John 14:15-31
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
“Come now; let us leave.
John 16:1-15
Jesus Said it is Good that He Goes Away
1 “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
Acts 1:1-11
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
When someone we love dies and leaves us, we grieve and are hurt by the loss...There is a void, we can feel empty...And after the loss of one we love, over time the one gone can still leave this void that is replaced only by memories of what they did and how we remembered them...Our memories and those remembrances seem to somehow try to fill this void of the one we lost...
Jesus' death and passing is different...Jesus was prepared to die on the cross...He was going to leave His Disciples who He had been with for three years...And the night before His arrest, He said it was good that He was going away, because now He would get to be with His Father...Unless He went away, the Advocate also would not have come to His Disciples...But if He left earth, He would send the Holy Spirit to His Disciples....When the Holy Spirit came to His Disciples, He proved to the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people did not believe in Him; about righteousness, because He was going to the Father...When Jesus was in heaven, the Disciples and others would see Him no longer...But since He was with His Father in heaven, would the Disciples still feel a void, without Him?...But despite going away and dying, Jesus said He would not leave His Disciples as orphans...They would not be alone...They would have the Holy Spirit...And the Holy Spirit would remind the Disciples of everything He had said to them...So the Holy Spirit would remind them of Him and the memories of their Teacher...The Holy Spirit would help them and be a Helper and an Advocate and Counselor for them...The Holy Spirit helps after a death...
After Jesus died on the cross, I think the past circumstances of life and death were very much in the minds of the Disciples and His other followers (as well as all who saw Him and heard about Him dying)...His Disciples and followers would have felt the loss, the void, the emptiness of Him being gone...They would grieve...Much like the normal death of a Friend...But all that changed after His resurrection...Maybe Jesus is teaching us something about death and how we normally react to a close one passing and leaving us...He teaches us that the Holy Spirit could not come unless Jesus went away (I do not know why the Holy Spirit could not be here and Him be here at the same time, but He says unless I go away the Advocate will not come)...And when Jesus would die and leave, He no doubt would be missed by His Disciples and His friends...They surely under "normal" circumstances of His death would have felt a void and a part of life would be missing without Him...But Jesus is not normal...Nothing about His death is normal...He continues to live...He ascended to heaven...Jesus was taken them and went into heaven...But two men dressed in white, probably angels to His Disciples, He will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven...And now after His resurrection and ascension we can better understand why He told His Disciples, "If you loved Me, you would be glad that I AM going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I."...He is happy with His Father, back in heaven...
Jesus' death was different from man's death, very different...His Disciples would had looked at death differently, after Jesus' resurrection...Very differently...He wants us to look at death differently, too...