The Spirit of Truth: A Meditation on John 16 for the 5th Sunday in Easter

I have yet many things to say unto you,

but ye cannot bear them now.

 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,

he will guide you into all truth:

for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear,

that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine,

and shall shew it unto you.

All things that the Father hath are mine:

therefore said I, that he shall take of mine,

and shall shew it unto you.

 

There are few texts of Scripture that have been abused as regularly and to such great ill effect as our Lord’s words here in the 16^th chapter of John’s Gospel.  Heretics both old and new have leaned on the idea that while some people just couldn’t bear to hear the truth of God in their respective times or places, a time would come when the Spirit would reveal God’s truth fully: usually to them, and often for a tidy profit.  Whether it was the ancient heretics who declared their new revelations that Jesus wasn’t really God, or wasn’t really man, or didn’t really die, or didn’t really rise from the dead, or that there was no Vicarious Atonement for the sins of the world, or that Jesus only really intended to save a special few, or that moral law was no longer binding on Christians, or that Mosaic law was what saved Christians from hell, or that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were not really One God in Three Persons, or an endless variation on adding or subtracting from Scripture, presumptive prophets have often relied on the notion that Jesus was just now giving His full truth to them because the rest of us just couldn’t take it any earlier.  This is, of course, a convenient way for people who want to sell books or promote their own causes, but it is worlds away from what Jesus actually said.

 

One of the many ways we know Jesus never intended His words in John 16 to inspire this kind of mess, is by closely reading His Words in the context which He gave them.  Like so many of Jesus’ teachings, there is both an immediate and primary audience to His words, as well as a secondary or extended audience.  In the first case, the primary audience is Jesus’ disciples who were about to witness His betrayal, mock trial, brutal crucifixion, and eventually His resurrection on the third day.  In that specific moment, with those specific Disciples, there was only so much Jesus could teach them that they could bear to hear, and that they would need to know in sustaining them for the dark days ahead.  But there was also the direct promise to those Disciples that Jesus would send the Spirit of Truth (the Holy Spirit) to guide them into the whole truth.  That very specific promise was fulfilled after the resurrection, and the events leading up to and through Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit descended upon the Disciples like tongues of fire and inspired them to preach the Gospel with power and conviction.  The Disciples, then sent to proclaim faith and repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name to every person under heaven, became His Apostles.

 

Not only did those Apostles travel in missionary journeys, perform miracles, preach in cities across the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and as far as Europe and Asia, but they wrote down their witness to the truth in Gospels and Epistles and Revelations.  They weren’t the only ones writing and teaching during this time, but they were the authoritative witnesses of Jesus’ teaching, so their words held greater weight.  In fact, their words held the weight of divine authority, because Jesus promised to guide them into all necessary truth by the power of His Holy Spirit, and thus their writings became the rule (or canon) of the Church, gathered together with the authoritative writings of the ancient Hebrew Prophets who came before them.  The same Holy Spirit who inspired Moses and David and Isaiah, also inspired John and Peter and Paul, which is why there is such supernatural harmony between their writings and their testimony of the Messiah.  No other book, or collection of books, covers such a broad expanse of time and place and culture and authors with one central theme of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, calling all people to turn from evil and embrace life by grace through faith in Him alone.  No other rule or canon of faith holds the same authority or credence, because the Prophets and Apostles of Jesus are unique in their inspiration, as well as their focus, on the One God who comes to mankind to seek and to save the lost.

 

In the secondary sense, Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit’s guidance is also for every Christian who has come since.  But that promise to us is that He will guide us into the Word which He has already given us by His Prophets and Apostles.  We should not be looking for divine revelations that add to or subtract from the Word which has already been given to us by the fulfillment of His direct promise, though we should expect God to keep drawing us toward faith in Jesus through His revealed Word.  The role of the Church after the Apostolic Age has been to listen to the Holy Spirit as He guides us into His Word, not to presume ourselves over it, or to arrogate to ourselves the role of new prophets and apostles.  Ours is a call to faith in every Word which proceeds from the mouth of God, knowing that the Word of God written is a sure testimony to the Word of God Incarnate, Jesus Christ our Savior.  Even in our Confirmation services where we bless and call down the Holy Spirit upon those who proclaim the Apostolic Faith which they have learned through study of the Scriptures, the role of the Holy Spirit is to stir up the unique gifts of each professing Christian that they might serve in faith and power through that same living Word of God.

 

Hear Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit come to you this day, that your faith in Him might be guided and fulfilled in the Eternal Word of God.  Be freed from the tyrannical confusion of trying to come up with new words or novel methods or contrived ideas that can have no lasting value, that you might rest in His Everlasting Gospel.  May the Word of the Living God, proclaimed through the centuries by His Prophets and Apostles and testified to by saints and martyrs in every age, enliven and empower you to rise up in faith through that Word, and become witnesses of Jesus in your own time and place. Amen.