Our Gospel reading for this morning offers us a great opportunity for a preaching tool I like to call “Fun Greek Words You Didn’t Know You Wanted to Know.” Our word for the day is from verse sixteen, when Jesus said, “And I will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” The word I want to focus on is Advocate. At least, the translation we heard this morning, the New Revised Standard Version, translates it advocate. Other translations have comforter, counselor, friend, helper, or companion. The confusion stems from one of the classic struggle of translating, a word that has a cultural significance in one language that cannot be captured easily in another. The Greek word here is parakletos. Parakletos comes from the verb parakaleo and means “the one who exhorts,” “the one who comforts,” the one who helps,” and “the one who makes appeals on one’s behalf.” With this wide array of meanings, some translations go so far as to not even try a translation and render it simply as Paraclete, a word which has the advantage of having no meaning in English, and, as was mentioned in the Bible conversations this week, sounds more like a tropical fruit than a theology term.
Language and translation are way more complicated then we often remember. Even though we know the scriptures weren’t written in English, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking we are reading it exactly as it was written. But all translation is interpretation. And even more than that, all hearing is interpretation. We take in language through the filter of our own experience, the words triggering images of our own memories to place them in context. And what I love about John’s Gospel is how it leans into the mystery of that. Rather than carefully spelling out and clearly defining a precise model for discipleship and a specific description of the way the disciples are to move forward, Jesus instead paints this open-ended word picture that is more feeling then context, which, while more confusing and more unclear, is also more all-encompassing and more expansive. The Greek audience heard such opportunity in the word parakletos, and in the long days and weeks and months and years and centuries and yes even millennia following Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the promise of another Paraclete who was abiding with them, with us and was in us gives a breadth of possibility to fill every need. When we are discouraged, the Paraclete is encourager, when we are confused, the Paraclete is exhorter, when we are on trial, the Paraclete is advocate, when we are lost, the Paraclete is guide, when we are weak, the Paraclete is helper, when we are lonely, the Paraclete is friend. All of these things are what Jesus promised his disciples he was leaving with them, another one who would lead them, guide them, be with them, support them, and abide with them. Just as he was in the Father, and the Father in him, and he in them, and them in him, so too with this other continue this relationship, so that they, that we, would never be orphaned.
The other thing that’s key in this verse sixteen where Jesus promised the Father would give them someone to be with them, Jesus promised them another Advocate. Another meaning they already had one. Because Advocate, Paraclete is not another name for the Spirit, it is a description of the function of the Spirit. A function which Jesus himself had held while he was with them in the flesh and now that function was being passed on to another aspect of the Trinity. And the Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth just as Jesus had said a few verses earlier that he was the truth, would continue the disciples’ place in the relationship, a place that grows deeper and richer as we explore new dimensions of it.
If I’ve lost you in the sermon by this point, don’t worry, I confess I’ve lost myself a little bit as well. That is the strangely beautiful thing about the new Advocate whom Jesus has sent, she is constantly beyond our grasp. We try to put images around her, she is the tongues of fire on Pentecost, she is the breath of wind across the water, she is a dove, she is water, she is Wisdom personified. All of these descriptors get us close to the fullness, but keep understanding just beyond our grasp, in a beautifully expanding dance of relationship. Because Paraclete is function not name, and the function is living in love.
And here’s where this gets really cool. Because the one Jesus has given us is so tricky and expansive, defined by the works rather than a spatial reality, then whenever and wherever the works of Christ are being done, there too is the Spirit. The reading for this morning started, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” If you do this, then I will do this. The way this reads, it sounds like a command. But like I’ve mentioned before, the Greek word translated as “if” is ein and ein is a conjunction with a broad range of meanings. In fact, a better translation than “if” in the Greek is probably “because” or “since.” Listen to how the sentence changes when we change that word. “[Since or because] you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Keeping of the commandments is not a demand to be met, rather it is the natural outpouring of relationship with Jesus. And while we’re at it, what commandments are Jesus talking about? Because we’re reading this in isolation, we might flash back to the most well known commandments in scripture, the Ten Commandments brought by Moses from God on Mount Sinai. And certainly those are great commandments, and good guides for living good and healthy relationships. But Jesus spoke these words on the night he was betrayed. And while you might not remember, because we read it several weeks ago, but just a few paragraphs earlier in chapter thirteen, verse thirty-four Jesus said to his disciples, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” So when Jesus told his disciples that because of his love, they would keep his commandments, those commandments were in fact also to love. The outflowing of life in Jesus is life in love, a love that exhorts and encourages, comforts and challenges, strengthens and helps and guides. Since love is a function of the Spirit, where love is, there the Spirit is also. And where the Spirit is, there too is Jesus, and is the Father, because Jesus is in the Father, and us in Jesus, and Jesus in us, in this expansive grasp of relationship.
Spirit as function of love is always with us, but because it is not as concrete as the embodied Jesus was for his disciples, it can be easy for us to miss the Spirit’s presence at times. So the challenge I have for you this week, and in the weeks to come, is to look for the Paraclete, for the function of the Spirit, around you. Specifically, I invite you to look out for the people who are paracletes for you. Who walk beside you in your life and in your ministry. Who comfort you, challenge you, encourage and exhort you. Who are your advocate, your helper, and your friend. And maybe, if you feel so called this week, take the gamble and tell someone that. Tell someone that they are a paraclete, an embodiment of the Holy Spirit for you. If nothing else, you’ll get to share an interesting Greek word and a bit of gratitude for someone who has supported you.
I also challenge you, and this may be the harder one, to think about someone whom you have been a paraclete for. Someone whom you, maybe even unintentionally, have guided, shaped, mentored, and helped. Someone whom God has used you to be the embodied Spirit of love for. Let yourself feel a bit of pride that you were able to fill that role for another, as well as gratitude that God chose you for such a mysterious and wonderful task.
This is, I think, the work that Jesus left for us, the greater work than these, as we heard last week, as he has gone to the Father. To be the paraclete for each other, to live in love in Christ as Christ as lived in us, and we in him, and us in and with and for each other. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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