Skip to main content

Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled (John 14:25-31)

 In simple terms, Jesus is saying, "I'm telling you now, so you're not surprised." And these are the final things that Jesus wants to teach them directly. The Holy Spirit will come, and He will teach us the rest. Sometimes, we forget about the Holy Spirit, because we think a lot about the Father, and the Son. This isn't wrong, but we need to embrace the fullness of God.

We should also remember that while the Holy Spirit will guide each of us, his main purpose is to guide and protect the Church. When the Holy Spirit reminds us of what Christ taught us, he does this in a special and powerful way. We know that we can trust whatever the Church offers to us as a part of faith, because that's what Jesus promised he would do. (See also Matthew 16:18) The Holy Spirit is carrying out a promise that Jesus made to us. The Holy Spirit is indeed powerful, and he does more than comfort us, as we will see. He helps us to think and to understand. We should seek His wisdom always. In fact, many great teachers believe that certain passages in the Old Testament which refer to "Wisdom" are direct references to the Holy Spirit!

Think of how sad you would be, if you followed Jesus for three years, and he says that he's going away, and that he will die. Suppose you put all your hope in him, and you can't quite see the full plan of what God will do. Your heart would tremble; you would rightly wonder if you made a mistake. He's telling them again that his going to the Father is a big part of the overall plan. He's telling them and us to trust in the Father's plan.

Then he says he doesn't have much more to say, because the ruler of this world is coming. We might think that he is referring to God, because God ultimately rules the world, but we remember that "world" for St. John is usually bad, referring to all those who oppose God. Therefore, the "ruler of this world" is Satan.

St. Paul, in one translation of his letter to the Ephesians, calls him "the prince of the power of the air." Some commentators think that when Jesus mentions birds in his parables, the birds are often Satan.

It becomes more clear that Jesus is talking about Satan, because he says, "He has no power over me" in verse 30. On the other hand, when mentioning the Father in verse 28, he says, "for the Father is greater than I."

Jesus is going to obey the Father, and not worry about the plans of the Enemy. Everything Jesus will do is so that the world will know that he loves the Father. Even though Jesus never refuses the worship that comes to him, he never makes anything about him. He is always and forever the one who adores and submits to the Father.

This section ends with Jesus saying that he's done talking, because they are running out of time. It's almost time for everything to take place.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hilarious Com-Box Quote of The Day: "I was caught immediately because it is the Acts of the Apostles, not the Acts of the Holy Spirit Acting Erratically."--Donald Todd, reacting to the inartful opposition of the Holy Spirit and the Magisterium. Mark Galli, an editor at Christianity Today, had suggested that today's "confusion" in evangelicalism replicates a confusion on the day of Pentecost. Mr. Todd commented after this reply , and the original article is here. My thoughts: By what means was this Church-less "consensus" formed? If the Council did not possess the authority to adjudicate such questions, who does? If the Council Fathers did not intend to be the arbiters, why do they say that they do? At the risk of being rude, I would define evangelicalism as, "Whatever I want or need to believe at any particular time." Ecclesial authority to settle a particular question is a step forward, but only as long as, "God alone is Lord of the con

A Friend I Once Had, And The Dogmatic Principle

 I once had a friend, a dear friend, who helped me with personal care needs in college. Reformed Presbyterian to the core. When I was a Reformed Presbyterian, I visited their church many times. We were close. I still consider his siblings my friends. (And siblings in the Lord.) Nevertheless, when I began to consider the claims of the Catholic Church to be the Church Christ founded, he took me out to breakfast. He implied--but never quite stated--that we would not be brothers, if I sought full communion with the Catholic Church. That came true; a couple years later, I called him on his birthday, as I'd done every year for close to ten of them. He didn't recognize my number, and it was the most strained, awkward phone call I have ever had. We haven't spoken since. We were close enough that I attended the rehearsal dinner for his wedding. His wife's uncle is a Catholic priest. I remember reading a blog post of theirs, that early in their relationship, she told him of the p
My wheelchair was nearly destroyed by a car last night. That's a bit melodramatic, I suppose, because it is intact and undamaged. But we'd left my power chair ("Red Sam" in the official designation) in-between the maze of cars parked out front of Chris Yee's house for Bible Study. [Isn't that a Protestant Bible study?--ed.] They are good friends, and it is not under any official auspices. [Not BSF?--ed.] They're BSF guys, but it's not a BSF study. Anyway, I wasn't worried; I made a joke about calling the vendor the next day: "What seems to be the problem, sir?" 'Well, it was destroyed by a car.' As it happened, a guy bumped into it at slow speed. His car got the worst of it. And this only reinforces what I've said for a solid 13 years [Quickie commercial coming] If you want a power wheelchair that lasts, get a Quickie. They're fast, obviously, and they're tanks. Heck, my old one still would work, but the batteries ar