Tuesday of Holy Week

Lectionary: 258

Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified,
"Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."
The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.
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?"

Today's gospel introduces a new phrase, "...the one whom Jesus loved." We've not heard it in all the twelve preceding chapters. Tradition calls him John, and says he was the youngest of the twelve, and the last to die, of old age rather than martyrdom. He is often portrayed in Last Supper scenes as beardless; apparently too young to have a beard. 

The Gospel stubbornly refuses to give the man a name, but we suspect he is that unnamed companion of Andrew. The two heard the Baptist's proclamation in the first chapter, "Behold the Lamb of God!" They followed Jesus and became his first disciples. We suppose he was the disciple with connections who followed the Lord with Peter into Herod's courtyard. We'll become more acquainted with him on Sunday and in chapter 21, the epilogue. 

We hear this mysterious phrase -- the one whom Jesus loved -- in the same paragraph about the traitor Judas. We know the Iscariot although the gospels only speculate about his motive. Was it greed? He kept the Lord's money and apparently managed the group's expenses. It made little sense that he would keep some for himself, as they surely had no bank accounts, secret or otherwise. Some people suppose he was trying to force the Lord to act by arranging his arrest. Others suppose he'd grown cynical about the Lord's promises and decided to drop out. If someone paid him as he went, that only sweetened the deal. In any case, we remember him as the traitor. Nor do the evangelist express any forgiveness for his crime. 

The gospels also say the other disciples were flabbergasted by Jesus's words. They had not suspected there might be a spy or a traitor in the group, and could not guess who it might be. Some, in their astonishment, wondered "Is it I?" -- a question we asked ourselves as we go with the Lord. 

There was one disciple who was not capable of betrayal, and received immediate reassurance when the Lord whispered to him, ""It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it." This disciple whom Jesus loved had been with the Lord through it all, from the beginning. He would be the first to believe in the Lord's resurrection, even as Peter gazed in bewilderment upon the empty tomb and neatly folded shroud. He would recognize the Lord before anyone else as they spotted him standing on the shore. And he would survive Peter, as the 21st chapter indicates. 

He was the author and inspiration of the Gospel, although another author finally spoke of him, "It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true." (John 21: 24) 

But who was he? Tradition calls him John, but I think that misses the point. The beloved disciple is you. You have known the Lord, and followed him with your life; and perhaps, all your life. You have loved him and grown in your fidelity to him. You always knew he was divine and would be raised from the dead. If you were confused about yourself, and asked, "Is it I?" you did not doubt the Lord. And when he was arrested you went with him. 

You are the one who stood with his mother and heard the Lord's dying wish; a word addressed very personally to you, "Behold your mother." And you heard and were both amazed and grateful when he spoke to her, "Behold your son." 

Of course you took her into your home. You cling to her as you cling to the Lord, and love her with equal affection. The woman who gave us the Body of the Lord lives in your home and your heart, where she is safe, even as she continues to speak of the Lord to you.