John 14 records a discourse between
Jesus and eleven of the Disciples
Eleven, since Judas Iscariot has already left
“Having received the piece of bread,
he then went out immediately.
And it was night.”
(John 13:30)
John 13 records Jesus washing
The feet of His Disciples
He shares the Last Supper
With them all – Judas as well
And He predicts Peter’s denial of Him
Now Judas has left the room
They are in, to go and arrange
The betrayal of Jesus
So when we read the things that Jesus says
And teaches in John 14, it is for all who believe
All who are willing to believe and trust in Jesus
Jesus knows what Judas is about to do
But His Disciples are very much in the dark
It is all the more amazing that He starts
By saying: “Let not your heart be troubled”
The Disciples may have only understood
This saying much, much later
Perhaps even after Jesus had ascended into heaven
For them, so much had happened
In such a short period of time
But for Jesus, He knew it was all part of the plan
For He knew the end from the beginning
So they may have looked back at this period of time
Time when Jesus talked to them about the Father
About where He was going
About the Holy Spirit and about Peace
And had a better understanding then
We too can look at this passage, this chapter
And read with our understanding
Yet at the same time, trying to read it
As if we were one of the eleven
Hearing it for the first time