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.”
Jesus is having dinner with his closest friends for the last time. It’s like he’s on his deathbed and is trying to tell them all the things they need to know before he’s gone: final instructions, things to prepare for when he’s gone, things to instill any hope that might survive seeing their friend hung on a tree and placed in a tomb. So Jesus washed their feet, telling them that this life they are called to, the mission before them is not about being better than someone else or gaining power, but humbly serving any and all people.
The disciples likely appeared confused by Jesus’ strange act of service, so Jesus tried to spell it out plainly for them by giving a simple, new commandment: “love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another”. It’s as if Jesus is saying, this is what’s most important, of all the teachings, all the lessons, all the miracles and signs I’ve done thus far, this is what matters most: love. Loving others just as I have loved you.
At about this time, the disciples are catching on to the fact that Jesus is trying to tell them something that is really hard and really important. They began questioning Jesus, “where are you going? Why can’t we go too, we’ve gone everywhere with you for three years now”.
Jesus tried to give them some reassurance in our reading from last week, “Trust me, there is plenty of room in my Father’s house and I’ll prepare a place for you. You’ll join me eventually, you already know the way there!”
None of this is making sense to the disciples, so, as Pastor Mark pointed out last week, they start to ask questions that only show they're not getting it. You can imagine the worry wrangling their faces. It makes me wonder if throughout the course of this dinner, if Jesus stopped and said to himself, “they just aren’t getting it. They are confused and anxious. What is it I need to tell them, what do they need to hear…”
Put yourself in the disciples shoes… At this dinner, their closest friend is trying to tell them that something awful, but necessary, is about to happen. This person who had been their guide showing them where to go, their teacher telling them how to live and love, their comforter in the midst of the grief, the leader and co-worker in the mission they’ve shared: he’s been their confidant, their companion, their encourager; he’s fed them, protected them, he’s been their help in times of need. He’s been their advocate; And now he’s leaving.
Maybe you know what that feels like, to have lost someone who played such a vital role in your life? To be told that this person would be with you no longer? What did you need to hear from them? Or what do you wish they said that gave some hope for life after them?
I imagine Jesus asked himself these questions and what he settled on is what we hear in today’s gospel reading.
He starts by saying again, what is most important, to keep his commandment, that commandment that's simple to understand, yet not at all simple to do, love one another as Jesus did. It’s hard to tell though if he is pleading or more demanding here. Each of us might hear that line differently. Regardless of how you hear it, you don’t take lightly the instructions someone gives on their deathbed.
Jesus knows this and he knows that his disciples will try to keep this commandment and love as he did. They’ll try to follow his teachings and share them. They will try to be a guide to others, comforters to those grieving, leaders of this mission; all the things that Jesus was, they will try to be.
But Jesus also knows that they would fail. That no matter how hard they would try or how determined and impassioned they were, they’d fall short of being the advocate for others that Jesus was for them. And for anyone who has tried to do that or be that, this comes as no surprise.
Fortunately, Jesus follows up this plea or command with a promise, a gift that would lessen their worry, ease their anxiety, and give them hope for the rough times ahead: another Advocate. “God will give you another Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be with you forever”. Now this is not the same Advocate; the Holy Spirit and Jesus are not the same. But we know they are a lot alike because both are advocates. Which means the Holy Spirit will also be a Helper, a comforter, a protector; someone who stands up for them in their need; one who gives them words and a voice, one who helps and walks beside them when no one else will, just like Jesus was.
And to give even more reassurance, this advocate will be with the disciples forever, not leaving them orphaned, but rather giving them Jesus real presence to dwell inside them all the rest of their days. Is there anything more or better or hopeful or grace-full than that promise? A promise that Jesus has already made good on.
But you might say, “how do I know Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to us? I’ve never seen it… Jesus never breathed on me like he did the disciples”? Well, I would ask, have you seen someone give food to another who’s hungry? Or water to those who are thirsty? Have you seen someone stand up for people who are looked down upon? Or act justly and generously to those who are poor? Have you heard someone use their voice to cry out for those who can’t cry out? Or work to heal and comfort the sick?
Then you have seen the Holy Spirit! Whenever you see someone being an advocate for someone else, that’s the Holy Spirit at work helping people love like Jesus. And if that’s ever been you, then be assured that our Advocate abides in you, just as Jesus promised.
On this mother’s day, it is right to lift up or remember the women and mothering figures in our own lives who act or have acted as advocates: This morning I think of Ann Jarvis, the mother who inspired Mother's day. Ann was an activist and community organizer from West Virginia.
She had an ardent passion for meeting the needs of her community. In 1858, Ann began Mothers’ Day Work Clubs that focused on improving health and sanitary conditions for women and families. These clubs spread throughout Appalachia, providing assistance and education to families, raising money for medicine that poorer families couldn't afford. She visited households on horseback, going to places few others were willing to, to see if she could help reduce diseases and infant mortality, problems that plagued the region.
When the Civil War broke out, Jarvis gathered teams of women to provide medical and spiritual aid to any and all soldiers. After the war, when her community was fraught with conflict, Jarvis became a peacekeeper and reconciler, holding Friendship Days for the mothers of soldiers from both sides of the war. And throughout her entire life, Ann was a devout Methodist committed to not only teaching Sunday School, but teaching others how to teach Sunday School.
Ann was an advocate to countless other mothers and women; she protected them, taught them, tended to them when they were ill, fed them when they were hungry, and did whatever she could to love like Jesus. Brunch and flowers and what not are great, but celebrating the real spirit of mother’s day is being an advocate like Ann and caring for those for whom no one else is.
Who are we advocates for here at Cross of Grace? Who do we stand behind, speak up for, walk beside, or for whom should we? Who’s been that person for you? Give thanks for them today, and then go be that advocate for someone else. Amen.
