The Helper

Jesus Promises Not To Abandon His People

Image courtesy of Shunhanker Bhowmick via Unsplash

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” – John 14:15-22

Spring is the close of the school year. It’s the time when students gather for cram sessions, and teachers emphasize core concepts that their pupils cannot miss. Jesus brought His disciples to the upper room to celebrate the Passover, but it also became a classroom of sorts.

The Teacher sat with His disciples one last time before they faced trials that would test everything they thought they understood. In John chapters 14 and 15, Jesus reviews core concepts: Love God, and love one another. Trust in Him and remain in Him.

He had taught them a great deal over the course of three years. But how would they remember it all?

More importantly, what would happen when fear overtook them? When confusion clouded their understanding? When grief and suffering made it difficult to trust what Jesus had said?

Jesus knew they would struggle. He knew they would forget, be afraid, scatter, and doubt. Which is why, on that evening, He was doing more than imparting information. He was promising a Presence.

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever ...” (v16).

The Helper. The Advocate. The Counselor. You may know Him best as the Holy Spirit.

“You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (v17).

Powerful, yet unseen. A teacher and reminder. Not merely helping the disciples recall facts, but continually drawing them back to Jesus Himself. “I will not leave you as orphans.”

Christianity is not sustained by our ability to remember everything perfectly, as though faith were a written exam we must pass. Rather, it rests upon Christ’s promise not to abandon His people, and to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Like the disciples, we forget, we fear, and we struggle to trust. But that is the spirit of the world, not the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit, who comes to us through baptism and the Word, will calm your anxieties, and when “we do not know what to pray for as we ought … the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26)

Listen as He whispers words of remembrance about Jesus’ promises, reminding us that because Jesus lives, we also will live.

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.