25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur you may believe. (John 14: 25-29)
What is God’s Peace?
Peace is an interesting word. We can use peace as a symbol against war, or as a example of our own intelligence. But, peace from God is strange to us. Where does God get his piece from? What is God’s peace? And why do we care what it tells us?
Let’s look at chapter one of Acts, called the Acts of the Apostles:
4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1: 4-5)[1]
Why is this here? Because peace with God starts with the Holy Spirit. Here Jesus is telling the disciples to have faith in God, and through that faith, they will be granted a gift. A gift that is so big that they will not be able to comprehend it, but so simple that they can use it at any time.
Peace with God, is the spirit of God, Himself, working through us, his simple people, to gain the understanding of life. But what is peace, and how does it flow to us and around us and in us so we feel peace and understanding of God’s will as we bask in that peace?
These are some hard questions, but they’re introduced to us in the Gospel of John, let’s look at this to understand what Jesus is telling his disciples and why.
In the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus is talking to his disciples, but he’s talking to them in a way that’s full of love and he understands that they are confused about what’s going to happen to him, and them. What will happen to Jesus specifically, while they are still in the picture as Jesus’s disciples? Jesus once them to understand what was going to happen to them, and how this will trance send time and space within their own minds. To help them understand this, he is explaining what’s going to happen to himself and to the world around him.
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.”
(John 14: 1-4)
Jesus wants them to know that he is going to go to the Father and prepare a place for each of them, the disciples. With the place provided, by God in heaven, Jesus will return to the disciples and show them the way to get there. And He says that they know the way. The way to get there is through faith. But it’s more than faith! It is a willingness to use your faith as a guide, as a goal, to get where you want to be as part of God’s people.
But, they don’t really understand him yet. They’re confused, impossibly frustrated with what’s going to happen. Yes, they have faith! Yes, they know what God is, because they had seen God work through Jesus, but they don’t know God except through Christ, and this is the real problem. The level of understanding that they have about who Christ is and what Christ will do in this world has not dawned on them yet. Even though Christ is explaining this to them, they haven’t gotten it yet.
And so Thomas asks Jesus: “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (John 14: 5b)
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14: 6-7)
Although the disciples were quiet, Philip asked a worldly question: 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” (John 14: 8)
What does this mean? How could Jesus actually show them the Father? If you look back in Exodus 33, the Lord talks with Moses.
18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”
19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord,’ and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live.” 21 And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; 23 then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
(Exodus 33: 18-23)
How can Jesus actually show them the Father, when the Father actually said “my face shall not be seen”? But, Jesus knew this. But most importantly, Jesus knew that it was faith that matters most in this world. Remember, we have faith and we can see the things that are happening with our Lord through what Jesus is doing. It is our faith that speaks to us, and that is what Jesus needed to stress.
But what is Philip really asking? Philip is asking Jesus to “show us the Father” like Moses asked the Lord. This is a worldly question because here we see somebody asking for physical proof that the Father exists. Does Jesus know that the Father exists? And if he does know that the Father exists then why won’t he show it to them?
Why doesn’t Jesus do this simple thing of showing them the Father? Because the Father is not the question! The question is do they have faith in Jesus to see the Father through him? If they don’t have this faith then they can see nothing, and that’s what’s important to Jesus. Here Jesus states a very simple fact, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” But this is more than a fact, this is reality! This is such a big reality that the disciples may not have understood this simple truth as they listen to Jesus.
Jesus knew that the Father was in him and he was in the Father, and therefore, if you have no one you know the other and this is what he went with.
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. (John 14:9 – 11)
Jesus gave Philip a real understanding of himself and his Father as well. It is his understanding that Christ is the Lord and that the Lord is in Christ. When we go through our ritualistic views of the gospel we have to know that God himself is in us. This is Jesus discussing with the disciples what’s going to happen in the future and how it was with him when he healed people when he could feel the spirit leaving him, when he was giving his sermons, for example on the mount, and other places as well. Jesus is telling them about the life that God once them to have, now and evermore.
Then Jesus changes the topic and talks to them about his Commandments for them.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is 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.
18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” (John 14: 15-21)
Jesus starts to talk about his spirit. Remember, although he is talking about his spirit, the living spirit of Jesus, the disciples don’t really understand this. In their world, they never talked about spirits and this is not part of the Jewish ritual. Spirits are something that is not included in the Jewish vocabulary. Therefore, the disciples don’t really understand what Jesus is talking about.
His spirit, the Holy Spirit, is a spirit that we know and care for as our own, as Jesus would want us to! This spirit, this Holy Spirit, is what gives Jesus the opportunity to give the people around him peace and tranquility. Is this Holy Spirit that is God’s Spirit within us?
The idea of the spirit living within us is a huge understanding for the disciples, and more importantly difficult even for us. A spirit, that is not your own, living within you, your own person, is a big deal and makes people wonder about what spirits are.
What does it mean to be orphaned? Why would we be orphaned as Christians? Jesus is saying exactly this: “I will not leave you orphaned”. But why is he saying this? He is saying this for us! That although he may not be here, his body is not here, he will be available to us in his spirit. In the spirit is what matters to us. So we are not orphaned, because Jesus is with us in spirit within us.
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”
This is another worldly question. Judas, here, is not Judas Iscariot. This Judas is also called “Thaddaeus”, or “Lebbaeus”, and he is a brother of James. Our Judas, this Judas here, wrote the letter “Jude” in the New Testament. Judas was from the Zealots, which meant that was thinking of a “worldly” Savior and not a spiritual one.
In this question, there is a misunderstanding of what Jesus is here to do. In this question, Judas is asking “how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” But, Judas is not thinking about the world as a spiritual form of Jesus’s kingdom. Judas is thinking of the world as a physical place. Because he’s thinking of the world as a physical world, and not a spiritual world, he is vastly confused by what Jesus is going to do here when he returns.
If you think this question through in Judas’s understanding, it would mean that Jesus would naturally want to display himself to the world because if he didn’t he couldn’t take over the world as a ruler.
Yes, Jesus is a ruler of our own world, but only the world within our person, within ourselves, that matters to God.
The meaning of this question is that people will only think about the physical world, and not the spiritual one. This is much of the confusion in the disciples, and in our own lives that we see. People don’t think of the world as a spiritual place. People think of the world as a physical place, a place without a spirit. But, it is the spirit that matters the most, because without a spirit we would not enjoy things like love.
Love is not a simple concept. If two men are holding hands, both hands and looking at each other, what does this really mean? These two men are not homosexuals, but rather their prayer partners, and they enjoy and understand their prayers together. This is love!
Love is not a simple concept at all. Love means that we care specifically about somebody, whether their men or woman doesn’t matter. A man and a woman can be perfectly good friends and not have sex, and two men can be perfectly good friends and not have sex. Love means that we cared deeply for somebody as deep as we possibly can care and we want the best for that person no matter who they are and no matter what’s going to happen we always want the best for this person.
Therefore, love is spiritual, yes, it can have a physical function, but it is spiritual because in the way we feel for a particular individual and what we will put on the line for that particular individual.
As Judas asks “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” And this is where Jesus starts to work with the disciples on how the spirit will grow them and understand them more than an actual person would do.
23 Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.
25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. (John 14: 23-27)
This is the piece that Jesus is leaving us. It is not the piece of nothingness; it is the peace of all things, the peace of God, the peace of Jesus. This piece is about peace within ourselves, peace within our lives, peace with the people we meet and understand, and perhaps, peace in our world as well.
The peace of Christ is the best piece to have with us at all times, because of this piece we can see and hear things that others might not be able to hear and see things that are invisible to them. With Christ’s piece, we can understand the world around us as we move forward. This piece is the best piece, not a piece for more, not peace among people, real peace, peace that we can trust.
[1] The Bible used for all notes is the New Revised Standard Version – Updated Edition (NRSV UE).