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 bee…