Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Wednesday, March 26, 2014 Read John 16:16-24 The same discussion regarding Jesus’ departure is at the center of our reading for today. In many ways the same message that we have been listening to is repeated in slightly different words. It seems that the message was an important one for followers of Jesus to hear – and it seems that they had a difficult time hearing and understanding it. Especially in this passage, John shares with the synoptic writers the deep misunderstanding and the challenge of catching on that must have dominated the first followers of Jesus. We have noticed how Mark characterizes the disciples as little more than bumbling idiots at time. Mark is very hard on them. All one needs to do is listen to Jesus berate his disciples in Mark 8:14-21. Matthew and Luke seem to mitigate Mark’s emphasis but it is still there. John has characterized the first disciples in a more favorable light most of the time. However, we need to be reminded of the outcome of the discussion after the feeding of the 5000 – most left him and Jesus asks the “Twelve” if they too want to leave. They stay with deep difficulty – where else are they to go? All of this points to the probability that the first followers of Jesus were far more clueless than we might imagine during the ministry of Jesus. They could not understand. It was only the resurrection and some heartfelt contemplation of everything that had happened that opened their eyes to the reality that had almost slipped past them. Stories like Luke’s story of the two travelers on the road to Emmaus and the disciples in the upper room on Easter evening join together with a story that John will tell us of Thomas later in the gospel to probe the reality of just how difficult it was to grasp what Jesus was all about. The reality that emerges is that it would have been impossible were it not for the fact that God made himself known to them – they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. I suppose there was no way for those first followers to have known. It could only become knowable after the fact. That is what John is dealing with in passages like this one. It is no wonder that the same thing needed to be said in more than one way and more than once. If in fact, these too are “extra” words added to the scene, we can be thankful that they are available to us.