Do I Really Believe?

 

“It is better for you that I go away.”

It would be hard to imagine a more unbelievable statement. Jesus Christ spoke these words to His closest followers shortly before He was betrayed and crucified. The men who heard this shocking statement were in the midst of a three-year roller coaster ride in which they had witnessed their teacher swoop from complete obscurity to highest acclaim, only to fall out of favor briefly, then race back into the public’s heart on more than one occasion. Only days prior to His incredible statement on this night, huge crowds of religious pilgrims had lined the route to Jerusalem and tossed cloaks and palm branches in Jesus’ path as they shouted, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.”  We know, of course, that this same crowd was goaded by the Jewish hierarchy into asking for Jesus crucifixion within a week of His so-called triumphal entry.

“It is better for you that I go away,” He said to the men who had not long before proclaimed Him to be the Christ of God. For a Jew in the first century, the only longing that rivaled their hope for a Messiah, the Christ, was their wish to be free of Roman domination. As I have noted elsewhere, even the mongrel Samaritans were looking for the Messiah. Granted, many thought the two dreams would coalesce, and the Messiah would charge in on a war horse and drive out the hated Romans. Whether for religious or political reasons, messianic hope was at a fever pitch in Jesus’ day.

Jesus said it was better that He go away in spite of the fact that more than once His faithful promised to follow Him no matter where it led. When the teaching got difficult to swallow, He even asked His close disciples if they were considering joining the throng of disenchanted. Their answer was unequivocal: “Where would we go? You have the words of life.” They did, quite literally, hang on His every word. They not only heard the messages He preached to the crowds; they were there for the debriefings that made sense of some admittedly hard teaching. Can you imagine the campfire conversations after events like the water was turned to wine or the walk on water or the raising of Lazarus?

What could be better than what these men had experienced? Still, Jesus said there was something better awaiting them after He went away. You may be tired of me asking the question since you already know that Jesus explained why His departure would benefit the disciples more than His remaining with them in the second half of the sentence I have been laboring over. Jesus explained, “For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.”

The question I have been banging on is really this: what is so special about the Advocate that it would surpass all the wonderful things they had experienced in Jesus’ presence? If we are to believe what Jesus said (really?), the coming of the Advocate, aka Holy Spirit, was going to be even more special, more beneficial than the wonder of His physical presence. Really. I have to ask myself if I really believe what Jesus said. I often think how great it would be to have Jesus physically present – OK, not that great at first because I know I would fall on my face in shock like everyone else who ever got that close to God. But once He said, “Fear not,” and lifted me up it would be great.

If He were literally here, He would tell me what He told the disciples. I suspect He would tell me that His physical presence is nowhere near as helpful to me as the indwelling presence of Holy Spirit. For one thing, I would have what He promised the disciples: full knowledge of everything I need to know. For another thing, Holy Spirit can be with me every second of every day of my life whereas Jesus, in a physical sense, would be limited to one appearance worldwide at any given time.

The greatest benefit to having Jesus send Holy Spirit back in His place is that I can have His comfort, confidence and power on the spot – any spot I’m in. At this point I am falling in shame on my face again if Jesus is really in the room because I don’t live as if that were true. Being the loving, gracious, forgiving Savior that He is, Jesus would lift me up again and tell me not to be ashamed. I think He would also come up with a really tactful yet forceful way to tell me to start living like I believe what He said. Do you believe what He said?