Dear Friends in Christ,
Famous last words. There are all kinds. Some are patriotic like Nathan Hale’s, “I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” They may be arrogant. Karl Marx’s last words spoken to his nurse were, “Go on. Get out.”
They may be a threat. “You’d better behave yourself until I get back.”
Some people act as if that last one were the way Jesus finally spoke to his disciples; with a stern law command. They spend their entire lives trying to be good as God commands so they can claim a place with him when Jesus returns.
Quite the contrary is the fact. Jesus’ final words spoken directly and intimately to his disciples included promises, comforting and reassuring promises not a threat. We listen to Jesus’ words under that theme: Jesus’ Last Words Included Promises not a Threat. He would send the Holy Spirit to his church. He would not leave us as orphans.
Just prior to these promises in the upper room on Maundy Thursday, Jesus had held up to his disciples the portrayal of heaven as many rooms or mansions. Jesus had pointed the disciples to himself as “the way, the truth and the life.”
Jesus now added the identifying mark of his disciples, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” This is a simple condition of true fact. The disciples could love Jesus by obeying his commands because the Holy Spirit dwelt in their hearts through faith in Christ. How then could they receive the Holy Spirit again when Jesus sent him as promised?
This would be the special outpouring that took place on Pentecost. Jesus would send, in Greek, the Paraclete, our Counselor. The Holy Spirit came upon the church and gave it knowledge, fearlessness, and the gifts he would use to grow and strengthen it.
Jesus did not threaten the disciples with the law by telling them they better learn more, quit being of little faith, and hone their skills with how to scrolls. Jesus simply promised them the Holy Spirit. He would give them knowledge, strengthen their faith, and endow their gifts. The disciples would use those gifts compelled by the love of Christ for them.
This Counselor is the Spirit of truth. He would tell them the truth. He would give them trust in the truth. He would enable them to speak the truth. Unbelievers cannot accept the Holy Spirit because by nature we do not and cannot accept him or know him. It is only when the gospel gives us the Holy Spirit in our hearts as a gift and that he lives with us and in us. This gift of the Spirit enables us to know the intimate relationship among the persons of God and the intimate relationship we have with God. That relationship manifests itself in the condition “whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. "He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
Jesus’ last words also included the promise that he would not leave us as orphans.
The essential meaning of orphan is to be fatherless. The disciples would feel like orphans when they saw their Master crucified, dead and buried. They would have the same feeling at Jesus’ Ascension. What would they do without Jesus with them? Jesus promised that he would be with them and their heavenly Father would be with them also. Jesus promised, “I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Before long the world, the world will not see me anymore but you will see me.”
The disciples would see Jesus on Easter Sunday, morning and night. They would see him for 40 days then hear the angel promise that Jesus will come back and they will see him as they see him go into heaven. They and we see him in his Word of truth. No unbeliever saw Jesus in his body between the resurrection and the ascension. Unbelievers do not see Jesus now in the Word. Many who say they believe in Jesus only see a false Jesus who they consider only a man, an example, a teacher, a prophet and not eternal God and their Savior from sin.
Our Redeemer spent much effort in making the connection between him and Father; separate persons but one in essence. They who see Christ as true God also see the Father in that unity of essence. We enjoy the same intimate relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has revealed him to us. Jesus said, “Because I live you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” Jesus promises his resurrection, our new life through that resurrection, and the knowledge that the Spirit works.
Jesus’s last words were not a threat, like caretakers threatening orphans to behave if they want to be adopted. Our Father already has adopted us as his children through Christ. We desire to behave exactly because of Jesus’ promises fulfilled. We have the Holy Spirit and no longer are orphans.
Last words not only are interesting but in this case life giving. They are among the comforting promises our loving Savior gives his church as he prepares a place for us in heaven and one day will come to take us to be with him where he is. He sends his Counselor to his children to see to it. Amen. <SDG>