The hours were passing rapidly. Time was running out. Jesus was trying to get everything in before the end of his ministry. He had so much to say, and yet, he was aware of the fact that the disciples were just not ready to take it all in.

Up to this point, they were struggling just to understand what he had been trying to tell them. They were still stumbling over the meaning of the parables, attempting to put some flesh on stories that seemed to be like a gossamer cloth spun with gold thread, yet impossible to grasp even when they had their hands on it.

They were constantly bickering with each other, trying to get a more prominent place in the order of things, a little like first graders lining up at the water fountain at school. For twelve grown men, you'd think that they would have been more sophisticated, but we have to remember that these were commoners, men of passions, used to living lives of intensity on fishing boats, on farms, in workshops, and in tax offices. They were the blue-collar workers of their time, skilled and yet not educated, used to the basics, not interested in what the future might hold because they found life difficult enough in the present.

In other words, the disciples were like you and me. Our educational levels might be different, our cultural experiences might lead us to believe that we "know" more, but when it comes down to living day to day, we are not so far apart. Jesus was trying to talk to a group of people who could be sitting in this room at this very moment right alongside of us.

Jesus wanted to speak to his disciples in a clear and direct manner. But how could he expect them to hear all that they needed to hear with so little time left? The more he spoke about the future, the more fear and anxiety filled their minds and faces.

Did you ever notice how it gets harder to hear when someone is telling you something you do not want to hear? Like when the doctor comes in with test results that you have been dreading. Or when your boss calls you in to tell you about some restructuring that is going to have to take place. Or when the principal asks for a special conference about the report card that is about to be distributed. You would think that would be the time when you could focus in and increase your ability to listen. Instead, we tend to get fuzzier and more confused. I have a feeling that is what Jesus could see in the disciples' faces as they listened around the table in that upper room.

Jesus, at this moment, aware of the chaos they will soon be thrust into, offers something new, something entirely different, something that would ease the confusion and soothe the furrowed brows of the disciples.