I truly appreciate how John 14 starts out. The NIV titles the section “Jesus comforts his disciples” and it’s honestly exactly what he does, and exactly what they need. Jesus just dropped a couple bombs on them, with the prediction of his betrayal and the prediction of Peter’s denial. You can imagine how they feel following that instance, and Jesus follows it up with some words that they probably needed more than anything in that moment.
It’s interesting how Jesus addresses the Holy Spirit in this chapter. He informs his disciples that they will join him in Heaven, and he stresses that the only way to Heaven is through him. However, that section doesn’t quite grasp my attention as much as 15-31. “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.”
Compare that verse with today’s society. Where are we in our walk with God, as a society? Not very good, right? That could be because the world cannot accept him. We can’t see him. We don’t know him. We know that God is the Almighty. Yahweh. The King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. We know that Jesus is the Son of God. He is the way, the truth, and the life. But who is the holy spirit? We don’t know him, and we can’t see him, so how do we trust him?
For people that literally uprooted their lives and gave up everything to follow Jesus, I feel like he spent a lot more time trying to make the disciples believe in him than he should have had to. Throughout John we’ve seen more than a few examples of Jesus doing things a certain way so that they would believe in him. In 29, he says “I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.” It makes me think of how fragile our faith can be sometimes. I spoke in my previous blog post about believing before or after seeing Jesus’ miracles and how we don’t have the benefit of watching him perform those miracles in today’s world. Jesus did everything he could when he was on this earth to help his disciples believe, so that they can pass that belief (and eternal life) on to the next generation.
Are we wielding our faith in the manner it’s supposed to be in order to share that with others? Or are we allowing it to fall apart in the midst of turmoil because we’ve forgotten who he is and what he did? Being a Christian isn’t easy, and it’s not intended to be easy. We have to pay attention and focus on our faith. Sometimes we’ll stumble. We should strive not to, but sometimes it’ll happen. When it does, it’s crucial that we maintain our belief and find ourselves back on God’s path for our lives. We’re the disciples now, and it’s our turn to pass our faith and knowledge of eternal life and God’s love on to others.
Today's Contributing Author: Josh Litscher
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