Indwelling Lord and Spirit

John 14 : 15 - 21

...Advocate..to be with you forever...he abides with you

I felt rather pensive as I heard myself reading aloud the words, "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you". I have been 'orphaned' if you can use that term for almost half of my life now. My parents passed on within three months of each other in 1984. My father died unexpectedly of a heart condition while mum had cancer and had fought hard for three years or so. Being part of a grief group, I hear stories of loss of loved ones - sometimes much more tragic than my own. And only by realizing how my loss feels even twenty odd years hence, could I imagine in some small measure how some of my friends feel about more recent losses.

To me, Jesus was not only instructing his disciples about what was to come. He was doing much more than that - it seems to me from all his words that he was also full of compassion for them. He knew what their loss would mean, how lost they would be, and in a way these words, when recalled later, would be comforting to them. He seems to explain his leaving and the Spirit's coming at great length, more than might be necessary, most probably in order to comfort them later when they begin to feel their loss.

As human persons, we would not be able to offer such comfort to those we have to leave behind. We know that when we leave this world we will leave our family 'orphaned'. But Jesus' leaving does not leave us without his presence. He is "coming to us" all the time, he is "with us to the end of the age". He is "in us" and we are "in him". Such mystery of indwelling is beyond human explanation. Theology can express this using many high sounding words, but it remains a beautiful mystery; one that comforts and empowers us to "keep his commandments".