John 15:26-27; 164b-15
Jesus continued… ”When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.
But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.
Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
For the fourth week in a row, we are still in Jesus’ farewell discourse, a long farewell to his disciples. In my mind, it's similar to our midwestern goodbye. You must know what I mean. It starts off with a loud “welp” to initiate the process, followed by saying goodbye in the living room, again at the front door, and then a final goodbye in the driveway with conversation at each point along the way. And believe me, I am not knocking the midwest goodbye! If anything I do it pretty well! And I think we do this long process because saying goodbye is hard.
Finding the right words, the right tone, it’s all hard. Shakespeare was certainly right, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” Leaving brings pain and yet at the same time rouses a sense of hope and anticipation of coming together again. In his goodbye to the disciples, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth; it is to your advantage that I go away”. When someone is saying goodbye, I don’t think we necessarily always want the truth. The truth can be unnerving, shocking even. Like when someone’s going back for surgery you don’t say, “Well the truth is I might not ever see you again”. That’s not helpful or comforting in any way. We would much rather have a promise, “I’ll be right here when you get back”.
Here, however, Jesus gives the disciples both. The truth is, it is better for you that I go away. And here we should pause. How can it be better that Jesus go away? For many, if not most, people in the Christian tradition, closeness to Jesus is the most important thing. We long to be close to Jesus, to be in a relationship with Jesus.
And we wait with great anticipation for Jesus' return, for the time when he will once again be close in a physical, incarnate way as he was. Being far away, separated from Jesus then would be the worst thing for our faith. Why then, is it to the advantage of the disciples that Jesus goes away? And is that to our advantage too? How can Jesus saying goodbye be a good thing?
This is the house I grew up in. Last weekend I walked barefoot in the yard, pushed my son on the swingset I had when I was his age, and pulled out of the driveway for the last time. After 33 years, my parents sold the house and our family said goodbye to the house and land we called home for all those years. It was the place of birthday parties and barbecues, arguments and reconciliations, and too many firsts to name. On that land we planted a garden and trees and a family and were nourished by the fruits of it all. Whenever I moved away, it was the place I knew I could always return to for a meal at the table, a bed, and fireball in the freezer. It was the best home a family could have.
If my parents had stayed, they would have been bound to take care of the yard. They would have been the farthest house away in our family. They would have collected more stuff (and there was no more space in the hoarder closest). All of that, in one way or another, would have limited them on how they spent their time and what they could do. Was it hard to say goodbye? Yes. But we reminded each other of the good things this meant for not only my parents, but for our family. They are now closer to more family and are the meeting place in between all the grandkids.
Now weekends can be less mowing, weeding, or mulching and more camping. Moving brought downsizing and getting rid of stuff that had accumulated over 3 decades. Saying goodbye will hopefully give my parents a freedom they have not known for quite some time and could not have had if they stayed. The promises of moving outweighed the good of staying. And that right there, helps me understand just a bit more of how Jesus’ leaving was not only to the advantage of the disciples, but for us too.
It is easy for us to overlook the fact that when Jesus was on earth, he was human, fully human. He had a body just like you and I, which means he had limitations, just like you and I. We see these limitations throughout his ministry: he grows tired and takes naps; he gets hungry and thirsty; he can’t be there for everyone who needs him, like when his friend Lazuras died. Jesus was constrained by the physical and spacial limits that come with being incarnate, with having a body, and with being human.
We know what it's like to have limitations too: limits to what our bodies can do and what our minds can understand. There are only so many relationships we can balance, stress we can handle, or fear we can face. And while it may seem like the way to overcome a limit is to work harder or to push past it, Jesus shows us that it’s quite the opposite.
The truth in this goodbye is that Jesus must leave. But the promise in this goodbye, the promise of Pentecost, is that Jesus will give all disciples the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Helper. Which means Jesus is no longer limited to a body. Instead, as the Holy Spirit, Jesus would be at work in multiple people, in multiple places, all at the same time. And where one part of the Trinity is at work, there the entirety of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is at work also. In other words, as one Rob Saler puts it, “When you get the Spirit, you get all of Christ.”
Here’s one example of how that’s good news for us. Today is First Communion Sunday for 11 of our young partners in mission. They spent a Saturday morning with me learning what this meal is, and what it does. One of, if not the hardest thing to explain, is that as Lutherans we believe that Jesus is really present in the bread and wine at communion. That’s what makes this regular bread and wine special, Jesus is truly “in, with and under the bread.”
It’s not that the bread becomes Jesus' body as in you get a piece of a finger or part of the leg when you eat the bread. That’s not how this works. Because Jesus is no longer limited to a body, to being human, Jesus, by way of the Holy Spirit, is really present at this table and every table, wherever people are gathered to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of him, giving us love and grace and forgiveness, here and now.
Jesus knew that the answer to his limitation meant saying goodbye to the disciples, to his friends. But, ironically, only in his leaving would he be able to come closer not only to the disciples, but to all people in every land.
We too have limitations and must say goodbye to some things in order to be who we are called to be, and to do what we are called to do. Maybe it's time to make that move, quit that job, end that relationship, drop that grudge, let go of your pride, or money, or fear. I’m not saying it’s easy.
Goodbyes are hard. But Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, an Advocate, a Helper to guide us in whatever comes after the goodbye. All that you will need for this new life, for life after the goodbye, the Spirit will give: strength in our weakness, prayers when we have none, and comfort along the way.
That’s the promise of Pentecost.
Amen.
