John the Evangelist and the early church have given us the Gospel of John. If you’ve read it, you may agree with the editors of the Spiritual Formation Bible -things in this gospel can get confusing in a hurry. At the same time we typically explore these verses from a slightly altered Evangelical point of view. We work to internalize the customs of Jesus’s day, seek meanings for the words we don’t clearly understand, and diligently examine not just the Gospel of John but the rest of scripture to corroborate and broaden our beliefs and our responsibilities. In short, we seek the truth. We look for what the story meant then and attempt to transfer that meaning to now.
Another approach besides that “modernist” one is possible. It views the initial readers, and us, the present readers, as recipients of John’s collected histories and stories that were emerging during the conclusion of the 2nd c. of the current era. John contains the broader story about Jesus, who is intent on expanding the love of his disciples for the Father. It also includes a description of Maundy Thursday, Jesus’s last meal with his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion.
By studying John, modernists want to enshrine a past Gospel. Another party, 21st c Evangelicals, seem to have drifted into a Biblical Neverland focusing on political issues to the exclusion of more studied faith concerns. Post-modernists are more concerned with focusing on the dialog in the story and understanding where we go from here.
The story of the Last Supper is one narrative of many John includes in his Gospel to persuade his readers, present and future, to follow Jesus. His Gospel is in fact long and expertly crafted to convince us that Jesus is the Messiah. The story of the upper room meal is part of that persuasive effort.
If you aren’t too intent on capturing the whole “truth” of the Last Supper you may recognize John’s intent of describing Jesus and the disciples in the story. Together they can be seen as a literary foil to invite us further along the path of John’s argument.[1]
In this narrative the disciples conveniently arrive at the upper room when Jesus does. John wants us to follow Jesus as the Messiah, the one who promises that those who believe in him will have eternal life, just as the disciples are promised. Finally the meal concludes with Jesus’s arrest in the Valley of Kidron. Much work is left to the reader in making sense of all this. The details emerge slowly, but it is grief that drives Jesus to praying alone and feeling alone, deeply troubled.
Maundy Thursday has a dark side.
Jesus foretells his death, saying he will eat no more until the kingdom of God is fulfilled. The meal also marks an act of betrayal. Jesus says, "One of you will betray me." Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus' 12 disciples, is pointed out by Jesus as the one who will do so. Judas leaves the pre-passover meal early to, as we might say, rat Jesus out.
Holy Thursday or “Maundy Thursday” is derived from the Latin word for "command," and refers to Jesus' commandment to the disciples to "Love one another as I have loved you." Here John selects the most important teaching he can pass on. Love one another. And he reassures them when grief sneaks out of the shadows and appears unexpectedly.
Jesus’s response to their disorientation is, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
The next step (we might call it a further turn in the dialog) asks us to take this new relationship we have chosen and ask, “What could make this a conversation conclude with a better outcome, one that follows more closely Jesus’s admonition to “Love one another?” The question at the heart of this approach is to ask, “What are we making/doing together, both with God and one another? How might it be improved?
Then take a similar approach to stories that include Jesus’s other assertions about himself, “I am the bread of life. ... “I am the light of the world. ... I am the door. ... I am the good shepherd. “I am the resurrection and the life. ... “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And then this, the 8th statement, when Jesus echoes the Lord’s words to Moses at the burning bush. “I am, and I will be whom I will be.”[2]
[1] If you passionately dislike uncertainty, you may find this approach troubling. The rift between modern and post-modern biblical scholars is, like the children’s church song, “deep and wide.“ There is, however, the possibility for some common ground between the three groups. I just don’t like being backed into a corner by either side. In reality post-modernists only accept as true what can be demonstrated so far. After that everything is up for grabs. Thus the postmodernists focus more on now and tomorrow rather than proving yesterday
[2] Note there are several translations for this phrase.
