Don’t Be Troubled or Afraid - Lectionary Reflection for Easter 6C (John 14)

John 14:23-29 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²³ Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴ Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.

²⁵ “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. ²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. ²⁸ You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. ²⁹ And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur you may believe.

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                While we’re still celebrating Eastertide, which means the resurrection should still be on our minds, as we journey towards Ascension and Pentecost. Nevertheless, the Revised Common Lectionary invites us to look back on events that preceded Jesus’ death and resurrection. So, once again we take a trip back to Holy Week in the company of John the Evangelist. Now, there’s a lot to unpack in John’s account of Jesus' final evening with his disciples. In John’s telling of the events, Jesus knows he’s not long for this life. So he wants to make sure he’s covered all the necessary bases of information so his disciples will be prepared for what comes next.

                Last week we reflected on Jesus’ love command: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35). Now, the lectionary takes us a bit further along in the story, inviting us to consider a brief section from John 14. While the lectionary reading begins in verse 23, what we have before us comes as an answer to a question posed by one of Jesus’ disciples, Judas (not Iscariot), who asks in verse 22: “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Yes, why has chosen to make known the full message only to a small group and not to the larger world? Why this process?

                While Jesus doesn’t seem to answer the question directly, he does point us in the direction of discipleship, which is rooted in a relationship between Jesus and the disciples. Jesus speaks here of following his word or command, which is what those who love Jesus would do. God loves those who keep this word because the word comes not from Jesus but from God. And the promise is this, God loves those who keep the commandments, and Father and Son will make their home with those who follow the command. You get a sense of the covenant relationship here as well as a reminder of God’s ongoing presence with the people of God. We also get a hint of a trinitarian formula, but more about that in a moment. When Jesus speaks here of God building a home, he’s speaking of the community that Jesus has been building and which will continue to be built over time.

                Jesus shares the word given by the Father who sends Jesus into the world, and those who receive the word become the dwelling place of God’s presence as Father and Son (Holy Spirit is just about to be revealed). This promise is laid out even as Jesus seeks to prepare the disciples for his Jesus continues by letting the disciples know that he wants to share this word while he’s still with them. Yes, he’ll be leaving them but there’s no reason to worry. When he’s gone the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, “whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything.” Notice the words “sent” and “send.” These are important words because they remind us that the Father is the sender. In John’s Gospel, the Father sends Jesus and the Holy Spirit so that the disciples will know what God has in mind for them (and us). Thus, God is a sending God. God sends Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and ultimately us into the world. But right now, we’re focused on what needs to be taught so the disciples will be ready when they are sent out.

                It’s worth noting that the word Parakletos (Paraclete), translated here as Advocate, can also be translated as Comforter (and Counselor). Jesus is going to offer the disciples comfort here as he prepares them for his departure. In essence, the Holy Spirit will provide grief counseling for them. The Spirit will inform and encourage them during this time of separation, so they need not worry or become anxious. As we contemplate this message, we need to remember that grief is not something that is overcome overnight. Thus, we need to think here of the Spirit with them and us over the long haul as we process our losses, whatever they may be. But ultimately, Jesus wants them to know that he will continue to be present with them through the Spirit. He’s not abandoning them.  

                After promising to send the Advocate/Comforter, Jesus tells his followers that he will give them peace, but not the kind of peace offered by the world. This isn’t merely an absence of conflict, it’s something much more internal. It’s a sense of well-being that comes as a result of the presence of the Spirit who overcomes their anxiety, letting them know that they’re not being abandoned by Jesus. As Marianne Meye Thompson notes, this promise of peace is a reflection of Jesus’ messianic calling.

As Messiah, the Holy One of God, the King of Israel, Jesus’ promise to give his disciples peace is coupled with the promise of his ongoing presence. Jesus may appear to be absent from the disciples, but he will be there with them: they can be assured of his presence and in that presence have the peace that characterizes the messianic age. [Thompson, John: A Commentary (New Testament Library) (pp. 316-317). Kindle Edition.]

Therefore, they need not be troubled in their hearts or be afraid. Don’t worry about what’s going to happen. The Spirit, who is here understood to be the Paraclete (Advocate and Comforter), will be with them so they will not be alone but instead begin to experience the peace that is expressive of the messianic age.

                Then comes a rather odd declaration. Jesus tells the disciples that they should be happy for him at his departure. That’s because he’s going to the Father. Yes, Jesus gets to go home, so rejoice and be glad for him. We can be glad for Jesus and still grieve our loss, which is why Jesus wants to make it clear that he’s not leaving them to fend for themselves. He’s equipping them for the journey ahead, and that requires the Holy Spirit.

                Then comes a problematic statement on Jesus’ part, a statement that requires some unpacking because it contradicts orthodox trinitarian thinking. The assumption in Nicene thought is that the three persons of the Trinity are equal, and yet here Jesus speaks of himself in a subordinate position to the Father. This is where Athanasius and Arius came into conflict, with the latter seeming to follow John here and declaring Jesus to be subordinate (and created as opposed to uncreated). As Basil of Caesarea reminds us, “if you consider the Son to be subordinate, you are reviving the same old impiousness: that their essences are not the same, that one is of less dignity than the other, that the Son had a beginning, and by using that word you will again stir up all the blasphemies against the Only-Begotten” [Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit, p. 70]. Basil reminds us as well that this isn’t a matter of arithmetic: “Therefore, we will use numbers as practical tools, a not claim that the very nature of a thing can be expressed with higher or lower ones!  . . . It is nothing but Greek sophistry to speak of inferior essences, degrees of rank, or subordination expressed with numbers” [Basil, On the Holy Spirit, p. 71].  If we read this passage in terms of the sending and returning of Jesus, subordination here is not a matter of essence but vocation. Or, as Jürgen Moltmann, writes of Jesus as the Son, “He is not created ex nihilo but —as the metaphors of generation and birth suggest—proceeds from the substance of the Father. Consequently, he is one in substance or essence with the Father and has everything in common with him, except his ‘Personal’ characteristics” [Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom, p. 166]. Thus, in Nicene terms the Son processes (as does the Spirit) from the Father, and according to the ancient church, this proceeding does not rule out the coequality of each member of the Trinity. I will note here that with the Eastern churches, I reject the insertion of the filioque clause (and the Son) when it comes to the procession of the Holy Spirit. John is clear both the Son and Spirit are sent (proceed) by the Father.

                Ultimately the point here has to do with the ongoing presence of God with the disciples (and the church) as it continues the work of God. Jesus wants them to know that the Spirit will be there to teach and encourage them even after his departure. The lectionary cuts off the final two verses of chapter 14, which speak of the coming of the ruler of this world, but the good news is that this ruler doesn’t have power over Jesus. Marianne Meye Thompson helps us understand what John’s Jesus has in mind here:

Now “the ruler of this world,” the devil, is coming (v. 30). In his death on the cross, Jesus will encounter and triumph over the power of darkness, embodied in the “ruler of this world,” which seeks to extinguish the light and to deceive and mislead people from coming to the light. Jesus assures his disciples that the ruler of this world “has no part in me” (lit., “has nothing in me,” en emoi ouk echei ouden), where the sense may well be “has no claim on me” or “has no power over me.” Nothing that the ruler of this world may do ultimately challenges Jesus’ own claim on the world or the efficacy of his death for the life of the world. [Thompson, John, pp. 317-318].

Having said these things after supper, Jesus moves the conversation to the Garden of Gethsemane. Ultimately, as the reading for the Seventh Sunday of Easter will reveal, Jesus will pray for the unity of the believers whom he commissions to bear the good news to the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the meantime, let us not be troubled or afraid, for Jesus remains with us through the Holy Spirit!