The Gospel of John 14:15-21 Jesus said,” If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. ”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
Let us Pray: God of heaven and earth, companion in life, Spirit of truth, to you alone we turn our eyes and lift our hearts. Help us to keep your commandments and to love one another as you love us. This we pray in Jesus Name. Amen
Jesus is our advocate as the Holy Spirit leads us through all the chaos of today. As I read the Gospels and think about the times they were written it seems the world has not changed. The same issues they had we still have. Chaos and power-hungry leaders. This is Jesus’s farewell message to His disciples. How do you think you would have reacted if you were sitting at the table with Jesus’ disciples as Jesus gave his farewell message? There are many today that may have the same message, that they could be orphaned because of the violence of war. How do we continue to comfort these victims? They are the ones that are lost and desperate. The opposite also can leave many parents desperate as they lose their children because of war. Jesus told his disciples they would never be orphaned, a good thing because not sure they would have been able to manage on their own or how many of us would be able to handle it on our own. At this point Jesus told them he was going to send them an advocate, an advocate who would never leave them. The words “I will not ever leave you orphaned” still speaks directly today to some of our greatest fears and challenges, abandonment and isolation, loneliness, and vulnerability. Jesus links love, obedience, and the gift of the Holy Spirit into one seamless reality: to love Him is to live His way, and to live His way is only possible because the Spirit dwells within us, making divine life an interior experience rather than an external command. What Jesus actually promises to His disciples are what make up this passage. The three promises that anchor this passage: WhatHe promised is the Spirit who will dwell with and in the disciples. But Jesus goes further: God no longer dwells in a temple of stone. God dwells in the human person The believer becomes a living sanctuary. The Spirit is not an occasional visitor but a permanent indwelling presence. And because of the presence, of the Holy Spirit, he said “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you” and finally the promise of a shared life where he says: “Because I live, you also will live”. Jesus knows the disciples fear abandonment. He answers that fear with Presence :“I am coming to you”, with Life “Because I live, you also will live”, with Union “You in me, and I in you” Christianity is not primarily about believing doctrines; it is about belonging to God. And when you believe in God and you love the son He last command was: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” This passage is Jesus describing the shape of Christian existence: a life animated from within by God’s own Spirit. An existence where love is a Way of Life, not a Feeling. Love naturally expresses itself in a way of living. And this way of living is expressed by these words of Jesus: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” His “commandments” in John are not a long list. They center on: Mutual love, Trust in the Father and Abiding in Christ. By following His commandments we can be an advocate, as we are the church, this is when the church at its best can be a community of love, that love gives the church a great power by becoming a community of love to provide support so desperately needed. The community where the advocate is present provides solace for those who need an advocate. And that advocate is Jesus, the advocate of the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of Jesus, and the Spirit of God. And if we keep His commandments and we live out these commandments of loving God with all we are and loving our neighbors as ourselves, that is the proof of our love for Christ. It is not simply saying we love Him. It is doing what He told us to do.
Let us Pray: Holy Spirit, Advocate and Comforter, dwell within me as Jesus promised. Shape my desires, my choices, and my actions, so that love becomes my way of life. Let me feel the nearness of Christ. who has not left me orphaned. Teach me to live from the life He shares, to trust the Father as He trusted, and to walk in the commandments of love with freedom, joy, and courage. Amen.
Reflections by Bob 