Sixth Sunday of Easter
Mary Holmen

John 14:15-21

This gospel passage speaks to a very human reality – the sense of radical dislocation we experience when we lose someone who has been an important part of our lives. How will we continue to live? What will we do? What will become of us?

This passage continues where last week’s reading left off. We really need to read the whole of chapter 14 to get the flow. The way John’s gospel is laid out, chapters 13-17, known by biblical scholars as the Farewell Discourse, take place during the Last Supper, in the context of Jesus’ impending crucifixion. It is Jesus’ last night with his closest followers. He is preparing them for the time when he will no longer be physically present with them. He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” – but they are troubled. You can hear their distress going back into chapter 13 and continuing in chapter 14. “Lord, where are you going?” “Why can’t I follow you now?” “We don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?” What is the emotion behind their questions? It is fear. Life as they have known it with Jesus is coming to an end, and they are anxious, fearful, and dismayed. How will they live? How will they carry on? What will become of them? Does this sound, does this feel even a little familiar?

This part of John’s gospel is a transition. It moves from Jesus’ public ministry and looks toward his crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension. Liturgically, we are reading this on the sixth Sunday in the Easter season, and it is also a Sunday of transition. The cross and the empty tomb are receding into the background, and we are looking toward what is to come, the promise that Jesus introduces in today’s reading. This coming Thursday is the feast of the Ascension, which we will observe next Sunday. And the week after that is the feast of Pentecost, when we will recall and celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first disciples. John’s understanding of the work and role of the Holy Spirit is quite different from that found in the other gospels and the book of Acts, so let’s unpack this promise of Jesus today.

Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” He is referring to the commandment he gave, which you can read in chapter 13 verses 34 and 35: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” How can the disciples keep this commandment? How is it possible to love as Jesus loves? How can the disciples do even greater works than his? The answer: by the Spirit, the Advocate whom Jesus promises to send.

Jesus says, “I will ask the Father, and he will send you another Advocate.” The Greek word here is Paraclete, and it means one who is called or who comes alongside. It can be translated in various ways: helper, companion, intercessor, advocate. In our world, someone may be an advocate in the judicial system, or in health care. Others may advocate by pressing governments to do something or change something. Often the advocate is speaking up for people who have less power, less voice, less ability to make themselves heard. So, we might assume that the Advocate Jesus promises will speak on our behalf to God, as if to persuade God to do something for us. But God has already done everything for us by giving us the gift of God’s own self in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The Spirit is the Advocate who will bring the truth of this gift to people in this time after the resurrection when Jesus is no longer physically with his followers. The Advocate is the Spirit of truth.

Jesus promises another Advocate, which suggests that he also has been one. Jesus’ own ministry has been as a Paraclete, one who has come alongside humanity as helper, teacher, companion, and guide. The Spirit will have all these roles going forward. If you need a teacher and guide, the Spirit will do that. If you need an intercessor, the Spirit will do that. If you need a helper and strengthener, the Spirit will do that too. The Spirit will be the same presence that Jesus has had with his disciples. And the disciples will know the Advocate because he will abide with them and in them. The Spirit will make it possible for them to live and carry on after their physical separation from Jesus. They are not left orphaned. The triune God who has always been present promises to be with us always, to abide with us and to prepare a place for us in the home of many abiding places. If there was ever a time the church and the world needed the promise of God’s steadfast, abiding, faithful presence, that time would be now – and the same could be said of any other pandemic in human history. I will not leave you orphans.

Jesus promises that the disciples will do greater works than he. His ministry was limited by time and place. The disciples will take that ministry forward in history and throughout the world. Jesus lived in intimate union with the Father. Through the Spirit, we have that same intimate relationship with God. Everything Jesus said and did pointed to the One who had sent him. Everything we do as his Body must also point to the God who sends us in ministry and mission to the world God loves. Through his Body, indwelt by the Spirit, Christ remains present in the world. The world is not orphaned. Thanks be to God.