There’s a story—maybe you’ve heard some version of it before—of a ship repair man. A giant ocean-going ship had an engine that was failing. It wouldn’t start. So the owners of the ship called in one repair man after another and none of them could figure out what was wrong. Finally, they found an old man who had been working on these kinds of engines ever since he was young. He came carrying a simple tool bag and as they watched he looked it over, then took a small hammer out of his tool bag and gave something a gentle tap. The engine started right up as if nothing was ever wrong.
A week later the owners received a bill, for ten thousand dollars. They were flabbergasted by the size of the bill. He was barely even there. He hardly did anything! So they asked him for an itemized bill, and he sent them one. It simply said:
Tapping with a hammer: $2
Knowing where to tap: $9,998
The moral of the story, of course, is that knowledge can be extremely valuable. In this case the man’s knowledge came from a lifetime of experience. Chances are you’ve known some people like that, people you could listen to for hours because they’re such a wealth of knowledge. I’ve certainly known people like that, where I wish I could spend more time with them and maybe write down everything they say. So much knowledge. So much wisdom. So much truth.
Can you imagine what it was like for Jesus’ disciples, to sit with him or walk the road with him and listen to everything he had to say? I’ve had some knowledgeable teachers, but none of them knew all things. I have dear relatives who have experienced life, but Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” I’m blessed to know a lot of people I trust to give me the facts, but none of them are “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
It isn’t hard to understand why Jesus’ disciples were sad. Jesus told them that he was going away to the Father, and he wouldn’t be with them anymore. But Jesus told his disciples that they were thinking about this all wrong. He wasn’t leaving them all on their own. He was still at work for them. He was going to send them the Holy Spirit, who would convict the world with the Law and comfort them with the Gospel. They wouldn’t be figuring these things out by themselves. The Holy Spirit would be with them, and he’s the Divine Expert who knows just where to tap. And all these years later that’s still true. Our Lord Jesus is sending the Holy Spirit to us, his own people. And the Spirit will guide you into all truth.
Our Gospel for today comes from John 16, where Jesus was talking to his disciples during Holy Week and preparing them for the things that were coming. So for the church year we’re in the Easter season, still celebrating Jesus’ glorious resurrection from the dead, but we’re looking at something Jesus said before he died and rose again. This way we can understand Jesus’ words in the light of what he accomplished, and what Jesus said here was also preparing them for two great events that we’re going to be celebrating in the next few weeks: Ascension and Pentecost.
When Jesus told his disciples that he was leaving them he clearly had all of this in mind. His death on the cross was only a day away, but Jesus was looking ahead past that. The disciples, on the other hand, couldn’t see past anything. They heard Jesus say that he was departing from them, and all they could think about was how sad that made them. And so Jesus said,
“Now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6Yet because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. 7Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment: 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; 11about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”
If you read this whole section in John’s Gospel, you’ll see that Jesus’ disciples did actually ask him where he was going. That might seem a little puzzling then, when Jesus here claims, “not one of you asks me ‘Where are you going?’” But Jesus explains here that the problem was that none of them was asking from a perspective of faith that seeks the big picture. The questions they were asking were short-sighted, fixed in the here and now. They saw this as a sad thing, when they should have recognized that this was actually a good thing that Jesus was doing for their sake.
That’s a good reminder for us in our lives, isn’t it? We’re not in that same circumstance, gathered with Jesus as he tells about his coming departure. But we do often forget that Jesus is our good and gracious Lord who does everything for our sake. Sorrow fills our hearts at the circumstances of this life and instead of praying and asking in faith, “Where are you going with this, Jesus?,” we see no happy end. It’s as if in our minds there is no Easter morning coming after the darkness of Good Friday.
Bur then Jesus says to us, “Sorrow has filled your heart, but what I do is good for you. Do you think that I don’t care about you when I gave my own life for you on the cross? Do you think that I don’t know what is good for you, both for this life and for eternal life?” And Jesus said to his disciples on that night, “I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
Now certainly the Holy Spirit was already present there among the disciples. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, true God, one with the Father and the Son. As true God, he is omnipresent, and there is nowhere you can go to run away from him or hide from him. And the Holy Spirit was also at work. “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit,” Paul tells us. If these disciples had faith, even the tiniest mustard seed of a faith, that was all thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts through the means of the Gospel.
So when Jesus says that he will send the Holy Spirit, he is not saying that the Holy Spirit will be present where he formerly was not, but that he will be present in a way that he formerly was not. John the Baptist had prophesied about this when he said that the one coming after him will “baptize you with the Holy Spirit,” that is, he will pour out the Holy Spirit on you with his great gifts. And we might think of some miraculous gifts in the history of the church. But Jesus doesn’t actually talk about that kind of thing at all here. Instead, he describes the way the Holy Spirit will work on people’s hearts by the word of God.
In Hebrews 4 the Word of God is called a double-edged sword, and Jesus describes here two sides of the Holy Spirit’s work. First, he will convict the world. Jesus says “When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.” As long as the word of God is proclaimed the unbelieving world will rage against Jesus and against his church. But disciples of Jesus such as you and I have nothing to fear. The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts them, with expert pinpoint accuracy far more precise than the hammer of that ship repairman. Can they succeed in lashing out to destroy the church? Not while Jesus lives.
And the second side of the Holy Spirit’s work is where that wonderful name, “the Counselor” comes from. He will guide us into all truth.
Nowadays there’s a lot of fighting about what is truth. Every man thinks he’s an expert. He boasts that he will be the one to fix the ship’s engine. Some people let themselves get swallowed up by worthless debates. Others despair, thinking there is no one they can trust, that they’ll have to decide for themselves what is truth or that perhaps there is no truth at all.
But that is not why Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and sent the Counselor, the Spirit of Truth. He did this out of his great love for you, because he doesn’t want you to be lost in a labyrinth of sin and in the darkness of unbelief and in the lies of the Devil. He gives you pastors and teachers, he gives you a church—what wonderful gifts those are! But so much more than just that, he gives you the Truth, his own Holy Word, which kills and which makes alive. And he gives you the Holy Spirit, whom he sends to you, to guide you in all truth, so that you glorify him and rejoice with confidence in your salvation.
And as you grow to know better and better the truth of God’s Word, the Holy Spirit makes you an expert. Not on your own, no, he speaks through you, to convict the world, to guide people into truth, to wield the two-edged sword, to know where to tap with a little hammer.
Glory be to God! Amen.