John's Story (38 page)

So
that
is who will be in the disciples. A spirit?

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.

“And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”

For the first time, after all the hours he had spent with Peter and the years he had spent studying the Scriptures, John Mark wished he could be a disciple of Jesus. Was He the Christ, the Messiah? Mark had no idea. But He spoke with such authority and depth.

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.

“These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.”

This Man knows the future? How long would it be before Mark could know for sure?

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

“A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.”

A little while? Mark felt lost, and he could tell by their looks that the disciples were too. Yet it was as if Jesus read their minds.

“Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said? Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. You now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.

“The time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”

Well, Mark decided, that couldn’t have been more clear. And apparently Peter agreed. He said, “See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech! Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God.”

Jesus said, “Do you now believe? Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

As Mark watched, transfixed, Jesus looked up and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

“I pray for these, My friends. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

Mark sat shivering, mesmerized by the puzzling, troubling statements of the Teacher. Mark realized that if this had been his own rabbi, holding forth on some teaching, he might have dozed. But the Teacher said such amazing things.

When Jesus finished praying, He said, “After we sing, I would that you would join me at the Mount of Olives.” He led the disciples in a hymn, the very one Mark and his mother had sung to finish their seder.

As Jesus and the remaining eleven made their way down the steps, Mark followed unnoticed and instructed the servants to finish tending to the upper room. He tiptoed past his mother’s quiet bedroom and crept into the night, after the group. A cold breeze was blowing, but Mark didn’t dare return home for his cloak, as he did not want to rouse his mother, nor did he want to lose sight of the men.

Jesus, clearly having announced Himself as Messiah, would be betrayed! Mark could not have been deterred from following the men even if his mother had risen and forbidden him. The frigid wind be cursed. The Mount of Olives was not far.