John 14:22-26 (NIV)
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
Judas, also known as Thaddaeus, was confused by Jesus’ statement that He would reveal Himself to those who love Him and not to the world. This ran completely contrary to the disciples’ expectations that when Jesus took over the throne of Israel as Messiah the whole world would see it and acknowledge Him.
But Jesus quickly reframed the discussion. Even though many people at that time knew about Jesus and the things that He had done (and many more would know about Him over the coming centuries), only those who love Him and who demonstrate that love by obedience to His commands, can personally experience the love of the triune God as well as their intimate presence in their lives.
Those who don’t love Jesus, demonstrated by their lack of obedience to His commands, could easily have what is called today “head knowledge” of Jesus. They might know some facts about who He is, they might be able to recite creedal statements, they might even be able to quote some of His teachings. But they will lack a solid experience of His presence in their lives that is the hallmark of His disicples.
A good example of this is Saul of Tarsus who later became the apostle Paul. Before his life-transforming encounter with the risen Jesus on the Damascus road, Saul knew who Jesus was. He had probably seen Jesus in Jerusalem, and was very likely present during His trial before the Sanhedrin. He knew what Jesus taught, considered it heresy, and actively persecuted anyone who believed and taught those things. He absolutely had quite a bit of head knowledge about Jesus.
But that all changed when He experienced Jesus first-hand and began an intimate relationship with Him. In the moment that Jesus confronted Saul, He began demolishing everything that he had been up to that time. When Saul surrendered himself to Jesus, when he began to obey Jesus through love of Him and what He had done to save him, Saul was able to receive the Holy Spirit into his life, and experienced the love and presence of the whole Godhead filling him to overflowing, a love that melted him down and recast him into the very image of Jesus.
Jesus knew that His followers would not be able to fully understand what He was telling them at that time. His words weren’t bouncing off the disicples as they had with the Pharisees and teachers of the law; they were simply floating around without being able to find a place to land. But Jesus knew that in just a few short weeks, on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit filled them in the midst of their love and obedience to Jesus’ command, He would be able to open their eyes to what He had been telling them and show them that what they were experiencing in that moment was precisely what He was describing here.
Father, this truth for Jesus’ disciples is still Your truth for us today. It is only through the filling of the Holy Spirit that we can truly understand Jesus’ words and completely experience Your love and presence in our lives. But that filling only comes to those who love You, and who obey Jesus’ commands. Sometimes we want to reverse that order: we want to be filled with Your Spirit, and THEN we will love You and obey You. But that’s not the way that Jesus said that it would work. Help us all to love You, to obey You, to seek You with all our hearts, and to surrender ourselves to you and Your agenda, so that we can experience our presence and Your power every moment of every day. Amen.
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