Sixth Sunday Of Easter
John 14: 23-29
Just as last Sunday, this gospel reading is taken from the Last Supper discourse in the Gospel of John. The Apostle Jude asked Jesus a question. The response to Jude's question begins today's gospel. "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him." This inhabiting of the Father and Jesus in a Christian is known as the divine indwelling. Some early Christian theologians expressed the union between a Christian and the Divine Persons in the delightful Greek wordperichoresis. The meaning: singing and dancing together. It is an expression of eternal joy already beginning in this life. A justifiable conclusion: those who have the divine indwelling should be filled with exuberant joy as an outward sign of their internal dancing and singing with God.
According to the above saying of Jesus, whoever loves him "keeps my word." What word is this? In the Old Testament the Ten Commandments are called "the Ten Words" In last Sunday's gospel we heard Jesus say, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you." This is the "word" to which Jesus refers in today's gospel. In fact, this one "word" summarizes the "Ten Words" of the Old Testament. Paul himself bears witness to this conclusion in Romans 13:10, "Love is the fulfilling of the Torah." The "Ten Words" are presented twice in the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament): in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6:21.
Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to his disciples, "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name...." The Greek word John uses. Paracletes^ (Paraclete), is here translated as "Advocate." There are words more commonly used in English that translate the Greek Paracletos, "lawyer for the defense, defense attorney, counselor." In Luke 12:12, Christians on trial for their faith are told, "The Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." In Romans 8:26, Paul expresses the Paraclete's job description, "The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words." In the theology of John, the work of the Paraclete is all-inclusive, "He will teach you everything and will remind you of all that I told you."
Jesus conveys another gift to his disciples, his Shalom, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you." This peace is the inner security that comes with the divine indwelling. The disciples will face persecution, "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you," John 15:20. They will remain internally at peace, secure even in extreme danger. The peace Jesus gives is not the kind of peace the world gives. It is not transitory. It is not the absence of warfare or persecution. It is not the end of psychological tension, nor a mere feeling of well-being, although such things may follow the peace Jesus gives. It is the beginning of eternal life here on earth. Jesus says in John 10:28, ".. .1 shall give them eternal life. They shall never perish, and no one will seize them out of my hand."
Jesus asks his disciples to celebrate that he is leaving them. Is this the kind of joy one might experience when visitors, who have overstayed their welcome, leave? No way!
It is the fact that Jesus will be moving on to a greater life, especially greater in the glorified human nature which he takes with him, "You would rejoice that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I." About this glory which will permeate the human nature he shares with us, Jesus said in John 17:5,".. .the glory which I had with the Father before the world was made." The words, "The Father is greater than I/9 have been wrongly interpreted as meaning that Jesus is not equal to the Father. This cannot be John's meaning because he repeatedly depicts Jesus' claiming to be the I AM. "I tell you this now, that when it does take place, you may believe that I AM," John 13:19.
ACTS 15:1-2, 22-29
This reading acquaints us with a major struggle in the Christianity of the first century. Male circumcision was the outward sign of the covenant between God and Israel. Gentiles were joining the new Christian Way. Since the Christian Church considered itself the continuation of Israel, would the new Gentile Christian men have to submit to circumcision? The Council of Jerusalem, 49 A.D. decided the question in favor of non-circumcision of Gentiles. They were asked to observe only the laws of the Torah observed by Gentiles living permanently among Jews. Note the confidence with which the first "Gen-eraT" Council expressed its decisions, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us...."
REVELATION 21:10-14.22-23
The prophet John, in a vision, sees the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven. On the twelve foundations of the city were inscribed the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (a metaphor for Jesus, the Lamb of God). There was no temple because the Lord God and the Lamb now function as a temple. Thus John proclaims the equality of Jesus with God.
