Have you ever wondered why, if Christianity is true, churches are not filled every week? Should Jesus have stayed around longer after his resurrection, or made a personal appearance once every hundred years or so?<\/p>\n
As the Easter Season with its focus on the resurrection draws to a close it\u2019s worth considering Jesus\u2019 promise found in the Gospel reading this Sunday \u2013 from John 14:15ff. It forms part of the record of Jesus\u2019 final hours before his arrest and crucifixion. He had told his disciples he was \u2018going away\u2019 (John 14:3), and they were frightened.<\/p>\n
We see in John 14:15ff a tenderness not seen elsewhere as Jesus tells his disciples he would not leave them bereft: \u201cIf 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 and will be in you\u2026\u201d (John 14:15ff).<\/p>\n
This reference to the Spirit might initially give us the impression that Jesus is speaking about some impersonal power or force \u2013 as in Star Wars. Indeed, Acts 8:18f tells us Simon Magus thought the Holy Spirit was a force he could buy.<\/p>\n
But with the personal pronouns \u2018him\u2019 and \u2018he\u2019, referring to the Spirit, we see that Jesus is saying the Spirit is not a force but a person. In the Greek, \u2018Spirit\u2019 is a neuter noun \u2013 an \u2018it\u2019 word. But John breaks the rules of grammar. The \u2018hims\u2019 and the \u2018he\u2019 of John 14:17 are strongly emphasized pronouns: He dwells with you\u2026<\/p>\n
But if we think of the Holy Spirit as an \u2018it\u2019 we miss Jesus\u2019 promise. He says that with his going away he is to be replaced, not by an \u2018it\u2019, but by a \u2018he\u2019 \u2013 the Spirit, the \u2018Helper\u2019.<\/p>\n
The word Helper translates two words \u2013 the preposition, alongside, and the verb, called. With his approaching physical absence Jesus promises the Spirit who would perfectly match the need for a Helper, a Comforter.<\/p>\n
And this Helper or Comforter is not just \u2018a comforter\u2019 like Linus\u2019s blanket, nor simply a hot water bottle for cold, hard times. The Spirit comes to strengthen us \u2013 to put strength into our hearts, into the backbone of our lives, especially when we are challenged.<\/p>\n
Significantly Jesus says, \u2018The Spirit of truth is not known by the world, but \u2018you know him\u2026\u2019 (14:17). With his physical going, the age of the Holy Spirit will come. Jesus is now at work in the world through his Spirit.<\/p>\n
This is very encouraging. When we go back to the Old Testament we read that God\u2019s people dearly wanted God to live with them. But they found this concept hard to grasp. King Solomon asked: \u2018But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you;\u2026\u2019 (1 Kings 8:27).<\/p>\n
The answer to Solomon\u2019s question was, \u2018Yes\u2019. The Temple in Jerusalem was not only a place of worship. It symbolized God\u2019s dwelling with his people \u2013 his special relationship with them.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, in Ezekiel 37:27 God says: \u2018My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people\u2026\u2019 What Solomon thought God was too big for, God said he would do. He would dwell with his people.<\/p>\n
This was something that bothered Stephen Hawking in his Brief History of Time where he wrote: \u2018We are such insignificant creatures on a minor planet of a very average star in the outer suburb of one of a hundred billion galaxies. So it is difficult to believe in a God that could care about us or even notice our existence.\u2019<\/p>\n
However, Dr Henry Schaefer, one of the world\u2019s leading quantum computational chemists writes: \u2018I take a different position\u2026 There is no compelling evidence to date that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Human beings, thus far, appear to be the most advanced species in the universe. Maybe God does care about us! Stephen Hawking surveys the cosmos and concludes that the principal characteristic of humankind is obscurity. I consider the same data and conclude that humankind is special. I must be quick to add that a Christian worldview does not exclude the possibility of life, even sentient life elsewhere in the universe\u2026\u2019 (HF Schaefer, III, Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence? 2003, p.66.)<\/p>\n