So your man, Philip, pointed out what they needed and what the rest of us have to have. They were so messed in their minds with all this talk that last night. You just kept talking and talking and talking, and it was impossible to figure out where you were going with it. Talk of leaving and not really leaving, sending a Helper of sorts. Just get over it and show us what would really close this deal. Show us your Father, as you say. Give us God, for heaven’s sake!

There they were on that last night, and his best friends still had nearly no clue. To be fair, they were under pressure watching all they thought they were going to do fall apart. Their leader kept saying he was going away and had been acting weird like when he washed their feet. When life takes one of these abrupt turns you don’t see coming, how can you expect any sane person to think clearly? This wasn’t supposed to be!

Yet, step back, and Phillip’s demand is no different from what people think, from what they want today. Jesus feels it now as much as then. In short, Philip leads the crowd that would keep God way off in some unreachable heaven and put Jesus in the role of nice guy who called on his “Father” and pointed the way.

God Revealed

“Don’t you even know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you?” His frustration wasn’t to the point of despair, but close. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” Get it? Jesus is God. God is Jesus. He said it as plain as you can make it. And he repeated it. “Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

Sit with that. Sit with these twelve followers. Sit with yourself, not what you think makes sense or what you’ve been told. Sit. Jesus is God. God is Jesus. God/Jesus in human flesh was right there with them. What does that tell you about God?

Let it break through the cracks in your soul. God is not some stand-offish superpower that just lets the universe wind up or down as it will. God became a part of life, the kind of life we know in the moment. That’s what Jesus had been trying to show them, that’s what all the miracles were about. God came to get down in the good and bad of life, to know the joys, the grief and all the stuff in between, and most of all to let those of us who still are clueless know we are not alone in it.

What’s more, Jesus invites those who would live as his representatives to carry on what he did, to feed, to heal, to advocate for justice with the same mercy we all lean on, to love your neighbor as yourself. Just ask for what Jesus would want, for “thy will be done” as his ancient prayer requests, and he promises to be behind it.

If You Love Me, Obey My Commandments.

Dear Jesus, if I may. IF? That’s another one of those loaded words on both our parts. IF can mean something that’s conditional, or whenever, or even though, or whether (or not). “If I may,” is a way of asking, “Allow me”. Somehow, I don’t think you’re asking permission in saying this. You’re putting out two things, love and rules.

Commandments sound like they are orders. Do this or else. Prefacing it with Love shows it doesn’t have to come off that way. Jesus always offers choice, not insisting on it, not forcing someone into it. Think of it like this though: when there is Love, the relationship becomes a meeting of purpose, value, direction. This isn’t mere admiration or affection. This is a union. Jesus offers that choice.

New Truth

You don’t give promises here that life will be grand if we do. But you do promise a Counselor/Advocate whom you call Holy Spirit. And you say that Spirit will lead into truth. Oh good, just what we need. Another proclamation of supposed facts coming from a holy spin doctor with slick marketing, fear-based fake news, and interference from both internal sources and a foreign state. You say the world doesn’t recognize this Spirit. Oh, but we do. We’ve seen this thing before. Happens all the time.

Again. Step back. Don’t even think this is “truth” out there as seen on the internet, cable tv, social media platforms, podcasts, and blogs (please allow one exception with that last one.) This truth comes from Jesus’ own Spirit. When Love is mutual, this Spirit is internal, something beyond conscience, really the essence of the soul. That’s the kind of truth of which Jesus speaks. Not an esoterical, philosophical, universe-beyond-me kind of thing, but instead a truth of one’s core self revealed in oneness with God/Jesus/Spirit.

Love Powered

Those gathered around him that last night heard Jesus say this, but they were feeling abandoned. Without his presence daily before them, how could they carry on? Grief was beginning to settle in even now, and loss would consume them despite what the last three years had been in following him.

Grief needs to be met with an understanding that purpose in living continues and expands beyond what can be seen in the moment. Jesus understood. He met their lostness with an assurance that they would not be alone. Because of their Love for him, God would provide this Counselor, Advocate, a continuation in Spirit of who they knew Jesus to be as God. Not an absence of Jesus among them, but an extended understanding of his presence among them and for any who choose to follow.

Their Counselor would teach them, clarify for them what they had learned from Jesus. Beyond the teaching though, they would be reminded of even more, their understanding deepened by the extent of Jesus’ Love in life, in dying, and in living again. All is made possible by the power of that Love desired for and given by the fullness of God as Creator, Lover, and Spirit.

John 14:8-17, 25-27

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The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away  by Constance Hastings

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