March 6: John 10–14

By Charlie Thomas

The words that come to mind as I think about reading John 10-14 this time through are: "misunderstanding" and "mystery." Jesus tells stories about thieves and shepherds that are designed to illuminate his ministry on earth, and no one has any idea what he’s talking about. Not much further in the reading, a group of Jews plan to stone Jesus for his teachings and he is so misunderstood that he has to leave town to escape arrest. After raising Lazarus, Jesus had to go so far as to retreat to the wilderness to avoid those who sought to kill him.

When Jesus comes into Jerusalem, the misunderstandings of his ministry continue; but Jesus’ rhetoric changes just slightly. We learn that many of Jesus’ lessons were not meant to be understood immediately. “His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.” (12:16) What looked at first to be misunderstandings were really mysteries: teachings that would make sense to when the time was right.

As I continue in this Lenten reading project, it is comforting to know that not everything needs to make sense to me right away. I’m sure to misunderstand things as I read through the New Testament, but I hope that some of my failures to understand might actually be confrontations of mysteries whose meaning will come to me when the time is right.