A Little Help Please
Posted on May 01, 2016 by David Whetter
Right off the bat, we have a question about our story today, don’t we? Who is this Judas, (not Iscariot) that Jesus is answering? Well, he is one of “The Twelve.” Actually he is one of the 14 disciples that are identified by name as being in the group of “The Twelve” according to the four Gospels. Yes, if you go and read each of the Gospels, you will discover that when it comes to the Twelve Disciples that actually, between Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, there are actually 14 different names given and in the case of John, he only mentions the names of 9 of the twelve. He does mention a disciple that is referred to as the “Beloved Disciple, but he never gives this disciple a name and he also mentions in Chapter 1 that there was a second disciples with Andrew when they first met Jesus, but he never says the name of that disciple. So, what’s the deal you say? I thought Jesus identified twelve disciples to be his closest followers. Well, in all four Gospels there is a group of disciples that are referenced as “The Twelve,” but if truth be told there were probably more than twelve in the “inner circle.” The idea of “twelve” being the leadership core is most likely a symbolic connection to the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Now if that bothers you, I submit a modern day version of such a situation. Did you know the Big 10 is actually made up of 14 schools? Or what about the Big12? It has ten schools.
So, yes, there are two different Judas’ mentioned in the Gospels. All four mention Judas Iscariot, while Luke mentions Judas, son of James (6:16) and John simply gives the name, Judas, not Iscariot (14:22).
Now, our text today is part of what we call Jesus’ farewell discourse to his disciples on the night before his death. Jesus filled this lengthy time of teaching with several statements about his death and departure and that created lots of anxious questions from his disciples as he taught them. Peter asked “Lord, where are you going?” (John 13:36). Thomas asked, “Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (14:5). Phillip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied” (14:8), and now Judas (not Iscariot) in response to Jesus saying that “In a little while the world will no longer see [Jesus] but [the disciples] will see [him]” (14:19) asks, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” (14:22). The disciples wanted clarification about what Jesus had been telling them, but Jesus couldn’t give enough information to help them. It was too soon. They wanted information and answers that they would not be able to understand, and so their questions, for the most part went unanswered. Now, you can say that was wrong. If Jesus wanted them to follow him, he should have done a better job of explaining things. But, having “all” the information is not always helpful. Sometimes, until you have experienced something, you can’t fully understand what you need to know. Sometimes, until you have fully come to understand one thing, you can’t learn about, or understand, something else. Sometimes, such as in the case of children, we aren’t mature enough, yet, to understand some things. Sometimes, until we receive a little extra help, experience, knowledge, maturity… we just can’t learn. And this is where the disciples were on the night before Jesus was crucified. Their knowledge level, their experience to date, and their ability to learn more had all been “maxed out.” They would need to know and experience more, but Jesus would not be around to help them and so that night, before he left them, he promised a few things.
First, he said to them to truly be my followers you will need to follow my teachings and in doing so you will show your love. Oh, we heard about that love last week. Secondly, he acknowledged that they would need help in the future, and not to worry, because his Father would send the “Advocate,” or Holy Spirit to provide that help. Literally, the “Advocate” means the one who will walk alongside. And lastly, to accomplish this, even with the Advocate, the one who will walk with them in Jesus’ absence, to accomplish all this, they will need to know real peace. Yes, the world will be chaotic, and filled with strife and disruptions, but as they would share God’s word and love with the world, they were going to need to have peace within themselves, and so he says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (14:27). This peace is not simply having the absence of violence, but it is a peace that only God can give, it is “shalom,” and to have that, one must rely on and seek the help of the Holy Spirit. To be a disciple of Jesus is going to require being willing to say often, “I need help, Lord!”
You know, so often in this world we want answers, now. We think we know it all and that we can just analyze our way through things with simply knowing ‘the facts.” But, so often, just the facts are not enough. For example, we know that right now some 800 million people are starving today. Today, approximately 9800 children will die around the world from starvation. Right here where we live in Johnson County, today, some 21,000 children will go hungry. These are facts, and the fact is, based on harvest figures and other worldwide food industry figures, we know that we produce more food in this world than the worldwide population needs to avoid hunger. So why do we have this problem in the world? Well, all the food isn’t in the right places. But the fact is, we have the technology to transport the food. We have the technology to keep it safe and fresh while we transport it. Worldwide we have the financial resources to make this happen. These are all facts that have been proven. But, the truth is, we humans are really not at peace with ourselves. We still allow things like personal greed, personal desires, national loyalties, hopes and selfishness to dictate our concerns for and willingness to change the world. The facts are, we have all we need to end world hunger, but until we can accept that peace Jesus has offered, and until we can allow the Holy Spirit to guide all our actions, the fact is, we can’t end world hunger, or any other issues we face. Until we can accept we need the Holy Spirit, we will not know shalom. We need to learn to say “a little help please, Lord” But the real problem with following the Holy Spirit is that, as someone once said to me. “If you are going to follow the Holy Spirit, be prepared to go where you don’t want to go.”
The real answers to the big issues and challenges we face are often answers we don’t want to here. The truth is, Jesus did attempt to answer the questions posed to him by both his followers and those who did not follow him, but the problem was, they didn’t like his answers. The problem was his answers challenged their personal values and personal wants and desires, and so they rejected him and his ways. To which Jesus said to his disciples, “I get it. This is hard. You are not ready, so, my Father will send you one to walk with you, the Advocate, his Holy Spirit.” We are no different than those disciples some 2000 years ago, we need to seek to follow God’s call for our lives and our community.
May we never stop discerning our call and who we are and may we always remember that no matter what we do, God’s Holy Spirit walks with us. Amen.