John 14. Jesus knows what is coming. He knows that he is about to endure pain and death. Yet, his concern is not for himself. He spends all of chapter 14 trying to prepare the disciples for the fact that he is going to die, and offering them as much comfort, encouragement and reason to hope as he can.
Among the many encouragements in this chapter--"My Father's house has plenty of rooms;" "I am the way and the truth and the life;" "I will do whatever you ask in my name"--perhaps the greatest is Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit in verse 25. Jesus is intent on making sure the disciples (and we) understand that he is not leaving us alone. I love the name he uses for the Holy Spirit: the Advocate. We always have someone serving as an advocate for us before God. Even in a time when we feel deserted, like the disciples did upon Jesus' death, Jesus is reassuring us. The Spirit of God is always with us. No Christian is ever left alone!
One of my favorite songs that captures the hope of Christ in discouraging times is "Show the Way" by David Wilcox. (The song has also been covered by Kim Hill) Wilcox uses a beautiful metaphor of a play, where it looks like the evil side will win the day. I'm sure the disciples thought this when everything seemed to go wrong on the night of Jesus' arrest. But what you need to remember is that God wrote the play, owns the stage and controls everything that happens there, and He gets to decide how the play ends. I've included the lyrics below:
"Show the Way," by David Wilcox
You say you see no hope
You say you see no reason to we should dream
That the world would ever change
You're saying love is foolish to believe
'Cause there'll always be some crazy
With an Army or a Knife
To wake you from your day dream
Put the fear back in your life...
Look, if someone wrote a play
Just to glorify what's stronger than hate
Would they not arrange the stage
To look as if the hero came too late?
He's almost in defeat
It's looking like the evil side will win
So on the edge of every seat
From the moment that the whole thing begins
It is Love who mixed the mortar
And it's Love who stacked these stones
And it's Love who made the stage here
Though it looks like we're alone
In this scene set in shadows
Like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us
But it's Love that wrote the play
For in this darkness Love can show the way
So now the stage is set
You can feel you own heart beating in your chest
This life's not over yet
So we get up on our feet and do our best
We play against the fear
We play against the reasons not to try
We're playing for the tears burning in the happy angel's eyes
It is Love who mixed the mortar
And it's Love who stacked these stones
And it's Love who made the stage here
Though it looks like we're alone
In this scene set in shadows
Like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us
But it's Love that wrote the play
For in this darkness Love can show the way
No comments:
Post a Comment