Heavenly Father thank you for your Holy Spirit that empowers us with courage and inspiration to be witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Title: “Spirit of Support”
Chapter fourteen begins Jesus’ long “farewell” discourse found only in John, spanning chapters 14-17. Jesus begins by assuring his disciples that his physical absence, caused by his death, will not be a permanent condition. He will return to them in two ways. He will return at the (unspecified) end- the end of the world and the end of their own time in the world, their own death- and he will return to them soon (also unspecified, but soon to be experienced on the evening of the resurrection) in the form of his Spirit. If he does not cease to be present with and to and in them, neither do his works, the works he was originally sent to do by his Father, cease. They will continue through his disciples because he will continue through them. The key to this “continuing,” what John calls “remaining” or “abiding” or “indwelling” is faith, insight, not physical vision.
In verse six, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” the grammar here is important. The “and” following “way” is epexegetical (explanatory). This means that the word that follows the “and” explains the word that preceded. Both “the truth” and “the life” explain “the way.” Jesus is the (earthly) way to the heavenly realities of truth and life. Jesus is the channel through which the Father’s life and truth come to humans, the sacrament of God, much as He is the “gate” (10:9), the means of access and progress into God. Jesus is not only a moral guide (the way to truth) but the only avenue to salvation (the way to life). The disciples follow Jesus by repeating his example of obedience even to death, which leads beyond death to true life, eternal life.
Verses seven to eleven: These verses are a commentary on verse six. They return to the notion of the Father as the goal of life and Jesus as the means to that goal.
In verse seven, “If you know me, then you will also know my Father,” This parallel runs throughout the Last Supper discourse. It shows up in “As the Father loves me, so I love you” (15:9) and “As the Father sent me, so I send you” (20:21). Jesus parallels his union with his Father with his union with his followers. Thus, to “know” Jesus, know him personally as opposed to merely knowing about him, is to also know God. Jesus did not study Greek metaphysics, nor did his disciples (although those ideas were “in the air”). He is being neither philosophical nor mystical in describing his union with his Father, valid as those approaches may be. He relates the union to his mission. Jesus is as Jesus does. He does his Father’s works. He is God’s agent, representative of the one who sent him. He is also God’s Son, and that deepens the legal relationship of agent and representative to a relationship of likeness of nature. That is as far as Jesus will go in explaining his union with the Father. He will leave it to later philosophers and theologians to spell out the metaphysical and mystical implications of that union.
Verse eight, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us, Philip, speaking on level one, the earthly level and with earthly vision, expresses an understandable wish- to physically see God. When Jesus’ opponents asked for this, “Show us a sign,” Jesus got angry at them. Such physical seeing does not produce faith. It only produces the need for more miracles, more proof. Here Jesus is not angry, but somewhat frustrated that he has been with his disciples so long and they do not yet (and the time is getting short) understand. The disciples have not failed completely to know Jesus, yet their questions indicate that they have a “way” to go. Jesus knows that physical vision of God will not be “enough” for them.
Verse nine, “whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” in religious language “sight” is a metaphor for “full knowledge,” personal knowledge, not merely intellectual. Not all who “see” the physical Jesus “see” into him and “see” the Father. Only faith provides that vision. Those who do, who see Jesus, see God. The whole life of Jesus- his words and his works- have been the revelation of the Father, the expression of the Father presence, power, activity and will for the world and the humans in it.
In verse ten, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” Jesus expresses this union from both perspectives because he will use it to express his personal and moral union with his disciples in the same way. He, then, is the vital link between a human and a divine uniting and indwelling and abiding and remaining. The Father on his side “does his works” in and through Jesus. Jesus on his side reveals the Father by those works (and words).
In verse eleven, “or else believe because of the works themselves,” if the disciples “look into” the works Jesus has done they will conclude they could only have been done by God. This is not a lower level of belief, only an easier route to the same belief. Jesus recognized that the works themselves, the signs, the miracle, do not produce faith on their own. But weak faith can be strengthened by them.
In verse twelve, “will do greater ones than these”: First, this refers to Jesus continuing to work through his disciples as the Father worked through Jesus. Jesus is primarily referring to works done by himself during his physical absence from earth through his Spirit living in his disciples, driving their works. “Greater” has the meaning of “even more revelatory, since you will not “see” me either visibly doing them.” This also means “greater” in the sense of “more extensive,” not better. The disciples will carry out and carry on the work of Jesus, which is also the Father’s work, and their words, those of the Father and Son, over the expanse of the entire planet and through the ages. It is, of course, still Jesus who is at work when they do these things. As Jesus acted on behalf of, in the name of, his Father, so they act on Jesus’ behalf, now that he has gone to his Father.
This next section begins and ends with a statement about loving Jesus and keeping his commandments (and occurs also in v. 23). In each instance there is a promise that a divine presence will come to those who meet this standard. In Verses fifteen to seventeen, it is the Spirit or Paraclete; in verses eighteen to twenty-one it is Jesus (and in verses twenty-three and twenty-four it is the Father along with Jesus. The three different terms all point to the same reality, divine presence, looked at from different vantage points.
In verse fifteen, “If you love me you will keep my commandments,”: “To believe in” Jesus is much more common in John than “to love” Jesus., but they amount to the same thing. Here, loving Jesus and “keeping,” that is, fulfilling his commandments amount to the same thing. “Love” identifies the attitude; “keep” identifies the action(s) which flow from it. “Love” (Greek agapate) is plural and means “have a positive will towards,” an invisible reality which becomes visible, enfleshed, takes form, in actions. Those actions are called here “commandments” since they are done out of obedience, as opposed to “good feeling” love. In John Jesus has but one “commandment: to love one another. When used in the plural it means all those actions, which flow from and are consistent with that fundamental attitude. God and Jesus, is complete in himself and autonomous. He has no real “needs” as such, but when a Christian acts in the best interests of others, he or she, in a sense, meets God’s needs. Thus, he or she can be said to “love God” or “love Jesus.” Of course, Christians also love God in an emotional sense, but that is not the point here. Keeping Jesus’ commandment(s) is the way the invisible reality of love become visible. Thus, they become signs, sacramental. The “commandments” of Jesus involve a whole way of life in loving union with Jesus; they are not just moral precepts.
In verse sixteen, the Father…will give you another Advocate to be with you always: The verb “to give” is often associated with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, so much so that “gift” of the Holy Spirit becomes a term for the Spirit himself, Acts 2:38; 8: 20. Jesus is the way to the Father, and also the revelation of the Father. When he is withdrawn, through his death, from the disciples’ sight, how will he continue to reveal, e.g., make the invisible God visible, God, being invisible himself now? The Holy Spirit is the answer. The divine presence will be felt spiritually, as really as physically. John does not stress the extraordinary manifestation of the Spirit’s presence, such as miracles, prophecy, tongues, etc. as does Paul in, say, 1Cor12. He does not exclude them, but he wants to say that the ordinary lives of Christians who put into practice the attitude of love is lived by and under the power of the divine presence now experienced as Spirit or Paraclete. The whole point is that the Spirit of Jesus performs the functions, does the work of, Jesus now, after he is no longer “in the flesh,” through his disciples. The Spirit is not a different divine reality, but a different experience of that same divine reality, God. The Father’s gift of his and Jesus’ Spirit overcomes the gap created by the absence of the physical Jesus. That Jesus-Spirit will now be located in the disciples instead of in an earthly body once inhabited by the Jesus-Spirit.
In verse seventeen, the Spirit of Truth: This explains the term used in verse sixteen, Advocate. In Greekk the term is Parakletos, “Paraclete.” It has a lot of meanings: advocate, counselor, intercessor, helper, consoler. Basically, it is a forensic term for what we would call a lawyer, one who stands by your side at a trial, John does see Jesus and the “world” on trial and defends you, pleads your cause, etc. John uses the term much more warmly than that and intends to include all of the above nuances in his meaning. For all of its importance the term appears only five times in John: here in 14: 16-17 and 26; 15: 26; 16: 7b-11, 13-15 (and once in 1Jn2: 1-2 for Jesus as intercessor). The term is another designation of and for the Holy Spirit who communicates truth and interprets for the present what Jesus said and taught in the past.
Which the world cannot accept: Humans can only be open to receiving the Spirit if they are in a right relationship with God, something the “world” is not. Thus, the “world” neither sees him by physical observation of his effects, since he is physically invisible as such. These effects, signs of his presence, are the works the loving keeping of Jesus’ commandments Jesus’ disciples do in his name. Nor can they know the Spirit of Truth, of Jesus, by any inward apprehension as Christians do, because they are on the outs with God.
Sermon
It is ironic that the Hebrew word for “faith” is based on a root meaning “firm, solid.” Faith seems to be the least “solid” reality in life, life lived on level one, at least. How ironic that it turns out to be so solid. If truth be told, the earth is not all that solid either. What seems to be “the earth beneath my feet,” to be so solid, is actually in a state of constant flux. Every atom in the universe really defines its “place” in terms of its relationship to other atoms, not the “space” it occupies. That “space” is quite fluid and constantly moving. How ironic, that faith is like that, too, only many people think the earth, or the atoms which make it up, is more solid simply because it appears so to there human eyes. In the final analysis and at rock bottom, the rules of earth, of level one, are not different from the rules of level two, heavenly reality. They only appear so, because of sin and its consequences- blindness to the truth, hardness to love and mercy, denial of justice.
Jesus is trying in his final discourse to sum up his teaching as well as say “good-bye.” He is going away but will not remain away. He will come back in two ways: 1) provisionally, through his Spirit; and 2) permanently, at His second coming, at the end of time. In the first way he will come back to them and us. In the second way, he will bring us back with him, that where He is eternally is where we also may be forever. In the meantime, the in-between time, he empowers us to keep both perspectives in our mind’s eye simultaneously. Throughout John Jesus has taught that this is a progressively acquired and perfected discipline. This dual perspective enables the disciple to interpret reality, here and now, as Jesus did when he was here. It also empowers the disciple to do as Jesus did now, in the disciple’s lifetime, as he did in his.
One of the major perspectives Jesus has granted to his disciples is the vision that things, which feel bad or appear bad, are not necessarily so. He uses his own death and departure from them as a case in point. They will be emotionally hurt, “troubled,” but they are not to let that emotion rule them, their attitudes or behavior. Keeping faith means first to keep the right perspective and the right one is always the eternal one. So, Jesus will come back. In the meantime they are not to lose heart or vision. That is not to say that emotions of grief are not appropriate or real. Even Jesus was “troubled” at the death of Lazarus and the tears of Mary, his friends. They are “real” for level one, a level all humans live on and in. But, they are not the only reality. Attitudes, eternal perspectives, can override or trump feelings without denying feelings or repressing them. Jesus tells them and us that God can turn bad things, things caused by evil and human cooperation with evil, into good outcomes if we let him, cooperate with him, “see” him present and active, “know” him, especially through his word. In the presence of negative emotions- grief, fear, apprehension of the future without a loved one- one can panic and forget or even deny the fuller truth. Thomas’s question about not knowing the goal and thus knowing the way to it even less is reminiscent of a child balking at a parental challenge “Why did not you do thus and so? I did not because I could not. I did not have a whatever or know how to whatever.” Thomas represents us all when we are unwilling to face the implications of being Christian. And Philip represents us all when we retreat to level one standards and challenge God to meet them to shore up our reluctance, to perform a miracle and prove by our standards and to our satisfaction that what God asks of us is worth the risk and effort.
Jesus is it. He is the way, the means, the channel, the conduit, the everything, to the goal and the goal is not a physical place or an emotional state. The goal is no less than God himself. Now, Jesus, our friend, brother, Lord and Savior, God himself in human form and flesh, wants so badly that we “fare well” in this life that he gives us this “farewell” message to contemplate. It is always revelatory and encouraging, but especially so when we must face death- ours and others, face departures and leave-takings of all sorts. There are so many things as well as people which we emotionally cherish, some rightly, others wrongly, so many people and things we are attached to, even addicted to, which we must take leave of, that these words of Jesus will help us with. We, too, must say “good-bye” to level one- one “leave” at a time. From way back in the Old Testament the thing that amazed people as they experienced life was that “God was or is with us.” People then and now experience creation’s various levels and wonder what, if anything, goes on inside animals and even plants. These are living creatures, as are we. Do they experience God as we do? They surely must if they are to be alive, but they clearly do not have anything like the personal relationship, interaction, and simple “being-with” God that humans do or can. Humans seem to be the only ones of God’s creatures that there are indeed levels of reality, that life is more than existence, that what we see with our eyes, feel with our hands, and hear with our ears, is not all there is. Even without faith in God, humans love, things and people, rightly or wrongly, with their hearts. At least, we use “heart” and many other words, in a more than physical sense, even though it is a sense organ.
Now Old Testamrn people expressed their more-than-physical experience of life by many wondrous statements. They used words like “Praise” or “Glory” or “Light” in an attempt, imperfect at best, to get at, describe, capture the moment, frame-freeze, and experiences of wonder. One of those wonders, perhaps the deepest and most expansive was the felt awareness that “God is with us.” They would, of course mean that in the sense of “for us,” “on our side,” “has our best interests at heart.’” But they would also mean it, at least some of them would, in the sense of God is somehow present to them, maybe not in the same physical way they were present to each other, but something loosely comparable. This was an experience, a felt phenomenon, long before it was expressed in words. Now that sort of presence, not only local but friendly presence, would seem to be quite enough, more than we as humans should rightly expect, a grace in and of itself. It would be more conscious than what the animals and maybe plants were aware of, but still not terribly different. God is friendly to us not hostile. That is, a lot to know and takes a lot off the collective human mind. Imagine if it were otherwise! However, Jesus tells us that that is not enough for God. He wants to be even more present than that. He wants to be within us, and not just as a little temple or tabernacle. He wants to mix with us, converse with us, interchange love with us. He also wants us to reciprocate. This is the deepest and fullest presence, almost unimaginable, almost unspeakable, certainly indescribable in human linguistic terms, although Jesus seems to have done an excellent job of finding all the right words. God wants, to use human words however inadequately, what holds him together and what makes him happy to hold us together as well. On the human level the word “love” says it; on the divine level the word “Spirit” says it. Different words, same reality, same truth. So, what does God do, after becoming one of us, or, as we humans would say, giving us his Son? He gives us his Spirit, really himself with all his love and life and light and glory. It is as if God could not wait until this creation has run its course, a course he intended from all time and eternity, before giving us “more.” He gives us his Spirit now. He prepared us for this with Jesus and now continues to give us himself well past death, in time but well past time. It is too much for us to put into words and too much to grasp. In truth it is we who are grasped by him. All the prepositions of any human language when put together- by, in, into, within, through, among, keep going- do not begin to capture the essence of the mutual indwelling of God with, another inadequate preposition, to us. Yet, no one has said it better than Jesus and the very contemplation of his words brings the reality home to us- that he makes his home in us and we in him! Jesus was not talking to mystics when he said these things; he was talking to you and me. Amen.
