Another Advocate (May 14, 2023) John 14.15-21

It’s Tuesday evening. The family is gathered around the soft glow of the television. There are TV trays for each person and Swanson TV dinners on them, a different one for each member of the family. While the family is enjoying their meal, they are watching some of their favorite shows. But come eight o’clock everyone must get quiet because THE show is coming on. THE show can be one of many dramas that feature an attorney or detective willing to take on a client everyone believes is guilty, especially as all the evidence points to the client. Everyone except the attorney. One can name some of the shows where this is the theme: Perry Mason, Matlock, Colombo, you get the idea. Each of these shows had a person who was willing to stand up for someone who was alleged to be guilty, who had all the evidence pointing to his or her guilt, who was in despair that no one believed in his or her innocence. And then in comes the one who will stand up for that person in the court of law or in the finding out who really did the crime. Someone who was an advocate for the person. Someone who pleaded the cause or defended the cause of the other. And by the end of the hour long show, the person accused was found to be innocent. The advocate was the one who stood up for the person, who believed in the person and the one who made sure that the person knew that the advocate believed in the person’s innocence. There was hope found in the advocate.

Jesus was speaking to his disciples about his leaving them and telling them to not be troubled. He tells them why: he is the way to the Father and that they know the Father through him. A couple of good reasons to not be troubled by the news that Jesus is going away from them.

But now Jesus gives the disciples instructions and more good news. The instructions come in the form of a statement: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”[1] If they love Jesus, they will show this love by keeping what he taught them. They will show the world that they are his disciples by loving the down trodden, the outcast, the poor, their enemies, the unlovable.

But there is hope in what Jesus says. He tells them that they will have another Advocate given to them by the Father because Jesus will ask for this one to come. They will have another who will stand for and with them when the times get hard and they need support.

The Advocate. This is a tricky translation here. The word in Greek is Paraclete and means so much more than advocate. ““Paraclete,” which means, literally, “the One Called Alongside” (para: “alongside”; klētos: “called”); called alongside to help, especially in critical situations, such as appearances in court where one especially needs someone to stand alongside oneself and to give true, helpful, and encouraging testimony and support.”[2]There have been many translations of this word. The paraclete has been called Comforter, Counselor, Helper and Advocate. All of these words have a shortfall. Robert Mounce says this about some of the translations: ““Comforter” (KJV) is misleading because the meaning of the English word has changed since Wycliffe’s day when it was first used. (“Comforter” stems from the Latin fortis, which means “brave”). “Advocate” is closer, since literally a paraklētosis “one called alongside” (from the verb kaleō, GK 2813, and the preposition para) to help, especially in a legal sense. The problem with “Counselor” (NIV) is that it suggests advice rather than active assistance.”[3]We will be going with advocate because it is the one that tends to be the most literal and it is the one that the NRSV uses.

But there is a word here that must be noticed. It is another. Who is this advocate? It would appear to be obvious that it is Jesus who is the other advocate. Jesus was the one who was giving the disciples instruction and who was giving them support and comfort. He was also the one who stood alongside them when things got a bit tense with the authorities. And we are told in 1 John 2.1 that Jesus is the advocate for us with the Father. So, it is important for the disciples to know that there is another who is coming to them to do the things that Jesus did with them.

This advocate will be the “Spirit of truth.” The advocate will be the one whom the world cannot see or know but the disciples will because the advocate will abide in or among them. This advocate will be just like Jesus, providing comfort and support when needed. The disciples will have one who will stand by them like the attorneys in the shows that I spoke of earlier. Frederick Bruner even translated paraclete as the Encourager or True friend because a true friend is one who will stand with you, one on whom you can call in the middle of the night and they will talk to you or even better come and sit with you. Bruner says that his son pointed out to him that “…a true friend not only encourages but he often confronts and convicts us and our opponents as well.”[4]

I hope by now you have determined that the Advocate is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. If not, well, that is who it is. But what does the Spirit do in the lives of the believers and how does the Spirit give us comfort and stand with us?

Too often we believe that we can control God or Jesus. They are ones that we know and that we believe that we can manipulate if we do or say the right things. But the Spirit is different. Jesus says in John 3 that the Spirit is like the wind, going and coming without anyone able to control. In other words, the Spirit is unpredictable. And we do not like things that are unpredictable. We like our gods in our pocket and knowing what they are capable of doing. The Spirit is not like that and it gives us an uneasy feeling.

So, again, we ask just what does the Spirit do in the world and in our lives? Well, there are a few things that Daniel Migliore in his book Faith Seeking Understanding has listed that the Spirit does. First, that the Spirit bears witness to and re-presents Christ to us. By doing this the Spirit brings Christ into the present and bridges the gap between the then and there and the here and now. In other words, we know Jesus today because of the Spirit. Second, the Spirit is the power of new life in Christ. Because of this we are taken from slavery to sin and death and brought into new life and communion with others. Third, the Spirit is the power of new freedom in Christ. The Spirit frees us the have the mind of Christ, to have a pattern of life that is more than what we are but that makes us reflect the pattern of God’s self-giving love in Jesus. Fourth, the Spirit is the power of the new community in Christ. It is through the Spirit that we have the church. It is through the power of the Spirit that we can love one another, we can be united with strangers and even with old enemies. This community can and will do many things through the Spirit. Eugene C. Bay has this to say about the community that is brought about in the Spirit from John 14: “The intent of John 14 is to form a community of believing and obedient people, a community that is confident in the disclosure of God that has come in the person of Jesus and that depends on the leadership of the Spirit of truth to keep it obedient and productive in its life. The community intended by the text will not be satisfied with bowling leagues, sewing circles, and yoga classes, or even with therapy sessions or Bible study classes, but will be led to do “works” similar to those of Jesus: befriending the outcasts, healing the sick, speaking up for the marginalized, housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, and speaking truth to and about the empire.”[5]Fifth, the Spirit is the giver of gifts that are for the building up of the community that is formed by the Spirit. We know the gifts of tongues given on the day of Pentecost. There are other gifts because the gifts are not given to only a select few, but to all in the community of the Spirit. It is stated that these gifts are to be tested by whether or not they serve the life and the mission of the community and not bring dissention and discord. Finally, the Spirit is the power and promise in Christ of the completion of all of God’s works. Migliore states that as the power of God’s promised future, the Spirit awakens hope, yearning, and restlessness for the completion of God’s reconciling work in Christ and the establishment of justice and peace throughout the creation.

Now, you may be wondering what all this has to do with the here and now. Well, it has everything to do with it. Because of the Spirit we can experience and know Jesus today, not just in some text but living in and through us. Because of the Spirit we can read the scriptures and have them come alive to us and not be just dead letters on a page. Because of the Spirit we can come together as diverse as we are and be family. And all this because the one promised to us is with us.

The attributes given above tell us what the Spirit is and does. But the Spirit is so much more. We have life and hope because of the Spirit. And there is one more thing. Because of the Spirit we will break bread with Jesus. The physical Jesus is not with us, but because the Spirit connects us with Jesus, we can share the feast we are about to partake in with him. It is a mystery of how it happens but it is sure that it does happen.

In this text Jesus tells us that we will never be left alone. We have one who will intercede for us and give us the words that we do not know how to say. Paul tells us that the Spirit will pray for us when we do not know how to pray. It is sure that we do not understand it, but it is true. Have you ever done something that you knew God wanted you to do, but you knew that you could never do it on your own? That is the Advocate stepping up and giving you help like a true friend would do. Because we have a true friend we can face whatever obstacles, whatever oppression, whatever is thrown at us. We are told that Jesus would not leave the disciples, and by extension us, orphaned, that we would have someone who would step in and remind us that we are children of the Living God. If that is not good news, I do not know what is. The Spirit has been given to us as the advocate, the one who will stand with us when no one else will. Thanks be to God. Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2]Bruner, Frederick Dale. The Gospel of John (p. 834). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition. [3] Mounce, Robert H. “John.” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke–Acts (Revised Edition). Ed. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland. Vol. 10. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007. 565. Print. [4]Bruner, Frederick Dale. The Gospel of John (p. 834). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition. [5]Bay, Eugene C. Feasting on the Word: Year C Pentecost and Season after Pentecost, Propers 3-16. Westminster John Knox Press. Louisville. 2010. 71-72 electronic version.