The Expedience Of Jesus' Departure.

THE EXPEDIENCE OF JESUS’ DEPARTURE.

John 16:1-7.

In the previous chapter, Jesus did not hold back from His eleven remaining disciples the reality that they must face. They would face persecutions. Jesus has forewarned them, and us, so that we might be forearmed against such things, and need not be “offended” (literally, “scandalised”) by them (John 16:1).

It is a fact of our faith, that, ‘All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution’ (cf. 2 Timothy 3:12).

For the eleven this involved, literally, “Out of the synagogues will they put you” (John 16:2). Excommunication. Worse than this, the time would come when the person who killed them would think that he was doing a service to God.

This was the testimony of St. Paul, when he reflected upon his pre-conversion state as Saul of Tarsus. ‘I persecuted this Way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.’ Bearing letters from ‘the high priest’ and ‘all the estate of the elders,’ he ‘went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished’ (cf. Acts 22:4-5).

It is often ‘religious’ people who persecute those who find peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us why. “And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me” (John 16:3; cf. John 15:21).

The Greek rendering of the first sentence in John 16:4 is: “But these things have I said to you that when the hour may have come you (all) may remember that (it was) I that said them to you.” The emphasis falls upon the “I” who spoke these words, even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

In the second sentence of John 16:4, Jesus explains why He had not put so much stress upon persecution at the beginning of His ministry. It was because He was with them, teaching them the fundamentals of the faith. It would have been too early for them to stomach the full extent of the hard realities of which He was now forewarning them.

“But now I go my way to Him that sent Me” (John 16:5) embraces the whole timeline of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus adds a gentle reproof: “and none of you asketh Me, whither goest Thou?”

This is not to deny that Peter DID ask, ‘Whither goest Thou?’ back in John 13:36 – but this was more an exclamation of surprise that He was going at all, rather than a genuine inquiry as to the where and the how of Jesus’ going. The where is “back to Him that sent Me.” The how is via the Cross, the borrowed tomb, the Resurrection, and the Ascension.

We can hardly imagine how overwhelming the sorrow of the disciples was as they contemplated the departure of Jesus. “Sorrow” had “filled their heart” (John 16:6). Instead of asking Jesus more about His destination, and what He was going to be doing there, they became preoccupied with their sense of loss at His going. They ‘let their heart be troubled’ (cf. John 14:1; John 14:27b).

The underlying message of Jesus’ upper room discourse was one of encouragement (cf. John 14:1; John 16:33b). He was concerned that His imminent departure left them seemingly orphaned (cf. John 14:18). He had to remind them not to be borne down by overmuch sorrow (John 16:6).

So Jesus emphasised the expediency of His going away. If He did not go away, the Comforter would not come, but “if I depart I will send Him unto you” (John 16:7). Pentecost would usher in the beneficial service of the Age of the Holy Spirit, whose influence and operation would more than compensate for the departure of Jesus.