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The lectionary gospel reading for Easter 6 in Year A is the next section of John 14.15–21. The split of the passage for the two Sundays is a little odd, in that last week’s was twice the length, and contained three massive issues to address! This week’s is much shorter and more straightforward.

(The lectionary epistle is the fascinating and puzzling 1 Peter 3.13–22. You can see the video discussion of it here and also linked at the end.)

The gospel text still has a slightly strange feeling to it, for the reasons I mentioned last week:

The whole discourse (which begins at John 13.31 and continues to the end of chapter 16) is dotted with apophthegms which are highly memorable—and often remembered out of context. (The etymology of the word ‘apophthegm’ is from the Greek verb meaning ‘to speak out, speak plainly’ which is significant in the context of the ‘farewell discourse’ where Jesus often appears to be speaking obliquely.)
There are often abrupt changes of subject and sharp contrasts, even from one sentence to another—in this section, moving from love, Jesus’ commandments, the giving of the Spirit, seeing and not seeing, and so on.
There is no obvious linear structure or progress in the discourse; instead, subjects are repeated, circled around, and returned to. In this section, we begin and end with love, and the material in the middle is implicitly but not explicitly connected to this frame.
Jesus’ comments are often obscure or ambiguous, and the disciples are baffled—something that happens throughout the gospel between Jesus and his dialogue partners.