Not Forsaken
If you listen to some of the
voices in our world, it would seem that if God exists at all, he abandoned this
world long ago. There is a significant strain of skepticism in our culture that
sees all that’s wrong with this world and concludes that we’re left out here in
the middle of the galaxy on our own. The message of doubt and despair seems to
overwhelm any hope or faith altogether. The only realities are buying and
selling, winning and losing, living and dying. And from this perspective, since
death has the final word on all of our lives, then all that we do is ultimately
meaningless. It is an approach to life that fundamentally mistrusts everything
and everyone, because we are ultimately God-forsaken.
This outlook on life flies in the
face of the biblical message. In fact, it would seem that some of those who
have contributed most significantly to this kind of pessimism have taken the
biblical message and turned it on its head. But the fact remains that the Bible
insists that we live in a world that is filled with the presence of the loving
God.[2]
It may be difficult for us to sense God’s presence, and it may be even more
difficult for us to grasp that God is with us. But that is one of the most
important reasons why Jesus lived and served, to make it clear to us that God
is with us.[3]
One of the problems with this is
that, obviously, Jesus is no longer physically present with us. This seems to be
a problem that has troubled faithful believers from the very beginning. If we
read between the lines as we’re reading some of what the NT has to say about
this, it would seem that Jesus’ physical absence was difficult for the first
Christians to bear. They looked for him to return in their lifetimes. And when
some of the faithful started passing away, those who remained were confused. It
would seem that some of them wondered if Jesus had abandoned them.[4]
In our lesson from the Gospel of
John for today, that is the question that Jesus addresses with his disciples.
In this section of the Gospel, Jesus is preparing them for his departure. If we
pay attention to the questions they ask him, we can tell that they
themselves—Jesus’ very own followers—were puzzled and even dismayed by what
Jesus was trying to tell them.[5]
How could Jesus leave them? They had come to believe that he was the Messiah.
How was it that he was going away? In their minds, the Messiah wouldn’t go
away, he would stay and ascend the throne of David and usher in an age of peace
and justice.
Our lesson for today is preceded
by Jesus’ announcement that he was going to go to prepare a place for them in
his father’s house, assuring them that they knew the way to the place he was
going (John 14:1-4). In response, Thomas very likely voiced what many of the
others were thinking: “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we
know the way?” (John 14:5). I think he was only voicing the questions they
were all asking. They had been with him, they had followed him, they had
learned from him, and it now seemed barely believable that he would leave them.
In fact, it would seem that this problem serves as the backdrop for much of
what Jesus had to say to them in this chapter of John’s Gospel.
In response to Jesus’ answer that
he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Philip asks Jesus to “show us the
Father” (John 14:8). Jesus answers him by re-emphasizing what he has already
asserted time and again: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
One more time, Jesus goes over the basic lesson of his life and ministry: that
he had come to make it clear that God’s grace and God’s truth are always with
us.
But beyond that, Jesus addressed
their concerns by telling them “I will ask the Father, and he will give you
another Advocate, to be with you forever” (John 14:16). The translation
“Advocate” is probably not one that communicates with most of us. It has also
been translated “Comforter,” “Counselor,” “Helper,” and “Friend.” The truth is
that the concept that Jesus was trying to convey probably includes all of those
ideas.[6]
I think the main point is that the one Jesus was sending to them would be with
them in the same way that he had been with them.
This comforter, counselor,
helper, and friend that Jesus promised to send is “the Spirit of truth” (John
14:17). He is nothing less than the Holy Spirit of God, the one who makes God’s
presence in our lives a reality. But the interesting thing about the way Jesus
speaks of the Spirit here is that it seems that the Spirit also makes Jesus’
presence in our lives a reality. In fact, just after our lesson, Jesus assures
them that he would not abandon them. The implication is that the Spirit
continues Jesus’ presence with those who have trusted in him.[7]
This is a message that starkly
contrasts the counsel of despair that says we live in a God-forsaken world.[8]
It flies in the face of those who would say we’ve been abandoned and left to
our own devices. This message is one that resonates throughout the Bible: God
rejoices in his creation. And that means that God will never, ever forsake us.
One of the most important reasons why Jesus lived and served and taught as he
did was to make it clear to us all that through him, God is with us. And even
though Jesus is no longer present physically, we celebrate the gift of the Holy
Spirit because he makes Jesus’ presence with us just as real as he did for the
first disciples. The Spirit has been poured out on “all flesh” as a declaration
that we never have been and never will be forsaken.
[1]
©2016 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 5/15/2016 at
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2]
Cf. Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy,
we live in a “God-bathed world.” Cf. also Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God,
9: “Through the energies and potentialities of the Spirit, the Creator is
himself present in his creation. He does not merely confront it in his
transcendence; entering into it, he is also immanent in it.”
[3] Cf.
Gail R. O’Day, “The Gospel of John,” New
Interpreters Bible IX:744: “the incarnation changes everything for the
Fourth Evangelist, because through it humanity’s relationship to God and God’s
relationship to humanity are decisively altered. The incarnation has redefined
God for the Fourth Evangelist and those for whom he writes, because it brings
the tangible presence of God’s love to the world.” Cf. also Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom, 114-118, says that the incarnation is
part of the “eternally self-communicating love of God.” Cf. also Shirley C.
Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, 240,
where he reminds us that the idea of the incarnation is not just a matter of
God “pretending” to be a human being, but rather of God fully entering our
reality and fully sharing our humanity in order to redeem every aspect of human
experience.
[4] Cf.
O’Day, “Gospel of John,” NIB IX:749,
where she says that the question that occupies this portion of John’s Gospel
is, “Can the disciples still love him, when he has gone?” She continues by
saying that this passage “answers yes to this question, but it may be a yes
that surprised even Jesus’ first disciples. The disciples can still love Jesus,
but neither by clinging to a cherished memory of him nor by retreating into
their private experience of him. Rather, they can continue to love Jesus by
doing his works (vv. 12-14) and by keeping his commandments (vv. 15-24). That
is, when they move outside of their own private experience of Jesus, when they
live what Jesus has taught them and demonstrated in his own life, then they
will find themselves once again in his love.”
[5] On
the Disciples’ lack of understanding, cf. G. R. Beasley-Murray, John, 252; and O’Day, “Gospel of John,” NIB IX:741-42.
[6]
Cf. O’Day, “Gospel of John,” NIB
IX:747, where she points out that the Greek word transliterated “Paraclete” is
based on a verb that “has a wide range of meanings that include ‘to exhort and
encourage,’ ‘to comfort and console,’ ‘to call upon for help,’ and ‘to appeal.’
The noun form can mean ‘the one who exhorts,’ ‘the one who comforts,’ ‘the one
who helps,’ and ‘the one who makes appeals on one’s behalf.’ The Fourth
Evangelist seems to draw on the whole range of meanings in the variety of
functions attributed to the Paraclete.”
[7] Cf.
Raymond Brown The Gospel According to
John XIII-XXI, 644: “the Spirit of Truth is a Paraclete precisely because
he carries on the earthly work of Jesus.”
[8]
Cf. Gerard S. Sloyan, John, 178,
where he paraphrases Jesus’ assurances in the beginning of John 14, “The pain
of life, separation, and cross cannot last forever. Live in hope. The present
will yield to the future because I will see to it.”
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