BaptistWay Bible Series for January 21: In good times and bad, Jesus is there

Posted: 1/11/07

BaptistWay Bible Series for January 21

In good times and bad, Jesus is there

• John 14:1-11, 15-18, 25-27

By David Wilkinson

Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. … I will not leave you orphaned.”

These words of Jesus—offered as a promise to his disciples then and now—took on new meaning for me as I listened to a woman’s testimony near the end of a week-long spiritual formation retreat. The group had been invited to record our reflections in response to a guided meditation on John 14:1-11.

Joan movingly described a family photo of her mother and two older siblings. Her mother was 3 years old when her father (Joan’s grandfather) died at age 30. The family was poor, and with no marketable skills or resources, Joan’s grandmother was left with an agonizing decision.

The photo was taken on the day she left her children at an orphanage. “It was like something straight out of a Dickens’ novel,” Joan said. It was a cold January day. In the photo, the stair-stepped trio—ages 3, 4 and 6—are standing hand-in-hand in the falling snow, with a kind of childlike stoicism amid the tears, just before their mother gave them a final hug and drove away.

In the months that followed, the children would receive an occasional letter from their mother. The 6-year-old, just learning to read, would gather her little brother and sister on her bed and falteringly but patiently read each letter to them several times. And then they would cry together.

“My mother has always told me she had a happy childhood, and I believe her,” Joan continued. “She would tell delightful stories about life at the orphanage. But there was also a deep sadness in her life that never went away. It was the pain of being orphaned. And it was the pain of being left.”

Few things in life are as painful as the experience of being left, of being abandoned. In this second of Jesus’ “farewell discourses” collected in John 13-17, Jesus knows his disciples are about to experience the pain of being “orphaned” in a two-fold sense—first, through his humiliating and agonizing execution by Roman crucifixion, but also through his return to his Father following his resurrection. He will die, and the disciples will know three dark days of bewildering grief and despair before experiencing the euphoria of the empty tomb. Then, in the wake of his glorious resurrection, he will leave them again.

A three-fold promise

Out of love for his friends, Jesus’ primary concern in these farewell discourses is not so much the events that lie before him as what will happen to the disciples. In language they cannot comprehend—and, indeed, will understand fully only in retrospect—Jesus offers a three-fold promise.

First, he offers a place, an eternal abiding place with him in his Father’s house (14:2-3). The Greek word translated “dwelling places” (NRSV) or “mansions” (KJV) is the noun form of the verb “to abide,” a significant word in the fourth Gospel.

“Abiding” signifies a relationship characterized by trusting and even knowing, comparable to the relation of Christ to God. Such trusting and knowing are possibilities for the disciples and will, according to this text, be fulfilled rather than severed at death.

Second is the promise of the way to God. Here (v. 6), and throughout the Gospel, the writer makes clear that the way to God, whom no one has ever seen, is through the revelation of God in the Son. Jesus’ response to Thomas’ question, “How can we know the way?” (v. 5), seems to incorporate and culminate all the previous “I am” statements of the Gospel: “water,” “bread,” “light,” “resurrection and life.” Jesus is the way because in him God’s truth is revealed—not through creeds or theological propositions—but through relationship. To know Jesus is to know God.

Third, Jesus offers to every follower the promise of a presence and a power for living “in the meantime,” prior to abiding forever in God’s house (vv.15-17, 25-27). The gift of the Holy Spirit is offered to everyone who believes in the Son and prays in his name (vv. 13-14). Significantly, it is a promise not only to individuals but to the believing community, the church (the form of “you” in verses 13-14 is plural).

Jesus will come again to the disciples—and to all believers—and gather them to himself (vv. 3, 18, 28), an apparent reference to the parousia, the eschatological return of Christ. But he also will come to them through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

An advocate

No English word adequately captures the rich meaning of the Greek word parakletos, translated “advocate” or “helper” (v. 16), a term unique to John among the Gospels. This is a legal term in the sense of a counselor who supports a defendant at trial. The Greek para means “alongside,” and the root of kletos is “to call.” So, God, at Jesus’ request, will send “another paraclete” to come alongside as a defender and protector of the disciples, just as Jesus has been.

The Holy Spirit will bring power and peace beyond anything the world can provide or understand (v. 27). The Spirit will continue to “teach” the disciples “everything” and “remind” them of what Jesus has said (v. 26).

Belief in Jesus, expressed through obedience to his commandments, is the condition for Jesus’ coming. The “new commandment” Jesus has given the disciples is to love one another as he has loved them (13:34). Obedience to his commandments offers genuine evidence of love for him (13:35; 14:21, 23).

An abiding peace

It is in the light of these eternal promises that Jesus’ words of assurance, which serve as bookends for this section, can be fully heard: “Do not let your hearts be troubled” and “do not let them be afraid” (vv. 1, 27).

On his deathbed, John Wesley is reported to have said, “The best of all is, God is with us.” That is the promise of John 14: God is with us to the very end.

Discussion questions

• John 14:1-3 often is read at funerals. In what ways are Jesus’ words a promise for life as well as death?

• How does the meaning of the word translated “advocate” or “paraclete” broaden your understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit?