Listen

When Judas was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Human One has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify the Human One in himself and will glorify him immediately. Little children, I’m with you for a little while longer. You will look for me—but, just as I told the Jewish leaders, I also tell you now — ‘Where I’m going, you can’t come.’”

John 13:31-33

Think

When I read this, my heart breaks. It’s the beginning of the end. Judas has left the building and the wheels are in motion – Jesus knows his time on earth is short, as do we. What comes next? He will be arrested and crucified. He will die and be buried. Jesus, what have we done? Can’t you stay with us a while longer? Please, don’t go.

And it all comes true. Jesus dies. Just like that, it’s over. “Where I’m going, you can’t come.” What must the disciples have felt? How do you feel?

Remember, what seems like the end is often just the beginning… What happens next? Jesus is raised from the dead, appears to his disciples, and proclaims eternal salvation – the Gospel as we know it! And the beginning of Christianity itself.

Alex Flannagan

Pray

Dear God, thank you for sending your Son.

We are blessed with your grace from before we are born, and your wisdom is far greater than all human minds combined.

Help me to walk my path with Jesus in my heart, knowing that he is the beginning and the end, life everlasting.

In your name I pray, amen.

Go

“There’s a season for everything… a time for planting and a time for uprooting what was planted… a time for tearing down and a time for building up, a time for crying and a time for laughing… ” (Ecclesiastes 3)

Practice faith. It helps us make it through the seasons.

And as the cycles pass, remember that each ending is, in its own way, the beginning of something new.

Blessings.