John 14:15–21

“If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”    (EHV)

Dear Friends in Christ,

When you were little did you ever get lost in a department store? Suddenly you didn’t see your mother! Maybe she was on the other side of the dress rack. Panic filled your little eyes. Now that you’re an adult you may not panic quite so easily. Or do you? Does your calm and collected exterior hide some major fears? Who of us doesn’t long back, now and then, to those simple childhood days when someone else did all the worrying? Who of us wouldn’t like to say now and again—silently of course—“I want my mommy!” or “I want my daddy!”? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to once again feel someone a lot bigger put his arms around us at times and tell us confidently, “It’s all going to be alright!”

That’s normal. It’s just what the disciples were thinking when Jesus spoke to them His calming words, “I Will Not Leave You As Orphans.”

He spoke those words to us, too. We are God’s children, and Jesus has not left us as fatherless orphans. We are not alone. He Promised Us the Holy Spirit, and He Promised to Come Back for Us.

The Holy Spirit Will Come

Jesus spoke these words to His disciples on Maundy Thursday, and soon He would be taken from them. Soon they would feel abandoned. He had just told them “I am going [to my Father’s house] to prepare a place for you.” I’m sure their countenances visibly fell at those words, even though that was and should have been a good and comforting promise. But they weren’t ready to give Jesus up. The last three years had changed their lives and filled them with meaning. For the first time since their childhood, they didn’t really have to worry, because Jesus always knew the right thing to do or the right words to say. He could even do miracles if needed to make everything work out just right! They couldn’t imagine Him not being with them.

Thomas had interjected, as you recall from last week’s Gospel lesson: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Those were the stressed-out words of a distraught man. True, Thomas was not known for the depth and magnitude of his faith. But the other disciples would be just as distressed in the days ahead as Jesus was arrested, tried, crucified, and finally sealed in the tomb!

We feel just as distraught at the thought of losing loved ones. When those who are near to us fall ill; when we ourselves fall ill; when loved ones depart ahead of us for the mansions of heaven we can feel all alone and abandoned. Other things can make us feel alone and abandoned, too. When some problem looms large over us: fear of job loss, unsettling family situations, the rapid and scary changes happening in our country, can make us feel like crawling under the covers, closing our eyes, and hoping we’ll wake up to find that some dear parent took care of everything, and it was only a bad dream. But then reality sinks in. It’s not a dream. ‘I really am on my own now. My parents aren’t there to tuck me in and tell me everything will be all right.’

But am I really on my own? Is there really no one to watch over me and take care of everything? No, we are not alone, on our own, if we trust what Jesus says to us in such firm and reassuring words. “I will not leave you as orphans. … I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—¹⁷ the Spirit of truth.”

As Peter reminds us in our Epistle Lesson, the Holy Spirit came to us in our baptism and saved us, by washing away our sins in Jesus’ blood and giving us a clean conscience before God. Just as God saved Noah and his family from the perishing world through the water of the flood, so God saved us through the water of baptism from the destruction of the world.

Jesus called the promised Holy Spirit the Advocate. Other translations use the word “Helper” and “Comforter” and “Counselor.”  The Greek word Jesus uses is “Parakleetos,” The word has been brought directly into our vocabulary as “Paraclete”—primarily through poetic Pentecost hymns. What does it mean? “Para” means “alongside” —arm over the shoulder. “Kleetos” means “he calls out.” The Counselor is the Holy Spirit who stands by our side and speaks out on our behalf as our Advocate and defense counsel. And while He has His arm around us He also talks to us and advises us. He offers us counsel and comfort. That’s why Jesus also calls Him “The Spirit of Truth.” The world cannot accept him, Jesus said, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

Because Jesus sent Him we are never alone. We have not been orphaned. No matter what comes our way—difficult trials of any and every kind, the loss of a loved one, family problems, job-related worries, economic difficulties—none of these things can overwhelm us, not unless we are spiritually alone. But we are not alone! The Apostle Paul wrote: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. …The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express….Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  (Romans 8:26, 27, 35, 37).

Jesus Will Come Back

Soon Jesus would be taken from the disciples—but not against His will. Jesus would let Himself be arrested that evening, because He needed to die for the sins of the world. That’s what He came for! Then He needed to reascend to take His place at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and govern all the affairs of the world so that His Gospel could spread out and people everywhere could be saved. If Jesus had stayed, He would have had twelve close friends. But because Jesus ascended, He now has hundreds of millions of friends.

What the disciples needed to know was that just because He was returning to the Father, He wasn’t abandoning them. Just because the church would spread and grow, He wouldn’t know them any less personally or love them any less intently as His friends. Just because they wouldn’t see Him, they wouldn’t be without Him. As He was about to ascend back to the Father, Jesus would say “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” But already, six weeks to the day earlier Jesus made them this solemn promise: ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

To make that promise all the more real for them, Jesus continued to appear to them during the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension. “You will see me,” He had said, and see Him they did. No, things weren’t the same. Jesus no longer walked dusty roads with them. Jesus no longer slept under the open sky with them. Jesus was glorified now. Things weren’t the same…. They were better! Now they understood Jesus had to die for their sins. Now they saw more fully how greatly He loves His friends. Now they saw even more clearly how He really is the almighty Son of God. Now they understood all the more what an awesome message Jesus was sending them into all the world to preach. Now they witnessed firsthand that the One who raised Himself from the dead had the power to come and raise them as promised on the Last Day.

Those promises were not just for the twelve. They were for us too! We’ve never gotten to see Jesus face to face—not yet anyway. But we know Him. We have seen Him by faith. He lives in our hearts. He still sits at the right hand of the Father for us. He governs the world for our benefit, so we—the Church—can carry out His commission to preach the Gospel to all nations. And He is still with us every day. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Jesus is with us to remove our loneliness. He will not leave us as orphans. Through the Word, Jesus comes to us and comforts us. Now, that last verse may trouble us a bit. That’s because every true Christian knows we break God’s commandments. Do we qualify as people who love Jesus? Are we qualified to be loved by Him and see Him? Of ourselves—no. But that isn’t the whole story, is it, because we know why Jesus came! He came “not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him should be saved.” He came to keep the commandments in our place and to pay for our many sins. In fact, the reason we love Jesus is because He first loved us and shed His blood for us on the cross. He lives to hear our confession and forgive us. He lives to fill us with love for Him and His commandments. True believers love His commandments so much that when we break them it makes us sad so that we flee to Him for refuge and relief. And He forgives us. When we have sinned, He reminds us that He wiped out each of our sins with His blood. When we go astray, He sends the Holy Spirit to us in His Word to lead us back to the right path. When we have doubts, the Holy Spirit reassures us of eternal truth. When we seem to have lost direction in our lives, He comes and reminds us just why we are here, namely to live to His glory, “always prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks [us] to give the reason for the hope that [we] have” (1 Peter 3:15). When we fear death He reminds us, “Because I live, you also will live.”  

It was Maundy Thursday, the night before the most significant three days in the history of the world, when Jesus spoke His promise, “I Will Not Leave You As Orphans.”  The disciples would wonder if Jesus had in fact abandoned them as orphans. But on Easter Sunday He came back to deliver on each of His promises, and the disciples would know He was orphaned and abandoned on the cross, so we would never be orphaned and abandoned by God. And now we know it is true. Jesus Will Never Leave Us or Forsake Us.

Sometimes life feels like a big department store and we like lost, little children. Those big isles—one after another—make us feel hopelessly lost and abandoned at times. Strangers block our path and we wonder “Where is my dear parent?! Did they leave me behind? Next, they’ll take me to the manager’s office. He’ll have the police pick me up. Then they’ll take me to the judge and then, just like that, I’ll be in an orphanage like David Copperfield or poor little Orphan Annie!”

Not to worry! Jesus says, “I Will Not Leave You As Orphans.”  When panic has set in for a hysterical lost child, suddenly mother appears around the corner, holds her little one and comforts her until the tears stop. She was there all along, right behind the women’s dresses. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are right there too. Don’t panic! Hear the arm-on-the-shoulder comfort of the Spirit and trust your best friend and Savior. Amen.