Trinity Sunday
John 16:12-15
The passage from the Gospel of John today is part of what we call the farewell discourse. For three full chapters during the last supper, Jesus goes on telling the disciples everything they are going to need to know once he is gone. It’s in the style of a deathbed testimonial, where the hero gives all of his best advice before he dies.
Toward the end of this long speech, Jesus says to his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you.” There are still many things that Jesus has to teach them, many things they have yet to learn. And in some sense, this is Jesus’ last chance to get all those points across to them.
“I still have many things to say to you. But,” Jesus says, “you cannot bear them now.” That phrase really stuck in my head when I read through this passage. You cannot bear them now. What could that mean? Is it that the things Jesus has to say are in some way too weighty, too emotionally taxing on the disciples? Are the disciples not ready to hear what Jesus has to say? Are they somehow unprepared? Or is it that the disciples are unable to carry what Jesus says into the future? It’s a very funny phrase, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”
One of my favorite recording artists is Sting. Back when he was with his band, The Police, they recorded a song that I occasionally adopted as a theme song back when I was in seminary. “I’ve got too much information, running through my brain, got too much information, driving me insane.”
That’s a pretty common experience for students. Sometimes you can only learn so much in a given period of time. Information overload. You could try to keep studying, but your brain just won’t process any more until you’ve had a good night’s sleep. Teachers have to be careful not to give so much content at once that their students become overwhelmed. I’m sure those of you who are teachers have seen quite a few of those blank stares that tell you, “Okay, that’s enough. We’ll try again tomorrow.”
And maybe that’s all that Jesus is trying to say. “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now.” After all, he has been rattling on for three chapters now. Maybe the disciples are just full up and can’t process another thing.
Or maybe something else is going on. I remember doing a funeral a while ago. After the service was over, the funeral director came over to the widow to talk about the next steps. Where should the flowers go now? How many thank you notes did she need? What about the final arrangements? But in that moment, it was too much for her. Grief and shock were in control, and not surprisingly, she could not think about anything. Many of you have experienced significant loss, and you know what a challenge it is—there are so many details that need to be taken care of, decisions that have to be made, but your mind is just a fog.
And maybe that’s what Jesus is alluding to. After all, he has told them that he is going to die, that he’s going to be handed over. Maybe his disciples are just in shock. Maybe their emotions are so strong that no matter what Jesus might have to say, they’re not going to be able to process it. They’re just lost in their grief. “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now.”
When our son Karthik came home with us from India, my parents went through a lot of my old things they had up in boxes up in the attic. Not long after that we got a delivery of old toys, clothes, and books from them, things I had used when I was a kid.
I particularly remember the experience of reading some of the old books with him. I had probably read them through hundreds of times when I was a kid, but I hadn’t seen them since then. As I read them with Karthik, they seemed incredibly familiar to me, if somehow distant. But I began to realize that as a kid I had missed a lot of what was going on in those books. They had been fun stories. But I hadn’t realized that most of them had morals or lessons. It wasn’t until I read them again as an adult that I noticed some of the deeper meanings.
And maybe that is what Jesus is talking about when he says, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” He could tell them, but they’re just not ready yet. Later, maybe, when they have more perspective, they’ll be able to understand, but not now. Even though he doesn’t have much more time with them, they are not ready to hear what he has to say.
People often notice this kind of phenomenon when they’re reading the Bible. The passage that you read as a child has a very different meaning when you read it as a youth, and different still in adulthood, after marriage, as a parent, in retirement, after a loss. The very same Bible passage that you found meaningful years ago you might find still to be meaningful, but very different now. Or sometimes the passages that made no sense at all in the past all of a sudden make perfect sense after new life experiences.
Sometimes we are just not ready for what God has in mind for us. Think about Jonah. When God called him, he did not want to go. It wasn’t until he had a little loosening up in the belly of a fish that he was ready to go and proclaim God’s word in Nineveh. We just aren’t always ready for God. Sometimes we aren’t mature enough yet. Sometimes we want to spend some more time running away before we say yes and follow. And sometimes there are just things that we have to pass through first before we can go on.
The good news of this passage from John is that it is never too late to say yes to God. Sure, Jesus does not have much more time with his disciples on earth—there is some urgency to the ideas he is trying to get across—and yet even after he leaves, God will send the Holy Spirit to pick up where Jesus has left off. They may not be ready right now when they have Jesus right in front of them. But when they finally are ready, the Holy Spirit will be there.
And that is good news. God is always ready to take the next step with us.
It is good news for us as individuals. God is right there with us as we learn and grow, as we fall down and as we get back up. If there are things in our pasts that we’re not proud of, they don’t have to haunt us forever. If our faith has not been as strong as we might like, it is not too late. God is ready to take that next step with us now, even if we have failed to make it in the past. It is never too late to say yes to God.
It is also good news for us as a church. We’ve never done it that way before, we tried that once and it didn’t work—these phrases have no place in the life of the church. Just because we weren’t ready to do something in the past, it does not mean that we are not ready now, or that we will not be ready in the future. God continues to call us ahead, continues to challenge us to new faithfulness. We need not let past failures or past hangups stand in our way, because with the Holy Spirit there are always new possibilities.
Our circumstances may change, our life experiences may change, our community may change, our finances may change, our politics may change, our pastors may change, but what stays constant is that God is always there with us. God is always calling us forward, always urging us to take that next step and always there ready to take it with us. And if we were not able to take that step yesterday, God is still urging us on to take it today. Even if we can’t take that step today, God will be there tomorrow, just as ready to lead us forward. God does not give up on us. Even if we fail, even if we are overwhelmed, even if we are shocked with grief, even if we are just not ready—God is patient, but God is insistent. And God will not let us alone until we have got the message, until we have made the commitment, until we have steeled up our courage and stepped out in faith. Thanks be to God.