Tuesday of Holy Week - March 26, 2013

Tuesday of Holy Week

John 13:31 – 38

When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!”


“Lord, where are you going?”

I want to know the destination before I make the journey.

I want to know the benefits before I begin the practice.

I want to know the outcome before I invest the time.

I want to be assured that I’m right before expending the energy on the possibility of being wrong.

I want to know that the experience will be worth my investment in it.

I want to be able to claim a reward for what I have believed.

Jesus invited Peter (and others) on a journey they could not imagine, to a place they could not comprehend, by a way they could not see. If they could have seen the way or the end, they likely would not have gone.

This is faith . . . to walk on a path we cannot see . . . to walk toward an outcome we cannot know . . . to give ourselves as fully as possible to the mystery, to the unknowing, to the obscurity of following Jesus into whatever is ahead.

That seems to be the way of Holy Week.

Your way, Jesus, is a way of unknowing.

Your way, Jesus may be an un-way.

Your path, Jesus, is an un-path.

You path, Jesus, carries no assurance . . . except that you are on it with us.

Your way does not lead to my expectations, nor to my plans.




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