Well, this is it. It’s the end of the road for this summer’s Journey with John. Even John knows it and is tying up the loose ends of the story for us.

There’s the story about the giant catch of fish from Peter and other disciples who had gone back to their fishing day-jobs after Jesus’s death. There’s the story about Jesus cooking up some of the catch Peter and the others’ breakfast on the beach. There’s the conversation with Peter where Jesus asks him three times if he loves Jesus—a kind of re-do after Peter denied Jesus during the night of his trial. There’s the seeming prediction of Peter’s martyrdom. There’s the final question about the Beloved Disciple and their relationship with Jesus. There’s the statement that the Beloved Disciple is the one writing all of this down—and that the whole world cannot, could not, will not contain all the books that could be written about Jesus.

The Gospel of John, if you haven’t yet noticed, jumps around a lot in the story of Jesus’ life and ministry. Early in the Gospel, in 2:22, we learned that Jesus was going to rise from the dead. The stories that John shares in common with the other three Gospels are all out of order. AND there are a bunch of stories and teachings that are nowhere to be found in the other Gospels—Lazarus anyone? It’s a skippy, bumpy, curvy, up-and-over-the-mountains kind of journey. The kind I remember from my childhood days of road trips across the country (before some of the interstates were even built).

There’s one theme that draws through this whole chapter. It’s a theme that, in fact, runs through the whole Gospel of John. And it’s just two words: Follow me! “Follow me,” is the last thing Jesus says to Peter after hinting at Peter’s mode of martyrdom. “Follow me!” is the last thing Jesus says to Peter after Peter asks about a rumor that the Beloved Disciple would not die. “Follow me,” is what Jesus says as he meets the disciples in John 1:35–51. “Follow me,” is an invitation we hear throughout the Gospel as the stories and teachings wash over our lives, our faith, our perceptions of who we are as beloved ones in God’s creation. Note, though, that “Follow me” is not an invitation to literally do everything that Jesus did—after all, even the Gospel says that’s an impossible task, unless you are the embodied Word, Jesus.

“Follow me,” is an invitation to continue the journey through wilderness and plains, on stormy seas and smooth-sailing water, in our work, in our play, and in our rest. And when we accept that invitation, we are never alone on the journey. We are drawn into the new command to love one another. “Follow me!” The end of this road is only the beginning of our journey with Jesus.