Five Chapters of John's Gospel examine a very short time interval at the end of Jesus' life, the time between His last supper with His disciples and His arrest. This long account is not found at all in the other Gospels.
It should be obvious to all who have read the four Gospels that John's is very different from the other three. The only major events of Jesus' life that they all share are His passion and death. Few sayings of Jesus found in John are in another Gospel; only a certain number of incidents.1
This is easy to understand if one assumes that the writer of John's Gospel had at least one of the others at hand when he wrote his, and avoided repeating what had already been said. He basically filled in what he felt were lacks and emphasized what he felt had been downplayed, like Jesus being God's Word.
His claim to have been one of Jesus' confidants would explain why he was able to report what Jesus said in private to Nicodemus2 as well as what He said in the presence of His disciples on the night He was betrayed. The other Gospel writers on the other hand basically reported events and utterings that took place publicly or gained notoriety during Jesus' lifetime.
Writing somewhat later, he was also more aware of the difficulties that Christian communities had come to face, which included internal bickering as well as an effective Jewish religious counter-attack. The hope of Jesus' quick and triumphant return had fizzled. Christians, as members of a Jewish sect denounced by the Jewish religious authorities everywhere, were looked with great suspicion by Roman officials who also noticed the subversive nature of their message.3
So our author, like many other Christian authors of the period, had to «rally the troops». One way to do that was to point out clearly that Jesus had indeed anticipated all these troubles and had given His disciples some ways to face them. He thus decided to provide his readers with what Jesus had told His disciples about these persecutions,4 something that the previous Gospel authors had not insisted upon as they did not foresee its need.5
I want to emphasize here that I assume that the accounts given by the author of John's Gospel are accurate and trustworhty on all points of importance to a Christian, just like those of the three other Gospel writers. If this is not true, the Gospels are totally useless as there is no way to know which statements are true and which are false, except one's whims and hunches, which is not a very serious way of doing things, at least for me.
I believe that what Jesus did and said that evening was of great importance to our author who would thus have taken great pain to be as honest and faithful as possible. I thus believe that his text is sufficiently accurate to lend itself to be studied in detail. The problem here is: either a detailed textual analysis is worthwhile, or it is not. If the text is not faithful to what Jesus said and did, such an analysis is definitely not and theologians are wasting their time, and I as well. Furthermore, as they are being paid for what turns out to be a useless scholarly pursuit, they also are wasting someone's money - something that I at least am not guilty of as I am not paid for this!
Let me put this another way. The writer of this Gospel states in his prologue that Jesus is God-made-man. You do not start fooling around with God's pronouncements if you are a pious Jew: God's word is much to precious for that! It takes the arrogance and lack of piety of our biblical experts to scorn the fidelity of the Gospel writers to Jesus' words and actions; not that I claim that their reports are verbatim reports, just that they are accurate expressions of Jesus' words and actions.
The fact that the author of John's Gospel was present that evening, did not want to repeat what had already been said by others as long as it was accurate, and wanted to better prepare his readers to face the dangers of being Christians, explains why his account of the Last Supper and Jesus' talks following it is so very different from that of his fellow Gospel writers. His need to report in detail something that had happened in private and thus had been unreported by the other Gospel writers forces him to devote to it a huge part of his work. Indeed, his description of these events which lasted only a few hours takes five of his Gospel's twenty-one Chapters (13 to 17). This comes to roughly 3800 words, or about 19% of the Gospel's roughly 20000 words in the King James' Version.
His account is in two very unequal parts. The first one, which is mostly about Jesus' washing His disciples' feet, is only about 700 words long while the second part takes about 3100 words or 15.5% of those of the whole Gospel. The length of this second part, an account of Jesus' talks and prayer following the Last Supper and lasting at most a couple of hours, can be compared with that of Jesus' arrest, trial, crucifixion and death, found in his Chapters 18 and 19. The latter account makes up about 2000 words or about 10% of his Gospel's words while describing events lasting roughly a day. The account of the Risen Jesus, found in his Chapters 20 and 21, makes up about 1500 words or about 7.5% of his Gospel's words.
Jesus' last talks and prayer to God Father are addressed to and heard by a close group of His followers. They are there to reassure, encourage His disciples facing an hostile external world as well as internal feuding. I believe that this Gospel's writer saw the content of these two talks and prayer as Jesus' «last will and testament», His «last wishes», His last encouragement before sending them on their mission and the key to understanding the events of the next few days.
Jesus' first talk to His disciples, the second half of Chapter 13 and the whole of Chapter 14, is rather short at under 1000 words. It starts after the meal and Judas' departure. Jesus is then all alone with His faithful disciples.
In it Jesus is interrupted by four questions, each asked by a different disciple (Peter, Thomas, Philip and Judas) and ends with Jesus telling His disciples that it is time to leave: «Arise, let us go hence.».6 For this reason, I call this first talk «Jesus' Last Talk at Table». The dialogue between Jesus and the disciples plays a major rôle in its structure. Each question forces Jesus to go back on a point He has already made, from which He then goes forward. The psychology of these exchanges is very credible. It definitely shows how Jesus managed to alleviate His disciples' fears and insecurities.
Jesus' second talk and His prayer are much longer at 2100 words. The second talk itself constitutes Chapters 15 and 16 and the prayer, Chapter 17. Each is very different in style.
In the second talk, Jesus is talking to His disciples and is interrupted twice, first by the disciples murmuring between themselves and then later by their affirmation of understanding. The first interruption forces Jesus to come back on a point He had already made while the second permits Him to move forward to the next phase of His predictions. This talk is essentially based on two analogies, one about a vine, its fruit and its farmer, the second, about a woman giving birth. It thus uses the allegorical method of teaching so dear to Jesus. As this talk is said to have taken place after Jesus' departure from the hall where He and His disciples ate, I assume that it was said on the road. That would explain why it is much more bitsy than the first. I have entitled it «Jesus' Talk on the Walk».
Thirdly, in Chapter 17, Jesus is talking (praying) to His Father rather than to His disciples. They do not interrupt Him. It is a prayer meant to be heard by the disciples, as it concerns their new mission. It makes psychological sense as the disciple's at the end of the previous talk made a deliberate and unequivocal act of faith in Jesus.
This prayer is immediately followed by: «When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.»7 It could imply that Jesus and His disciples were by now close to this brook, and had only a few steps to go over it and get in the garden. I will thus entitle this prayer as «Jesus' Prayer by the Cedron». Of course, these titles do not matter in the least and so I feel no need to try to justify them further. They are just a convenient way to note the definite division of that part of the Gospel in three separate sections.
So I will examine separately Jesus' two Maundy Thursday talks to His disciples as well as His prayer for them to His Father, but first a few words on the beginning of John's Chapter 13, as these talks are part and parcel of that fateful evening.
The talks I will analyze in the following Chapters take as their starting point something Jesus did and said after the meal He had that night with His disciples: His washing of His disciples' feet. And the author introduces this event by a few rather important remarks, remarks that surely give us a good idea of how he saw what was coming. And so it seems to me important to start by looking into these.
The author of John’s Gospel starts his account of Jesus’ last evening on earth with this verse: «Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.»8 We find here two very important themes: first, death is nothing but leaving this world for the actual presence of God Father; second, Jesus will show His love for His disciples to the very end of His life on earth. Now the time Jesus will be physically with His disciples is only from now to when He is taken away after His arrest.
This is followed by: «And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;»9 which tells us first that Jesus and His disciples had finished their supper and that Judas had already made up his mind to betray Jesus.
The next verse takes up the first point of the first verse and adds to it: «Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;».10 Here, not only is death seen as a passage from this life to God, but is, in Jesus’ case, a returning to God, which implies that He preexisted His earthly life, which is not the case for the rest of us.
There is more, as the author adds that all the events that will follow that night and the next day will happen while «the Father had given all things into his hands» and so, while He has absolute power. The author here feels the need to point out unequivocally that the events that will follow, both that evening and the next day, are done by or to a man Whose power is boundless and thus, Who could have altered their course. It follows that all what happened in that time frame was freely accepted by Jesus.
So what does this Jesus do? «He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.»11 So there is the Master of the Universe washing His disciples’ dirty feet! Simon Peter objects to Jesus washing his feet. They both argue about it, but in the end Peter submits himself to Jesus' will.12
This is followed by: «So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?»13 Jesus is now going to explain what this was all about. He could have done so as soon as Peter objected, but He wanted his obedience before his understanding. We must be ready to trust Jesus’ good judgment before ours; we must admit that He knows better than us.
So what is His rationale for His action? He says: «Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.»14 Jesus insists that He wants His disciples to do to each other just like He did to them, that they are to follow His exemple if He is indeed their «Lord and Master». We have here an instance of what the author referred to in his first verse: «he loved them unto the end». For Jesus, love is something concrete, down to earth, practical, like washing someone’s dirty feet so she feels better.
Jesus then defines a chain of command: « Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.»15 This chain shows clearly that He takes His orders from God Father just like they do from Him. The next verse is the climax of this section: «If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.»16 Those who actually put this commandment of caring in practical terms for others are blessed. This basic theme is one of those that will come back in Jesus’ talks.
The reason why I mention these verses is that not only are they at the root of what Jesus will say later but that He considered this issue of service to others so important that He actually took the time to show in practice what He meant. He did not just use a parabole, He practiced what He wanted to show and teach.
1 like a common mention of John the
Baptist's ministry, of Jesus' altercation with the Temple merchants
and His cursing of a fig tree, which happened at the beginning
of Jesus' ministry.
2 John 3:1-21. All quotes are from the King James Version
of the Bible.
3 The point that Jesus' message
is subversive is made in detail in my essay «Life, Love and Law».
4 I am assuming that the Gospel
writers were all honest and truthful, something again
argued in my essay «Christians and Scripture». There is no point
in being a Christian if they were not.
5 Of course, this only
makes sense if the three first Gospels were
written in the mid to late 30s as I tried to argue
in the already quoted book. John's would have
written his in the early or mid 40s. These dates
are much earlier than those accepted by today's scholars.
6 John 14:31. Jesus' words are
in red throughout
as is custom in Protestant Bibles.
7 John 18:1
8 John 13:1
9 John 13:2
10 John 13:3
11 John 13:4-5
12 John 13:6-11
13 John 13:12
14 John 13:13-15
15 John 13:16
16 John 13:17