Easter 5
Jn
16:5-15
5/18/25
I am going away. As you know, Lord willing I will be going to South
Sudan in July to teach about Paul’s letter to the Galatians at the Lutheran
seminary there. I will be in Africa for
three weeks teaching basically all day each week day. I have also learned that I will be preaching
each Sunday that I am there, along with leading the students in a discussion of
the texts assigned for each Sunday. So while I am sure that it will be a very
interesting and rewarding experience, I am certainly not going to describe it
as a “vacation.” I am going to be
working rather hard.
The trip itself will have been the result of a great deal of work
done in preparation for it. I have been working with Galatians to get ready to
teach. I had to arrange the specific schedule when I would arrive, teach, and
then leave so that it fits with their school schedule and also the timing of
when flights go from the capital Juba to Yambio where the seminary is located.
There has been the need to obtain a visa to get into South Sudan, and to
receive the necessary immunizations. I have had to make arrangements for a
pastor at Good Shepherd while I am gone, and for emergency pastoral care if
needed. Sometimes it has seemed as if I have done more work preparing to go
than I will actually do while I am there.
In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus tells his disciples that
he is going away. He tells them ahead of
time, even though at the moment they can’t understand what he means. Our Lord says that his departure is actually
a good thing for them – and for us. This
is because he will send the Helper – the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel lessons during the latter portion of the Easter season
come from John chapters fifteen and sixteen.
These are words that Jesus spoke to his disciples on the evening of
Maundy Thursday. They are words that Jesus spoke to the disciples as the group
was on its way to the Garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus begins our text by saying, “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.” He says that he is leaving. He is going to him who sent our Lord.
As you know, John’s Gospel does not
include an account of Christ’s conception and birth. John certainly discusses this, but in a very
different way. He begins by talking
about the Word – about the Son, the second person of the Trinity. He says, “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through
him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
We learn that the Word – the Son – is
God. He was at work in the creation of all things. And then John tells us that
the Son entered our world. He says, “And the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his
glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace
and truth.” The Son of God became man without ceasing to be God. True God
and true man, he was present in our world.
Jesus Christ shares in our flesh. But
he is also the One who is completely different from us. We hear in this Gospel,
“He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly
way. He who comes from heaven is above all.” Our Lord is the One who
has come from heaven. As we confess in
the Nicene Creed he is the One, “who for us men and for our salvation came down
from heaven.”
Christ says in our text that he is
going to the One who sent him. This fact, that the Father sent him, is
something that Jesus emphasizes again and again. The Father sent him, and he is here to carry
out Father’s will. This is true of what Jesus does. In chapter six, Jesus declares,
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the
will of him who sent me.” This is
true of what Jesus says. Our Lord said during Holy Week, “For I have not
spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given
me a commandment--what to say and what to speak. And I know that his
commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has
told me.”
The Son of God came down from heaven
to carry out the will of the Father. The
Father’s will was to deliver us from sin, death, and eternal damnation. Since
the sin of Adam we have been people who live in the ways of this fallen
world. We live lives that are guided by
the sin of this world instead of the will of God. John says in his first
epistle, “For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the
desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is
from the world.” Lust, jealousy,
coveting, anger – these are the things that often direct our actions. In our thoughts, words, and deeds, we sin
against the holy God.
But for us men and for our salvation
the Son came down from heaven as he was sent forth by the Father. Jesus said, “I
am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this
bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life
of the world is my flesh.” The Son of God became flesh to be nailed to a
cross. He was the Lamb of God sacrificed
to take away the sins of the world.
At the end of chapter three in this
Gospel we learn, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever
does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on
him.” To reject the Son – to refuse to believe in him – leaves a person under
God’s wrath and judgment. But to believe in Jesus means eternal life. It does
because Jesus did not remain dead. On
Easter, God raised him from the dead.
Now, because Jesus lives, we have eternal life. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal
life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to
life.” We have life with God now, and if our bodies die, Jesus will raise them
up on the Last Day. Our Lord went on to say, “"Truly, truly, I say to
you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will
hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For
as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have
life in himself.”
On the evening of Maundy Thursday, Jesus Christ knew that he would
die on the cross and rise from the dead. But he also knew that his course did
not end there. His resurrection was part of the upward movement by which he
would return to the Father. During his ministry Jesus said to the Jews who
opposed him, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to
him who sent me.” At the Last Supper, Jesus said to the disciples, “Little
children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as
I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot
come.’”
Jesus says in our text, “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.” Our Lord tells
the disciples that he will be returning to the Father. He speaks of his ascension, and acknowledges
that this announcement brings sorrow to the disciples.
However, our Lord says that his ascension is actually a good thing
for them – and for us. He states, “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.”
We learn that there is a progression in the sending by God that
works for our salvation. The Father sent the Son in the incarnation to die on
the cross and rise from the dead. Now, risen and ascended, the Son sends forth
the Spirit. The Son does this because he has been glorified – he has completed
the work the Father gave him to do. Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let
him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the
Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living
water.’” Then John explains, “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom
those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not
been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Risen and ascended, Jesus has been glorified. And he has sent forth
the Spirit. Our Lord refers to the Spirit as the Helper. The Greek term used
here is Paraclete. This is a difficult word to translate and is often rendered
as Helper, Comforter, or Counselor. In
our text, Jesus explains how the Spirit will help and comfort us. He says, “I still have many things to say to
you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he
will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own
authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you
the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is
mine and declare it to you.”
The Spirit guides us into all truth, because Jesus is the way, the
truth, and the life. He is the Helper – the Comforter – because he points us to
Jesus. He takes what belongs to Jesus –
the saving work that he has accomplished – and makes it known to us.
Of course, the work that Jesus has carried out is the will of the
Father. Our Lord said during Holy Week,
“Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees
me sees him who sent me.” That is why
Jesus says in our text, “All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said
that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
The Spirit is the One who has called us to faith in Jesus
Christ. He gave us new life as we were
born again of water and the Spirit in baptism.
The Spirit is the Helper – the Comforter – who continues to lead us in
faith. He takes what belongs to Jesus
and makes it known to us. He has given us new life in Christ, and he sustains
this life.
A little earlier, Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and he
will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the
Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees
him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in
you.” The Spirit dwells in us so that we
can continue to walk by faith as those who have eternal life. He does so as we look for the day when our
Lord returns in glory – the day when the dead will hear the voice of the
Son of God, and those who hear will live.
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