Thursday 30 May 2019
Acts 18:1-8. Psalm 97(98):1-4. John 16:16-20.
The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power – Psalm 97(98):1-4.
‘In a little while…’
I doubt the disciples felt reassured by Jesus’ response to their ponderings on what he meant ‘by a little while’. I can imagine that they may have thought, ‘Here he goes again, confusing us, talking vaguely about the future and what’s going to happen. Why can’t he just tell us?’ In teaching we have the term ‘scaffolding’; this refers to giving a child just enough help to find the answer themselves. Maybe this was what Jesus was doing for his followers. Had he told them exactly what was going to happen, chances are they would have tried to stop it, or change how it occurred, but that was not what he wanted. He wanted them to have enough understanding to find the answers for themselves when the time came. We can read the Gospels in this way – open to mystery and attentive to Jesus’ questions.
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