John 18:1a
After Jesus had spoken these words,…
What words?
There is a long-standing debate among careful readers of the Bible about whether the Passion Narratives in each of the Gospels should start before or after the Last Supper. Is the time Jesus spends with his disciples in fellowship and predicts his impending tragedy part of the passion narrative proper, or should it be viewed as its own discreet scene?
John is the Evangelist who probably most complicates how you answer this question. Because most of the second half of John’s Gospel is actually given over to an extended overview of Jesus last meal with his disciples and the passion. The last supper – note, although there is certainly a last supper, there is no institution of the “Lord’s Supper” in John – consumes chapters 13-17, and the passion narrative then begins with this verse in chapter 18 and runs through the end of 19.
“These words,” therefore, may mean the close of the prayer Jesus just offered to his heavenly Father and takes up all of ch. 17, or it may be the whole of what is called “the farewell discourses” from chs. 14-17 where Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure. My guess is that John uses “these words” more expansively to take in all of the conversation he has had with his disciples.
And the heart of that conversation is about love, obedience, and God’s promise of comfort after Jesus’ departs. Jesus tells the disciples that the new commandment he gives is that they should love one another. Indeed, if they love him they will obey his words and love one another (15:10-13). He tells them that God will not leave them orphaned but will send the Advocate, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth to them to remind them of Jesus’ words and to empower them to be faithful (16:4-15). And he prays to God to hold onto them during the turbulence that will come (17).
But perhaps the most important part of the conversation actually came early, at the start of chapter 13 when Jesus prepares to share a last meal with his disciples and to set them an example of what he asks of them by washing their feet. Setting the context for this meal and the conversations to come, John describes simply and succinctly that,
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
This is a conversation of the night, a conversation conversation is one offered in hushed tones, describing difficult moments to come, but also promising help and strength and abiding, conquering love. And it’s after just “these words,” that the drama of our Lord’s passion begins.
Prayer: Dear God, fasten our eyes on the story of your Son’s great love, that we may learn to love one another in word and deed. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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