January 16 / John 16

Following chapters 13-15, Jesus continues in this chapter to speak His final words to His disciples.  There is a movie called “My Life” in which Michael Keaton is a father who has a terminal disease and starts videotaping his wisdom about life for his kids to hear when they grow up after he dies.  In that same spirit, Jesus seems to speak with an urgency and depth of feeling because He knows what is coming and they don’t.   He doesn’t want them to go astray, He doesn’t want them to be overcome by grief, He wants their joy to be complete, and as if in summary, He reminds them that it is possible for them to have peace. (v. 33)   Verse 12 seems so raw: “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.”  This statement is also remarkable because His deep desire for them to understand is balanced by His compassion and understanding of both their capacity and weakness.   I love that He deals with me the same way; it’s difficult to imitate.

I’m struck in this chapter by His desire to alleviate their grief by repeatedly explaining what is going to happen so they won’t be confused, and by His quickness to encourage them with future joy.  Reading and re-reading the Gospels sometimes seems to sterilize Jesus’ emotions and interactions with others, but His genuine concern for them is so apparent here.  He is really focused on what they will be feeling and it’s easy to forget that He is the one who is about to suffer until His brief comment in v. 32, “You will leave me all alone.  Yet I am not alone….”  This unselfish love is the basis for true discipleship, as we all know.  Since the disciples seemed to understand so little of what He said, I’m guessing that they enjoyed His love much more than the information He passed on.  How frustratingly un-Western.

Verse 13 calls for some meditating- “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”  It’s the extent of ALL truth that is hard to grasp.  What did Jesus have in mind when He said this to the disciples?  In what future situations did He know they would need guidance?  He knew the Spirit would guide them into a more comprehensive idea of who He was/is, a more complete picture of who they were (betrayals and all), what to do in certain situations, how to begin and function as a church, how to keep going when shocking, tragic things happen (James is killed and Peter is next).  It is for these same things that He still gives guidance.  The question is whether we are listening.

Jeanne