and He could live, and shine upon the world in manifestation.
Then in final words He summarized on the whole fact of that which was coming. He told them of the coming of the Comforter for interpretation. Very tenderly He said to that little group of troubled men, I will not leave you desolate, I will not leave you orphans, unloved and straitened and uncared for. He had called them teknia, little children. He said, I am not going to leave you like little children, with no one to care for you. I am sending an Advocate, a Paraclete, One called to be by your side, and Who will interpret these things, to bring all things to your remembrance that I have said; to interpret to you the revelation you have, but have not yet understood.
And then finally, “My peace I give unto you.” “I go unto the Father.” When He said that He was looking through the conflict to the issue. “The prince of the world cometh; and he hath nothing in Me,” nothing on which he can fasten that can give him the victory. Then He was considering the victory in the conflict. I go “that the world may know.” Then He was referring to the final purpose, and showing that it was still the world.
In view of all that He said, “My peace I give unto you.” Literally, I will give unto you the peace that is Mine. Had He not said something like that before? Yes, a little earlier He had referred to “the commandments that are Mine.” In the next chapter He spoke of “the love that is Mine”; and a little later, “the joy that is Mine.”
He is going. The commandments, the peace, the love, the joy that were His, He committed to them; commandments to be obeyed, peace to be entered into, love to be yielded to, joy to be experienced.
Then He said, “Arise, let us go hence.” The conversations were over. There were no more interruptions. The key note to the whole is, “Let not your heart be troubled.” Do not let these questions cause you unrest. “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.” There is direction for you in Me. There is the solution of all problems ultimately for you in Me. There is life sufficient for the fulfillment of your being and service in Me. " Let not your heart be troubled; believe God, believe Me.”