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WHO WILL TAKE CARE OF US?
April 27, 2008
John 14:15-21
Psalm 139:7-12
A mother stands near the front door of her home, ready to leave, a coat and her purse over her arm. She watches as her children play, wrestling over toys, arguing about which ones belong to who. Suddenly, one of them notices she is about to leave and asks, “Where are you going?”
She smiles, “I have to go and get a new home ready for us.”
“Can we go with you?”
She shakes her head, “No, you really can’t.”
“How long will you be gone?”
“Oh, a short while – then I’ll be back.”
Their eyes grow large, “Who will take care of us?”
“I’ve spoken to your father. He’s sending someone who loves you as much as I do, and who will be with you every second of every day. You absolutely must pay attention to what he says. He’s not going to let you get away with anything; he’ll make you behave just the same way I do. Now, I’ve got to go. I love you. Show me you love me by behaving.”
That is today’s scripture in a nutshell. The pericope begins and ends with Jesus telling the disciples, “If you love me, obey my commands.” Now, up to this point in the Gospel of John Jesus has spoken often of how much he loves the disciples, and how much the Father loves them. But, this is the first time he has challenged them about their love for him. Their actions will prove what is in their hearts. If they love Jesus, they will keep his commandment. What is the commandment he needs them to keep? To love one another (John 13:34-35, 15:12). Jesus is leaving. If they really love him they will set aside their rivalries, their petty jealousies, and their continual jockeying for premier status. Instead, they will cooperate, they will listen to one another’s thoughts and views, and they will pray often for consensus and unity.
Just like little children, instead of focusing on Jesus’ request for obedience from them, they want to know, “Who will take care of us?” For the past three years Jesus has taken care of the Apostles both physically, emotionally, and especially spiritually. He will continue to fulfill that role after his ascension into heaven, when he sits at God’s right hand (1John 2:1). In the meantime, he promises to send them another helper to look after them. Now, that word “helper” gets translated in a lot of different ways. The New International Version calls him a Counselor, the Revised Standard Version an Advocate, and King James calls him a Comforter.
The actual Greek word is Parakletos, or Paraclete. In very simple terms, a Paraclete was a lawyer. In Jesus’ day if you were being sued, or charged with a crime, you were allowed to bring a lawyer with you to your trial. However, the conduct of your defense was exactly the opposite of court room decorum today. Today, the accused sits silently at a table while their attorney asks all of the questions and raises all of the objections. Occasionally the accused may lean over and whisper some relevant fact into the lawyer’s ear.
During Jesus’ time, the situation was reversed. The accused person conducted their own defense. You asked your own questions, you chose your own witnesses, you raised your own objections. Your lawyer, your advocate, your counselor, your helper, stood next to you and whispered advice into your ear. “Ask the witness this question. Ask the judge to consider this evidence. Don’t forget to raise this objection.” It would be pure foolishness to have this person alongside you, this Paraclete, and then ignore their advice. If you disregarded your Paraclete, you were sure to end up in trouble.
That is who Jesus will send to look after the Apostles, a Paraclete. He will not live your life for you and he will not force you into any course of action. However, twenty four hours a day he will be there whispering in your ear, “Don’t cheat on your taxes, call your parents, let go of your grudge and forgive, pray about this.” We do not have to do what the Paraclete says. But, if we disregard the Paraclete we are sure to end up in trouble.
Most of us have come to know the Paraclete by a more common name, the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). Now, this is not the first time the Holy Spirit has been sent to guard and guide the people of God. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit was sent to Joshua (Deuteronomy 34:9), Samson (Judges 13:25), Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2:2), Daniel (Daniel 4:8-9) and Micah (Micah 3:8) just to name a few. However, these men did not have permanent access to the Spirit. It was given to them for a short time for the accomplishment of a very specific objective. What Jesus is promising the Apostles is radically new: the Holy Spirit will enter into you, and remain there permanently.
What is the Spirit going to do once he’s there? For a start, he’s going to help us read and understand the Bible. Early Church Father Origen spent a lot of time thinking about this. If the Bible is the holy word of God, and if the Bible contains the truth, then simply reading the Bible should convert you to Christianity. And yet, two men can read the same passage of Scripture and come to completely opposite conclusions. One man reads the word and decides, “I’ve got to drop to my knees and give my soul to Jesus right now.” Another reads the same words and says, “It’s an interesting story with mythological overtones – much like Peter Pan.” What makes the difference? Origen found his answer in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).
Whether or not the Bible makes sense to us depends on whether we have the mind of the world, or the mind of Christ. If we have the mind of the world it’s just another fantasy book. If we have the mind of Christ we see all of the connections. We see how all of those books written over thousands of years by men who never met each other are woven together with such perfection that it could never have been orchestrated by human hands. The only way to have the mind of Christ is to be permanently connected to Jesus. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would provide that connection so that we could remember and interpret everything he said (John 14:26). The baptism of the Holy Spirit opens the Bible up to us. If we’re not reading the Bible, we are wasting a precious gift from Jesus.
What else will the Spirit do? He will provide us with the proper context for evaluating the experiences of our lives. It can be difficult to tell when something is good or bad. Have you ever had your heart broken? Have you ever cared deeply for someone, and you were certain they cared just as deeply for you? Then, one day, they broke your heart? You were crushed. The pain was so real it crossed over from emotional to physical. And then, six months or a year later, you met the love of your life. You found the person God intended for you to be with.
The Holy Spirit helps us to put those two experiences into context. The person with the mind of the world says, “Why did I need that heartbreak? Why couldn’t I just find the love of my life right off?” They can become consumed with an attitude of bitterness, or even anger. The person with the mind of Christ understands that the heartbreak changed us, reshaped us, and made us into who we are today. Without scars on our body, and scars on our heart, we would not be the person we are right now. Without that heartbreak we couldn’t be the person now that the love of our life has come to adore. No one likes pain, but we can accept pain when we understand the reward of getting through to the other side. No one wants divorce, or cancer, or to be evicted. But, how we respond to those challenges is determined by whether we have the mind of the world, or the mind of Christ.
A priest named John Patrick says of the Holy Spirit, “When He has come, and has worked out His full effect, the man who receives Him will be made another creature, seeing more, understanding more, able to be and do more and to endure more than ever he could have done without Him.”
Slowly, methodically, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit we become more like Jesus. Step by step we reduce the differences between Jesus and ourselves. Our perspective changes from a world view, to a God centered view. Contentment and peace become ours in the midst of a fallen world (Philippians 4:6-7). We listen to the lawyer whisper. More and more, we live our lives dedicated to God. We call that process ‘becoming Holy’.
Why would Jesus choose to send us the Holy Spirit, why send us that Lawyer? Some of you are too young to know who Jack Benny was, but many of you will remember the comedian. In 1926 Jack Benny married Mary Livingstone. On the day of their first anniversary, just after breakfast, the doorbell rang. Mary answered the door to find a florist standing there with a dozen red roses. There was a card, hand written by Jack, that said, “More now than the day we married – I love you.” Every year, for the next 48 years, on the morning of their anniversary Mary Benny received a dozen red roses with a hand written card to tell her, “I still love you.”
Jack Benny died in 1974. Mary worked through the details of his funeral, buried Jack, then took a couple of weeks away from home to help with the sadness. A few months after she returned home, on what would have been their 49th anniversary, the doorbell rang and there stood the florist with a dozen red roses. There was a hand written card from Jack that said, “I still love you.” Mary explained to the florist, “You probably didn’t know, but Mr. Benny passed away. I’m sorry no one told you. You can stop bringing the flowers. But, I’m curious – how did you get the hand written card?”
The florist explained. We are well aware that Mr. Benny is gone. But, he didn’t believe that this life is all there is. He firmly believed that you and he will be together again one day. He made provisions in his will, and he left us a supply of personalized cards, so that every year we might deliver his message to you – he still loves you. For the next nine years, until she passed away, Mary Benny received a dozen red roses and a hand written note on her anniversary, to remind her – he still loves her. Since her death, the roses and the card are delivered to their graves, every year on their anniversary.
The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ rose to us. So we will never forget, no matter how long we are apart, he still loves us.
The title for this sermon, and the opening illustration, were taken from James G. Somerville, “Who Will Take Care of Us?”, Christian Century 115:14 (May 6, 1998), 471.
Although Grayston’s purpose is to show that Paraclete is not derived from legal activity in John, he presents as much evidence to support a legal derivation as to oppose it.
Kenneth Grayston, “The Meaning of Parakletos”, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, No. 13 (October 1981), 67-82.
Johnstone G. Patrick, “The Promise of the Paraclete”, Bibliotheca Sacra 127:508 (October – December 1970), 333-345.