John 14:15-21
Sixth Sunday of Easter - 21 May 2017
Rev. John Derme
When I was in college I had a professor who had been an orphan as a child. Sometimes he would tell stories from his life when being an orphan actually came in handy. For instance, during his younger years, he had traveled extensively in Europe. Whenever he needed help, he always knew that he could sit down on his suitcase and put the orphan look on his face, and invariably someone would stop to help him with whatever he needed. It was hilarious, because even as an old man telling the story, he would put that orphan look on his face, and you just wanted to go give him a hug.
I am glad that, later in life, he could laugh about being an orphan. The truth is that being an orphan really isn’t very funny at all. It’s actually very sad. Orphans are children who have lost their parents, the people who are supposed to love and take care of them. They may feel like they have been abandoned and that nobody loves them. Do you know what it feels like to be an orphan? I hope not. Yet even if you have never been an orphan, chances are that during your life, you have felt abandoned and alone.
Last Sunday we heard the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples as he was preparing them for his death on the cross, resurrection from the dead, and ascension into heaven. He encouraged them to trust in him, and assured them that he was the way to God the Father. That was good news. Yet I can still imagine their objection if that was all that Jesus had said: "How can we follow you to the Father if you are leaving us?" When Jesus said, “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. … Where I am going, you cannot come” he may as well have been dropping them off at the orphanage, because they felt like they were being abandoned.
Can you imagine how the disciples felt? Have you ever felt like Jesus has left you as an orphan? This world can feel like a terrible orphanage, with the devil and our sinful nature as foster parents. We get angry if we hear in the news or see a movie about foster parents mistreating orphans. The devil and our sinful nature are that despicable. They abuse us, causing sadness and trouble and pain in our lives. They mistreat us, bringing temptation to greed and lust and hate. They work so hard to get us to sin, and as soon as they succeed they taunt and tease us about what we’ve done, saying, “No wonder Jesus abandoned you with all the bad things you’ve done. How could he love you?”
We don’t want to believe them, because we know that they are liars and they hate us. Yet after all their abuse and manipulation, after we fall into their temptation and they point out all our faults, they sometimes get us to wonder whether Jesus has abandoned us. “Does he love me at all? Do I really love him?” Sometimes it seems that we are nothing but a bunch of helpless, forsaken orphans. And that is what we deserve to be, especially if we think that the Lord who died to rescue us from the devil, the world, and our sinful nature would leave us as orphans to them. Truly we deserve to be abandoned, never to see Jesus’ smile; only to feel his anger when he returns on the Last Day.
But Jesus says, “I will not leave you as orphans.” He says, “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.” No matter what the devil and your sinful nature tell you, Jesus is your counselor, who stands beside you and helps you and comforts you. And Jesus knows another counselor who will stand beside you and help you and comfort you and be with you forever: the Holy Spirit.
In fact, you already have experience with this other counselor. “[Y]ou know him, for he lives with you…” You first met this counselor when he came into your heart and brought you to faith. Although we deserve to have Jesus bring us to the orphanage and say “goodbye,” Jesus has brought the Holy Spirit to us, who says “hello” through the Word and sacraments. This Holy Spirit introduced himself to you when you first heard the gospel or when you were baptized. Although you didn’t want to believe it, because you were content to believe the lies of the devil and the sinful nature, the Spirit of truth taught you the truth about Jesus. He taught you the truth that Jesus died to rescue you from the ones who tried to make you an orphan and hurt you. He taught you the truth that Jesus won forgiveness for you for every time you followed your sinful nature into temptation and believed the devil’s lies. The Spirit of truth has taught you the truth about Jesus’ love for you, despite the fact that you have doubted that love. The Holy Spirit tells you that you are not an orphan. You are God’s child.
And Jesus has promised that this Holy Counselor brings still another gift when he lives in us. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, and you also will live.” The world saw Jesus as he walked on earth, but since his death and ascension, it has not seen him at all. We however, who are members of Christ’s church, still see him. How will we see him? “Because I live!” Jesus says. Not only did he rise from the dead, but he is the life itself, as we heard him say last week: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” And he is the one who gives us life. We may feel like we’re not quite as lucky as the ones who got to witness him prove that he is the life when he rose from the dead. But Jesus says that the way we have witnessed him, through his Word, is every bit as reliable and convincing as the eye-witness of those who saw him. We cannot see him with our own two eyes, because he removed his physical presence from the earth when he ascended. But he did that, so that he could come and live in you. He has not left us as orphans. He said, “I am coming to you.” No, he was not talking about coming on the Last Day. We see him, because he has already come to us. The Spirit of truth has brought him to us!
The Spirit of truth brings Jesus to you every time you hear his Word taught in its truth. When you hear that Word of God, it is Jesus who is telling you about his love for you. The Holy Spirit brings Jesus to you every time you receive his sacraments. When you were baptized, it was Jesus who was coming to live in your heart. He told you, “I’ve got good news. You are no orphan left to the devil. You belong to me.” When you receive the Lord’s Supper, it is Jesus who is tapping you on your tongue and telling you, “Remember that forgiveness that I won on the cross? It is for you. And it has paid for every time that you doubted my promise not to leave you. I’ll give you the strength to trust my promises.”
“On that day,” Jesus says, “you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” When God the Holy Spirit brings God the Son into our hearts through his Word and sacraments, God the Son brings us to his Father. Because of Jesus’ work through the Holy Spirit, we have entered a beautiful fellowship with the three persons of our one Triune God. With God in us and us in God, what can the devil, the world, and our sinful nature do to us? They cannot make us orphans. We already have a loving Father.
With God the Father’s great love for us and his plan to rescue us; with God the Son’s death, resurrection, and return to live in us; with God the Holy Spirit’s bringing us to faith and bringing Jesus to us, our Triune God has certainly earned our love. And in our lesson, Jesus tells us a way that we can show our love: “If you love me, obey my commands.”
When the devil and your sinful nature try to make you feel like Jesus has left you in this world as an orphan, tell them that Jesus died and rose for you. Tell them about how he ascended into heaven for you. Tell them that Jesus lives in you. Tell them that he loves you, and you love him. Tell them all about those things that the Holy Spirit has taught you. And know in your heart that you are never abandoned. Jesus does not leave you as orphans… he sends the Spirit to you.