Grace to you and peace from our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The Holy Gospel reading for this meditation is written in the 14th
Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 15 – 21:
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will
live. 20 n that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves
me. And he who loves me swill be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
No matter how often we open the
pages of the Bible; there is always something more for it to teach us. That is one of the wonderful things about the
Bible. It presents God’s plan of
salvation simply enough for children to understand that Jesus saved them from
their sins with His death on the cross.
At the same time, it has enough sophistication in it so that scholars
have filled warehouses with the teachings of Jesus Christ drawn from its pages.
One of the many themes that we find
in all of Scripture is that we do not go looking for God. It is God who searches for us. One of the themes of Scripture is that every
time we mere human beings try to find God, we get into trouble. Conversely, all the wonderful stuff that
happens in the Bible always begins with God.
In fact, Jesus Himself reminded His
Apostles that they did not decide to follow Him, but He called them. He said, [John
15:16] “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you …” The
Gospels tell us that Jesus actively sought out and called His church together.
Today’s Gospel continues that
teaching of the upper room from last week’s Gospel. In a few hours, Judas will lead a band of
soldiers into Gethsemane in order to arrest Jesus. The next day, Jesus will die on the cross to
take away the sins of the world.
Jesus knew that His time was
short. He knew the confusion and grief
that would attack His disciples over the next few days. He also knew that after His crucifixion and
resurrection, His mission to mankind would change. After He ascended, His people would not be
able to see Him. How will He call His
church together then? How will people
know that He is with them if they cannot see Him?
Today’s Gospel answers those
questions. Jesus has been with the
disciples as their helper. Now, He will
ask the Father to send another helper.
The word helper, while it is an accurate translation as far as it goes,
does not do justice to the original Greek.
The Greek word is Paraclete and could just as easily be translated as
advocate, intercessor, or comforter. A
Paraclete is a helper who helps the helpless – a helper who is called to be
with us. When the Father sent the Son
into the world, He sent Him as the first Paraclete. Now the Son – Jesus – the first Paraclete
promises a second Paraclete.
Jesus described this Second
Paraclete as the Spirit of Truth. It
quickly becomes clear that Jesus is telling the disciples about the Holy
Spirit. Jesus also told the disciples
that this Paraclete will be with them forever.
He will be the Eternal Paraclete.
These words of Jesus led the early church to refer to the Holy Spirit as
the Eternal Paraclete. Jesus said, “I
will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, to be with you forever,
…” That word forever means that the Eternal Paraclete is still with us
today.
Not everyone is excited about this
Paraclete. Jesus said, “The world
cannot receive [the Spirit of Truth], because it neither sees him nor knows
him.” The Eternal Paraclete inspired
the Apostle Paul to write, [Romans
8:7–8] The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does
not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. In another letter he wrote, [1 Corinthians 2:14] The natural
person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to
him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually
discerned. Yet another time he wrote, [Ephesians
2:1–2] You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,
following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. By nature, all people are born into this world
as heathens. Even as we begin to develop
in our mothers’ wombs, we are already enemies of God. We have no desire to know God. As long as we are part of the sinful world,
we neither hear nor see this Paraclete.
It is as if He does not even exist.
It is just as we have seen in the
Gospel readings for this Easter Season.
Within ourselves, we do not have the resources we need to know
Jesus. Given the worldly characteristic
of our own human nature, we must, in all honesty, confess “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus
Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.”
Then how can we know Jesus? In today’s Gospel, Jesus spoke to His
disciples and said, “You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in
you.” How do we get to the point
that the Eternal Paraclete is with us and in us?
All this Easter Season, we have seen
that it is Jesus who must show Himself to His disciples. The disciples in today’s Gospel heard the
Word of God from the very mouth of God – the mouth of Jesus Christ. He is the one who planted the Eternal
Paraclete in their hearts. The Eternal
Paraclete used the Word of God from the mouth of Jesus to bring them to
faith. Their contact with the Eternal
Paraclete came through Jesus – in His visible presence.
Our contact with the Eternal
Paraclete also comes through Jesus – as He comes to us in Word and Sacrament. The Eternal Paraclete continues to use the
Word of God as we hear it and as God combines it with the water of
Baptism and the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. So we see that God the Eternal Paraclete uses
the Word of God to plant faith – a faith that trusts in the Word made flesh,
Jesus Christ. So we see that God the Son
and God the Eternal Paraclete always work together. As Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome: [Romans
10:17] Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. From that we can only deduct that the Holy
Spirit has called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with His gifts, and
sanctifies and keep us in the true faith.”
We can see how the First Paraclete,
Jesus Christ, works with the Eternal Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. The Son of God became human as He was
conceived by the Holy Spirit. [Matthew
3:16] When Jesus was baptised, immediately he went up from the water, and
behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending
like a dove and coming to rest on him. The Holy Spirit even brought Simeon and Anna
to the infant Jesus in the Temple.
The first Paraclete, Jesus Christ
Himself, purchased and won us from sin, death, and the power of the devil with
His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. He gives us the promise of life forever in
heaven with His resurrection from the dead.
The other Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, offers this forgiveness, life, and
salvation to us through the Gospel. It
is this other Paraclete who gives us the faith that believes and receives the
gifts that the first Paraclete won for us.
As these two Paracletes work together, they transform us from disciples
of the world into disciples of Jesus Christ.
Today’s Gospel tells us of the
blessings we receive from the Eternal Paraclete – the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit offers to us the blessings
Jesus bought for us with His suffering, death, and resurrection. The Holy Spirit offers forgiveness, life, and
salvation to us through faith in Jesus Christ.
Through this faith God adopts us into His family. We become brothers and sisters of Christ and
children of our Heavenly Father. The
Eternal Paraclete – the Holy Spirit sees to it that our life with Christ goes
on forever. Amen
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond
all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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