Another advocate

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.  18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

[John 14.15-21] 

I’ve mentioned before that I started a law degree when I was eighteen, but I ended up majoring in psychology, and I explained that one reason for changing subjects was because I found studying law confusing.

There is another reason, which I haven't mentioned.  A reason that I can best explain by quoting greater people that me.

Jeremy Bentham was a philosopher, jurist and social reformer in the late eighteen and early nineteenth centuries.  He described lawyers as “The only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished”.

The writer Franz Kafka, said “A lawyer is a person who writes a 10,000-word document and calls it a "brief."”

Thomas Jefferson said "It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour."

And David Mellor, Conservative politician said “Lawyers are like rhinoceroses: thick skinned, short-sighted, and always ready to charge.”

At some point in the dim and distant past legal professionals got a bad reputation and they became the butt of a lot of jokes, which wasn’t something I found very appealing in a career.

Now, it’s important that we realise that this view of lawyers and legal professionals hasn’t always been common, because the law hasn’t always been the same as what we have now.

At the time of Jesus’s ministry those practising the law were part of the establishment, because the law was something given by God, not designed by people. I say it’s important because of the way Jesus introduces the Holy Spirit in our Gospel reading.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”

The word in our translation is advocate, which is pretty close, but the original word was parakletos, or paraclete, and there is no one-word English equivalent, it would have meant “one who’s called to someone’s aid”, and it could have been used in a legal sense, like someone coming to defend or advocate for a person. The word is also translated as helper, comforter and consoler.

It’s interesting that in John’s first letter he describes Jesus with the same term, which is why we have here “another advocate”, because Jesus was the first. So for John, the Holy Spirit came to continue the work that Jesus began. And what work is that? You may ask. A good question.

You’ll see that here John has Jesus describing this new advocate as the Spirit of Truth.  And if you go back six chapters, we have Jesus talking to the disciples, saying:

“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Jesus’s work, which is continued to this day by the Holy Spirit, was to show believers the truth and make them free.

How does he do that? You may ask. Another good question.

Look again at today’s reading, at the first and last sentences.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

“They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

If something’s said twice in the Bible, that means it’s very important, well, this is actually said three times, because in verse 23 Jesus says:

“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

If something’s said three times in the Bible, it’s major league important, and in simple terms what it’s saying is: Love Jesus: keep the commandments.

Which commandments is he talking about? You ask.  An excellent question.

In the other Gospels, Jesus talks about the greatest commandment, “love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and love your neighbour as yourself”. But it doesn’t say that in John’s Gospel, there’s no mention of a greatest commandment, no one sentence summary. Rather, Jesus’s commandments, or word, is the entire scope of his teachings, it’s everything.

Top tip: If you’ve got a Bible where the words of Jesus are written in red it’s a bit easier to spot what his word is.

So, what does all this mean?  Well, it means the same for us as it did the first believers:

After the resurrection and ascension the early church began to grow, first amongst the Jewish people and then the Gentiles.  Some Jewish followers of the Way wanted the new Gentile converts to submit to Jewish law, for them it wasn’t enough that Jesus had died for them. St Paul disagreed.

This from “Church History in Plain Language”

Many Christians thought Paul was impossibly optimistic. They were deeply troubled by the decline in Christian morality they felt sure would come in the gentile churches. If you teach justification by faith alone, they argued, people will imagine that once they have accepted Christ by faith it does not really matter how they live.On the contrary, said Paul, if they really have accepted Christ by faith, they have accepted the way of Christ and the mind of Christ. The man who really loves God can do as he chooses, for if he really loves God he will choose to do the will of God.

Today’s message is this: Jesus says that if we love him we will obey his word, and that can mean we show our love by being obedient, and it can mean that by living our lives with love for God as our guiding principle, we will automatically keep the commandments.

Not only that, but if we think making love our guiding principle is too hard, we don’t have to worry, because God has sent the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth to come to our aid, to stand alongside us and be our advocate.

And unlike modern day lawyers, he won’t be bringing us a huge bill.

The Gate

10 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” 

[John 10:1-10] 

Some denominations regard the fourth Sunday after Easter as “Good Shepherd Sunday”, and today’s readings reflect that. In the Church of England it’s also known “Vocations Sunday”, a day for people to prayerfully consider the role that God wants them to take in the life of the church.

Everyone in the church is called to something, and every role is important. The church cleaners, the wardens and the editor of the church magazine are equally valuable to God and to this church as the vicar. Sorry, vicars.

But, it wasn’t seen that way in Israel two thousand years ago. There was a very distinct pecking order with the religious leaders at the top and sinners at the bottom, and the Jews tried to get themselves forgiven and live righteous lives to stay near the top.

The teaching of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading goes some way towards challenging that idea of a pecking order and, as was often the case, people were confused by it. We start with Jesus telling the gathered people about shepherds and sheep in a sheepfold. He says that while thieves would try to sneak over the wall and steal the sheep, the shepherd will be allowed in by the gatekeeper, and will call his sheep out by name.

The people listening apparently didn’t understand this metaphor. So Jesus carries on. “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.”

Now imagine for a second that you were there listening to Jesus that day. He’s just told you a story, a parable, about sheep and shepherds, gatekeepers and thieves, and you’re thinking “Okay, but how does that apply here?” So Jesus says, “I’m the gate”.

“You’re the gate?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Really? You don’t mean the gatekeeper?” 

“No.” 

“And you’re sure you’re not the shepherd?” 

“I’m the gate.” 

It just doesn’t make sense. But then, Jesus often didn’t make sense really. The Jews were expecting him to be some kind of champion who would overthrow the Roman Empire and free the people. They turned against him when started riding a donkey (even though it was prophesied in their own writings). Just when they thought they had a handle on him he did something else that was weird.

So what does this passage really mean? Well, it’s a warning to religious leaders.

It starts to make sense when you see that the sheepfold represents the Hebrew religion. The Old Testament, ten-commandment, kill-a-dove-to-be-forgiven type religion. So the sheep represent the Jews, huddled together in their safe religious enclosure.

Jesus says he is the gate, he is the only true and honest way in and out. The thieves and bandits are the Pharisees trying to get to the people without going through Jesus. But through Jesus, the true shepherd who cares about his flock, will enter into the Old Testament religion and bring the people out of it.

Just to add another layer of confusion, Jesus goes on in this chapter to say that he’s the Good Shepherd. So he’s the gate and the shepherd. But that’s okay too because Jesus, as God, is able to play several roles in our salvation like the High Priest and the sacrifice; the way, the truth and the life (14:6).

Jesus is born as a Jew, into the Jewish faith, but calls the people, by name, to a new religion that doesn’t need sacrifices or hundreds of rules to follow.

The old religion is safe and enclosed, but it traps the people with fear of sin, with rituals and regulations, the new religion frees them, like sheep roaming the hills.

There are two things that I think we can take from today’s reading: one is that Jesus came to free us from a religion that traps us, a religion with a hierarchy. If we think our religion comes with lots of rules to follow, then we’re doing it wrong. If we think archdeacons and bishops are more important to God, we’re doing it wrong. If we think we are better because we’re in here and there are people still in bed on this Sunday morning, we are doing it wrong.

The second, related, thing is that Jesus calls each and every one of us, by name. He knows who we are, what we’re good at, and what we’re capable of, and he has a job for each of us. Now I know that sometimes it’s not so easy to see that for ourselves, sometimes it’s easier to see it in others. It took the nudgings of several people in this church before I was ready to take on my role.

So, from personal experience, I ask you, please look around your church. Is there someone who you think God is calling to some new ministry? I don’t necessarily mean become a vicar or even lay minister. But do you know of someone in your church who has a gift, of music, of caring, of sharing the word. If there is, maybe you would feel able to tell them. Maybe someone has a gift that God can use to help the church and this community, and all that person needs is a quiet word from you.