Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech.
Now we realize that you know everything
and that you do not need to have anyone question you.
Because of this we believe that you came from God.
Jesus had promised that the hour was coming when, "I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father" (see John 16:25). The disciples perhaps thought that Jesus was speaking of a difference between parable and metaphor on the one hand and direct statements of fact on the other. Jesus had just then been talking in a relatively straightforward manor about the Father from whom he came and to whom he was soon to go.
I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father (see John 16:28).
The disciples thought this was plain and clear enough that they now understood. So Jesus said he came from God? They could acknowledge that. He knew things that only the Father knew, and had a unique authority as a consequence of that? OK, sure, why not? And these incipient beliefs about Jesus were not wrong. He did come from the Father, did know all things, and did have a unique authority utterly unlike the scribes and Pharisees of his time. But these beliefs, when battle tested, would prove immature and insufficient.
Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now?
Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived
when each of you will be scattered to his own home
and you will leave me alone.
The disciples relationship with this knowledge they professed was like that of new Christians who know doctrine but have yet to live it out, who have head knowledge that may be correct, but who do not yet have heart knowledge. The hour Jesus promised, when his teaching would be clear, would come not because his mode of discourse changed from the symbolic to the literal. It would rather come when they would share in the experience of the truth of his teaching by the presence of his Holy Spirit in their hearts.
and you will leave me alone.
But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
There was a clear difference in disciples who had the understanding imparted by the Spirit and those who as yet only head knowledge in the abstract. Those filled with the Spirit could be scattered and alone and yet not be alone because of the presence of the Father with them, just as for Jesus himself. Those with mere head knowledge would not find themselves able to stake their lives on that knowledge during the dark hour of the Passion. And it could not be otherwise. Only by sharing in the victory of Jesus himself could they have victory. Once Jesus blazed that trail from death to life and glory and filled his followers with his Spirit, although they would still have trouble, they too could live in victory. Their beliefs could now be true and solid and not turn aside when trouble came. In Christ the victor they too conquered the world.
For our part, we are probably somewhere in between the pre-resurrection and post-Pentecost disciples, with beliefs that are somewhat head knowledge and somewhat heart knowledge. As a consequence, we find that these beliefs are sometimes strong enough to keep us on track no matter our circumstances but at other times too flimsy to be reliable when we are really pressed. What can we do to grow, or how can we invite the knowledge of the facts of faith to transform our hearts? We can invite the Holy Spirit to do so. His reminders of truth are intimately tied to the reality of our relationship with God himself. He does not deal in abstractions. He himself leads us in the renewal of our minds and is himself the source of the new hearts promised by the prophets of old. He can make Jesus present to us, can make our relationship with the Father something real in a way that mere data could never be. It is from our relationship with the Triune God that what Jesus taught can change our hearts and minds and can finally come to actually shape the way we live.
And when Paul laid his hands on them,
the Holy Spirit came upon them,
and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
Let us seek more of the Spirit so that he can do his work of bringing us into ever deeper relationship with the Father and the Son. Let us ask him to renew our minds and continue to transform our hearts so that we can live in the victory Christ won for us, and "this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith" (see First John 5:4).
The father of orphans and the defender of widows
is God in his holy dwelling.
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