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But this is where mankind is in a difficult position; the
disciples had grown accustomed to a physical proximity to Christ (the source of
love). And now, due the fulfillment of
His mission, there was going to be physical distance between Him and them,
between Him and us. His mission once
fulfilled, there would be time between His first appearing and His second. We were to be separated once again, at least
by His physical proximity, by a physical distance we are unable to
transcend. And separation would be
painful for us and for Him. Anxiety
would be natural in this circumstance.
Like those players on the show Survivor who know that family waits for
them, and loves them, and misses them – each day of physical separation is
difficult to endure. The reality of that
knowledge is not quite the same as the reality of their presence. That feeling is amplified many fold when it
is applied to us and to God.
John continues to relay the communion Christ was having with
His disciples on that final night before all the ferocity of the hate of the
world would be levied upon Him. Christ
was aware of the great sadness His followers would experience when He was taken
from their view. And so again, thinking
nothing of His own comfort, and everything about theirs, even only moments
before the pain He would endure; He offers His followers hope in the most
hopeless of situations. John records in
chapter 16 of his gospel, beginning in verse 5 … “But now I go my way to him
that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? [verse 6] But
because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.” The reality of separation was near at hand,
the anxiety and sadness that would accompany that reality was there as
well. The hopes of the disciples that an
earthly anti-Roman kingdom was about to be established were crashing around
their ears. Jesus had never been
wrong. And everything He was saying ran
counter to the idea that the Romans were about to be toast. They were moving at night, alone, with no
throngs of admirers, and the idea that Christ would be taken from them was not
an appealing one.
Yet even with the impending doom of our separation,
something was going to be different this time, than when in the garden Adam and
Eve would leave their home and no longer enjoy the daily company of God walking
with them in the evenings. This time
when Christ left, a new phenomenon was going to occur. Jesus continued in verse 7 … “Nevertheless I
tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him
unto you.” While Christ was physically
with them, and bound in the constraints of His humanity, He could only be with
those who were in His immediate presence.
But God is more than what our human constructs can bind. When He returned to the side of His Father,
another part of God would be sent to “Comfort” them. The Comforter would not be bound by human
constructs forcing Him to localize in only one place at a time, or with one
believer at a time. The Comforter would
be omni-present, able to be with each of us, no matter where we were in the
world, at the same time, all the time.
This ability of God, Christ makes reference Himself as “expedient” for
us. It is more practical, and will be
needed more by us, in the time of our physical separation.
Jesus continues in verse 8 … “And when he is come, he will
reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: [verse 9] Of
sin, because they believe not on me; [verse 10] Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father, and ye see me no more; [verse 11] Of judgment, because the prince
of this world is judged.” Here Jesus
outlines the primary work and mission of the Holy Spirit. Remember in earlier verses Jesus had said
that the Holy Spirit would testify of Him.
Here he captures three significant concepts that are worth a second
look. First, the Holy Spirit or
Comforter (remember it is the name Comforter Christ uses in the context of this
discussion), will “reprove” the world.
The term reprove might find synonyms in this context, with other words
like “correct”, “aid in understanding”, “reveal”, or “identify” to the
world. Notice too, the world is bigger
than just those who do not believe, it also includes those who do. With respect to that, the first task our
Comforter takes on relates to sin. Our
sin is identified when we do not believe on Christ. When we cut off the source of our forgiveness
because we refuse to believe in Him, we are left with our sin and no recourse
for its pardon. But our lack of belief
has worse consequences; when we refuse to believe in Christ, trusting instead
to ourselves, and our own ideas about the removal of sin, we cut ourselves off
from the only source who can change our nature, and remove the sin from our
desires as well as our actions. When we
do not look at Christ for perfection, we simply do not find perfection at all. Thus, even when we believe in His
forgiveness, we are left struggling with our sins, because we refuse to believe
in His ability to perfect us, and save us – from us.
The second task of the Comforter (noting again that the work
of a comforter is not supposed to be “bad” or upsetting news to us, but instead
something to anticipate or desire) – is the reproval of righteousness because
Christ is physically with His Father and we will see Him no more until He
returns. The eternal end to sin itself
can come only in one way, through absolute trust in God, and NOT in
ourselves. We who have never seen Him
face to face, are given the choice to believe in spite of our lack of “facts”
and surety of scientific evidence of His existence. We are given the choice to believe in His
promises, recorded in His word, without benefit of absolute proof they are
true. We trust anyway. We believe anyway. Because our belief or lack of belief is a
choice we make. Our righteousness then,
can only come when our belief allows Him to remake us, from the sinful
creatures we are today, into the creations He intended that love without limit,
and serve for the infinite joy that is found in service to others. That definition of righteousness happens when
we choose to believe in what we cannot see, what we cannot prove, what we
cannot scientifically be assured is absolutely true beyond doubt. And this belief and trust in God, is what
will keep us from ever finding sin again throughout the eons of time in
eternity. There will be no “second Satan”
because the lesson of evil has taught us to rely not on our wisdom, but on His.
The third task of our Comforter is the reproval of
“Judgment” itself. Our trial is
over. Our verdict was guilty. Our sentence was passed. And Our Advocate told the Judge that HE would
take on our punishment in order that WE might be spared. And so the “threat” of our judgment is over,
done, and no longer hanging over our heads.
Instead, only hope remains for us.
Salvation, forgiveness, and redemption through the sacrifice of our
Advocate on our behalf, means the trial has no more meaning to us. We are past it. The “great day of judgment” has already been
revealed where we are concerned. We are
guilty, there is no escaping that, but our punishment we will escape, because
our Judge took it on Himself in order to spare us. Those who fear standing before God, in a
trial of weighing all of the “good deeds” they have done in their lives against
all of the “bad deeds” they are decidedly guilty of, have missed the point
entirely. Our “good” will never outweigh
our evil. For one thing, any good that
ever came from us, came through us as we submitted our will to Christ. Therefore it is not “our” good in the first
place. Second, our evil is as much a
part of us as is our DNA, unless again we submit ourselves, including our
decisions, our desires, even our thinking back to Christ in order to be remade. When we are remade it is not evil that is
natural to us, but repugnant to us, and only love is what we seek. In this, our Comforter actually brings us
comfort. We need not fear a judgment
that is already past, done, and over.
Instead we can accept His gift, of transformation and the removal of
pain and death from our lives and existence.
It is a profound mystery to me, that Christians believe it
to be their job to “judge the world” and “judge others” and “judge sin” when
they have never been given this task to perform. Even our Comforter comes to “correct” our
ideas on these topics, and offer us hope through Jesus Christ. He does not condemn us, as it is evil that
has been judged, and salvation that is found in Jesus Christ. Jesus does not constrict His offer of
salvation only to men, or the young, or the healthy, or the perfect, or those
who are straight or gay, or have abstained from adultery or addiction. The condition we find ourselves in prior to
accepting His salvation is ALWAYS one of self-inflicted pain. This is the very condition He longs to free
us from. Our lives AFTER we allow Him to
transform us will be different, and will find us more fulfilled, with different
wants, needs, and attitude on what it means to love and serve. It has never been the job of the Christian to
judge, it has always only been the “job” of the Christian to love. And when we are transformed, it is no “job”
to love, and no “commandment” to love, instead His love is “who” we are, it is
then natural for us to love.
Again what Jesus is offering His disciples, what is in fact
expedient for them and us, is this Comforter, who does these 3 tasks, and
enlightens our world through them. He
brings us Comfort through these tasks, not condemnation, reproach, or
doom. The point of His work, is to
provide us Comfort and in these areas we should see the hope He brings. Jesus assesses the situation and continues in
verse 12 … “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them
now.” Already the anxiety of losing
their Lord was setting in. They were
unprepared to hear any more news that was not happy in nature. Like we are today, we get mired in the
reality of our day-to-day, and it is hard for us to see the bigger picture
because we define our lives by the here and the now. But the words Christ wished to communicate
would be delivered.
Jesus continues in verse 13 … “Howbeit when he, the Spirit
of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of
himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew
you things to come.” Here we go
again. When God, the Spirit of Truth,
the Holy Spirit is come to us, he does NOT speak of Himself. He is here to serve our needs, see to our
comfort, and educate us into “all” truth.
God is always serving others, in this case, His creations. He never seems to serve Himself. The mission of the Holy Spirit is not to
educate us on who He is right now, but instead on who Christ is. He passes on to us the things He hears in
heaven, the messages Christ wanted to communicate with us, but we were unable
to bear. It takes time to build trust
with anyone. If in the first encounter
with God, Abraham had been asked to kill his only son, he would likely have
declined. It takes great trust to act
against our own interests, logic, wisdom, and feelings, and do what God asks us
to do. This is not something we do overnight,
but it becomes something we do over a lifetime, as we yield ourselves to
Him. When we first encounter God, we may
not be willing to let go of our most cherished sin, but over time with Him, we
realize the sin we cherish, is the sin that is destroying us and causing us the
most pain in the here and now. When once
we may not have been able to bear the news that we would be losing that most
cherished sin, we come to the point where we long to be free of it, and then
mystified that it was ever a part of our desire and lives in the first
place. This too is the work of the Holy
Spirit on each of us, unique to each of us.
Jesus continues in verse 14 … “He shall glorify me: for he
shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. [verse 15] All things that
the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and
shall shew it unto you.” Here is the
union of the Godhead presented in the continuing mission to save us from the
evil we embrace. The Holy Spirit does
NOT glorify Himself, instead only glorifying Christ. Indeed the acts of love the Holy Spirit
performs for us, are on behalf of Christ, and at the will of the Father. We all belong to the Father, and He shares us
all with His son. Notice that the Father
holds nothing back from His son. He
retains no ownership of even His most precious treasures, us, from the Son
which He loves so much. He holds no acts
of love back from us, the objects of His so great love. For God does not value ownership and
possession, He values service and gifts and acts of love He is able to perform
for us, and for all the creations He made and loves. Those truths we still need to hear from
Christ, are delivered to us through the mechanism of His co-partner in our
redemption, the Holy Spirit.
Jesus then must tell them what is to come (once again), but
He is no longer able to be so direct.
Instead He elects to speak more in the context of a proverb, to some
extent a riddle, or saying, that carries meaning, but is not quite as
blunt. It would give His followers time
to process what He was saying, and a memory of when He said it. Its full meaning would become clear later,
while the timing of what He said would carry more weight because of when He
said it. Note that John is recording all
these words of communion with Christ between the time of the Last Supper and
the time of His final betrayal in the Garden they were likely already
within. Jesus now tells them in verse 16
… “A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye
shall see me, because I go to the Father.”
With the benefit of hindsight, we know Christ was referring to His
impending death, when in just a little while they would not see Him. Then after His resurrection they would seem
him again. Then He would go to His Father. One might also surmise He meant that His time
with them on earth was to be short, but it would only be a little while of
separation before they would spend eternity with Him in Heaven with His Father. But the use of this phrasing was by intent,
to offer them and us something to ponder.
In verses 17 to 19, the disciples try to determine what He
means, but cannot and need Him to help them out a bit more. So Jesus elects to use the analogy of a pregnancy. Labor is hard, difficult, painful, but what it
results in, is so joyful, that the memory of the pain quickly fades for the joy
of what has been born. Our separation
from Christ is hard, difficult, and painful.
Our process for salvation may appear that way to us as well at first, as
we cling to the notions of accomplishing it ourselves. But what is born within us brings us great
joy. The things the world rejoices in,
we will find, cause us sorrow. But our
sorrow will be short lived, as what God does for us, in transforming us, bears
a result that makes us forget the pain we once endured from the world. In verse 22, Jesus affirms once again, that
the final results of will happen to us, and for us, will bring a joy that can
never be taken from us again.
But communion was not over yet …
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