On the evening of Easter Day, the disciples are not radiant. They are not brave. They are not in the streets proclaiming good news. They are behind locked doors. That is where John wants us to find them: shut in, afraid, uncertain. The resurrection has already happened. Mary Magdalene has already said, “I have seen […]

Our many years of observing Palm Sunday with the waving of branches and shouts of hosanna have made us so familiar with the story that we have perhaps lost a sense of what is so odd about it. For the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is a strange story. We also forget that […]

I have a complicated relationship with the Gospel of John. The Jesus portrayed in this Gospel is my least favorite. He talks a lot, a whole lot. He goes on and on for pages and pages talking about himself, often repeating the same idea over and over again. And this always speaking Jesus doesn’t do […]