Truthfully, I struggle with the Season of Easter each year at this point. Often the last 4 Sundays are from the Gospel of John and they jump around from chapter to chapter without a lot of narrative connection. In my interpretation, those compiled the Revised Common Lectionary were trying to do one major thing by choosing these later Easter Season texts. They were trying to establish a hindsight perspective. So, every year we jump back to different portions of the Farewell Discourse (John’s foot washing/Last Supper scene) when we hear about the commandment to love one another (John 15:9-17 - which we’ll get in 2 weeks) or “I am the vine, and you are the branches” (John 15:1-8 - which we get next week). These texts, as you look back make you see the crucifixion and resurrection in a new light. Even Good Shepherd Sunday (this week) which makes us look at this even earlier text from chapter 10 through the lens of a Shepherd laying down his life for the sheep. But, reading these texts narrative order (from chapter 1 to the crucifixion), they have a more sinister tone. When we read the commandment to love on Maundy Thursday, it is with the knowledge that Jesus is about to be betrayed and killed. When we hear that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, we know that it is with religious leaders plotting to have him killed. Our anxiety is peaked. We know that Good Friday looms over it all. But when we read them in hindsight, it is through the glory of the resurrection. Easter has happened. The tomb is empty. Jesus is Risen! We are experiencing what the disciples on the sea experienced from last week’s (Luke 24:36b-48) when Jesus opened their mind to the scriptures. When we hear these words now, they are promise and filled with glory, not anxious anticipation. So, how does this inform how we preach this text that takes us back in time?