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"These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.
"But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you."
- John 16:1-15
We are reading through Jesus' Farewell Discourse to the disciples. Yesterday, we read that He said to them, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.' But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."
"These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you." The ironic twist in this discourse: Jesus has just finished teaching, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." And here, we are given something else: they will in turn receive such hatred from the world that "whoever kills you will think that he offers God service." They have known His love. They are to share His love with one another. But they will know hatred from the world. He is preparing them for the irrational injustice of "the world" that hates Him without cause, and so, in turn, will hate them.
"But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart." My study bible says that "sorrow here means 'extreme grief leading to despondency or despair,' which is a sinful passion." "Great is the tyranny of despondency," writes John Chrysostom. My study bible also refers us to the writings of the Desert Fathers which constantly refer to this sin. It notes, "When the world persecutes the believer or when God seems to be absent, Christians are called to fight against this despondency, taking comfort from the presence of the Holy Spirit."
"Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged." My study bible says that through the illumination brought by the Holy Spirit, the world will be convicted - that is, proven wrong. It will be convicted concerning: (1) its sin, the ultimate of which, says my study bible, is denying Jesus Christ; (2) righteousness, which it failed to accept from Christ with faith and thanksgiving; and (3) judgment, "for all who reject Christ will receive the same penalty that Satan, the ruler of this world, has already received (see Matthew 25:41)."
"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you." My study bible tells us that because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and because this Spirit abides in the Church, the Church is the guardian of all truth. What we are promised here is an abiding relationship of intimacy with Christ; His disciples are being told that despite what is to come, the hatred and the persecution that they will face, and the Passion and death He will endure, it is better if He goes, for the Holy Spirit will come to them and give them enlightenment and wisdom -- all that He has -- and declare it to them, and to us.
The Church, as my study bible refers to it, in today's context becomes something much, much more than an "institution." It becomes something more than the great division we see in the world of all kinds of denominations, theologies, and ideas. The Church here is the Body of Christ. The Church is a living reality that is in and of the Holy Spirit. It is, in some sense, created by Pentecost -- or rather, it is the Spirit which breathes in and through the Church. The Church is a living reality, not merely a set of buildings or hierarchies or whatever other collective way we wish to think of it or characterize it. Of course, it is not "only" the Spirit, but where any Person of the Trinity is present, all the Trinity is present. Thereby the Spirit that Jesus speaks about, who will be sent upon His departure or exodus from this world, is the One who will bring "all things" and "all truth." The Father and Son will be made present through the sending of the Spirit. This is an unlimited and open-ended promise, the way I read it. It is simply incalculable to try to note down or discern or make a list of what it is the Spirit will offer to the world. How can we limit or measure the promises of "all truth" and of "things to come"? It is simply not possible. Nor can we limit the scope of what those things encompass. And there is more: "When He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged." The Spirit also brings conviction: of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. These things, it seems to me, depend upon how we respond to this Spirit. Do we accept His gifts? Are we willing to find His breath, His voice? Do we have ears to hear and eyes to see? Do we discern? This is the great challenge, the test, of this period in which we live, after Christ's Ascension, after the Passion, after His death on the Cross. It is the Spirit that will lead us to all truth, to His voice in which He calls us by name as His sheep. There's a beautiful Orthodox prayer to the Holy Spirit. It begins every liturgical service. It gives us names for the Spirit that help us to define the Spirit's life in us and in the Church: "Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of truth, who is everywhere present and filling all things, Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life, come and dwell in us, and cleanse us of all stain, and save us, O Good One." In the midst of the world's irrational hatred for the Good, let us remember we are to call upon the Spirit. Instead of despair, let us call on this Treasury of Blessings and giver of all good things. We don't know what the Spirit can give us or introduce into our lives. There are no limits set on the promises of Jesus here, and we don't know what it means to be told of "things to come." This great abundance is God's love at work in the world, a love that may be rejected by some -- even by the "ruler of this world" -- but which we, nevertheless, are to be attuned to. Even if it leads us to places in which we are persecuted for our faith in this love, in this Trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit. In this same "breath," in these same verses in today's reading, Jesus promises us all these things: persecution and irrational hatred, a judgment and conviction at work in our time, and blessings too immeasurable for us to fathom. A treasury of blessings! A note must be made today that the words, "The time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service," ring true for many brothers and sisters around the world. Please pray for them, and for all of us.
