It is amazing how quickly fear can wipe away even the strongest bonds of friendship! In this chapter, we see the serenity and love of Jesus juxtaposed to the fear and lies of Peter. We see the self-sacrificing light of Jesus against the self-preserving darkness of Peter. This chapter is a beautiful metaphor of the little choices that we must all make each day. Do I choose truth and stand for love? Or do I choose fear and grasp for what feels like security in the moment? Jesus reminds us, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). 

In John Chapter 13, we see a very intimate picture of Jesus’s relationship with his disciples, and also of the relationship of the disciples to each other. The chapter begins with Jesus washing their feet. Fr. Richard Rohr says, “Eagerness and readiness to love is the ultimate freedom and future,” in his book, Universal Christ.