Not less than

I wonder if he’s worried.

Things are about to happen and I wonder if he is worried about his group, this little band of followers that went from place to place healing and performing miracles and lifting up the poor and those in need.

I wonder if he is worried.

Because he’s been saying these things for a little while now, all through the last supper, all through his farewell discourse.

Jesus is essentially saying do not let your hearts be troubled and still I wonder if Jesus’ heart is troubled.

Well, of course it is.

He knows what is coming.

He knows the path from the table to the cross will be hard ad it will be painful.

He knows the crowds that welcomed his group will turn on him.

And them.

He knows that his followers, his friends for these last three years will turn from him.

They will deny him.

They will hide away from him.

Of course, his heart is troubled.

But is he worried?

Is he wondering if after all of everything comes to pass, will his friends be okay?

Does he know that they will be okay, or at least, for a little while?

Because, partially, Jesus is the parent leaving his children and still he wishes to serve as the mother hen placing her brood beneath her wing, protecting them.

Loving them.

I wonder if Jesus is worried.

Worried like my grandmother worried when her children went away, when her grandchildren didn’t call enough, when they went off and did silly things, immature things.

I wonder if Jesus is worried like a loving and doting grandmother.

Jesus is going and he wants his children cared for.

Jesus is going and he wants his children to know they will be protected.

Jesus is going and he wants his children to know they will be safe.

Jesus is going and he wants them to know they are loved.

Because, perhaps, he is worried about them.

So he offers them a protector.

He leaves them with the Spirit, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

For where Jesus is going, his disciples cannot follow.

And the Spirit will fly amongst them.

And the Spirit flies amongst us.

That what Jesus has given is permanent and that what Jesus has given is love.

He needs not to be worried for the Father has given us another advocate, the third part of the trinity.

And yet, we worry.

We worry for our children when they enter school for the first time. W

Will they find friends?

Will they succeed at completing their tasks?

Will they fit in?

We want our children to be comfortable.

We want them taken care of when they are away and so we build systems we can trust, we create communities, villages, to help in raising our children.

This is what Jesus is doing.

From, perhaps, his sense of worry about all of us Jesus is giving us the Spirit, leaving us with the Spirit as a protector and advocate.

Though Jesus will soon leave the disciples, they and, by extension, we are not left without God.

So often, we, me especially, will talk about the Spirit being among us.

When we are inspired by all that is holy we talk about feeling the Spirit.

Yet, what exactly is the Spirit?

We don’t always speak of the Spirit in the more concrete terms we use when speaking about God the Father or God the Son.

The Spirit is this thing that flies around and inspires and does stuff.

But the Spirit did breathe life into the earth as God did.

The Spirit did not die for our sins as Jesus did.

Who or what is this advocate?

We need to understand the Spirit in the same terms we understand God for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all part of the Trinity and they are all equal as God.

Or, as Greg Koester writes,

The art in our churches pictures episodes from Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. But the Spirit is more challenging to portray. The Spirit’s dove may hover above Jesus on stained glass windows, but the Spirit often remains on the margins when it comes to proclamation.

There is a certain physicality missing in our imagining of what the Spirit is.

We associate it with feelings and a sometimes-amorphous spirituality.

And yet when Jesus is promising that we will not be abandoned, we will not be left orphaned, he is promising us an Advocate.

And not only that, he is also leaving us with another advocate.

Just as Jesus interceded on our behalf, he is promising that the Spirit will hear our intercessions.

Just as Jesus pleaded on behalf of his disciples to the Father, so too will the Spirit.

The Spirit is not less than for the Spirit is still God.

The Spirit is not flitting around like Stevie Nicks on stage, but is actively serving us on our behalf, actively accepting our prayers and carrying them to God.

And yet the Spirit is not the Father and the Spirit is not Jesus.

Koester continues:

(C)alling the Spirit “another Advocate” does not mean he is “another Jesus.” The Spirit continues Jesus’ work without taking Jesus’ place. As the Word made flesh, Jesus reveals God through the life he lives and the death he dies. But the Spirit does not become incarnate and is not crucified for the sin of the world.

The Spirit will disclose the truth about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, but will not replicate these events. After Jesus’ return to the Father, the Spirit remains with the disciples; but this does not mean the Spirit replaces Jesus. Rather, the Spirit discloses the presence of the risen Jesus and his Father to the community of faith.

Perhaps if we put it in terms such as this, that the Father creates, the Son is the living Word of that creation, the Spirit allows us to see that creation for what it is: a blessing given to us by God.

When Jesus left the world, he returned to the father and we were left with the active involvement of the Spirit in each of our lives, a tireless Advocate for each of us.

When we pray to the Spirit we are praying to God and true to Christ’s word, we have not been orphaned; Jesus did not leave us abandoned.

I wonder if Jesus was worried.

Worried as a mother hen worries about her brood.

But then, he knew he would leave us with the Spirit and therefore there was no reason to worry at all.

Amen.