I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth… (John 16:12-13a)
While preparing for last Sunday, I read a few homilies St. Augustine preached on John 16. Augustine was a fantastic preacher, and regularly addresses things that I never even consider. But I was still a bit unprepared for his treatment of John 16:12. I have always flown by this verse. It seems simple—there were theological truths the disciples weren’t ready to hear at the Last Supper, and Jesus was promising that the Spirit would instruct them in these things after Pentecost. We can list examples of these truths: the fact that Jesus was anointed Lord of all creation in the resurrection and ascension; the fact that Gentiles were included in salvation without first becoming Jews; the specific doctrine of the resurrection Paul explains in I Cor. 15. All of these are truths that the disciples weren’t ready to hear until Pentecost.
Augustine didn’t believe that Jesus was referring to theological truths, though. Instead, he asked a personal question: “What is it that they couldn’t bear? What things were too much for them to endure without the Spirit?” He makes the argument that a non-Christian can understand theological truths, but they do not bear them, and so Jesus must be referring to something other than doctrine in the abstract.
Isaiah 6, Sunday’s Old Testament reading, is actually a great example of Augustine’s point. Isaiah knew that God was holy and man was sinful, but when we saw God, he suddenly couldn’t bear that truth. “Woe is me,” he cried out, no longer able to endure the truth he knew. He needed God’s intervention in that moment because he could not bear what he believed.
This raised in my mind all the things I struggle to bear. I believe the theology of forgiveness, but do I bear it? Do I let it rest on my shoulders? I accept the theology of “whoever loses his life for [Jesus’] sake will save it,” but do I endure it? There is much that we voice and believe, but still struggle in the most personal sense to receive and endure. God’s love and holiness, our sin, the call on our life—the list of things that are easy to speak about but difficult to bear is long.
Jesus’ answer is not, “Try harder!” Instead, he offers the Spirit. If there are truths you still struggle to bear, ask the Spirit! He is promised as the one who will lead us into all truth.
Steven+
Scripture Reflections
On Sunday, we heard the following interchange from John 14:
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”
Jesus’ answer points to the unity of Father and Son. If you have seen one, you have seen the other. But he also indicates how we see him, and therefore how we see the Father, and this is what caught my heart this week.
After all, it would be easy for those of us living 2000 years later to say in frustration, “That’s fine for Philip, but I just want to see Jesus! Philip got to walk and talk with him, to eat and camp with him, to see him in the flesh!” But Jesus’ answer to Philip answers our frustration as well. To both Philip and to us, Jesus says, “Look at my words; look at my works. This is how you see the Father.”
As this thought grabbed my attention, my mind filled with things Jesus said and did.
Today salvation has come to this house.
The kingdom belongs to the children.
And filled with compassion, he reached out and touched him.
The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Go and sin no more.
Blessed are those who weep.
Again and again, Jesus’ words and actions sprung to mind, and in each instance, I realized that Jesus was revealing God the Father to us. If you wonder what God is like, if you wonder what he thinks about you, look at the words and actions of Jesus. There we find one eager for our salvation, close to those who are hurting, delighting in the humble.
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
Steven+
Song Spotlight
We’re going to sing a relatively new song this Sunday called “Take My Heart with Altar Fire.” It’s a fantastic song, and a perfect one to sing on Pentecost! Here’s why:
The imagery in the title points us to Paul’s words in Romans 12:1—“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” This song is a prayer for God to transform our lives into lives of worship!
The first two verses of this song start with visible actions and audible speech. They shift into the secret actions and thoughts of the heart that only God sees. They end with pleas for God to transform those deeds and words so that they are holy and true. The last verse gets to the core of the problem. Our yearnings, motivations, and delights are broken. We can filter the words and actions that people see so we look godly and righteous, but what about our hearts? The heart is the source of the bad things we do and say, and even if we manage to filter those out we’re still left with the corrupt hearts that produced them.
The truth is that we can’t really change our hearts. We can’t, in our own power, make our hearts hate sin, straighten our “bent desires,” or unwaveringly believe God’s promises. We need God to work in us, and that is exactly what the Spirit does! The same Spirit that fills us and joins us to Christ also makes us like him. We call this sanctification. He is working in us like a refining fire to burn out the corruption and to clean out our hearts to make room for the presence of God in us. Sometimes the process is painful—after all, fire hurts! But this fire also brings healing and peace. Don’t fear it, and don’t run from it. Pray instead for the Spirit to purge your heart so that it longs, above all else, to be in God’s presence and to see him glorified.
“Fire of God consume my heart, burn it down to only faith
Til all that’s left of me is only you, Christ my glory, Christ my praise.”
Justin