Easter
IV 2008
Today,
the fourth Sunday after Easter, finds us more than halfway through the Great
Forty Days, and in our Gospel readings, which continue from the Great Discourse
in Chapters 13 through 17 of John, we begin to notice a shift in emphasis. While the primary focus in these 40 days
continues to be on our Lord’s mighty Resurrection, the Gospel passages for the next
10 days begin today to move our thoughts towards our Lord’s Ascension, and the
sending of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
And
not only does today’s passage move our thinking ahead to Ascension and
Pentecost, it contains very strong Trinitarian references in terms of the
indivisible relationship between Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Of particular note is the too-often forgotten
teaching of Jesus that neither He, nor the Holy Ghost acts independently of God
the Father. This is a very important
point of which to be mindful when we come to that perhaps somewhat unclear
passage in the middle of the reading, “And when he (God the Holy Spirit) is
come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement:
of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my
Father, and ye see me no more; of judgement, because the prince of this world
is judged.”
Although
this short passage may be well-known to most Christians, it is not all that
easily understood. Indeed, great minds
have been virtually silent on it: Augustine generally avoided the passage as
too difficult? (though he did make some short comments in one of his tracts);
Thomas Aquinas referred to other people’s opinions but gave none of his
own. A more recent commentator remarked
that the pattern of mentioning the three charges in v.8 and then explaining
each in vv.9-11 is a “methodical explanation that has not much clarity.”
Still,
it is part of Scripture, and when we consider its context in the words
that Jesus spoke to His Apostles in the Upper Room on that first Maundy
Thursday, the evening before He was crucified, surely we should not try to
avoid it. Therefore, all too briefly I
am sure, let us see if we can unravel the gist of what our Lord was saying to
the Apostles.
The
first difficulty might be the word “reprove.”
This is sort of a best go at yet another Greek word that doesn’t have a
directly corresponding word in English.
Many commentators have suggested that either “convince” or “convict”
would be closer to the true meaning; in reality, a combination of all three
might be best. Certainly in the case of
the first item on the list, “convict” might seem appropriate – the Holy Spirit
will convict the world of sin because they believe not on Jesus. Fair enough, but then how well does “convict”
apply to the other two? The Holy Spirit
will convict the world of righteousness because Jesus is going to the
Father? And “convict” the world of
judgement because the prince of this world is judged?
Hmm. Perhaps we should consider each of the three
phrases first, and then we might better understand “reprove, convince,
convict,” as they relate to all three phrases.
“Of
sin because they believe not on me.”
What other New Testament passages might we think of when considering sin
that results in conviction so serious that it is properly called judgement? In each of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus makes
the statement that all sins will be forgiven, even sins against the Son of Man;
but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is unforgivable. At first glance, this might seem to
contradict the phrase under consideration that men will be convicted because they
believe not on Jesus. But, let us
remember one of our initial observations regarding the indivisibility of the
Three Persons of the Holy Trinity.
There, that helps, right? No?
In
those other Gospel passages, where Jesus makes His statement that even sins
against Him can be forgiven, but not blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, the
fundamental distinction that clarifies His meaning is in terms of His earthly
Person, as opposed to His work, His saving activity. Which is to say, people, prior to any acknowledgement
of Jesus’ Divinity doubted that this person, the carpenter’s son, was the
Messiah – and that is forgivable because it does not call into question His
activity, His work. When one accepts the
idea of His oneness with the Father and the Holy Ghost, then we understand that
the work that He did in His earthly ministry is in fact the work of the Father,
the work of the Holy Ghost – all three Persons of the Holy Trinity engaged in
the saving of mankind.
At
the same time, let us remind ourselves that so often Jesus would convict people
of their sins as a means of convincing them of His Messiahship: we might think
of the woman at the well who didn’t make that acknowledgement until Jesus
pointed out to her the sinfulness of her rather chequered marital career; and
we might also think of St. Paul on the road to Damascus – convicted of his sin
in persecuting Jesus just prior to his being convinced and converted.
It
is after this point of convict, convince, convert, when anyone has accepted
Jesus’ claim on their souls as the Saviour of mankind that to deny Him is to
commit a blasphemy against His Spirit.
This work of first convicting us of our sin was taken up immediately by
God the Holy Spirit after Jesus’ Ascension.
It is worth mentioning that
“Of
righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more.” This truly is the most difficult of the three
as it seems, at face value, to make little sense. Commentators mention two possibilities that
may not be unrelated. First, when we
look at the end of the phrase, “and ye see me no more,” we are confronted with
the reality that has existed ever since our Lord’s Ascension – we see Him, we
know Him no more as an actual in-the-flesh manifestation of God. How do we know Him today? By faith.
If we glance ahead at St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, in Chapters 3 and
forward, he launches into a long discourse about faith, and near the beginning
of Chapter 4, he says of Abraham, “For what saith the scripture? ‘Abraham
believed God (that is, had faith though not having seen) and it was counted
unto him for righteousness’.” Therefore,
in terms of Jesus statement about the world being reproved by the Holy Spirit
of righteousness because we see Him no more, is He simply making the same point
as
The
second possible, and much older explanation for this second point of Jesus is
that His Ascension – His being seen no more – vindicates, proves His claims to
Divinity. During his earthly sojourn, He
was persistently branded as a sinner and transgressor. This excuse would be taken away after His
Ascension, attested to by the abiding, convincing, reproving, convicting
presence of His Holy Spirit. If He is in
fact the Son of Man, the Messiah, the Holy One,
“Of
judgement, because the prince of this world is judged.” This third point is more easily
understood. Clearly, as we are still in
Eastertide, we think of Jesus’ triumph over sin, the world and the devil by His
mighty Resurrection. At the Crucifixion,
no doubt Satan, the prince of this world, was certain that he had
triumphed. The Resurrection reversed
that in an instant.
St. John Chrysostom observed about this statement, “Now had Jesus been a sinner, He could not have overthrown Satan; a thing which not even any just man had been strong enough to do.” Our Lord’s rising again from the dead not only overthrew Satan, it rendered final judgement on him. Some have mistakenly thought that the Resurrection, because it thus judged Satan, has meant that Satan is no longer active in the world. As we know, in simply looking around us, nothing could be further from the truth. Satan indeed ultimately will be defeated; however, until time ends at the Second Coming of our Lord, Satan will do his utmost to turn the world away from Him Who came to save the world.
Recognition of this – that even since the Resurrection, even since Jesus’ statement in the Upper Room that the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement – that the state of the soul of each and every human is a struggle between influences that lead either to holiness or impurity, a struggle between good and evil, between God and the devil, we take encouragement from our Lord’s statement to His Apostles.
And that is where both the Collect and Epistle
for today relate to that which we have considered, praying to God to direct our
minds and hearts so that, even against the influences of the world, our focus
may always remain on our Lord; that we may always be inclined to His will as
perfectly expressed in His holy Word which is able to save our souls.
The Holy Spirit will come to reprove,
convince, convict the world of sin, and of righteousness , and of
judgement. As two thousand years of
intervening history have proved, those whose hearts are truly fixed on Jesus
and His promised reward of eternal life have nothing to fear.
ANNUNCIATION OTTAWA 2008 +CR