THURSDAY, DAY 32 OF LENT 2025

John 15:26-27; John 16:1-15

Jesus speaking, "When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father - the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father - he will testify about me. You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning." And so ends Chapter 15.

John 16:1-3

"I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling. They will ban you from the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God. They will do these things because they haven't known the Father or me. But I have told you these things so that when their time comes you will remember I told them to you."

John 16 begins with Jesus warning that some truly rotten stuff is about to happen to his disciples, and he is warning them in advance so the coming events will not make them falter in their faith. And interspersed within this litany of the evil that will come upon them, in subsequent verses Jesus reinforces that they will have the Counselor - the Holy Spirit - with them, and also teaching them that the Holy Spirit will actively convict the world.

John 16:13

"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come."

It is important for me to remember that in that moment in +-33 A D this teaching made no sense to Jesus' disciples. They were still looking for the vanquishing conqueror who would rid them of the rule of the Romans and become an earthly king. 

It reminds me that Jesus has all of my days in His hands. He alone knows the future, just as he knew theirs. He warned them in advance - and he has done that with me in the past as well. He wants me to trust him, not be waylaid by circumstances. How easy it is to become immersed in our "present" and forget that he holds both out present and our future in his very capable hands. 

I am also reminded that it is John who will later write down the things he is shown that are prophetic for the end of the world in THE BOOK OF THE REVELATION OF JOHN. In the midst of the journey to the cross - and beyond - the reality of Jesus' first coming and his purpose for coming segue in my mind to his second coming and the end of measured time - and the prophecies of John's last book are conspicuously coming true in our present world. It is time to pay attention! Time is short.