PERPLEXED!

“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens so that, when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Come now, let us leave.” John 14:28-31.

Imagine the disciples reclining around the supper table, listening to Jesus. What was He on about? Obviously something sinister was about to happen, but they could not figure out what it was. He kept talking about “going away”. Where was He planning to go?

Although things did get a bit hot at times, especially when He spoke bluntly to the religious leaders, making them really mad with Him, the disciples were enjoying their association with their rabbi. It was better than the monotony of fishing except when He came by and the fish came to them as though He were out there inviting them into their nets.

Life was quite exiting. Apart from His teaching, the like of which these men had never heard, Jesus did so many unexpected things, like walking on water and calling a decaying corpse out of the tomb, that every day brought new thrills. Never a dull moment when Jesus was around! And then they even got to do miracles now and then although they were not as good at it as He was.

All in all, it was a good life, so what was all this talk about suffering and going away? To make matters worse, they were supposed to be happy that He was going away! How could they be happy when He was the centre of their lives? If He left, their lives would fall apart. They would have to go back to where they left off before He intruded, and that was unthinkable after three years of walking with Him. They could never go back and be who they were before; but they could never go on without Him either.

Was Jesus upset because these men were so uncomprehending that all He got was blank stares? It seems not because He persevered with them, knowing that His words were being stored away in their minds for the day when the light would come on. It was His task to prepare them before the time so that, when it happened, they would know exactly what He was talking about during those hours in the Upper Room.

Where was Jesus going? According to Him, back to the Father. But He was still young. Why leave now? However, although Jesus was fully man, His life on earth had a different purpose from all other people. He was sent from the Father; He had a mission to accomplish; when He had completed what He had come to do, He would return to the Father. Rather than having a lifespan to live out on earth, He could go home when His work was done.

There was a sense in which He came to start something which He could not continue because it was not His job. He could not live within people. That would be the work of the Holy Spirit. He had to make way for the Holy Spirit once His part of the plan had been accomplished. If He did not return to the Father after His work was done, the Holy Spirit could not be sent to do in those who believed in Him what He had done through Jesus during His years on earth as a man.

Jesus would return, not in person and not yet. He would send the Spirit as His “other self” to indwell believers and empower them to “be” Jesus to the world. Jesus would come again in person in due time but, in the interim, it would be the work of the Spirit to continue what He had begun.

At this point, none of His disciples understood the plan. They simply listened because their rabbi was talking to them. Later on, however, when it happened, they would remember this moment and the words that puzzled them now, and they would believe.

Jesus said to them, in effect…

“And, by the way, all the stuff that is about to happen has got nothing to do with me. It’s the devil’s stuff, not mine. Cheer up! He can’t touch me. All that will happen is that the world out there that refuses to believe who I am, will finally get it that I did this for the Father because I love Him.  To show it, I did exactly what He told me to do. Nothing more, nothing less! Now, let’s be going.”

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.