6th week in Easter Time, Wednesday – 20th May 2020 — Gospel: Jn 16,12-15
Spirit facilitates fuller revelation
After Jesus’ return to God, the Spirit facilities fuller understanding of Jesus’ revelation without any change to its content. The close connection between Jesus and the Spirit is that the Spirit “reveals further” of the same revelation that Jesus revealed during his earthly ministry. Because of the Spirit, Jesus is not a distant figure of the past. Earlier in his farewell discourse, Jesus identified himself as “the way” and “the truth” (14,6). Just as Jesus is “the truth” (14,6), so is the Spirit “of truth” who “will guide you into all the truth” (16,13; 15,23), where “truth” is the revelation of God found in and through Jesus. Just as Jesus is “the way” the Spirit functions as “guide” in our earthly life in the post-Easter period. The Spirit speaks “whatever he hears” (16,13), which is in complete continuity with Jesus’ method of revealing only what he hears from God (8,26-28; 12,49; 14,10; 15,15; 17,7-8). Consequently the ultimate source of revelation for both Jesus and the Spirit is God. Since the Spirit takes what belongs to Jesus, and since what belongs to Jesus belongs to God, then even in Jesus’ absence God’s revelation to the world and to the church is still available – through the Spirit. Therefore, just as Jesus did, the Spirit continues to reveal God.
