The Continual Crisis of 'Knowing'

"Last words" are always things that we look at with great curiosity. Sometimes you can the words are rehearsed or contrived, and other times they seem impromptu and spontaneous. It really doesn't matter though, we are still interested, are we not? When one is about to die, his mind is riveted on  "weighty" things. We sense that we might get an insight into that person if we know what was on his mind just before he died.

In the Bible, we have Jesus' parting thoughts and words to his disciples recorded for us to ponder. Interestingly enough, they are only recorded in John's gospel. On the night before Jesus died, he spent that whole evening with his best friends in the world, and what he said to them has to be of special interest to us. Doesn't it? Shouldn't we be interested to know what was the most urgent thing Jesus said before he went to the cross. He was about to place into the hands of his twelve apprentices his final words - his parting wish for those he had been closest to in the world. After three years of schooling this was the final lesson. This was the last chance to impart wisdom to his friends.

I don't know about you, but I think that might be rather significant. I want to know what was the most urgent thing on Jesus' mind as he was about to depart his friends. But, I hope you really don't think that I am going to tell you what it is, right here, do you? But if you come on Sunday, we will be looking at this weighty passage of Jesus for the next five weeks and we will see the last words and wishes of Jesus to his disciples.