Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (John
16:5-15)
Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go
away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
Prayer: Let
the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Can you imagine what it would have been like to have lived in the
first century AD and met Jesus face to face? Can you imagine what it would have
been like to have been one of the 12 disciples, and to have talked with Jesus
and asked him questions about things, and shared a meal with him? What do you
think you would like to have asked him? What burning question would you like to
put to him, and what do you think he might have said?
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus is gathered together with his 12
disciples after the Lord’s Supper. This is the night before Good Friday: Maundy
Thursday or Holy Thursday night, as we sometimes call it. So many significant
things happened on this night. (1) Jesus has washed the disciples feet: he has
shown his apostles what sort of a leader and good shepherd he is in the church,
one that bends down and lovingly wipe the dirt of the feet of those who hear him,
and shares in their pain and suffering with
them. (2) He has shared the first Lord’s Supper with his disciples. Jesus
said to them: “I have earnestly desired to share the Passover with you before I
suffer.” He says: “I have been waiting with burning joy to be able to come
together with you and establish this Holy Supper, this precious meal, with
you.” (3) He has prepared for his suffering singing a song of praise together
with his disciples. We read in Matthew and Mark that before Jesus went to the
Mount of Olives, he sung a hymn with his disciples. He put a song on their
lips, so that when they would come together as a church they would always sing,
bearing in mind that music was God’s idea in the first place, and that when
they are in God’s presence they sing, just as one day they will sing together
with all the saints and angels in heaven. (4) Judas has gone out to betray him.
(5) Later on, Jesus will pray for his disciples, and for his church in the
future. (6) And then Jesus will go to the Mount of Olives, and pour out his
heart to God in such a way that he even sweats blood, and then is betrayed and
arrested and taken away in chains.
And so, here we are, in the church year, after Easter, reading
together this gospel from this Maundy Thursday night. The disciples don’t know
that Jesus is going to die. But Jesus knows. He knows that he will pour out his
life on the cross the very next day. What do you think Jesus is going to do
when he knows that he’s going to die the very next day? He teaches them, he
strengthens them, he encourages them.
And so we read: But now I am
going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But
because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
There has never been a group of people so close, and so friendly, and
wonderful to be part of as that group of people, as those disciples, gathered
together with Jesus on that night, and there will never be anything like it in
the history of the world to come. It’s almost impossible to imagine! And Jesus
speaks to them about the future, he prophesies to them that this little
community is going to come to an end. And the disciples have got some sense
that this is the case, they have twigged and cottoned on that Jesus is going to
leave them, and they are so upset about it, that they don’t even feel like
asking Jesus about it.
And so Jesus says: Now I am
going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” But
because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for
if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send
him to you.
This community of people is the most wonderful community of people the
world has ever seen, and can ever imagine. And Jesus wants to bring it to an end.
Why? Because, he says, “I am going to him
who sent me”, “I am going to the
Father”. He says: It’s good for you. It’s to your advantage that I go away
and that our community of friendship comes to an end. It’s as if Jesus says to
them, “If I don’t go away, how am I going to suffer and die for you, and pay
for all your sins? How am I going to be the Lamb of God for you who takes away
the sin of the world, if I don’t go? How am I going to wash the feet of every
Christian for the next 2000 years and forgive them, if I’m stuck here with you?
How am I going to be able to pray for my church for all time, if I’m just here with
the twelve of you? How am I going to be in the Lord’s Supper with my body and
blood in every church throughout the world every Sunday, how am I going to pray
with all these people, how I am going to be with them always until the end of
the age, how I am going to apply my forgiveness to them personally, if the only
place I am to be found is in this upper room, just like I am tonight?
So Jesus says: enough of your crying. Enough of your sorrow. If I do not go away, the Helper will not
come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
Jesus says: I don’t just want to be present here with you now, I want
to be present in every church throughout the world and throughout history, and
give them the Holy Spirit myself. I don’t just want to send people on ahead to
my Father, I want to welcome them when they come. And I will send you the Holy
Spirit to prepare many people to meet me in the next life, and then we can all
be together, covered in my blood and with your sins forgiven, and even closer
than we are now, with no more sorrow, no more tears, and no more weeping. Can’t
you see that it is good that I go to the Father? Can’t you see that my church
is going to be even more wonderful and glorious than what we have together now?
And here we are today, carrying on as Jesus if isn’t doing anything,
wondering what he’s doing with himself for the last 2000 years, wondering why
he wouldn’t hurrying up and do something about my problems, sitting in church
as if it’s boring and dull and that nothing ever happens. Enough sorrow, says
Jesus. You see, the fact that Jesus went away from the disciples then, means
that he can be here in our church today with you, his baptised brother and
sister, and walk with you and make his home in your heart. The fact that he
went away from his disciples then means that he himself can preach his wounds into our ears in the
power of the Holy Spirit, and that he himself can come and fill us with the Holy Spirit in the waters of baptism, and wash us
clean in his own blood, and pour out the Comforter, the Helper, the Holy Spirit
into our mouths and bodies as we come and eat his own body and drink his blood.
And so, on the night he was betrayed, he said to Peter and Andrew and John and
James and Thomas and all of them: “It is to your advantage that I go away.”
What a blessing it is that Jesus went to his Father! What a blessing it will be
when we follow him to his Father too! See how Jesus loves us with these words
today.
But he also says: “And when [the
Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness
and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning
righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;
concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
The church has one purpose: to prepare the world to meet our Lord
Jesus and to stand before him, by preaching the free forgiveness of our sins,
by making disciples through baptism and teaching, and by administering his Holy
Supper. And these things are not the work of Christians and pastors: they are the
work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in always working in the church to
bring comfort. “Comfort, comfort, my
people, says your God”, it says in Isaiah 40. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter,
the Helper.
So in order to build this community of the Holy Spirit, and to bring
about this holy fellowship of comfort and love and strength, the Holy Spirit
comes and does one thing: he convicts the
world.
Isaiah 40 again says: “A voice
says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and its beauty
is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades.”
Did you hear that? All flesh
is grass. The whole world is convicted!
No-one is left unscathed by the
convicting of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit holds up the 10 commandments
like a mirror in front of the faces of everyone
who has ever lived on this planet, and says: “Guilty!” You deserve to die!
40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed! All flesh is grass!
There is such thing as sin! There is such thing as righteousness!
There is such thing as judgment!
These convicting words are the voice of the Holy Spirit himself, and
it is the voice of Jesus Christ and his Father knocking on our doors and speaking
right into our hearts from the other side of the grave.
Jesus says: When [the Holy
Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and
judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning
righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;
concerning judgment, because the ruler of the world is judged.
Jesus says: concerning sin,
because they do not believe in me.
The great sin of the world is that they do not believe in Jesus. And
you wouldn’t believe in him either, if the Holy Spirit hadn’t come and
convicted you. Eternal life comes simply through trusting in Jesus. John 3:16: Whoever believes in Jesus will not die but
have eternal life. Jesus died for all the world’s sin, but at the same
time, he only died for one sin: our unbelief. Jesus is the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world: notice it says “sin”, not “sins”! When we put our trust in Jesus
and his death and his resurrection, then the sin of unbelief is ended, together
with every single other sin, and they are nailed to the cross. Jesus has gone
to the Father, and we see him no longer. We trust in him, and he is our righteousness.
And so Jesus says: the Holy Spirit will
convict the world concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you
will see me no longer.
And lastly, Jesus says: concerning
judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
The world will try it’s darndest, it will scrape and crawl, and make
every attempt to extinguish the fire of the church, and snuff out the clear
words of the Holy Spirit. The world will laugh at you every time you pray to a
man who’s name is a swear word. Even your flesh and your conscience will fight
against your faith. Never mind, says the Holy Spirit! Never mind, says your
risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! They are judged. The devil is judged. The
world is judged. Your flesh, your sin, your Old Adam, your evil and corrupted
self is drowned, drowned in baptism, skewered on the nails that went through
Jesus’ hands.
And in the meantime Jesus says to you: I am your righteousness! I tell
you: Your sins are forgiven, so take up your bed and walk! I am your
forgiveness. And now the Holy Spirit takes that forgiveness, and that righteousness,
that life that comes from my wounded hands, and that peace that comes from my
blood, and he declares it (and applies it) to you.
And that’s what it means to be part of a church! That’s what it means
to be a Christian! That’s why Jesus went to the Father. And aren’t you glad
that he did? Jesus said to his disciples: It
is to your advantage that I go away, for it I do not go away, the Helper will
not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
Amen.
Come, Holy Spirit, and speak into our ears the words of Jesus. Speak
into our ears his wounds and his blood. Speak into our ears his victory and his
resurrection. Speak into our ears and show us our sin, and turn our eyes to our
Saviour! Speak into our ears the forgiveness and righteousness of Christ! Speak
into our ears the judgment of the world, so that we may be strong and never be
afraid! Amen.
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