John 13-16 is a confusing section of scripture because of the mix of emotions. I can just see the disciples excited for the Passover meal with Christ. He has recently been heralded by the public in a triumphant entry to Jerusalem, and things seem to be making a turn for the better as far as his popularity is concerned. Then when they go to share this most precious meal with each other, he washes their feet in a strange moment that John recalls as the full extent of his love. He washes their feet as the beginning of the last lesson he will give to these men whom he deeply loves, and then proceeds to give bad news... a lot of bad news. First he tells them he is going to be betrayed by Judas in what has to be one of the most awkward dinner conversations in the history of the world. Then he tells Peter he is going to deny him that very night three times. Then he lets them know he is going to a place they cannot follow, leaving them bewildered. I cannot imagine the abandonment the disciples must have been feeling at this time.
But Jesus knew his disciples' hearts, just as he knows ours. He knew the feeling of abandonment they must have had at that time, and being the comforting Christ that he was, he offers them comfort in the form of promising the Holy Spirit. Imagine the step of faith that Jesus is asking his disciples to take at this point. "I am going to be killed tomorrow. You're going to be alone, in danger. But I'm sending someone else to step in and take my place, so don't worry." I mean, if I were in a disciple's place at that time, I am going to be freaking out inside. "Who? Who are you sending? A Spirit!? What Counselor are you talking about? You are supposed to be the Christ, the Messiah. You aren't supposed to be killable. There isn't supposed to be another after you. We sold out to this. We gave up everything for this, and now you're going to let yourself be murdered? Let's go back to the countryside. We can hide. We don't have to do this..."
And then Jesus takes it a step further. He says something which I think we often overlook in 16:7- "But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." So Jesus says it is better for us that the Holy Spirit comes than he himself remain in bodily form. I have to stop and and ask myself, do I really believe this? Now in the eternal perspective, we will get to be with Jesus again, and that will be the best situation we could ever imagine. But that is still yet to come. We are living in the inbetween, in the age of the Church, and our guide at that time is that Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus tells us is better than if he were still walking in the flesh on earth today. Are we really better off without Jesus right now? This passage challenges my thinking on the Trinity to the core.
As I asked myself this question, I was convicted by my own low understanding of the Holy Spirit, as I think many in the church have today. When "Holy Spirit" is mentioned in many evangelical circles, thoughts of speaking in tongues and convulsing come to mind. For that reason, many, like myself, lack a full understanding of what Jesus teaches about the Trinity's third person. He is not flesh and blood like Christ was. He is more. He lives with us, just as Christ lived with the disciples, but he takes it a step further in that he lives in us. He is the presence of Christ in us today. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." How does Christ remain in us? It is the Holy Spirit that causes us to abide. He is God. Plain and simple. In the same way that we view God the Father powerfully creating the universe with his Words, and passing through a cut up heifer in the form of a smoking pot in making a covenant with Abraham; in the same way we view God the Son as walking on this earth and now sitting at the right hand of the Father expanding his dominion on Earth; so should we view God the Holy Spirit active in the lives of each believer, guiding, counseling, and building his Church, preparing the bride. Too many times we read the book of Acts as the "Acts of the Apostles." I wish it could have been retitled "The Acts of the Holy Spirit" because the focus is on him throughout the whole book. Seriously, go through and read the book of Acts and underline everywhere the Holy Spirit is mentioned. The thing that I so easily forget, is that the same God that moved Peter to go to Cornelius' house, that told Paul to turn away from Russia and take the Gospel into Europe is the same God who lives in us and offers us that same power today. He is the Church builder. So many times I view the redemptive plan as pre-Christ, post-Christ, reincarnated Christ, but I leave out the fact that Christ is building his kingdom right now through the Holy Spirit, and he is using sinners like me to do it. I recently read in a book by Paul David Tripp that our whole lives are premarital counseling, preparing for the great wedding to Christ, to whom we are engaged. That is our sanctification. And who is the pre-marital counselor? The great Counselor. Do we really believe we have this power? Do we live in recognition of the fact that he is God. Are we really better off now that Christ ascended back to Heaven and no longer walks here in bodily form? Do we take this Scripture as Truth? When I reflect in my own heart, I realize I don't. If I believed what Christ said, I would live as if I had the very presence of God living in me.
I pray that I would view God rightly. That is, all three persons of the Trinity. As I view him rightly, I will live in the power that is available to those free children of God who have his presence inside of them. And who will be the one increasing this knowledge and sanctifying me through it? Who else but the Holy Spirit.
