Wednesday 8th November - John 14

Today’s chapter is John 14

Tom writes:

Sometimes you wonder whether Jesus was trying to be as confusing as possible.  If we’ve seen him then we have seen the Father and yet he is the Way to the Father. He is representing the Father and the Spirit will represent him but they are all One and while he is going away he will come back again. And Father Son and Spirit are all in one another. This is Jesus explaining the Trinity to us in a way that we might be able to understand and, for 2000 years, we humans have stood with confused looks on our faces, scratching our heads and saying “sorry, can you just go back over that again?”.  The truth is that there is something about God that is exotically mysterious. The Trinity will always be beyond us.  Something that we could never possibly understand. 

But, as Jesus is stressing here, there is also something about God that is slap bang in our faces; touchable, visible, teaching us and caring for us.  There is the Father, seen in the Son, known in the Holy Spirit.  God is not distant and remote - he is here, calming our hearts, leading us in truth, giving us peace. It is quite rare for us to refer to Holy Spirit as the Counsellor;  I’ve never heard anyone pray “Come, O Counsellor”.  And yet, in some ways that title emphasises the relational aspect of God more than the usual term does. Holy Spirit points to the “beyondness” of the Trinity. The Counsellor to the “here-ness” of the Trinity.  To know the Trinity as Jesus discloses the Trinity is to know both the beyondness and the nearness. Simultaneously beyond knowledge and yet being known. Paradoxically “just right”, calming and comforting us and yet “too much”, stretching and astonishing us. As we’ve seen all through this gospel; growth comes when we press into both extremes - when the light shone in our hearts illuminates both friendship with God and fear of God; both bold faith-filled expectation of answered prayer and humble leaning on God’s peace in times of trouble. 

Question for reflection

Are you growing both in friendship and fear of our incredible “beyond” God who is also so near?