Commentary on John 14:23-29

The final night’s conversation between Jesus and his disciples continues. Jesus has made clear that he is about to leave them. They are struggling with that news emotionally and conceptually. Jesus has just said that he will not leave them alone (“orphaned,” verse 18). He will continue to love them. He will continue to reveal himself to them but not to the world. Judas (not Iscariot) then asks how that can be (verse 22). How will Jesus reveal himself to these few? Perhaps Judas had in mind the standard apocalyptic event, like lightning flashing from east to west, a revelation that is unavoidable for all (Matthew 24:27).

But Jesus is talking about a different kind of self-revelation. The answer to Judas’s question is love. That is how Jesus reveals himself, and that will continue. Loving someone shapes behavior. That is true with parents and children, spouses and partners. Loving our neighbors means actions oriented toward them and their good. It is the same in the relationship between Jesus and his disciples. Their love for him will shape their lives so that they keep his word (verse 23).

That surely means the specific command on this final night that they serve one another (13:31–35, last Sunday’s text). It also means keeping at the heart of their life together his word about the Father’s love, about grace and truth, and about him going to the Father. Those claims will give shape to their lives of discipleship. Keeping Jesus’ word will also mean being honest about the ways that their love for Jesus still falls short, as verse 28 implies.

The Father will love them (verse 23). This is a promise, and we should be careful not to make this love conditional. The Father’s love does not wait for the disciples to love first. After all, “God so loved the world”; 3:16). God refuses to love from a distance. That is part of what the Incarnation means. So both the Father and the Son will come to make a new home with Jesus’ disciples. The word translated “home” in verse 23 is used only one other time in the New Testament. In John 14:2, Jesus assured the disciples that his Father’s house has many “dwelling places” and that Jesus goes to the Father to prepare a place for them. Now in verse 23, that language is turned inside out. The Father and the Son will make their “dwelling place” with the disciples. This noun is related to the far more frequently used verb in John, “remain” or “abide.” Disciples are those who “abide” in Jesus, in his love, and in his word.

Discipleship is more than effort exerted toward certain behaviors. It is relationship. It is life with another. The Father and the Son will make their “abiding place” with the disciples. The first disciples asked where Jesus was staying (1:38); now they have their answer: Jesus is staying with them. Jesus is certainly going away, yet paradoxically, the life of the church is not marked by Jesus’ absence but by the presence of an abiding God.

“Paraclete” is a uniquely Johannine way to name the Holy Spirit (used in 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7). First John 2:1 uses the same word to refer to Jesus, and we should note how the first use of this word in the Gospel (14:16) talks about the Father sending “another Paraclete” (New Revised Standard Version: “Advocate”), implying that this word also is a true description of Jesus himself. In literature outside the New Testament, the word “paraclete” primarily designates a defense attorney. There are forensic aspects to the Paraclete in John 16:7–11, but there the activity is that of a prosecutor rather than a defending counsel.

The same linguistic stem is used in the New Testament to refer to preaching (1 Corinthians 14:3; New Revised Standard Version: “encouragement”), exhortation (Philippians 4:2; New Revised Standard Version: “urge”), and consolation (Matthew 5:4). John uses this rich and multifaceted word “Paraclete” to point to all these ways that the church knows the Spirit. “The Paraclete is the Spirit of Christian “paraclesis.”¹ There is good reason not to translate the word at all but to simply transliterate it as “Paraclete” (as the New Jerusalem Bible does) and allow all these meanings to resonate.

The Pauline tradition centered the activity of the Spirit in particular abilities given to individuals for the good of the community. John understands the Spirit not in these experiences but in connecting the church with Jesus. The communion of Jesus with the believers does not wait for the Final Day or even the day of the disciple’s death. It is enjoyed now because of Jesus’ glorification and the sending of the Paraclete. The Spirit fills the void left by the departing Jesus, and in some mysterious way the Spirit is the continuing presence of the resurrected Christ in the community.

One of the ways the Paraclete will do this will be to remind the disciples about Jesus. At two specific points in John’s story, we are told that the disciples later remembered what Jesus had said and done. In 2:22 we hear that after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples remembered what he had said about raising up “this temple,” and then they realized he was speaking about his own resurrection. In 12:16 we are told that when Jesus entered Jerusalem and was greeted by enthusiastic crowds, the disciples did not understand the meaning of these events. However, after Jesus was glorified, they remembered.

This is more than recalling events. It is a faithful remembering (re-membering, putting the pieces together) that grasps the deep meaning of these things. The church engages in such faithful remembering. This is what happens in liturgy, in preaching, in sharing the Supper. In all these ways and more, the Paraclete is at work to remind us about how God has been and is still at work among us and for us through Christ. This Spirit-inspired remembering points us again and again to God’s glory revealed in Jesus.

Notes

1. C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to Saint John (London: SPCK, 1958), 386.