Reflective Bible Study

On the last night Jesus spent with the disciples prior to His arrest and crucifixion, John’s gospel shares a conversation Jesus shared with the remaining disciples (Judas Iscariot was with the Jewish leaders assembling a mob). In this conversation, Jesus shares a statement that makes the disciples sad, and while Jesus acknowledges their sadness, He tells them that what will happen will ultimately be better than what they wished would happen.

During this conversation, Jesus told the disciples, “Now I am going back to the One who sent me. But none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Your hearts are filled with sadness because I have told you these things. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go away. When I go away, I will send the Helper to you. If I do not go away, the Helper will not come.” (v. 5-7)

The two statements that jump out in my mind as I read Jesus’ words are, “But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go away”, and “If I do not go away, the Helper will not come” (the first and last phrases of verse 7).

While the disciples are sad at Jesus announcing His departure, He tells them that it is better for them if He leaves. While this sounds backwards, Jesus follows up by explaining that if He didn’t go away, the Helper would not come to them.

This prompts me to ask, “Why would the Holy Spirit not come to Jesus’ followers if Jesus was still around?” If God could do anything, and His is truly “everywhere” (i.e. omnipresent), then why would Jesus imply that the Holy Spirit wouldn’t come to Jesus’ followers if Jesus were present?

The answer is amazingly simple. When we read lists and descriptions about what the Holy Spirit does, we learn that everything the Holy Spirit does leads and points people to Jesus. The Holy Spirit’s role is to draw people into a relationship with Jesus. This also means that the Holy Spirit won’t do anything that doesn’t support this objective.

With this in mind, while reading the gospels, it becomes clear that while Jesus is present, Jesus is the only One who is empowered to perform miracles. With Jesus present, the Holy Spirit moved exclusively through Him because that is who He wants us to pay attention to. The disciples never perform miracles while Jesus is present. However, part way through His ministry, Jesus sends pairs of followers out on a mission trip to nearby cities, and they return with stories of how they were able to cast demons out of people and heal others using Jesus’ name. These miracles were possible because the Holy Spirit came to them while Jesus was not present with them.

This means that when Jesus says, “it is better for you that I go away” because “if I do not go away, the Helper will not come”, Jesus is reminding these followers, and all of us followers living 2000 years ago that the Holy Spirit leads people to Jesus. If we want the Holy Spirit working within us and through us, we simply need to focus on Jesus, move towards Him, and help others do the same.

During the middle of Jesus’ ministry, He tells the disciples to travel around the countryside telling people about Him. In Jesus’ instructions to them, we can find some incredible warnings and concepts that can help us as followers of Jesus.

For example, at the beginning of our passage, which is part way into Jesus’ send-off remarks, He tells His disciples, “Listen! I am sending you out just like sheep to a pack of wolves. You must be as cautious as snakes and as gentle as doves. Watch out, for there will be those who will arrest you and take you to court, and they will whip you in the synagogues. For my sake you will be brought to trial before rulers and kings, to tell the Good News to them and to the Gentiles. When they bring you to trial, do not worry about what you are going to say or how you will say it; when the time comes, you will be given what you will say. For the words you will speak will not be yours; they will come from the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (v. 16-20)

What amazes me about Jesus’ words is that I would have expected them to have been given following the resurrection, and as part of the “Great Commission” that Jesus gave the disciples before He returned to heaven. Instead, these words are given relatively early in His ministry, right after He has selected the group of twelve disciples from a broader collection of followers.

This distinction makes me wonder if Jesus is speaking into the future here, or if some of these disciples were arrested and brought before the synagogues in the towns they visited, which gave them opportunities to speak for Jesus. As relatively new followers, it may have even been intimidating to talk about Jesus because some of them likely hadn’t spent much time with Him up to that point.

However, while we don’t know if the disciples received hostility on this short term mission trip early on in Jesus’ ministry, we do know from reading about the early church in the book of Acts that following Jesus’ return to heaven, Jesus’ followers did receive hostility from multiple directions.

But what is interesting is that Jesus tells us that hostility towards us is actually an opportunity. Jesus says that “For my sake you will be brought to trial before rulers and kings…” (v. 18a)

What reason does Jesus give for us being brought to trial for Him?

Jesus doesn’t leave us wondering. He finishes the statement off with the reason: “For my sake you will be brought to trial before rulers and kings, to tell the Good News to them and to the Gentiles.” (v. 18)

When this happens, Jesus tells us to be calm and not to worry about what to say. This is because if God brings us into a situation for His purposes, He will give us the words to say to bring Him glory.

This truth is the same for Jesus’ original twelve disciples as it is for us today. If we are brought before people because of our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will speak through us to point those present towards God. Trials and direct challenges to our faith are sometimes the best ways for God to connect people who have a testimony with those who have turned their back on Him.

There are several ideas we could focus on in this passage, but the one big (though perhaps humorous) idea that I want to focus on is the closing phrase Jesus uses in this passage (and elsewhere in the Bible) which is found at the end of verse 35: “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

This phrase stands out to me because on the surface, it sounds exclusive. Is this teaching for everyone, or everyone except those who are deaf? Is Jesus really being discriminating towards a group of people who are different?

Let’s dig into this idea and see what might happen if a person who was deaf saw a crowd and showed up to see (though they couldn’t hear) Jesus. In many other cases where someone with a similar disability shows up, Jesus stops teaching, heals them, and then continues preaching.

So here, at the end of His message, as the concluding remarks after the climax of His sermon, Jesus makes a sweeping statement to everyone who is within earshot – perhaps even to some people in the crowd who were formerly deaf, but can now hear this teaching as one of the first things ever.

If someone who was deaf hung around Jesus, they would not have been deaf for long. If they instead preferred to be deaf, they probably wouldn’t have been interested in going anywhere near Jesus.

The big idea I see in this passage – and really in this phrase – is: Jesus is never interested in us staying where we are. He is always interested in helping us grow into the people He created us to be!

Periodically throughout the gospels, Jesus accepts invitations to people’s homes to eat. Sometimes these invitations are from some of the less reputable people in an area, while other times the invitation comes from one of the religious leaders.

During one of these invitations to eat at a Pharisee’s home, the Pharisee host was surprised when Jesus did not wash before the meal. Luke describes this to us by saying, “A Pharisee invited him to eat with him. So Jesus went in and took his place at the table. But the Pharisee was surprised. He noticed that Jesus did not wash before the meal.” (v.37b-38)

Before food was even served, this Pharisee had found a fault in how Jesus had acted. Whether the Pharisee had invited Jesus in an attempt to trick or trap Him we are not sure. I am inclined to believe that, at least on the front end, this Pharisee was genuine with his invitation. The Pharisee, and the other elite religious leaders who were present, may have been so accustomed to certain rituals that they had never been around someone who didn’t do them simply because they were what one was suppose to do.

However, Jesus’ response to the Pharisee and those present virtually eliminated any chance that they would become friends. Jesus begins His response by saying, “You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and evil. You foolish people! Didn’t the one who made the outside make the inside also? Give freely to poor people to show what is inside you. Then everything will be clean for you.” (v. 39-41)

Jesus immediately challenges the shallow, prideful focus that these Pharisees had. It would seem that their washing before the meal had become about much more than simply a sanitary action. They had given it spiritual significance – and then they had elevated the spiritual significance above many other spiritual things.

It is interesting that Jesus doesn’t really challenge the act of washing before a meal. Instead, Jesus challenges the leaders on the emphasis they had placed on washing while ignoring the sins within their lives. Jesus’ initial statement points out that with greed and evil in their hearts, nothing the Pharisees could wash on the outside would remove this “inner dirt” from making them unclean.

Jesus offers a solution. He prompts them to be generous as a way of cleaning up their hearts and lives. While this is a challenging passage for those present, Jesus gives these leaders a solution to the true sin that they should deal with.

The truth Jesus shared with these leaders is the same for us today. If we struggle with maintaining a good appearance on the outside, it may be because our inner lives struggle with evil. Generosity and love are the ways to clean up our inner lives, and when our inner lives are clean, then our outer lives will be clean as well.