A friend of mine had rewritten a familiar proverb and used it ominously. “Just remember,” he said, “things always look the darkest before the lights go out completely.” There was something of that threatening anticipation which always washed over us on this darkening night. We join Jesus and his disciples as dusk falls. They did not know it yet, but within hours the blackness would become very bleak. Jesus would be arrested, they would be scattered, and even Peter would deny and reject his relationship with their very best friend. This was a dark night indeed.

John had prepared us for this. The great transition in John’s portrait of Jesus happened between chapters 12 and 13. The first half of the gospel has rightly been called “the book of signs,” since it focused on seven specific miracles…