Note: On Fridays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
No more secrets.
Imagine the puzzlement of the apostles at the Last Supper. Jesus has told them a great many things in a short amount of time: He’s going away, but he’ll be back. They will be capable of much. There are no more secrets; he’s shared all the knowledge God has given him, every last bit:
“I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.”
Can’t you just see their jaws drop, at that bit of news in particular?
But hearing what the Father commands and being obedient to it, as we and the apostles know all too well, can be two different things. It’s easy to love your brothers and sisters in concept; it’s harder to love someone who injures you physically or emotionally, intentionally or unintentionally. It’s easy to love God with all your heart and soul in concept; it’s harder to love Him when you’ve received a life-threatening medical prognosis, or you’ve been out of work for a year, your family’s hungry and foreclosure proceedings have begun.
And yet, that’s precisely what would happen with Jesus. He never wavered from the Truth, no matter how deep the wounds from his scourging would cut, no matter how fast the disciples would flee from him in the coming hours. There was no big secret or mystery to it; he loved. It was as simple and as profound as that.
Thanks, Lora. My challenge is generally with the second greatest!