The Text: John 14:18
Jesus said to his disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans”.
At home
Orphans the world over are a tragedy of tremendous proportions. According
to UNICEF there are 153 million orphan children worldwide with over five and
half thousand being becoming orphans every day. Whether in refugee
camps in Africa, India, Romania, Bulgaria, or South East Asia these figures are
mind blowing especially knowing the tragic affect that the loss of parents has
on children and how this loss shapes the rest of their lives.
Even a child left without parents here in our country, although infinitely far
better off than those in the countries I have just mentioned, is affected in
ways that we don’t fully understand. Children who lose their parents lose their
security and are vulnerable and powerless physically, emotionally and
psychologically. The love and care given to them by others will, in time, make
up for this but unfortunately some children never get over their loss. Some
never get over the psychological wounds that comes with being an orphan.
It’s as if they have lost their story, their roots, their history, their identity, their
sense of direction.
In the light of this, the words of Jesus take on a special meaning. “I will not
leave you orphaned” Jesus says to his disciples. Or this could be translated, “I
will not leave you desolate, deserted, alone, abandoned, unloved,
futureless”.
The disciples knew Jesus in a very close and personal way. They had walked
together, talked together, eaten together, shared good and bad times
together. They had been constant companions of Jesus. They felt confident
and safe in the presence of Jesus.
When they experienced doubt, pain and suffering, they felt Jesus understood
what was happening to them.
When they were filled with joy and happiness or overcome with sadness and
sorrow, they felt secure in the knowledge that Jesus experienced the same
emotions and feelings as they did.
When they were hungry, Jesus fed them and a great crowd with a few loaves
and fish.
When they were in danger on the sea, Jesus was nearby to rescue them.
When they witnessed the grief that death brought into their lives, Jesus was at
hand to comfort and raise the dead to life.
You see there is a kind of fatherly or perhaps brotherly relationship between
Jesus and the disciples.
Jesus could see that his disciples were dependent on him. In fact, Jesus
occasionally addressed them as “little children”. In the presence of Jesus they
were like “little children” who relied on his love and comfort.
When Jesus warned the disciples that he will no longer be with them he had
to quickly assure them not to be worried and upset, but to trust him. Now if
that’s how they felt before Jesus’ death imagine how alone and abandoned
they must have felt after Jesus’ death on the cross. Under the shadow of the
cross, Jesus knew that they will feel like orphans—lost, without hope, helpless,
powerless, uncertain about their future and confused. So he makes them a
promise:
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and
be with you forever—the Spirit of truth…I will not leave you as orphans; I will
come to you….Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John
14.16,18,27).
Note this unique way Jesus reminds us that we will always have a home and
a family. He says, “I am in the Father, and you are in me, just as I am in you
(John 14:20).
This is a good passage to pause and meditate on. Simply what Jesus is
expressing is the very close and intimate relationship between himself and the
Father, himself and his disciples and his disciples and God. That tiny word “in”
describes a special bond, a unique oneness. A family relationship.
You who believe in Jesus already have the Holy Spirit. God the Father has
sent you the Holy Spirit through the Son. He did this for you at baptism.
Because of God’s work for us in baptism you have a place of belonging in
the family of God, by which you are no longer orphans, for God our Father
has made you heirs with Jesus his Son. We are sons and daughters together
with the Son. And since that is the case for every person who is in Christ then
we are all a part of that Triune God’s loving, supporting family. We are all
brothers and sisters joined together in God’s family, the church.
In this family God the Father continues to give you the Holy Spirit, through the
Son, who meets you in the word, the scriptures. Through the Scriptures the
Holy Spirit continually comes to us. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we are
given a new direction, a new future and a new life.
This new life is one in which we will always have a home. We will always have
a loving family—God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These words of comfort
carry the message that we won’t ever be orphans—we will know exactly who
we are and where we belong.
True enough Satan will always try to break up that togetherness we have. He
just loves to drive wedges of doubt, anger, hostility, and jealousy, either
between us and God, or between each another in his family. He will
constantly tempt us to sin and break the bond and put up barriers between
the members of the family, and break apart from it. But that’s not what God
has planned for any of us.
God wants no one to feel like an orphan. When Jesus says to us “I will not
leave you as orphans” he means that we belong to the Father, adopted and
claimed through Jesus the Son. We are loved by the Father. We are forgiven
by the Son. When there are members of the family who are feeling like an
orphan because we have had a falling out with someone, as a member of
this special family, it becomes our responsibility to make amends, whether it
was our fault or not.
When there is a member of the family who is feeling like an orphan—lonely,
scared, uncertain because they are facing illness and even death—as a
member of this special family, it becomes our responsibility to pass on the
love and care that we have received from our heavenly Father.
When there are members of the family who are feeling like orphans—feeling
unloved, needing a guiding hand, wanting someone to know their pain—as
a member of this special family, it becomes our responsibility to be a brother
and sister to that person and let them see the love of our heavenly parent
through us.
When there are members of this special family who are feeling like orphans,
needing someone to provide them with basic essentials and to empathise
with them in their circumstances, it becomes our responsibility to be a brother
and sister to that person and let them see in us the love of our heavenly
Father as we meet those needs.
Jesus’ words need to become our words to one another as people of God’s
family “I will not leave you as an orphan”, as we reflect the love and care of
God into the lives of the people around us. Let Jesus inspire us to say to our
fellow brothers and sisters, “I will not leave you desolate, feeling deserted,
alone, abandoned, unloved, futureless”.
At the 400 metre race at the 1992 summer Olympics a young Englishman,
Derek Redmond was hungry to win a gold medal after being forced to
withdraw from the previous Olympics because of injury. However, shortly after
the start of the race, he popped his right hamstring. All the other runners
continued the race leaving him like an orphan alone on the track. Amazingly
Redmond got back up and started hopping towards the finish line. The other
runners had all finished the race in a matter of seconds. Redmond, in tears,
slowly and laboriously kept hopping. It looked as if he would fall any moment.
Suddenly, a man appeared beside Derek. It was his father. He had run down
from the stands and pushed his way through the security guards to reach his
son. Redmond’s father put his arm around his son and let him cry on his
shoulder. Then, with his father holding him up, Derek hobbled to the finish line
and then he hopped over the line by himself to finish the race.
There’s a word of hope for you and me, to help us finish the race of life. It is
God’s own word. When we are feeling like orphans to run the race of life in
this world—a race we cannot run by our own strength—we have a Father
who gives us his strength to keep on going, a Saviour who walks beside us
and the Spirit who comforts us, and strengthens us in faith, pointing us to
everything Jesus said and still speaks, enabling us to cross the finishing line.
We are not abandoned because we have a God who loves us. He says to
each of personally and individually, “I will not leave you as orphans”. Amen.