“But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you.”
John 16:5-6 NLT
If someone says that they are going away, the natural, unthinking almost, response is, “Where are you going?” Well, Jesus said to His disciples that He was going away “and not one of you is asking where I am going”. Even if they had known where He was going, surely Peter, the impetuous one, would have made some comment. Throughout His time with His disciples, Jesus dropped many hints about how He would exit this world. We read in John 2:22, “After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said“. Another example is in the following chapter in John, John 3:14, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up“. Then we have John 13:33, “Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going“.
But in John 13:36 we read that Peter did in fact ask Jesus where He was going, “Simon Peter asked, “Lord, where are you going?” And Jesus replied, “You can’t go with me now, but you will follow me later””. So Jesus must have meant something deeper and more profound when He said “not one of you is asking where I am going”. Jesus went on to say that instead of being concerned with what was going to happen to Him, they were more worried about themselves, “Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you”. That is a natural human response, of course, along the lines, “If You leave us what will happen to us?”.
Jesus was facing into a horrific series of events, made infinitely worse by His knowledge of them beforehand. But He was seeing beyond that to the time when He would return to be with His Father back in Heaven. Mission accomplished. The most important three years that this planet had ever seen, years that contained God’s plan of salvation for all humans beings past, present and future. God didn’t create a race of robots that would live for a while on Planet Earth and then automatically enter His presence. In stead, He created a race of free-thinking people “in His image” who had free choice and could therefore decide where they would spend eternity. God effectively entered into the recycling business. He took men and women, soiled and dirty through wickedness and sin, and turned them into His children, clean and righteous, and all through the ministry and blood of Jesus. But there was and is a catch – the men and women concerned about their sin had to make a choice to accept the remedy, and to decide to follow Jesus. Decide to believe in Him, and allow Him to cleanse them from their sins. But isn’t it strange? People living their sinful lives prefer to stay that way, a bit like pigs preferring to wallow in a mudhole.
Jesus was leaving this world so that His message could continue through His disciples. But there was one essential factor for which they had to wait – the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:9 (“After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him“) was followed by Acts 2:4 (“And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability“). And that preceded a series of events ever since through the generations of faithful men and women who have shared Jesus’ message of salvation. Jesus went away, but it really has been as though he never left. What a Saviour!
Lord Jesus. We read about Your exploits here on Earth and wonder. And through Your shed blood, the devil is a defeated foe. Thank You. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 