Judas' departure opened the way for Jesus to prepare His true disciples for what lay ahead for them. This teaching was for committed disciples only. Some writers have noted that in the Old Testament as well as in ancient Near Eastern literature generally the farewell sayings of famous individuals receive much attention.446This discourse preserves Jesus' last and most important instructions in the fourth Gospel. One significant difference is that in His "farewell discourse"Jesus promised to return again (14:1-3).
Jesus began His instructions with His disciples' most important responsibility.
13:31-32 Judas' departure to meet with the chief priests signalled the beginning of the Son of Man's glorification, which John recorded Jesus as consistently regarding as beginning with His arrest (cf. 12:23). Note the Savior's positive albeit troubled attitude toward the events that lay before Him (v. 21). The title "Son of Man"unites the ideas of suffering and glory as mentioned previously. This is the last of 12 occurrences of this title in John's Gospel.
"In its general usage it is the title of the incarnate Christ who is the representative of humanity before God and the representative of deity in human life."447
Jesus explained that His glorification would mean glory for the Father who would glorify the Son. Thus Jesus continued to stress His unity with the Father to help His disciples appreciate both His individual identity and His essential deity. The disciples would not have to wait long to see the Son's glory.
How did Jesus glorify the Father? He explained how later: by finishing the work the Father gave Him to do (17:4). That is also how we glorify the Father.
13:33 Glorification for Jesus involved temporary separation from His believing disciples. Jesus used a tender term for His disciples that showed His strong affection for them as members of His family. "Little children"(Gr. teknia, dear children) occurs only here in the fourth Gospel, but John used it seven times in 1 John mirroring Jesus' compassionate spirit (1 John 2:1, 12, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21; cf. Gal. 4:19). Death and ascension to heaven would separate Jesus from them.
13:34 Having announced their inevitable separation Jesus now began to explain what He expected of His disciples during their absence from Him. They were to love one another as He had loved them. They had seen His love for them during His entire earthly ministry and most recently in His washing of their feet, but they would only understand its depth through the Cross.
The command to love one another was not completely new (1 John 2:7-8), but in the Mosaic Law the standard was "as you love yourself"(Lev. 19:18). Now there was a new and higher standard, namely "as I have loved you."It was also a new (Gr. kainen, fresh rather than different) commandment in that it was part of a new covenant that Jesus would ratify with His blood (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25). In that covenant God promised to enable His people to love by transforming their hearts and minds (Jer. 31:29-34; Ezek. 36:24-26). It is only by God's transforming grace that believers can love one another as Jesus has loved us.448
13:35 That supernatural love would distinguish disciples of Jesus. Love for one another would mark them off as His disciples. It is possible to be a disciple of Jesus without demonstrating much supernatural love. However that kind of love is what bears witness to a disciple's connection with Jesus and thereby honors Him (cf. 1 John 3:10b-23; 4:7-16).449Every believer manifests some supernatural love since the loving God indwells him or her (1 John 3:14). However, it is possible to quench and to grieve the indwelling Spirit so that we do not manifest much love.
Jesus taught His disciples to love their enemies in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:43-47). Here He taught us to love one another. These instructions do not contradict one another or present two different standards. They simply point in different directions.
Peter next declared his love for Jesus indirectly.
13:36 Peter returned to the subject of Jesus' departure (v. 33; 8:21). He was unclear about where Jesus meant He would go. Jesus did not answer him unambiguously probably because such an answer would have created even more serious problems for him. It was not God's will for Peter to follow Jesus through death into heaven then, but it would be later (21:18-19). Jesus' answer implied that Peter had asked his question so he could accompany Jesus wherever He was going. Peter's statement was an indirect expression of affection for and commitment to Jesus.
13:37-38 Peter resisted the idea of a separation from Jesus. He felt willing even to die with Him if necessary rather than experience separation from Him. Nevertheless Peter grossly underestimated his own weakness and what Jesus' death entailed. Peter spoke of laying down his life for Jesus, but ironically Jesus would first lay down His life for Peter (cf. 10:15; 11:50-52). Peter's boast betrayed reliance on the flesh. Perhaps he protested so strongly to assure the other disciples that he was not the betrayer about whom Jesus had spoken earlier (v. 21).
"Sadly, good intentions in a secure room after good food are far less attractive in a darkened garden with a hostile mob. At this point in his pilgrimage, Peter's intentions and self-assessment vastly outstrip his strength."450
Mark recorded that Jesus mentioned the cock crowing twice, but the other evangelists wrote that He just mentioned the cock crowing (Matt. 26:34; Mark 14:30; Luke 22:34). Mark's reference was more specific, and the others were more general.
Peter's question was only the first of several that the disciples proceeded to ask Jesus. This shows their bewilderment and discouragement. They should have been comforting Him in view of what lay ahead of Him (12:27; 13:21), but instead Jesus graciously proceeded to comfort them by clarifying what lay ahead of them.
Jesus realized that the Eleven did not fully understand what He had just revealed. He therefore encouraged them with a promise that they would understand His words later.
14:25-26 Jesus had made these revelations to His disciples while abiding with them, but when the Holy Spirit came to abide in them, the Spirit would enable them to understand them.
Jesus now identified the Helper whom He had promised earlier as the Holy Spirit (cf. vv. 16-17). He is the Spirit characterized by holiness as well as by truth (v. 17).
The Father would send the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name (i.e., as Jesus' emissary and with exactly the same attitude toward God's will that Jesus had). The Son had come as the Father's emissary, and now the Spirit was about to come as the Son's emissary.
The Spirit would teach them all things, which in the context refers to all things that were presently obscure, about which the various disciples kept raising questions (13:36; 14:5, 8, 22). He would do this partially by bringing to their memories things that Jesus had said that would become clear in the light of His "glorification"(cf. 2:19-22; 12:16; 20:9).
Notice that the particular ministry of the Spirit that is in view is teaching. The illumination that Jesus promised here was specifically to the Eleven and their contemporaries. It was a promise to those who had heard His teaching before the Cross but did not understand it until after the Resurrection. However this promise did not find complete fulfillment in the apostolic age. The Holy Spirit continues His teaching ministry today by enlightening disciples as they study Jesus' teachings. In this sense the Holy Spirit is the true teacher of every Christian, and human teachers serve a secondary role (cf. 1 John 2:27). The role of the Scriptures in the process is fundamental since they contain all that Jesus personally taught and approved.
14:27 The disciples' uneasiness at the prospect of Jesus leaving them without clarifying what they did not yet understand elicited this word of comfort from their Teacher.
"Peace"(Gr. eirene, Heb. shalom) was a customary word of greeting and farewell among the Jews. Jesus used it here as a farewell, but He used it as a greeting again after the Resurrection (20:19, 21, 26). Jesus probably meant that He was bequeathing peace to the Eleven as an inheritance that would secure their composure and dissolve their fears (cf. Phil. 4:7; Col. 3:15).
The world cannot give true peace. That can only come from the "Prince of Peace,"a messianic title (Isa. 9:6-7). He is the only source of personal and social peace. The world cannot provide peace because it fails to correct the fundamental source for strife, namely the fallen nature of humankind. Jesus made peace possible by His work on the cross. He will establish universal peace when He comes to reign on earth as Messiah. He establishes it in the hearts and lives of those who believe on Him and submit to Him now through His representative, the indwelling Spirit (v. 26). Later in this discourse Jesus promised His love (15:9-10) and His joy (15:11) as well as His peace.
The peace Jesus spoke of was obviously not exemption from conflicts and trials. He Himself felt troubled by His impending crucifixion (12:27). Rather it is a settled confidence that comes from knowing that one is right with God (cf. Rom. 5:1). As the believer focuses on this reality, he or she can experience supernatural peace in the midst of trouble and fear, as Jesus did.
14:28 Jesus' impending departure still disturbed the Eleven. He explained that their fear was also a result of failure to love Him as they should. They should have rejoiced that even though His departure meant loss for them it meant glory and joy for Him. We experience a similar conflict of emotions when a believing friend dies. We mourn our loss, but we should rejoice more that our loved one is with the Lord.
It should be obvious by now that Jesus did not mean that He was less then God or an inferior god when He said that God was greater than He was.471Jesus was not speaking ontologically (i.e., dealing with essential being) since He had affirmed repeatedly that He and the Father were one ontologically (1:1-2; 10:30; 14:9; 20:28). Rather He was speaking of the Father's glory. Jesus had laid His heavenly glory aside in the Incarnation, but the Father had not done so and consequently enjoyed greater glory than the Son during Jesus' earthly ministry. However now Jesus was about to return to the Father and the greater glory that He would again share with the Father. This glorification should have caused the disciples to rejoice, but they sorrowed instead because they focused on themselves too much.
This interpretation of the Father's superiority does not negate the functional superiority of the Father over the Son within the Godhead. However, that distinction does not seem to be primary in the logic of this verse.
". . . the Son, being begotten of the Father, is inferior' to Him in the sense that He that is begotten is secondary to Him who begets (see i. 14)."472
14:29 Jesus' reason for saying what He did was not to cause the disciples embarrassment but to strengthen their faith. Their faith would grow stronger after the Resurrection and Ascension (cf. 13:19). The disciples would then view Jesus' teaching here as fulfilled prophecy.
John stressed the importance of believing throughout his Gospel (cf. 1:50; 3:12, 15; 4:21, 41; 5:24, 44, 46; 6:29, 35, 47, 64; 7:38; 8:24, 45; 9:35; 10:38; 11:25, 41; 12:37, 44; 13:19; 14:1, 11; 16:31; 17:20; 20:27). Jesus' statement here returns to that theme. Both Jesus and John wanted to build faith in disciples of Jesus.
14:30-31 Jesus would not speak much longer with the disciples because His passion was imminent. He did not mean that His present discourse was almost over. Satan, the being who under God's sovereign authority controlled the present course of events, was about to crucify Jesus (cf. 6:70; 13:21, 27). "He has nothing in Me"or "He has no hold on me"translates a Hebrew idiom and means Satan has no legal claim on me. Satan would have had a justifiable charge against Jesus if Jesus had sinned. Jesus' death was not an indication that Satan had a claim on Jesus but that Jesus loved His Father and was completely submissive to His will (Phil. 2:8).
Many commentators interpreted the final sentence in this verse as an indication that Jesus ended His discourse here and that He and the Eleven left the upper room immediately. They viewed the teaching and praying that we find in chapters 15-17 as happening somewhere in Jerusalem on the east side of the Kidron Valley before Jesus' arrest (cf. 18:1). However, it seems more probable to many interpreters, including myself, that this sentence did not signal a real change of location but only an anticipated change, in view of 18:1. Anyone who has entertained people in their home knows that it is very common for guests to say they are leaving and then stay quite a bit longer before really departing.
Why would John have recorded this remark if it did not indicate a real change of location? Perhaps he included it to show Jesus' great love for His followers that the following three chapters articulate.473The time of departure from the upper room is not critical to a correct interpretation of Jesus' teaching.
Jesus continued to prepare His disciples for His departure. He next taught the Eleven the importance of abiding in Him with the result that they would produce much spiritual fruit. He dealt with their relationships to Himself, one another, and the world around them in chapter 15. Their responsibilities were to abide, to love, and to testify respectively.
Jesus had discussed the Father's unity with the Son, the Son's unity with His disciples, and the disciples' unity with one another, as recorded in this chapter. It was natural then that He should also address the disciples' relationship with the world. His reference to their mission led Him on into this subject (v. 16).
"This study [15:1-16] began in the vineyard and ended in the throne room! The next study will take us to the battlefield where we experience the hatred of the lost world."497
15:17 Again Jesus repeated the absolute importance of His disciples loving one another (cf. 13:34; 15:10, 12, 14). This was not only a repetition for emphasis, but it set the stage for Jesus' teaching on the world's opposition that follows.
15:18 Jesus wanted to prepare His disciples for the opposition that they would face after His departure. To do this He announced first that they would encounter opposition from the world (cf. 1 John 3:13). Here the world (Gr. kosmos) refers to the mass of unbelievers. The conditional sentence in the Greek text assumes the reality of what Jesus stated for the argument's sake. The world would hate them. A person cannot be an intimate friend of Jesus (i.e., and abiding believer) without drawing hatred from His enemies.
The world hates Jesus because He testified that its deeds are evil (7:7). His abiding disciples draw hatred from the world because they associate themselves with Him and His teachings and because they seek to advance His mission. Remembering the world's hatred for the Master makes bearing that hatred easier for His disciple.
15:19 Believers are aliens in the world because Jesus has called us out of it to fulfill His plans and purposes. The world does not hate us because we are superior but because we are servants of the Lord whom it has rejected.
15:20 Jesus reminded the disciples of the principle that He had mentioned when washing their feet (13:16). Then He used this principle to encourage them to serve one another. Now He used it to explain why they would experience persecution.
People normally treat a person's servants as they treat Him. Since unbelievers persecuted Jesus, His disciples should expect persecution too. Conversely if some people in the world followed Jesus' teachings some would also follow His disciples' teachings. This is a more likely interpretation than the one that sees Jesus saying that since they had rejected His teaching they would also reject the disciples' teaching.498Some in the world did indeed believe Jesus' teachings, and some would believe the disciples' teachings.
15:21 Ultimately the disciples would experience opposition because of Jesus. "My name's sake"is the equivalent of "me."Responses to the lives and witness of Jesus' disciples really turn on who He is, not on who the witnesses are. Obviously we can aggravate and provoke persecution by our carnal conduct, but Jesus was explaining the basic theological reason for the opposition we face, not the secondary sociological reasons.
People rejected Jesus because they did not know God who had sent Him. They were ignorant of Him because they were spiritually blind (cf. Rom. 1:28). Consequently they could not evaluate the Messenger whom God had sent. Jesus implied that they would reject His disciples too because they did not know God who had sent them. Again the close unity between the Father and the Son and between the Son and abiding believers comes through.
15:22-23 Jesus obviously did not mean that it would have been better for the world if He had remained in heaven. His point was that by coming into the world and preaching and working miracles He had confronted people with their rebellion against God (cf. Matt. 11:20-24; Luke 11:31-32). Jesus' words and works were the Father's who had sent Him. Therefore the world's rejection of them constituted rejection of the Father. To hate Jesus amounted to hating God. This is another strong implication of Jesus' deity.
15:24-25 These verses amplify the former two. They also add the idea that the world's hatred did not jeopardize God's redemptive plan. Its hatred was part of what God predicted would accompany Messiah's mission. The Jews' own Scriptures condemned their unbelief. Probably the quotation comes from Psalm 69:4. David experienced hatred for no reason. How much more would the Son of David experience it.
15:26-27 Even though the world rejected Jesus, the Spirit characterized by truth would bear witness that Jesus was the Son of God (cf. 14:16-17, 26). He would do this after He came on the day of Pentecost. After that, the disciples would also testify, similarly empowered by the Spirit. The basis of their testimony would be their long association with and intimate knowledge of Jesus (cf. Acts 1:21-22).
These verses explain how the conflict between Jesus and the world would continue after He departed to heaven. The essence of the conflict would continue to be who Jesus is.
Verse 26 also contains a strong testimony to the deity of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus described as proceeding from the Father as He had done (cf. 14:26).499It refers to all three members of the Trinity and reveals something of their functional relationships to one another. "The beginning"is the beginning of Jesus' public ministry.
Jesus proceeded to review things that He had just told His disciples, but He now gave them more information. Particularly the ministry of the Holy Spirit is the subject of this section of the discourse, though Jesus also clarified other matters about which He had spoken.
Jesus' method of teaching in the Upper Room Discourse was not to give a thorough explanation of one subject, then a thorough explanation of another subject, and so on. It was rather to introduce several subjects initially, then return to them and give a little more information, then return again and give even more information. This is, of course, excellent teaching methodology.
16:25 "These things I have spoken unto you"(NASB) indicates another transition in the discourse (cf. 14:25; 16:1, 4, 33; 17:1). Jesus acknowledged that He had not been giving direct answers to His disciples' questions. He had been speaking enigmatically or cryptically. The Greek phrase en paroimiashas this meaning elsewhere (cf. 10:6). Jesus was referring to His entire discourse, not just His illustration about the woman (v. 21). He evidently did this to avoid presenting what lay ahead in such stark reality that the disciples could not accept it (v. 12).
The coming hour when Jesus would no longer speak figuratively to them but clearly (Gr. parresia, cf. 10:24; 11:14) probably refers to the time following His resurrection and ascension. Then He and the Spirit would help the disciples understand the meaning of what He had said earlier (cf. Acts 1:3).
Jesus used parables to teach the multitudes because they were not ready to receive clear teaching (Mark 4:33-34). He interpreted some of His parables for the disciples because they could receive some clear teaching. However, He also used enigmatic language with the disciples because even they were not ready to understand some things yet.
16:26-27 After Jesus' ascension, the disciples would pray in Jesus' name to the Father (cf. 14:13-14, 26; 16:23-24). The Father would grant their request--in the context it is a request for understanding of Jesus' former teachings--because the Father loved them in a special sense. They had loved His Son and had believed on Jesus. This is a second reason the disciples could take comfort in Jesus' promise that they would understand better in the future. The first reason was that the Father would grant them answers to their prayers because they prayed in Jesus' name.
Jesus was not denying that He would intercede for His disciples with the Father (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25; cf. 1 John 2:1). His point was that the Father's love for them would move Him to grant their petitions, as well as Jesus' intercession and sponsorship (cf. 15:9-16). Believers have a direct relationship with the Father as well as with the Son and the Spirit (cf. Rom. 5:2).
16:28 This was Jesus' clearest statement yet about where He was going. What Jesus explained here should by now have become clear to the reader of this Gospel (cf. 1:10-11, 14; 3:16-17; 14:19). However to the disciples who first heard these words they were fresh, clear revelation. This statement really summarized Jesus' mission from the Incarnation to the Ascension.
16:29-30 The disciples now felt that Jesus had answered their questions about where He was going clearly. This revelation helped them believe that Jesus knew what He was talking about when He taught them about God and His ways. It also helped them believe that Jesus had indeed come from God. However they did not yet understand the full meaning and significance of what Jesus had said, though they thought they did. Jesus had just said that they would not understand His meaning fully until a future time (vv. 25-26).
"Had the disciples really possessed the understanding they claim, they would have reacted very differently when the crisis came."512
16:31-32 Jesus questioned the fact that the disciples now believed fully because of what He had just explained. The NIV translation, "You believe at last!"is an interpretation that the reader should understand as ironical. The events surrounding Jesus' arrest and crucifixion would show that their faith was still weak. They would desert Him in His hour of testing. That hour was coming very soon, but Jesus could speak of it as already present because Judas was even then negotiating with the religious leaders for His arrest. Jesus' confidence in His Father comes through in that He found consolation in the fact that the Father would not desert Him even though the disciples would. Jesus gave this gentle rebuke because the disciples again overestimated themselves (cf. 13:38).
It is true that Peter and probably John followed Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. It is also true that John stood near Jesus' cross during His crucifixion (18:15; 19:26-27). Nevertheless all the disciples abandoned Jesus at His arrest and returned to their own things temporarily (Matt. 26:56; Mark 14:50; John 18:17, 25-26; 21:3). It is also true that the Father abandoned Jesus on the cross (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). However that was only temporary too. The Father remained with Jesus throughout all His trials and only departed from Him when He judged sin, which Jesus took on Himself as our substitute (2 Cor. 5:21).
16:33 The structural marker "these things I have spoken to you"(cf. 14:25; 16:1, 4, 25; 17:1) identifies the conclusion of this section of the discourse. The ultimate reason for Jesus' revelations about His departure, as far as His immediate disciples were concerned, was that they might experience peace in their relationship with Him (cf. 14:27). "In me"probably harks back to the vine and branches intimacy that Jesus revealed in chapter 15. Their relationship with the world would result in turmoil because of the opposition that would come on them from unbelievers. However the proof that the peace that Jesus would give them would overcome the turmoil that the world would create was Jesus' victory over the world in the Cross (12:31; 1 Cor. 15:57; 1 John 2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5). This was probably another statement that the disciples did not understand immediately.
Jesus closed this discourse with a word of encouragement. The Greek word thareso, translated "take courage"or "take heart,"is one that only Jesus used in the New Testament (cf. Matt. 9:2, 22; 14:27; Mark 6:50; 10:49; John 16:33; Acts 23:11). Jesus was the great encourager. The Holy Spirit continues His ministry in us today.
The tension that the victory of Christ and the opposition of the world pose for the Christian is not one that we can escape in this life. Notwithstanding it is possible for us to be more peaceful than distressed as we realize and believe that Jesus has already won the victory (v. 11; cf. Rom. 8:37).
The Upper Room Discourse ends here (13:31-16:33). The rest of Jesus' private ministry (chs. 13-17) consisted of prayer.
