Confusion

It seems to me that the disciples were incredibly confused, during their time with Jesus and even more so after his resurrection. According to the narrative of John’s Gospel, Jesus entered triumphantly into Jerusalem, only to immediately tell his disciples that the mountaintop experience we call the Ascension was a mirage and he was going to die a brutal death. Then Jesus takes the role of a slave and washes their feet, indicating that they are called to do the same. Finally, he rebukes the favoured disciple Peter in front of them all by saying that Peter will reject him three times.

The heads of the disciples must have been spinning. In an effort to comfort them and bring them peace, Jesus speaks to them the language of love. Christians have often been guilty of over using Jesus’s words “I am the way, the truth, and the life to prop up their own thinking and denying this language of love. No one comes to the Father except through me” has often been used as a weapon that creates insiders and outsiders. Instead of giving the disciples a sense of who is in and who is out, Jesus was attempting to speak the deep language of love.

In ancient Jewish marriage customs, a man would bargain a price with a father for the privilege of marrying his daughter. Once the terms were settled, the groom would enter a waiting period of twelve months when he would return to his father’s house to prepare a room for his new bride. Jesus’s disciples would have recognised that he was speaking to them using the language of marriage and marital love. He was telling them that they do not need to worry and that he is everything they need.

Jesus was expressing that his commitment to the disciples was forever and that his love would extend beyond the uncertain future. Jesus’s words come to us today and force us to consider if we will trust the deep love of Jesus to carry us through an uncertain future. Jesus continues to be our way into God's truth and a life worth living. This is especially important for those of us who occupy positions of authority because we need to determine which of the competing truths we will follow.

This Sunday is Mother's Day and the following thought occurred to me. As parents and

spouses, we need to consider the power we wield in our households, carefully examining the way in which decisions are made so that everyone's dignity is respected within the limitations of child development. In the workplace, if we find ourselves with over- sight or authority we must conduct ourselves in a way that understands and appreciates the gifts and talents of all workers, recognizing that vocation ultimately comes from God. As members of a Christian community we wield a certain amount of power for which truths compete.

We are keepers of buildings, keepers of budgets, and keepers of programs. There are many truths which vie for the power we hold but the greatest of these is love, the love of God that Jesus showed in his life and in his teaching. God calls us to be stewards of the buildings, money, and programs that we have in our lives and challenges us to be both creative and consistent to holy ways in our uses of them. In our private lives, our professional lives, and our communal life Jesus is for us the way into the truth of a passionate God, a loving God who calls us to a life worth living.