Jesus replied, ”Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.”
Obedience is a tough thing. We humans are not naturally obedient. Oftentimes we tend to the opposite end of the spectrum. When we do “obey” it isn’t always because of love.
In my work as a traffic engineer, I study the behavior of people who drive cars. Have you have ever seen two little black tubes stretched across the street when you are driving? Those are what I and other traffic engineers use to keep an eye on what you are doing. The amount of information they collect is amazing.
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, ”But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
Judas asks an interesting question here. This whole chapter in John’s gospel has been about Jesus’ last instructions to his disciples. Throughout this study of John’s gospel, we have repeatedly noted that Jesus speaks as one who is not from around here meaning not from earth. The disciples have a hard time getting their head around the reality that Jesus is God. Yet even when they get that part right, they still do not understand what that means.
Why wouldn’t Jesus show himself to the world?
Judas bases his question on a false premise. He assumes that “the world” sees things the same way those who believe in Jesus see them. This is most certainly not true.
Those who believe in God base everything on the premise that God exists and that there are eternal consequences for our choices in this life. “The world” consists of people who do not believe in God and judge by what they get in this life instead of what awaits them after this life.
Since the world does not accept that God exists, they can look straight at Jesus and not see him. At least for who He is.
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.
By my count, the word, “love” shows up in some form in John’s gospel fifty-seven times. I’m thinking that many occurrences might indicate a theme.
Jesus says, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.” If I love Jesus, I would want to please Him. Obeying His commands fits in with that desire to please Him. So what did He command?
God’s command is to love God “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The second command is like it, “… love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22: 36-40) In John 13: 34 Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
Taking all three of these commands together, Jesus says in effect: Show your love for me by loving God the Father above all else (as Jesus does), loving your neighbor as yourself, and love others who believe in me just as I have loved you.
It seems like it would be a very good idea to know what Jesus means when he uses the word, “love.”
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
A new day is coming! It is a day when the disciples understand what Jesus is telling them. It is also a day when the world does not see Jesus, but somehow the disciples do.
What kind of day is this going to be? When is this day going to be?
The day Jesus said this was the day before he would be tried, flogged, and crucified for claiming to be the person he was. Two days later (the third day) he would come out of the tomb, alive. Was that the day Jesus was talking about? After Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit had come upon the disciples with signs and wonders, the disciples were filled with the power of God. Was that the day they knew that Jesus was in them?
What does it mean to “live?” I don’t mean to be “alive” like a plant or animal might be, but to really live.
The world’s definition of living is about consuming. How much stuff can you get your hands on? How much food and drink can you consume? How many things can you get? How many friends can you collect?
Once you have gone down that path the next step in the world’s definition of living is, “How good is your stuff?” Do you have the best food? How expensive is the stuff you buy? How new is your car? How elite are your friends?
Each step down this path is more expensive, more demanding, more consuming. At the end of the road, this path looks more like a treadmill than a life.
The kind of life that Jesus is talking about is very different. It harkens back to the separation from God that occurs in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve touch the forbidden tree. On that day they died. Not physically, but spiritually. They lost their innocence in God’s sight and become separated from God. The relationship with the people He made was forever changed.
Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.
Once again, Jesus speaks of the world as a place. Not the whole world, not all that we humans will ever know, but a place. He speaks much like we might speak of Hawaii as a place. It is a long way off. It is a unique place on this planet. But it is just one place among many. Jesus speaks in that same way about the world.
Two thousand and a few years ago, Jesus walked the surface of this planet as any person might. The difference was that Jesus had been here before he came to be a man. In fact, he made this place. Being Jesus must have felt a bit like a painter would feel if he could become part of his own painting.
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
My childhood is indelibly stamped with odd memories. In the room of my mind, there are thousands of shelves and niches, each filled with memories. Some are normal. Some are strange. Many, like faded old photographs, are now so indistinct that they can no longer be made out. Then there are those that are indelibly etched on the canvas of my mind. Even among this latter category, most have been covered with dust or pushed out of sight. Yet now and then, something will cause one to fall off the shelf, shake loose the dust, and jump out at me. Today’s verse has prompted one of those events.
I was perhaps six or seven years old. We lived on a quiet semi-rural street to nowhere. Down from our house, the main road turned left but the road we lived on continuing for about half a mile to a dead end.
It was evening. The sun had set and the clear summer sky had turned a pale blue yellow. It was quiet and still.
A car had driven down the dead end and into a light pole, knocking out the power on our street. All the neighbors had gathered to see what had happened. I was told to “stay,” so I did. I waited at the entrance of our driveway, sitting on the warm concrete. I was looking at the faded sky and the deepening blue-gray of the tree-shadowed end of the road.
But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
In this passage, Jesus is talking about the Spirit of truth. (The Amplified Bible points out this is the Holy Spirit.) Jesus tells the disciples that they already know the Holy Spirit because he lives with them.
I find the distinction between “with you” and “in you” interesting. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit apparently accompanied Jesus and the disciples. Jesus, being from heaven, was aware of this. The disciples, being from earth, were not.
John’s gospel testifies to the presence of the Spirit many times. John the Baptist sees the Spirit descend on Jesus. Jesus teaches Nicodemus that the Spirit is like the wind. In chapter seven Jesus offers the crowds “living water” which John explains meant the Holy Spirit. In today’s passage, Jesus says, “…you know him… he lives with you … [he] will be in you.”
The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.
In 1987 H. G. Wells penned a story about a scientist who discovers a way to alter his body’s refractive index, effectively becoming invisible. Unfortunately for the man, the effect could not be reversed, and he remained a kind of monster. In the end, the isolation drives him mad and desperation drives him to crime and to murder.
John writes that the world cannot see or know the Spirit of truth. While this spirit is a wonderful gift, the effect it has on a person is like the potion that made the scientist in the story invisible. A person who knows the truth and acts on the truth will not be accepted by the world. The world does not understand.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.
Back in the beginning, way back in Genesis 3, we are told the story of What Went Wrong. In verse 5 we hear the Serpent telling Eve that if she ate the Forbidden Fruit, “… you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” What the Serpent didn’t tell Eve was that she would not be able to tell the difference. It is a small detail, but very important.
Jesus calls the Serpent, “…a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) The purpose of a lie is to deceive. Not being all-knowing like God, we are easily deceived. We see the lies, we just can’t tell the difference between what is true and what is not true.
For us to be able to know the difference between truth and lies requires that we look to God. Proverbs reminds us:
