The Spirit of Truth

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth….”

Whenever we translate Holy Scripture from its original languages (mostly Hebrew and Greek), we make choices about its meaning. Translation is the first step in interpretation. That’s how we end up with passages that sound different depending on the English version we read.

One prime example is God’s encounter with the prophet Elijah at the mouth of the cave in 1 Kings 19. God is not to be found in wind or earthquake or fire, the narrator tells us, but in… what? The New King James Version of the Bible preserves an old translation: after all the sound and fury, Elijah finally hears “a still small voice.” The New International Version translates that same Hebrew phrase “a gentle whisper.” And the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, the translation we use in worship, renders it “a sound of sheer silence.” So which is it? Does Elijah perceive God’s presence in a still small voice, a whisper, or silence? The Hebrew is flexible; which translation best captures the intended meaning?

Translators face a similar dilemma in today’s Gospel from John. As Jesus bids a long goodbye to his disciples, he makes them a promise: I have to leave you, but I won’t abandon you. How hard it must be for them to accept that Jesus’ death won’t be the end of their experiment with God’s kingdom on Earth as in heaven, the end of their hopes for a truly abundant life. He’s guided them like a good shepherd, cared for them like a devoted servant, and loved them like a faithful friend. How can they hold on to this relationship once he’s gone, and how will the next generation come to know him in the first place?

“I will ask the Father,” Jesus says, “and he will give you another Parakletos, to be with you forever.” In Greek, Parakletos literally means “one who is called alongside,” the term used for a Greco-Roman defense attorney. Our translation renders it Advocate, but other English versions of the Bible settle on different words: Intercessor, Counselor, Helper, Comforter, Companion. Parakletos has several possible meanings. So which is it? How are we to grasp the Holy Spirit, God’s gift to the disciples in Jesus’ physical absence? Is the Spirit an advocate, or intercessor, or counselor, or helper, or comforter, or companion? A good Lutheran answer is yes, any and all of these. It’s fitting that John’s Gospel uses such fluid language to describe the Holy Spirit. After all, the Spirit of God is wild and free; how can we bring words to the wordless?^[1]

Notice that Jesus promises another Parakletos, which is to say that Jesus himself has been a Parakletos, one called alongside. “This [other] ‘advocate,’” Karoline Lewis explains, “is who Jesus has already been for his disciples– guiding, teaching, reminding, abiding, witnessing, interceding, comforting.”^[2] In other words, the gift of the Holy Spirit represents continuity. The cross will not be the end of the gospel story; Jesus will accompany his beloved in the time to come and even beyond the boundary of death. “I will not leave you orphaned,” he insists, “I am coming to you.” And the Spirit will facilitate the encounter.

How else can we make sense of the notion that the living Christ is among us? What business does a first-century Galilean rabbi have relating to twenty-first-century disciples in downtown Puyallup? If it’s not in our imagination, if Jesus does not exist solely in the church’s memory, then God must take the initiative. Martin Luther is clear on this point: “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel….”^[3] It’s the Holy Spirit that moves me to faith in the living Christ; the Holy Spirit opens my heart to Jesus’ presence in good times and bad; the Holy Spirit– another Parakletos.

As it turns out, friends, physical separation is not final separation. And that promise applies not only to our relationship with the risen Christ, but also to the community of his followers. For even as the Holy Spirit gathers us, like a flock, to our good shepherd, it also gathers us to one another. “The Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel,” Luther affirms, “just as [the Spirit] calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth.”^[4] 

So rest in the promised arrival of the Spirit– your advocate, your comforter, your companion– bearing Jesus to you wherever you may be. Trust the gentle power of the Spirit to enliven and encourage you in times of weariness and uncertainty. And, when God is distant or unknown, even when you can’t bring yourself to pray, wait for the same Spirit to intercede on your behalf with sighs too deep for words.^[5]

[1] Kris Rocke, Preaching Peace table, Tacoma, 5/12/20.

[2] “A Time for Accompaniment,” www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?m=4377&post=5433.

[3] The Small Catechism.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Romans 8:26.