Truly, Truly! – Grief into Joy

Truly, Truly! – Grief into Joy.

“A little while, and you will not see me; and again a little while, and you will see me, because I go to the Father… Truly, truly, I say to you that you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her time has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore, you now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. And in that day you will ask me no questions. Truly, truly I say to you, whatever petition you ask the Father in my name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:16, 20-24).

There is a much-used Hebrew word in the Hebrew Bible that points to its root word “truth.” The Greek in the New Testament also picked it up and used it for “truth” as well. That common Hebrew word is “amen.”

Amen. This biblical word basically means: This is truth! I agree that this is true! Yes! We heartily accept and approve of what was said! We are assured that this is certainly true! So be it! We believe this is trustworthy and we take it to heart!

Amen! Amen! is often translated as Truly, Truly, or Verily, Verily in the New Testament. This double Amen is only recorded in the gospel of John, and is said by Jesus before He offers a statement, not after.  He is the only Person to say this, because He is the only Person who has the authority to say this before He says it. This double Amen, as opposed to a single Amen, must be an important distinction for Jesus, because He felt compelled to use this preface twenty-five times in John.  When Jesus begins a statement with that double “Truly,” He is intending to be doubly intense when He says it, and so He wants the listener to be doubly attentive. He wants to emphasize the importance of His words. He is saying, In all truth I tell you. He wants the listener to focus, and He is serious about preparing the listener to be receptive. When Jesus says Truly, Truly, He is saying: Most assuredly, what I am about to tell you is absolutely true and trustworthy. So listen up, because an eternal truth is coming to you now. In all sincerity, says Jesus, this is the solemn truth. Take these words in, says Jesus, and have them go into your mind and then straight to your heart. For these words of mine are double truth, they are doubly true. Jesus might as well have been saying… And you readers out there centuries from now, get ready to apply your hot pink highlighter, get ready to do some double underlining! Truly, Truly, what you are about to hear is the honest to goodness truth. This is True! Really True!

Paraclete. The Farewell Address of Jesus to the Disciples (John 13-17) continues in this passage. But earlier in this Discourse Jesus has referred more than a couple of times to the gift He is offering to all believers in Him: the Holy Spirit. The interesting thing is that Jesus gave His Spirit a descriptive nickname: the Paraclete. That’s not exactly a Greek word that is tossed around much, but it turns out that paraclete is one of those full words that express more than one or two things. Paraclete is packed with very important meanings. John in his letter (1 John 2:1) called Jesus a Paraclete, and Jesus called the Holy Spirit a Paraclete. What does it mean, and is it important?

When Jesus was given the title of Advocate in 1 John 2:1, the Greek word for advocate is actually paraclete. It is a rich biblical term that has many facets, one of those sparkling diamonds in Scripture. Paraclete means “called to come alongside of,” and is the word that could mean encourager, counselor, comforter, advocate, exhorter, intercessor or helper. Paraclete is the word used all through the Epistles when one of those meanings is called for. A paraclete is someone who comes alongside someone else in a personal and helpful way, a productive and meaningful way. In the context of that 1 John passage, most translations have used paraclete to mean advocate… like a defense attorney, an intercessor. Jesus, standing alongside someone who has sinned, appearing before the Father. Jesus is the Advocate because there is a hostile Accuser, the evil one, the devil, who stands ready to accuse every believer before God. Here we see Jesus as someone who will represent a sinner in the presence of the Father. A friend of sinners, indeed. A paraclete, but so much more than an advocate.

Jesus is not the only Paraclete in the New Testament. In fact, there is a relay of paracletes as we finish the race of faith before us. The first Paraclete is Jesus Christ, who hands the baton to the second Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, who hands the baton to the third paraclete, each believer.

The First Leg of the Paraclete Relay: Jesus. What better way can we describe the ministry of Christ than as someone who comes alongside someone else? He was and is called to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with needy people and help them, whether through encouragement, counsel, comfort, advocacy, exhortation or intercession. Jesus was constantly coming alongside others in His preaching, teaching, healing and befriending ministry on earth. His helping style was always the paraclete style. Jesus started the relay, and then He handed the baton over to the Holy Spirit, or as Jesus told His disciples on the eve of His departure, “another Paraclete.” (John 14:16). It is easy to see that in saying this, He is calling Himself Paraclete as well.

The Second Leg of the Paraclete Relay: the Holy Spirit. Jesus tried to cheer up His sad disciples after telling them about His impending departure, by saying that it is actually to their benefit that He returns to the Father. The result of His absence is that the Spirit will be sent in Jesus’ place. Jesus ascends to the Father, and the Spirit descends to continue the Lord’s presence on earth. The Spirit of Jesus replaces the physically absent Jesus. The Holy Spirit continues Christ’s presence. When Jesus warned the disciples that He would be going away, He told them, “Unless I go away, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” (John 16:7). He had just finished telling them about the Paraclete “whom I will send to you from the Father.” (John 15:26). He finished that statement by saying that the Holy Spirit “goes out from the Father.” So, it appears the Son sends the Spirit, but again that the Father sends the Spirit. There is no point in arguing about from whom the Holy Spirit is sent, the Father or the Son… Both the Father and the Son have a direct hand in sending the Paraclete, the Spirit of God, to people on earth.

The Third Leg of the Paraclete Relay: Believers. There is still another leg to the relay if we want to finish the race. The Holy Spirit is sent from God to dwell in us, so that we are enabled to be little paracletes. As St. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:11, “Let us be paracletes to each other.” We are each called to come alongside one another to help fellow believers in need. We are each called to put the Spirit of Jesus into practice and demonstrate the very character and ministry of Christ. How astounding is it that the Almighty God, the divine Paraclete, would entrust us with this role? How amazing is it that we can become “partakers of the divine nature” (1 Peter 1:4) and participate in His ministry here on earth? What might this look like as fellow believers are standing alongside each other? The best way to run the paraclete relay is to consider each of the “one another‘s” in the Word. We are each called, paraclete-style, to:

• Harmonize with each other (Romans 12:16);
• Wash one another’s feet (John 13:14-15);
• Confess to one another (James 5:16);
• Exhort one another (Romans 12:18);
• Bear with one another (Ephesians 4:2);
• Honor one another (Romans 12:10);
• Restore one another (Galatians 6:1);
• Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11);
• Warn one another (Colossians 3:16);
• Build up one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11);
• Bear the burdens of one another (Galatians 6:2);
• Love one another (John 13:34-35 and 15:12-13).

Jesus Christ, called to come alongside, is the first Paraclete; the Holy Spirit, called to come alongside, is the second Paraclete; the community of believers, called to come alongside, is the third paraclete.

By the time we get to Jesus’ words in John 16:20, we find the Disciples in a gloomy state of mind, for good reason. Jesus has said on a number of occasions that He will die, and it’s finally starting to sink in. Jesus confirms His impending death in verse 20, when He used a Geek term for “mourn” that is only used in reference to a death, a lament. Jesus tries gamely to encourage them in His role of paraclete by explaining that they will only feel this extreme sadness for a little while, and then they will be filled with joy. Jesus is laying out the scenario in which the Disciples will mourn deeply at His death while the world rejoices, and then the Disciples will totally turn around and explode into joy after a little while. Jesus is thinking of His Resurrection, when they will see Him and be ecstatic to see Him again. They will find a renewed relationship with Jesus that will go deeper than ever and will be the source of all that new joy and gladness. The Disciples don’t know it yet, but the Holy Spirit will enable them to have an even more intimate relationship with the Lord than they had before.

The Joy of Motherhood. Jesus then inserted a word picture that was intended to help them understand this process of joy on the heels of anguish. A woman in labor is filled with pain and anguish during labor and delivery, Jesus says. But that is soon forgotten with the joy of delivering a new life into the world. She has realized the privilege of bringing a new little person into her home and into God’s world, and she is ecstatic. Jesus is saying that they will soon experience something like that. The joy that they will experience when they see Him again after a little while will make them forget the sorrow from before. Jesus could have used any number of word pictures for this illustration, but He thought the best option was one in which a woman and motherhood were honored and appreciated and held up high. And the fact that the Lord highlighted the joy of a new baby as being close to the joy of seeing Jesus again is especially poignant.

Ask. In verses 23-24, Jesus uses two Greek words for “ask.” The first is the word to use in the context of asking questions. The second is to use when asking petitions. The Disciples had been asking questions of Jesus ever since He said, Follow me. But with the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete called to come alongside them, the Spirit of Truth at the ready inside them, the need to go directly to Jesus with questions will diminish. But now things will change, says Jesus. You can now ask the Father whatever petition you want, as long as your petition is asked in the name of Jesus. My name represents me, says Jesus, so go ahead and ask whatever you want of the Father that is in line with my character, my mission, whatever represents me and my concerns for this earth full of people. And now you can go directly to the Father through my name, says Jesus. You don’t need a sacrifice to be acceptable in the sight of my Father, because I supplied the sacrifice forever. You don’t need a priest in the Temple to approach the Father for you, because I am now your Great High Priest and I will be your mediator, your advocate, your way to the Father. Think of it, dear disciples, you will soon have direct access to the throne room of Heaven!