Word to the Wise
Thursday, May 21, 2020 - 6th Week of Easter - Thurs
[Acts 18:1-8 and John 16:16-20]"A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me." So some of his disciples said to one another, "What does this mean that he is saying to us, 'A little while and you will not see me, ad again a little while and you will see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" So they said, "What is this 'little while' of which he speaks? We do not know what he means." [John]
In this brief passage from the Farewell Discourse we find a major theme of the Gospel According to John, and a familiar dramatic device used by the evangelist throughout the gospel. That dramatic device is a kind of statement-misunderstanding/question-discourse that appears over and over again. The disciples hear Jesus speaking of "a little while" and do not realize that his death and resurrection will occur within a few hours!! The whole purpose of the Farewell Discourse (as the evangelist has designed it) is to prepare them for Jesus' moment of glorification, as we will soon see.
The major theme, an over-arching way of understanding the whole Gospel According to John, is what scripture scholars call the exitus/reditus theme. Jesus has come from the Father (exitus) and now he must return (reditus) to the Father to complete his mission and send the Holy Spirit to continue the broader mission of preaching the faith to the world. The "Prologue" to the Gospel According to John describes this in wonderfully majestic fashion: "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."
It would have been asking too much for the disciples to have this broad vision on that fateful evening and the days ahead. The Gospel According to John was composed 60 or more years after those events and shows the growing understanding of the church as to the significance of the life of Jesus and the role of the Holy Spirit. We have the benefit of 2000 years of reflection and we contribute to it by the way we proclaim and live the gospel message. AMEN