Decoding the Gospel

By Steve Leininger

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 16:1-10
John 15:18-21

Throughout most of the liturgical year, our first reading comes from the Old Testament, and the gospel reading comes from one of the four gospels in the New Testament. During the Easter season, from Easter Sunday until Pentecost, the readings are changed up a bit. The first reading generally comes from the Acts of the Apostles, which chronologically follows the gospel reading, usually from John.
 
Today’s reading from the Gospel of John has Jesus giving a cautionary message to the apostles:
 
Jesus said to his disciples:
"If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
and I have chosen you out of the world,
the world hates you.
Remember the word I spoke to you,
'No slave is greater than his master.'
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
And they will do all these things to you on account of my name,
because they do not know the one who sent me."  [John 15:18-21]
 
A little decoding may be necessary here. It might be useful to know when and where this is taking place, and perhaps to know which disciples make up the audience.
 
I scrolled backwards through John’s gospel until I found a point that I felt most of us could identify with. Two chapters earlier, at the beginning of John 13, is the section titled “The Washing of the Disciples’ Feet.” HOLY THURSDAY!
 
Holy Thursday, indeed! I won’t dwell on the details of the feet washing, but this immediately preceded the Passover meal, which we now identify as the Last Supper.
 
All 4 of the gospels have Jesus saying something to the effect “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me” during the Last Supper. John’s record of the incident is more personal and perhaps startling than other gospels, going on to identify the traitor in their midst. Note that “the one whom Jesus loved” is how John refers to himself in his writings.
 
One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus’ side.
So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.
He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him, “Master, who is it?”
Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.” So he dipped the morsel and [took it and] handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot.
After he took the morsel, Satan entered him. So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
[Now] none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him.
Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or to give something to the poor.
So he took the morsel and left at once. And it was night. [John 13:23-30]
 
So, Judas has left the room and will not be seen again until we see him again arrive at Gethsemane.
 
What else happens before today’s gospel reading? While still at the Last Supper, Jesus issues a new commandment (love one another), predicts Peter’s three-time denial, and then delivers what the heading calls “Last Supper Discourses.”
 
Jesus starts with, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me” and concludes with, “If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.” The parts in between are various reassurances that “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”
 
Jesus continues by introducing the Advocate (we know it as the Holy Spirit).
 
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. [John 14:16-17]
 
I have finally caught up with today’s gospel reading. Here is what we know:
·       The reading takes place during the Last Supper
·       Judas Iscariot has been called out and left
·       Jesus has delivered the “good news” message “love one another”
·       The Advocate, or Holy Spirit, has been introduced
 
The reading, a continuation of the Last Supper Discourse, is a warning that as a disciple, you may be hated. Because you know that Jesus comes from the Father and keep his word, you are not of the world. In this context, the “world” is everyone else, the non-believers. The world will not be neutral on issues relating to Jesus but will persecute and hate you because of Jesus and his message.
 
The first reading today demonstrates that being of the world is not always a permanent condition. As is usual during the Easter season, the first reading comes from the Acts of the Apostles, which relates the activities of the apostles after the resurrection of Jesus.
 
We hear about the beginnings of Paul’s second of three missionary journeys and tell of his successes with Gentiles and his wide-ranging travels, spreading the word of Jesus, and setting up church communities throughout the Roman Empire. Maps of his journeys and the associated timelines show a lifetime devotion to spreading the good news.
 
Oh, wait. Was Paul always like that? No, quite to the contrary, Paul (called Saul at the time) was a horrific persecutor of the early followers of Christ. Following the stoning of St. Stephen (which Saul approved), “Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment.” [Acts 8:3]
 
You may recall that Acts 9 chronicles Saul’s conversion. He saw a vision of the risen Lord and Jesus asked “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul is struck blind. Three days later, the Lord called out to the disciple Ananias, instructing him to “Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites, and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name.”
 
The short version of the story is that Paul regains his sight, is baptized in Jesus’s name, and begins at once to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. Not trusted at first, he slowly became one of the major champions of Jesus and set up and supported churches all across the vast Roman empire.
 
Most of us today do not experience the level of persecution that the disciples did during the church’s early years. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus assured the 11 apostles remaining at the Last Supper that there is a great possibility that they will be persecuted in Jesus’ name, but don’t worry—he has their back.
 
We inherit that same assurance that if we follow the message of Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.   We are no longer of “the” world, but of HIS world.