John 14:15-21 (NRSV)
I’ve been feeling a little bit like an orphan lately. My mom passed away in 1996 – I can’t believe it’s been 27 years already. I miss her every day. And even though my dad is still living, he’s fading into dementia and failing in physical health. He’s not really my dad anymore most of the time. He’s my parent who needs to be cared for and loved and cherished, but it’s not the same relationship anymore.
In many ways, I’ve felt orphaned ever since my mom died because we were just so close. We talked on the phone every day and saw each other every week. We traveled together, ate out together, shopped together, went to movies together. We liked to read the same books and watched the same TV shows. We talked about everything from theology to entertainment to sports to pets to politics. I can remember standing beside her grave the week after she was buried thinking to myself, The best part of myself is in the ground with her. It took nearly a year before I realized that was not true. The reality wasn’t that I had left myself in the ground with a dead body. The truth was that the best parts of my mom still lived in me. Her risen spirit is still with me. We even talked about that before she died. She asked me if I thought she would know what was happening to me after she was gone. I didn’t really know – who does? – but I told her that I thought she would. And there have been so many times since then that I have known so clearly what she would have said or done, or I have been laughing and realizing she would be laughing too. In many ways, it’s like she is here.
Now picture the scene in John 14. Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples for the fact that he is soon going to die; in fact, he is going to be executed. They will have to watch as he is arrested, put on trial, whipped viciously and crucified. It will not be easy; it may be the hardest thing they have ever had to experience. And Jesus is trying to give them something to comfort them, to reassure them, to give them courage and hope in advance so that they can get through this difficult, painful time.
We heard last week about the need to trust in God and in Jesus, and to count on the fact that God is preparing a place for us in heaven. So ultimately, we know we have nothing to worry about; we know the end of our story already. Now in this section of John 14, Jesus gives the disciples two other reasons to feel encouraged.
First, Jesus tells these followers that he will ask the Father to give them another Advocate to be with them forever. This Advocate is the Spirit of truth. This word translated as Advocate in Greek is parakletos. There is no good way to translate it into English. Some translations use the word Helper and others use Comforter, but neither word carries the full meaning. A parakletos is someone who is called in, according to William Barclay. That may be someone who is called in to give witness in a court of law. Or it may be someone called in as an advocate to plead the case of someone on trial. It could be a person who is called in as an expert to give advice in a difficult situation. But it is always someone who is called in to help in times of trouble or need.
The first time the word parakletos was translated into English was in the 14th century by John Wyclif. He used the word Comforter. That word is based on the Latin word fortis, which means brave. A comforter in the 14th century was someone who helped another person be brave or helped someone cope with a difficult situation. It meant more than just comforting someone who was sad, with emotional help. It meant giving a person the courage and confidence to do a hard thing.
The Spirit that Jesus promises his disciples is going to come to help them face the difficult time of Jesus’s death and to give them the courage to go forward and cope with whatever may come. This Spirit will not be recognized by the world, because those without God will not be watching or listening for the Spirit. To receive the Spirit, we have to be open and waiting for the Spirit to come to us. As Barclay writes, “The Holy Spirit gatecrashes no one’s heart …” But for those who invite the Spirit in, we find that we receive an Advocate, a Counselor, a Comforter, a Helper, and so much more.
The second thing that Jesus says to encourage his disciples is that he will not leave them orphaned. The Greek word used here is orphanos and literally means without a father. But in the time of Jesus, the word was also used to refer to disciples and students who had lost the presence and teaching of a beloved master. For example, when Socrates died, Plato said that his disciples “thought that they would have to spend the rest of their lives forlorn as children bereft of a father, and they did not know what to do about it.”
But the disciples of Jesus would not need to worry about that, because Jesus is not leaving them as orphans; he is coming back to them. Even though they would see him die, they would also see him alive again after the resurrection. When Jesus was raised from the dead, their despair would be changed to hope and joy. And through the Spirit, Jesus would remain with them – and with us – even after he ascended into heaven. Jesus will be in us and we will be in him, just as the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father. There is a special relationship, a spiritual relationship, between Jesus and his followers, that exists even after Jesus is no longer physically present on this earth.
The impact of all of this on us is immense. We don’t have to worry that we will ever be without Jesus; he lives and we will live with him forever. Through the Spirit, Jesus will encourage us and give us bravery to face whatever life brings our way. And because of his resurrection, we know that we will rise with him and experience the joys of heaven. There is nothing to fear, whether we are here on earth or in God’s eternal kingdom. And we know that we will never be alone; we will have the presence of Jesus through the Holy Spirit of God.
So feel the hope! Grab hold of the joy! Live like you mean it when you say, “Christ is risen!”
