Jesus' last hours with the disciples (before crucifixion) (John 14-17)

In between the Last Supper and being arrested, Jesus had a lot to say to his disciples.  The Gospel of John records four chapters of teaching, encouragement, and prayer in the last moments before Jesus' arrest.  The teachings are generally pretty theologically heavy and sometimes confuse the disciples.

Who was present?  Probably those that were at the Last Supper, minus Judas Iscariot. This would be the remaining Eleven (Twelve minus Judas) and Lazarus (the disciple whom Jesus loved).  We also can infer that the author of the Gospel of Mark may have been there.  

Other reasonable possibilities include the sisters of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, because they seem to be present wherever Lazarus is.  They also live near Jerusalem and Jesus ate with them before having his body prepared for burial by Mary.

I prepare a place (14:1-14)

Jesus says he is going away to prepare a place for them.  He also outlines that he is going to the Father and the places for them are in the Father's house.  

This seems to be a reference to his death.  He will return to the Father to prepare the places for the disciples.  This confuses Thomas, who states he cannot follow Jesus if does not know where he is going.

Philip and Jesus have an interesting discussion in which Jesus states that if you have seen Jesus, then you have seen the Father.  For us living centuries later, we cannot see Jesus the way the disciples did as Jesus walked on earth, but we can read and follow Jesus' example, knowing that it is what the Father would have done on earth as well.

Jesus also says something peculiar - anyone who has faith in Jesus will do what Jesus has been doing.  What does this entail?  The things that Jesus commanded were:

1.  Love God

2.  Love your neighbor

3.  Go unto all the world and preach the Gospel

4.  Heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead

The promise of the Holy Spirit (14:15-31)

Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will come to empower the disciples.  The Holy Spirit will do a number of things, one of which is to remind the disciples of what Jesus had said.  Presumably, no one was writing down what Jesus had said during the ministry.  The Holy Spirit will help with this.

The Vine and the Branches (15:1-17)

Jesus uses an analogy with a vine to illustrate the relationships between Jesus, the Father, and the disciples.  Jesus is the vine and the disciples are the branches.  The branches must remain in the vine to bear fruit.  The gardner comes and either prunes the branches to grow more fruit, or if there is no fruit, the branch is discarded.  

We all go through seasons of either being pruned or possibly even disconnecting from Jesus and the fruit begins to dry out.  We might not be in control of how much the gardner prunes us, but we are in control of how much we connect with Jesus.  In turn, we are in somewhat of control of how much fruit we have.

With regard to disconnecting from Jesus, we know from other passages of Jesus grace and mercy.  In fact, Simon Peter is about to publicly disown Jesus three times, clearly a disconnection.  Likewise, the other disciples will scatter and be disillusioned.  But Jesus will forgive them and even reinstate Simon Peter.  

In this passage, Jesus makes a few other interesting points.

First, Jesus calls his disciples friends and no longer servants.  Likewise, they are all appointed to do something.  As I mentioned, this group probably was not just the remaining Eleven, but his general disciples.  Jesus calls all his disciples friends, which means us too.

Second, Jesus said that he "chose you".  This raises the issue of whether faith is a free will, task, or gift.  Yes, all of the above.  Further, Christians disagree.

On one hand, we have faith traditions that leans towards salvation by works.  Here, I would include Catholicism, saying Hail Mary, and the concept of Purgatory.  

On another, we have some of the concepts of election and predestination espoused by John Calvin.

Personally, I am not an expert on the reasoning of either group, but what from I have seen, I find not persuasive.  Rather, it must be in the middle somewhere and perhaps is one of the dichotomies of the Christian faith that live in tension.  

On one hand, choice and free will must exist - both in the world of angels and man - in order for anything to make sense.  If there were none, then we can trace the only real choice as to God's decision to make the universe or not.  If God created the world knowing that angels and humans will fall away, and still removed the ability for them to make the choice, then God is to blame for sin.  That is the implicit result if there were no free will.

On the other hand, if free will were absolute, then God would be paralyzed and do nothing - ever.  God's actions by necessity mean the absence of free will for anyone else because God's will is supreme over everyone else's - angels or man.

Rather, I think it is a blend.  Sometimes God acts and sometimes not.  Sometimes God delegates choice, to angels and men.  Sometimes God chooses and sometimes angels and men choose.  Sometimes God tells angels and men what they should do, but allows them go their own way.  Sometimes angels and men follow God's ideas.

This is what I think the parable of the Prodigal Son was about, for angels and men.  But at least for men, we have the option of turning back to God for forgiveness for going our own way and messing up our own lives.  I am not aware if the angels have that option.

Persecution and the Holy Spirit (15:18-16:33)

Jesus warns is disciples that the world will hate them on account of him.  However, the Holy Spirit will come and lead and encourage them.  

Jesus also commissions the disciples that have been with him since the beginning to testifh about him. 

Jesus' Prayer (17)

John 17 covers a long prayer by Jesus for himself, his disciples, and all believers.

After saying all this, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane, where he was arrested.

Hungry hungry hippos (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15)

This is another anecdote that is covered by all four Gospels.

Jesus is in a remote place and a very large crowd follows him.  The Gospels provide two different reasons as to why Jesus was in the remote place to begin with.  In Matthew, Jesus retreats to the remote place after hearing of the death of John the Baptist.  (14:13).  This suggests that Jesus or his disciples needed to mourn and reflect.  In Mark, the disciples have not had a chance to eat and Jesus suggests that they go off by themselves.  (6:31).  These reasons are not inconsistent with each other.  Perhaps Jesus wanted to mourn about John the Baptist and also knew the disciples needed food.

Note, they get to this remote place by crossing the lake.

However, the large crowd follows.  Jesus sees this crowd and forgets whatever reason he needed for going off alone.  His hearts breaks for them.

It is getting late.  The disciples suggest to Jesus that he send the crowd away that they can find food on their own.  

Jesus asks Phillip where they could buy bread for the crowd.  The text even states that this was a test for Phillip by Jesus.  The Bible is largely silent about Phillip until the book of Acts.  Phillip responds that eight months' wages would be needed to feed them.  This does not actually answer the question, but it is an understandable answer.  Phillip is saying that do not have enough money to buy the food.  They probably only have a little bit of money since they spend their entire time following Jesus and not working.

The question to Phillip comes from John's account.  The other Gospels note that this event happened after Jesus sent the disciples to preach without spare traveling supplies.  At that time, they were totally reliant on faith in Jesus for food, even if Jesus remained behind.  That said, they probably received food from the people they visited as opposed to food miraculously appearing.  

So, perhaps Phillip's answer could be understood to mean - hey Jesus, you make the money appear, and then we can worry about where we will buy food.

A small boy within the crowd has 5 loaves of bread and two small fish.  Given the prior discussion about buying food, we can probably assume that Jesus bought the food from the boy.

Jesus instructs the disciples to arrange the crowd in groups of 50 and 100.  There were 5,000 people in the crowd.  Jesus took the food, gave thanks, and then the disciples start handing out bread and fish.  The food never runs out.  Rather, the entire crowd has enough to eat and the leftovers fills 12 baskets.

The crowd is amazed.  They talk amongst themselves that Jesus is the prophet that came to save the world.  They take it even further and decide to install Jesus as king by force.  By this point, Jesus must withdraw.

It is interesting that there were 5,000 of them and this event resulted in them discussing installing Jesus by force.  A typical Roman legion had about 5,000 men, so had it gone through, it would have given Jesus an army the size of a legion.

Jesus declined this army and instead withdrew from it.  This shows that Jesus did not seek political power, that his kingdom was not of this world, nor did Jesus need a human army.

Crowds and Apostles (Mark 3:7-19; Luke 6:12-16)

Crowds still followed Jesus after he challenged the Pharisees about the Sabbath.  People still came to him for healing and deliverance from evil spirits.  Jesus still tells the evil spirits to not say who he is.  At this point, Jesus is publicly declaring divinity to people he encounters, including the Pharisees.  So, hushing the evil spirits seems to have a different purpose other than telling people about Jesus before Jesus knew they were ready.  It probably has to do with the manner the evil spirits would talk.

Jesus goes up a mountain where he spends a night in prayer.  In the morning, selects twelve disciples to be apostles.  They include the four fishermen from Galilee, Matthew (Levi) the tax collector, and seven others not previously mentioned. The more famous include Thomas (probably "doubting Thomas"), Phillip (probably of Acts 8), and of course, Judas Iscariot.

After selecting Apostles, he sees the crowd and climbs partway up a mountain.  This may be the same mountain where he went pray about selecting Apostles.  

This time, he goes up to speak to a crowd of disciples.  What he says will become known as the Sermon on the Mount.