We have all these marvelous 15-second video clips of my 18-month-old
daughter shot with an 8mm camera recorder. Remember those? At the time, they
were top-of-the-line, high-quality stuff; now, they look like a suitcase you
carry on your shoulder. Ah, the glories of a good cell phone camera! Like most
folks, we videotaped everything—“Look, honey! I’m putting on my socks… quick!
Get the camera!” Hours and hours of video footage ensuring that insomnia is
never a problem.
The video clips of Sabrina are all only about 15 seconds
each because for years she had an automatic reaction to seeing the video
camera: “I WANNA SEE! I WANNA SEE!” You would surreptitiously begin to capture
a wonderfully sentimental moment—playing with a stuffed animal, reading a book,
talking to imaginary friends—and then Sabrina would look up, catch you filming
her, and come running to the camera, saying, “I WANNA SEE!” Five seconds of
something cute, followed by 10 seconds of her stumbling toward you crying out
to see what you were recording.
This drive to be “in the know” of all that is going on, this
desire can be cute (if annoying) in a two-year-old, but the same attitude can
undercut our faith in so many ways. Very often we insist on knowing exactly
what is going on; and if we don’t know, then we feel offended, hurt, or even
sinned against. The desire to know and understand might be helpful and
good—such curiosity has led to many discoveries and insights—but it can also
reflect an insistence on controlling our own lives, a failure to have faith.
How often in Scripture are we told to trust the Lord, even
without knowing exactly what He is doing? Indeed, is not the very idea of faith,
trusting when we do not know how something will work out? Our faith in Jesus
for our future is built on our willingness to follow Him, trusting that He
knows what is best, even when we cannot see what He is doing. If we only trust
God when we can see what He is doing, we are not trusting Him at all, but
trusting in our own seeing.
In our text this week, John 13:31-35, this kind of trust is
called for. Jesus has made it clear to the disciples that His time on earth is
limited. Perhaps some of the disciples even recognized that Jesus might be
killed (see John 11:16). But, as that time drew closer, the disciples grew more
and more agitated, more concerned about being separated from their leader. Not
knowing exactly what would happen, not knowing how this all would work for
God’s glory and in His plan, the disciples were fearful of not being with
Jesus. And so, in verse 33, Jesus again tells the disciples that they cannot go
where He is going—He is going to do His work, and they cannot come.
Simon Peter, speaking for all the disciples, I am sure,
cannot accept this. Where Jesus is going, he wants to go! There is nothing that
Jesus can do that Peter doesn’t want to be a part of: no danger, no trial, that
Peter will not share. While this represents extreme naiveté on Peter’s part,
and, as we know from later in the story, is totally false, I believe it also
represents this drive we all have to know what is going on, not to be excluded
from what is happening. Like my daughter wanting to know what is being
recorded, the disciples want to know what Jesus is doing, and where He will be
going. Jesus’ call, however, to His disciples, ALL His disciples, is not always
to know everything, to understand what is happening. His call is to trust, to
have faith in Him, that what He is doing is for the best. Without knowing what
is around the corner, that kind of faith is hard… it is also exactly what the
Christian is to demonstrate every day. We practice our faith together, in
trusting in the Lord, even when we do not know… especially, when we do not know.
As we prepare for worship together this Sunday, read John
13:31-35.
1. Why does Jesus wait until Judas (see verses 21-30)
departs to say these things?
2. There is a circularity to the glorifying here: Jesus
glorifies the Father who glorifies Jesus as He glorifies Himself. Read the
verse carefully and see if you can make sense of it. Why do you think Jesus
words it this way?
3. John 13:33, this is the only time in the Gospels that
Jesus refers to His disciples as “little children”. Why do you think He chose
to do so here?
4. When did Jesus speak this way to the Jews (see verse 33)?
What connection might Jesus be making when He links these two sayings?
5. The commandment to love one another is a wonderful
sentiment… but what exactly do you think Jesus means by that? All of us have
been “loved” by another sometimes in ways that, frankly, we wish they wouldn’t.
So, what does Jesus mean?
6. What is “new” about this commandment? After all, wasn’t
the command to love others also present in the Old Testament?
7. What do you think about the predictive outcome mentioned
in John 13:35? If you don’t know what I mean here… come! Let’s talk about it on
Sunday!
