In John 13:36 Peter asked: “Lord, where are you going?” Similarly, in John 14:5 Thomas asked: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Yet, here in John 16:5 Jesus tells his disciples they never asked where he was going! What can we say about this? In the context of Jesus’ going, he made efforts to comfort them, saying don’t let your heart be troubled. You trust God, don’t you, and you have come to trust me, haven’t you (John 14:1)? He tried to tell them that he was leaving them with all they needed. He would receive them when they followed him, and although the world wouldn’t be able to see him, he would return and show himself to them. Yet, all they could see was he was going and leaving them behind (John 13:36-37). What tools did they have, and how could they manage without him. They didn’t know the way (John 14:5), how would they be able to recognize the Father (John 14:8), if they hadn’t seen him, and how, on earth, is it possible for him to show himself to them but not to the world (John 14:22)?
So, it is in this context that we should understand Jesus’ statement: “I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you ask me, WHERE are you going? (John 16:5). They had understood only that Jesus said he was going. The WHERE simply didn’t register, because it didn’t have much meaning in the context of the work of the Messiah, so sorrow had filled their heart (John 16:6).
Therefore, Jesus would at this time tell his disciples about WHERE he was going. He made references to it earlier that evening (John 14:6, 26; 15:26), but now he dwelt upon what would happen to them once he wasn’t with them physically. It was to their advantage that he would leave, because, if he stayed, the Comforter couldn’t come, and they would remain unchanged (John 16:7), and there were many things he wanted to teach them but they were simply unable to receive them in their present state (John 16:12).
The problem is that the world had no context in which to place Jesus. This is why they didn’t know him (John 1:10). Not only didn’t the Jews receive their own Messiah (John 1:11), but those who did receive him would never have chosen him, had he not chosen them to be with him during his public ministry (John 15:16). Although many Jews looked for the coming of the Kingdom of God, no one looked for Jesus. He was that different from what was expected. Therefore, in such a context, the world had no moral integrity. Beyond some teacher telling them what crimes were or what was good behavior or what were reasonable laws for governing, they had nothing to convict them in common agreement what good and evil behavior was and how to govern properly.
A common moral integrity simply did not exist in Adam’s race. However, once the Comforter would come that would change. The world would have something in the flesh to look at and consider, reflecting upon it and change their own evil behavior to agree with what the Comforter was doing in the lives of believers. The world is reproved in their failure to believe Jesus, because he has returned to the Father, but his Spirit lives in his disciples and they become convinced of their errors through them. In this the prince of the world, which is that spirit that works in the world to err and rebel against God, is judged, because what they are able to see in Jesus’ disciples is far superior to what the spirit of the world could imagine. (John 16:8-11).
None of these things could be taught the world in the disciples’ present condition. Such things aren’t learned in classrooms but in life. Moral integrity is lived out before others, it can’t be taught in schools in a manner that convicts abusers. Therefore, Jesus had to leave and return in the person of his Spirit (John 14:17; cp. Colossians 1:27), coming in the flesh of men (1John 4:2-3; 2John 1:7), and giving them the spiritual understanding from within (1Corinthians 2:11) that could be used to convict the world of its evil (John 16:12; cp. 2Corinthians 5:14-21).
Jesus called the Comforter the Spirit of Truth, because he, Jesus, is the Truth (John 14:6). We are told that he has been made our wisdom (1Corinthians 1:30), so in this context Jesus’ Spirit will lead the disciples into all truth. He will take what Jesus said and did, which was said and done by him at the behest of the Father, and show it to Jesus’ disciples a second time, exploring its depths anew (John 16:13-15).
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One response to “The Work of the Holy Spirit”
1 Corinthians 1:27-30 paired with Luke 7:35 offers an explanation that many may not have considered by many. God reconciles Himself by becoming the Wisdom of God who was looked upon by men as a nobody who could not possibly possess any wisdom let alone any knowledge of men. Luke writes in 7:35 that Wisdom is vindicated by “her” children and this verse opens up the Story of the Woman Jesus called a Sinner beginning in verse 36. This Woman Jesus says was forgiven much loves much as demonstrated by her faith and her actions. Could it possibly be that God sent the Holy Spirit into the World as a woman to unite Himself as the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit to show the World the way how to love one another by honouring our Mother and our Father? In this particular passage the Man Jesus called Simon is a Pharisee and as such is the Father of the Oral Tradition and the Law. He too is looked down upon by many as a Pharisee and thinks to himself…that the anointed is not a prophet for if he were he would know the Woman is a sinner. Both men in the passage know the woman is a sinner and the people witnessing the anointing mumble and ask who also forgives sins? For the parable told by the Teacher whose feet the Woman Anointed brings out the Wisdom of the Father as he admits that the debtor who is forgiven the most will love the most.