Shadows lengthened into nighttime.

Different noises drifted up from the street than those one heard during the hours of labor. Lighter noises. Noises of play rather than work. Noises of release rather than bondage. Nighttime held its own special charm. It was a time not to think about tomorrow. A time for merriment and the shedding of burden and responsibility. A time for relaxation and the gentle inebriation that a cup of wine brings. Around our table, long after the meal had been consumed and the bread and the cup passed around, long after Jesus had washed our feet, he taught us more of what he desired of us in the days, months and years to follow.

Jesus turned to Peter and said, "Simon. Simon, Satan has singled you out to sift you as wheat. He must think you a great threat to him. But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And when you have overcome Satan's efforts to destroy you, help your brothers with the strength you have found."

Peter replied, "Lord, I am afraid. I do not fear the evil one, whatever his desires or intentions toward me. But you have said that we cannot come where you are going. That is what I fear. That is what we all fear. Where might that be? More than life itself I wish to go with you. Why do you exclude us? I am ready to go with you to prison or even to death."

"Where I am going, you cannot follow now, Simon, but you will most assuredly follow later."

Peter shook his head, indicating how unacceptable this seemed, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."

"Come, Simon, don't be so troubled," Jesus continued. "You've spent your life trusting God. And now, you must trust me. In a few hours I'll be with Him, and when I am, I will prepare a place for you, my friend. I will prepare a place for each of you. After all, surely you already know where I am going."

Thomas demurred, "Lord, we haven't the slightest notion of where you are going. How can you expect us to know how to get there?"

I understood, all too well, Thomas's question. Here was a man, as human as any of the rest of us, eating the same food, whose beard grew as quickly, whose body got dirty and needed bathing just as we all did, whose feet had calluses just as ours. When he talked of going somewhere, we were all used to his feet being on this earth. Was he going to the Far East, or to Rome, or to a deep part of Egypt? These were our questions. We were men with bodies of flesh. It wouldn't be until after he returned from death itself, and then shortly after rose to heaven, that much of what he'd said fell into place.

Jesus understood our shortsightedness and responded to Thomas: "You already know the way, Thomas. You know me. I am the way." Thomas said nothing, but the crease in his brow did not diminish. "I am also Truth and Life." Thomas's eyes squinted and shifted to one side as if getting ready to respond. Jesus continued, "I bring atonement for the evil of mankind. By this alone will men be reconciled to God.

"If the heart of a man seeks to know the Father, because of my blood, the Father will welcome him into his family."

"Your blood, Lord Jesus?"

"I have spoken to you of this before. The time has now come to drink."

Philip, more taken with the possibility of knowing the Father said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

"Philip!" spoke Jesus, "Look at me." Jesus fixed Philip with his gaze, "Don't you know me, Philip? Did you not hear when I said that you do know him and have seen him? All this even after I have been among you such a long time? He that has seen me has seen the Father. Don't you understand that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? These are not just empty words of my own. It is the Father living in me, speaking in me and doing his work. Think of the miracles you have seen. Ask yourself, do they confirm or deny what I am saying?"

This question is an invitation for cold logic. Jesus fed thousands from a basket of bread and fish. He opened the eyes of the blind. He cast out demonic creatures. He made the lame to walk. He raised the dead. He walked on water and calmed the rage of wind and sea. It does not take a Socrates or Aristotle to ascertain that no man could do these things were he not of God. And though we did not realize it then, his own resurrection from the dead sealed and confirmed his authenticity forever. Of all that he said or could have said about his credentials, this was the most compelling, the most irrefutable.

"Listen," he said forcibly, "Anyone who has faith in me will do even greater things than I have done because I am going to the Father."

How hard it was for us to comprehend, let alone believe such a truth. Was he referring to the miracles of which he spoke? It seems so. Could he be speaking of the spread of his influence through us? Doubtless the efforts of many would result in a greater distribution of the gospel than the efforts of one.

I have watched with my own eyes the miracles of Jesus. Yet throughout the years of my life, I have never made the lame to walk, opened the eyes of the blind or raised the dead--even having been an instrument of the Holy Spirit, who, unquestionably, has the power to do such things through me should he choose to do so. Such things happened through Peter and Paul, but in no way on the magnitude of Jesus.