NOTES for Joh 16:6-7

Jesus says that His departure, the completion of His earthly path, is not the end at all. It is only the beginning. The beginning of the process that can be called the Kingdom's entry into the world. His Kingdom. And the Kingdom of His Father. That is why the unveiling of the fullness of this Kingdom is connected with His departure. And the point here is not that He has to disappear in order to make room for someone else. It is simply that the Kingdom, as it enters the world, becomes ever fuller. More spacious. Deeper. It is this depth that the apostles begin to sense at the Ascension.

He disappears into the depth of His Kingdom. Into a depth the apostles had not known before because they had not noticed it. Now they have begun to notice it. But Jesus warns His disciples ahead of time. And the point is not that the divine breath, the Spirit of whom He speaks, replaces Him for the apostles. The point is something else. It is to follow Him. To follow the Messiah. To follow the King of His Kingdom. But to do that, one must first enter this Kingdom. Become a partaker of it. Simply being physically near Jesus is not enough. It is the same with the Kingdom: one can be in its presence, so to speak, on the territory of the Kingdom, and not notice it. And in order to notice it, one must make room for it within oneself.

His breath, which is also the breath of God. Then one will be able to see in Jesus that very King. Otherwise one can stand beside Him and have no relation at all to His real life. And what use is such standing nearby? That is why Jesus says that it is better for Him to go now. He must complete His earthly path. He must rise from the dead and continue this path already in the fullness of the Kingdom. He must bring this Kingdom into the world. In short, He must finish completely everything for which He came. And for His disciples this will truly be better.

Although to them it may seem otherwise. They want to be near the Teacher. But the Teacher wants to bring them into His Kingdom, to make them partakers of the fullness of the life by which He Himself lives. He wants them to feel for themselves the breath of God, the breath of the Kingdom, to breathe it in deeply. And for that the apostles must become involved in this spiritual movement of the advancing Kingdom. They must become part of it, just as He Himself is. For the Kingdom will also enter the world through them. Though they themselves do not yet know this: Pentecost still lies ahead of them.