(Audio)
“Now I am going to the one who sent me,
and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
They had asked, but were not yet ready to understand. Peter was willing to go down together with Jesus in a blaze of glory but he could not accept that he himself would be unwilling to accompany him in his path of self-surrender.
Jesus gave them the assurance that he went to prepare a place for them in his Father's house. He told Thomas that he himself was the way to that place.
But even with those explanations that encompassed both the suffering and the glory the disciples didn't know what to make of the plan. The only had enough sense of it to be filled with grief.
But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts.
It seemed to the disciples that something was about to happen that should not happen, that should be avoided at all costs if possible. The consolation of having places prepared in the Father's house seemed to be little more than a positive spin on surrender and defeat. It didn't seem like something that could have been the plan all along. And yet it was.
But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.
For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you.
Jesus had to destroy the barrier of sin that separated us from God before the Holy Spirit could dwell in our hearts. It was only from his wounded side on the cross that living water could flow. And since the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son it was fitting that it was from his position enthroned together with the Father that the Son poured forth the Spirit. This was not a nice spin on what was actually failure. It was not plan b. This was his purpose from the beginning.
And when he comes he will convict the world
in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation:
These promises about the Spirit don't tend to capture us as much as hearing that he is our advocate, comforter, and guide. But they are perhaps equally important. Without the discernment offered by the Spirit we live with darkened minds. We could perhaps use our reason to determine what behavior of ours is sinful. But without the Spirit we are all too likely to substitute reason for rationalizations. Our reason works. But we are willing to fool ourselves. This is why it is such good news that the Holy Spirit will convict us in regard to sin. He will show us the places in which our belief in Jesus is not reflected in our lives. But this is not where he convicts us of condemnation. Rather, it is when he convicts us of sin that he at once points toward and holds out the hope of righteousness that we can find in Christ.
you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption (see First Corinthians 1:30).
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (see Second Corinthians 5:21).
The righteousness revealed in Christ is not meant to be something admired from a distance. It is meant to become a reality we express and live in our own lives.
Jesus did come to condemn, but he did not come to condemn us (see John 3:17). He came to condemn the evil one and to destroy his works (see First John 3:8). The reason he convicts us of sin, in other words, of a lack of transformative belief in Jesus on our part, is precisely to save us from this condemnation to which we would otherwise be subject.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (see John 3:18).
Paul and Silas show us what happens when people receive the Spirit and understand it. They did not simply go up for the sacrament of Confirmation, say yes, and then go back to their normal lives. They received the transformation he offered. It allowed them to have profound freedom but to not be so protective of that freedom as to miss the opportunity to witness to others.
But Paul shouted out in a loud voice,
“Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.”
When they were imprisoned they did not have to interpret this as something they should have avoided, not as a plan b, but precisely as a part of God's plan for their mission. Because they were so convicted about what was and was not important by the Holy Spirit they were able to share the gift of freedom with others rather than hoarding it for themselves.
He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds;
then he and all his family were baptized at once.
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