The whole chapter 21, the last one in the Gospel of the Apostle John, describes the encounter of the risen Christ with the apostles. The event took place in Galilee, and it was the third time that the apostles encountered the risen Christ. There were seven of the apostles present, among them were Peter and John. Jesus spoke above all with Peter. He asked Peter three times if he loved Him. In Greek, the word “love” is expressed by terms “agape” and “philia”. Agape is selfless love, the love of God towards us and the love which He wants us to show towards Him. Philia is human love – between parents and children, or love for the nation… Love between a man and a woman is expressed in Greek by the term “eros”. Unfortunately, the Germanic and Slavonic languages have only one term “love” for all these meanings. At the present time, when the world is flooded by a wave of sexual impurity and perversion, one needs to discern true values and to call them by their proper names. The term denoting selfless and self-sacrificing love is “agape”. The contrary of love is self-love, egoism.

“Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” Now a vessel full of sour wine was standing there;and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth.”

Jesus feels physical thirst caused by the loss of blood during the scourging and crucifixion. However, He also experiences spiritual thirst. He thirsts for the accomplishment of the work of redemption and love: “God so loved the world (you) that He gave His only begotten Son…” Jesus fervently desires to finish the work of salvation. But He also thirsts in you – He thirsts for your love, He desires you to be spiritually transformed, to be in spiritual union with Him. This is the way of following and the way of the cross. It requires daily self-denial in small matters.

Reflection: Where and when did Jesus say those words? He said them when He was dying on the cross, in the last hour of His life. Who did He speak to? He spoke to the disciple standing by the cross whom Jesus loved (with divine love – agape). The disciple also loved Jesus, and so he overcame fear of death and stood by the cross. The other disciples were overcome by fear and so they did not stand by the cross.

Jesus wants us too to be disciples standing by the cross and united by love to Jesus crucified. A disciple forsakes everything for the sake of Christ, even his fear of death, because he knows that Jesus conquered death. In reward for faithfulness in the following of Christ, which is a demonstration of practical love, Jesus gives eternal life.

Jesus “saw the disciple”, “said to the disciple” and “the disciple received” the last will, or testament, of Jesus. He received the mother of Jesus. He is an example to us. Let us be Jesus’ disciples. Let us receive the mother of Jesus too.

Jesus baptizes us with fire too so that this fire will burn up all dirt of moral impurity in us. If there are some impure images in our mind, let the fire burn it up. Our eye, the inner eye, must be clear. Everything must be brought to light. We need to repent time and again. We must call a lie a lie, evil evil, just as it is. This is repentance. God will then work. Do not seek help from psychoanalysts but come to Him who is the Physician of both the body and soul – to Jesus. He heals us wholly. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And when should you come to Him? Immediately when a speck of dust – e.g. an impure image – gets into your eye: Stop! Get out! Lord, let Your fire burn it up! This is a lie!

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Mt 6:24)

God gives us His Word. It is the lamp for our life paths. The light of God’s Word must be the norm for us. Here it says to us that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve God and mammon. What is mammon? We suppose it to be money but it is not just money. There are a lot of things which can become mammon. Mammon is all that we prefer to God whom we should love with all our heart. In other words, it is all that our heart clings to and we then serve it. We unite to it in our spirit, open ourselves to it and then we are no longer able to serve God.

Let us serve God. Yes, we are weak, but the Apostle Paul says: “When I am weak, then I am strong.” (2Cor 12:10) I keep falling but I must repent. Do not say: “Only when I become better, I will be a true Christian.” Let us come to God as we are, wretched and miserable. Jesus is waiting for us to give Him our weakness, our sin, because He wants to give us His forgiveness and peace. He wants to teach us through situations, through repentance, so that we may change our way of thinking.

What is love? It is no sentimentality. Love for Christ means to keep His commandments. It means to have a personal relationship with Christ, i.e. to be personally aware of the following truths: “You died for me. You love me. You suffered for me, You sweated blood in Gethsemane, You were scourged, crowned with thorns, covered with spittle and humiliated, You carried a cross, fell down, humbled among criminals and murderers as if You were one of them, like a beggar – You who worked miracles allowed to be humiliated and ridiculed for my sake. Finally, You were crucified at Calvary. I am ready, too, to suffer or even to lay down my life for Your sake.

Jesus tells us to put all our trust in God. He tells us to look at birds and lilies to see how God cares for them. We cannot make one hair white or black by our endeavour. We cannot add a single day, hour or second to our life by worrying or keeping our nose to the grindstone. When we will be dying, we will see if we were wise or unwise, but it will be too late then and we will have no more time to change it. So let us be wise today! In other words, let us rely on God, let us be mindful of eternal life. Our life is in God’s hands. Why should we worry?

These words are the conclusion of Jesus’ prayer for the unity of the disciples with Him as well as for unity with the Father and for the knowledge of God’s love and Christ’s presence in us.

Jesus says that He revealed to the disciples, and to no one else, the mystery of the name of God the Father, which is also the name of Jesus. The Father loves the Son from eternity. He gave Him His name, and Jesus reveals this name to those who are His. This name is Yehoshua – Lord is salvation – Jesus.

Jesus says to the apostles several times: “Do not be afraid!” The Scripture says in many places: “Do not be afraid!” When we are afraid, let us face the truth. And where to get the courage and strength? In prayer. In God’s presence. When you pray, do not talk to yourself, for such prayer will not give you strength. First realize: Where is Jesus? He is here and He is waiting for you. He is waiting for you to come into contact with Him, to give Him your sin and your problems. These two things. Your sin first and then your problems. We fail to do so. It is a very simple thing, but we not only need to know about it, we need to put it into practice. Practice! Then we will experience that Jesus is with us in every problem, we only need to be aware of it. We will experience that He gives us the strength, relieves us from our fear and makes us see things in a completely different light.

God’s almighty power is connected with obedience to the Word of God, as we can see it in the case of the prophet Elijah: I have done all these things at Your word. God sent him to the Brook Cherith, so he did go there; when God sent him to Zarephath, he did go to Zarephath; when God told him what to do on Mount Carmel, he said: Let this people know that I have done all these things at Your word! So the essence of the prophetic spirit is the obedience of faith and obedience to the Word of God. God wants us all to be prophets. He wants to speak through every one of us. We should learn, too, the obedience to God’s Word so that we may unite to the almighty power of God in a prayer of faith.

What does every nation need most? It needs the Spirit of prophecy, the Spirit of truth. It needs prophets. And who is to be a prophet? In chapter 14 of the Epistle to the Corinthians, we read clearly that we should earnestly pray for the gift of prophecy. All of us. And who is behind the gift of prophecy? The Holy Spirit. We confess in The Creed that the Holy Spirit worked through the prophets – through the prophet Elisha who followed the prophet Elijah and through other prophets of those times, but He worked most through John the Baptist who came before the first coming of Christ in the power of Elijah.

“Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. …behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!’” (Mt 17:1-5)

Three disciples, Peter, James and John, were witnesses of Jesus’ transfiguration on Mount Tabor in Galilee. The light of Jesus’ Divinity shone on them. It was a great experience for them. At the close of chapter 16, Jesus says: “Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” (Mt 16:28) On Mount Tabor, they saw a flash of Jesus’ glory.

You think to yourself: If I had a vision, my faith would deepen. But we can see what an impact that vision had on the apostles. After a few days these three disciples were on the Mount of Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed: “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Mt 26:39)

Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

These are the next words of Jesus’ prayer before He left the upper room where He instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

Jesus now speaks to His Father in heaven: “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me…” Who are they? The apostles and all who have believed in Christ and received Him.

“…that they may be with Me…” Where? Jesus lets us into a secret: “…where I am…”. And where is Jesus? When He was praying, He was physically present in Jerusalem, in the upper room, but through prayer He was in union with His Father. Now Jesus is in glory but at the same time He is mysteriously present in all who received Him. We can live this unity in prayer, realizing the deep truth of unity with Christ, which He speaks about and emphasizes in many places.

Jesus is the Judge. The Father has given all judgment to the Son. When He sits on the throne on the Day of Judgment, the sheep will stand on His right and the goats on His left. And the latter will go away to eternal damnation. He will separate the good from the evil. Wheat is mixed with tares on earth. God allows it and one can hardly separate it. We cannot remove evil from this world, because evil is in our hearts as well. The kingdoms or countries throughout history have always had their laws, courts and punishments which they applied to people who committed crimes; nevertheless, they will never be able to uproot evil completely, they can just reduce it so as to prevent total devastation. All people have a conscience, the voice of God, and understand what is good and what is bad.

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. The Son of God became man to deliver us from our sins: “You shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Mt 1:21) “There is born to you this day in the city of David the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” (Lk 2:11) Fallen man cannot save himself. After the first sin of our first parents we cannot open the heaven by ourselves. No teaching of self-redemption, as promoted by Hindus or Buddhists, no human methods can save anyone or deliver one from sins. Between us and God there is a great chasm. Fallen man is on one side and holy God on the other. No human efforts, good works, self-redemptive religions or meditations can bridge this chasm. The only bridge is the cross of Christ. By crossing over this bridge, a sinful man can unite to holy God. These are the simple truths of Christianity.

If Christ has not died for our sins, we all are going to hell. If there is no forgiveness of sins, Christianity is good for nothing. Christ did die for our sins! This is the main thing! The very first sermon of the Apostles was about this. This is the essence of the proclamation of the Gospel. The two sentences that were preached by all the Apostles: 1) He died for our sins, 2) He was raised from the dead and we are witnesses of this. Today this all is being denied masterfully! One can hardly believe that such is the state of the organization which still calls itself the Church.