NOTES for Joh 16:28

This may be the shortest description of Christ's mission: He came - and He went away. But between these two moments something very important was accomplished, something that changed the world forever. The world into which Jesus came and the world He leaves behind Him are, in a certain sense, different worlds.

The world 2,000 years ago is like a room with one door, from behind which a foul stench comes; the coming of Christ cuts a new door through it, giving another way out, and as He goes to the Father, He leaves that door wide open. On the day of Pentecost, through this open door a fresh wind bursts into the room, carrying away all the stench and mustiness in a draft. Life changes qualitatively - a positive perspective appears in it.

When we look at our everyday life, we sometimes lose this perspective. The dirt creeping into our life from behind that first door - through gossip, abuse, rumors - keeps us from breathing freely. But the door to God remains open: we can both push our way toward it ourselves and bring other people there.

It is probably the shortest description of the mission of Christ. He came - and left. But something very important came true between these moments, what changed the world. The world, in which Jesus came, and the world that He leaves, are in a sense different worlds. The world 2000 years ago was similar to a room with one door, from which an abominable stench was wafted. The coming of Christ opens a new door, giving another exit from the room, and He leaves this door opened, when going to the Father. During the Pentecost, a fresh wind rushes through this opened door into the room, with draught bringing stench and mustiness. The life changes qualitatively – a positive perspective appears in it.

When we look at our everyday life, we sometimes lose this perspective. The dirt creeping in our life because of this first door, - through gossips, revilements, rumors, - hinders to breath with full breast. Still, the door leading to God remains open, we can ourselves go to it, and bring other people.

Today we read a passage from Christ’s Last Discourse with His disciples, in which the Lord speaks of what the Apostle Paul would later call adoption through faith. It turns out that God’s purpose is to give people direct access to the Father through Christ’s incarnation, suffering, and resurrection. The Lord, whom the apostle would call the one Mediator between God and humanity, united Himself fully with human beings in everything except sin. Therefore, He tells the disciples that the Father Himself loves them, and that it will no longer be Christ who asks on their behalf, but the Father Himself who will hear them.

Thus, this concerns overcoming the abyss that separates each one of us from God through the Fall. Ask in My name, the Lord commands His disciples. By being united with Christ through faith, we receive the possibility of addressing the Father in Christ’s name. By becoming one Body with Jesus in Communion, we too become children of God, as John the Evangelist writes so clearly in his first epistle. In this, the source of true life is revealed to us. And everything unworthy of God’s children can at last disappear from our lives if we labor toward this.

In today's Gospel passage we read that the apostles, for some reason, suddenly decided that they believed Jesus had come forth from God. They tell Christ that His words have finally satisfied them, words that had struck them as intelligible and convincing. And the apostles decided that they believed. But as the apostle Paul will say later, "by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). Therefore Christ has to cool the disciples' fervor a little by directly predicting to them that they will soon betray Him.

But, as Christ Himself explains, this prophecy is not for accusation but for consolation. So that afterward the disciples would understand that the Teacher went to the cross even though He knew everything. So that they would have hope in His forgiveness. So that their heart could recover the peace it had lost (see John 16:33).

What day is Jesus speaking about to His disciples? One could, of course, think that He is speaking about the day of His Resurrection, when everything will finally become clear to the apostles and all their questions and perplexities will be resolved. But were they resolved after the Resurrection of their Teacher? The question is not straightforward. Of course, after the Resurrection they understood what Jesus meant when He spoke to them about the completion of His earthly path, but in other respects the apostles still had many questions and perplexities, as well as illusions. It is enough to recall how, already on the day of the Ascension, they were still waiting for their Teacher finally to "restore the kingdom to Israel."

As we can see, understanding was not so simple, and it came to the apostles in its fullness only on the day of Pentecost, when under the action of the breath of God they became different people, joining themselves to the Kingdom. But does this mean that all their questions disappeared at once and all their perplexities were resolved? In part, yes, but if we speak of complete clarity, then it can clearly come only on the day of Judgment, when the Kingdom is revealed in all its fullness. Before that day it is premature to speak of such a resolution. Perhaps, when Jesus speaks about that day when His disciples will no longer ask Him anything, He has in mind not the day of His Resurrection after all, but the day of His return in glory, the day of Judgment and the final triumph of the Kingdom.

For now, He says to the apostles: I came into the world from the Father, and now I am leaving the world again and going to the Father. And it seems to them that they understand Him. They are probably thinking that He is leaving them in order to return soon with a victorious heavenly army, to return as a triumphant victor - the way, in their opinion, the Messiah was supposed to appear to Israel. And He, of course, understands perfectly well what they are waiting for and hoping for, and therefore says that very soon they will all scatter, leaving Him alone: for there will be no victorious war. And in fact there will be no war at all - only death on the cross and Resurrection, and the Kingdom that is "not of this world."

The disciples cannot understand Jesus' mysterious words: "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me...". We too can fully share their bewilderment. Even if we know that He said these words to them with His imminent crucifixion, death, and then the meeting after His Resurrection in mind, why are these words addressed to us now? We did not see Him either before the Cross or after the Resurrection.

Perhaps He is speaking of the Second Coming? Perhaps... But here too we hear that the words, the image, and even the very presence of Christ can meet us before the end of the world, when the Comforter brings them with Himself, the One who will speak with the voice of Jesus and teach as the Lord taught, because He Himself will come from the same place from which Christ is from: from the Father.

In speaking to His disciples about His path and His ministry, Jesus could not avoid telling them the meaning of the death that awaited Him. He tells the apostles: My earthly journey is complete; the time has come to part (vv. 5-6). But this is not simply a parting—Jesus leaves so that the Kingdom may be revealed to the world in all its fullness. He says: if I do not complete My earthly, human journey, then My divine fullness will also remain hidden from the world. The apostles themselves will not feel God's breath or come to know the Spirit-Comforter of whom Jesus spoke to them (vv. 6-7).

Meanwhile, the Savior tells His disciples about the coming of the Kingdom. He says that when God's Spirit comes into the world, He will become the chief witness to everything that many people did not want to hear from Jesus and His disciples: the witness to His mission, the defeat of the dark powers, and the sin of rejecting the Messiah sent by God (vv. 8-11). The meaning of this testimony is clear: it is testimony to the Kingdom and to Jesus as the Messiah who brought the Kingdom into the world. No testimony in itself deprives anyone of freedom of choice, of course, and those who reject the testimony of God's Spirit will become persecutors of the witnesses to the Kingdom (vv. 1-4). This is the chief thing; the disciples will learn and understand the rest when they enter the Kingdom and receive the revelation of God's Spirit (vv. 12-15).

Yet the disciples still do not seem fully to believe that Jesus is speaking to them about His death. They are bewildered: what does He mean? Where is He going, and why does He want to hide from them (vv. 16-18)? Jesus then speaks to the apostles with the greatest possible clarity about His death and resurrection. He warns His disciples that they are to experience great sorrow, which will soon give way to even greater joy (vv. 21-22). He promises them that the day will come when they meet again, the day when everything becomes clear to them and they have no questions left (vv. 22-23). Finally, Jesus tells His disciples directly: I came into the world from the Father, and now I am leaving the world again and going to the Father (v. 28).

After these words from their Teacher, the apostles think that at last they understand everything, but Jesus apparently thinks otherwise. He tells the disciples plainly that soon they will all scatter and leave Him alone (vv. 29-32). Yet even the flight of the bewildered disciples is of no consequence: victory over the powers of evil that hold the world captive has been won, and no suffering of the Kingdom's witnesses can now undo it (v. 33).