PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
12 “I have
much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you
into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he
hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will
receive what he will make known to you. 15 All
that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive
from me what he will make known to you.”
16 Jesus
went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a
little while you will see me.”
17 At this,
some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a
little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will
see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18 They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’?
We don’t understand what he is saying.”
19 Jesus saw
that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one
another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more,
and then after a little while you will see me’? 20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the
world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 A woman giving birth to a child
has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the
anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22 So with you: Now is your time
of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take
away your joy. 23 In that day
you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give
you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until
now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and
your joy will be complete.
25 “Though I
have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use
this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my
name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves
you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and
entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
29 Then
Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of
speech. 30 Now we can see that
you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you
questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”
31 “Do you
now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A
time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your
own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is
with me.
33 “I have
told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will
have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:12-33, NIV)
REFLECTIONS:
By this point in the evening the disciples
must have been thoroughly befuddled. Not only had Jesus re-worked the words of
the Passover meal, not only had he washed their feet, but he was now giving
them such strange teachings. He was saying that it was God's will for him to go
away, and then send the Spirit to them, so that they could continue, without
his visible presence, the work that he had been doing.
To reassure them he explains that, even though they cannot
understand everything that he wants to say to them, the Spirit of truth will
come and guide them into all the truth (verses 12-13). This is one of the great
promises by which the church stands or falls. The church can only continue to
exist if it believes that the Spirit is present, leading us into the truth
while we struggle to hold onto the love of Jesus and his revelation of God's
glory. As verse 13 makes clear, it is the Spirit's task to make clear what he
hears from God, not to bring a fresh revelation himself. We glimpse a picture
here of the inner council of God—Father, Son and Spirit—joined together in true
harmony of will and love, and the Spirit emerging from that harmony to convey
to us the truth of God. All that the Father has belongs to Jesus, and all that
is to do with Jesus is now given to the Spirit. Those in whose hearts the
Spirit takes up residence have the awesome responsibility of learning from him
the truth of God. This should never make us arrogant. The truth of God comes to
us as a gift. We don't have to invent or discover mysterious things on our own.
The Spirit enlightens us and causes the truth of God's word to settle down into
our hearts. The process takes place as we learn to love one another, to live
the life of Christ in and for the world, with the Spirit indwelling us, all the
while surprising us with fresh vistas of God's truth.
From verse 16 onwards, Jesus returns to warning the
disciples. He has to go away: "In a little while you will see me no more,
and then after a little while you will see me." The disciples are
bewildered, and John, with another touch of comedy, reports the conversation
going to and fro like a ping-pong match. What does he mean by: "In a little
while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see
me"? What does he mean by "a little while"? What in the world is
he talking about? Jesus seems almost to tease their incomprehension: Is
this what you were discussing among yourselves? That I said, "a little
while and this…" and "a little while and that"? He then
makes one of the most profound statements in the whole of the farewell
discourses (verses 20-22): "Very truly I tell you, you will weep
and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn
to joy."
In verse 21 Jesus uses the image of a woman in the midst of
labor pains to describe what is about to come their way: "A woman giving birth to a
child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets
the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world."
The following verse goes to the very heart of Jesus' calling to his disciples,
then as now. Yes, there is sorrow, but Jesus has promised that beyond the
sorrow there is a fresh revelation of himself, his love, his glory. And with
that will go a joy that nobody can take away. On that day, as he says, they
can ask anything of the Father in his name, and he will give it to them
(verse 23). As we have seen, this is one of the repeated themes of the farewell
discourses. Through Jesus' achievement, defeating on the cross the ruler of the
world, the way is open for his followers—however humbly, however
inarticulately—to come before the Father with our requests, knowing that we
will be heard and answered. Jesus then challenges his disciples: "Until
now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and
your joy will be complete" (verse 24).
There are times when the church has taken this challenge
seriously. God has then surprised and astonished the church and the world by
what he has done through the prayers of his faithful people. Sometimes we'll
see our prayers answered in the way that we would like. Sometimes we have to
come to terms with God's gentle but firm denial of our requests, even when we
do not understand why. We tend too often, perhaps, to avoid the risk and
embarrassment of God saying "No," and do not even bother to ask. This
shows that we have not actually grasped the Trinitarian nature of Christian
prayer. As we see in Romans 8, so we see here: We are summoned to a way of life
in which God the Father forms the life of Christ in us through the Spirit.
Through the Spirit, the Father calls all of us, all his children, to pray;
because he has called for these prayers, he will listen and respond to them. As
we take part in that inner conversation between God and God—the conversation
that happens when we are suffering and rejoicing by turns and sometimes
simultaneously—we can be assured that our prayers are heard before the throne
of grace. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be complete.
Having assured his disciples of the joy and victory awaiting
them on the other side of suffering, Jesus now increases that assurance: because
they are his people, they are beloved by the Father (verse 27). What a
glorious promise! This is another theme that extends back to the Old Testament,
this time to the book of Deuteronomy, when God told the children of Israel
through Moses why he had chosen them. It was not because they were particularly
strong, or clever, or numerous. It was simply because the Lord loved them and
had a purpose through them for the world (see Deuteronomy 7:1-11).
And now Jesus tells them that the time is coming when he
will no longer use figures of speech, but will speak to them plainly. The
Father himself loves them, because they have believed that Jesus came from him.
In their response to Jesus they have been responding to God, even if they were
no more than dimly aware of that. And by that response, they are gathered into
the love of God. As Jesus contemplates leaving the world and returning
to the Father, he knows he has accomplished his mission. Through his presence,
through his life, and supremely through his death, the Father's glory has been
revealed. Those who have seen Jesus and have responded to him in faith
and hope and love have been caught up in to this great movement. They
in turn are now sent into the world by Jesus to accomplish the work he has set
them.
The disciples are clearly delighted to have Jesus speaking
in a more straightforward fashion (verse 29). "Now we can see that you
know all things" (verse 30). They have watched people quizzing Jesus and
putting hard questions to him in the Temple. They have watched the doctors of
the law trying to catch him out on tricky points and trying to trip him up with
their questions. And now they see that this was all unnecessary. There is a
level that leaves nitpicking and angry discourse behind. Thomas Aquinas, the
ancient saint and theologian, wrote the beautiful and challenging Summa Theologica, brilliantly explaining
the whole of Christianity, but, towards the end of his life, he received a
fresh vision of God, granted to him personally, that made everything else look
like so much straw. In a similar way, the disciples see that all their anxious
puzzling, trying to fit Jesus into existing categories, was beside the point.
Now they have a revelation of the life and glory of God that transcends such
questioning. Jesus has come from God to express his love; he is returning in triumph
to the Father, and leaving them with the Spirit to carry on the work.
Jesus does not, however, give them the impression that they
can now rest in this knowledge. On the contrary, if they do believe in him, that
belief is now going to be tested to the uttermost (verse 32). The hour
is coming—within a matter of minutes—when they will be scattered, each one to
his own home, and they will leave him alone. Jesus must accomplish his final
work alone. The disciples are caught in this tension between what Jesus
will work through them in the future, and the situation they face in the
present when they are about to be left behind for a few days by what God must
do through Jesus alone. And yet he will not be alone, because the
Father is with him. He is with him not just in the sense of
accompanying him, reassuring him, strengthening him as he goes to the cross,
but in the sense that the Father is expressing his own love
through him. What Jesus is about to do on the cross will be
incomprehensible to the disciples—and even more so to the world—but it is the
perfect expression of the Father's love.
Jesus finishes his great discourse with a final reassurance:
he
has told them all this so that they may have peace, despite the persecution and
tribulations that they will face. Again, we find the words of this
Gospel very similar to Paul at the end of Romans 8: despite nakedness, peril,
or sword, "in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). Here, in verse 33,
Jesus says: "In this world you will have trouble. But
take heart! I have overcome the world!" Yes! Yes! YES! What a
promise! In a sense, Jesus knows that the work has already been accomplished.
He will declare on the cross, "It is finished!" But here, in the
upper room, he sees the end from the beginning, and can tell the disciples that
he has overcome the world. Although the world will trouble them, although it
will throw all kinds of evil at them, yet they can be of good cheer. Jesus
has granted them peace.
PRAYER:
Help us, Lord Jesus, to hold onto your promise of joy on the
other side of sorrow. It's so easy for us to get bogged down in our
self-centeredness, especially when we are struggling and suffering and going
through times of pain. So, strengthen us by your grace to pray boldly and
faithfully in Jesus' name. Let us remember the truth of who our Father is—the
truth that he is always good, always faithful, and always abounding in love.
And, by the Spirit's empowerment, propel us into a life of faith, believing
always that our God is for us. And, despite the circumstances of our life, help
us always to remember that you have overcome the world!
I am Tres Sansom, and I am incredibly excited about my
sister and her family coming to visit. They live in Corona, California, and
they'll be staying around here for two weeks. Being that we only get to see
them once or twice a year, we are super excited about our time together! Here's a picture from a family photo shoot we did on Sunday morning.
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