I often advocate for preaching the narrative of the Gospel. Where are we in the specific Gospel? What might this section mean in relation to the beginning of Gospel and where we’re heading? Looking at the narrative of the story itself and see how it applies to the larger themes of the Gospel. In Lent, this was really easy: Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the man born blind, the raising of Lazarus. All of these are big narrative stories that produce so much thematic relevance to the Gospel. But the tricky portion of the next three weeks is that it is the same context for each. All three are a part of the Farewell Discourse and worse yet, we just went through Maundy Thursday only a few weeks ago. But this happens every year around the 5th or 6th week after Easter. The Gospel hurls us back. 5 weeks after Easter, even though we’ve already walked through the whole passion story. We heard it all, from the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, to the table and foot washing, to the Cross, to the empty tomb. And yet we are transported back to Maundy Thursday to hear these words from Jesus all over again. Why? In many ways, I think the reason is illuminated by the prospect of what the disciples were doing in those days after Easter. For them, as they sit together in the upper room, hiding, and talking wouldn’t they try to remember all the words he told them? Trying to make sense of all that he had said and all that had happened. And as he begins to appear to them after the resurrection it begins to click. In John chapter 12, right after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, the Gospel author writes, “16His 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.” They did not understand these things at first. But after it all happened. Then they remembered. It’s hindsight. The Gospel of John is always pointing toward the cross and the resurrection as a sign of revelation. Just look at John 3:16-17 as a perfect example. The cross is always in the picture, and it will illuminate everything. Because of this (especially after Easter when we just went through this) we can’t preach on this text like it’s Maundy Thursday and the cross and resurrection haven’t happened. And so instead, we need to preach to the season and to the Gospel of John. So, we ask ourselves, what is illuminated in this text by the cross and resurrection?