Why Did He Leave?

John 16:5‭-‬7

But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'  But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.  Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

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Christians believe some pretty strange things. The most peculiar is also the most important to us: that God the creator became a man. And not just any man at any time, but a particular Jewish carpenter in first century Palestine. And that he not only lived a life of truth and love and holiness, but that he was actually God. And not only that he was God, but that he died a sacrificial death and then defeated death itself by rising again. We believe all this.

And yet sometimes the hardest thing to believe is that he did all this and then chose to leave! He didn't stick around. It seems like believing and following him would be much easier if he was physically here to lead us and protect us.

Of course, we know that the disciples saw Jesus in person and still had many doubts and fears. Even here in John 16, they were very confused by Jesus' teaching. "A little while? We won't see him for a little while? What's that mean?" So belief is hard even when Jesus is standing right in front of you. Remember John 6? Most of his followers gave up and walked away, even when the miracle maker was right in front of them.

So we come to chapter 16 and we find that Jesus warned his friends that he would be leaving and he even explains why. He tells them that it's actually better that he leave. Why? So that instead of seeing Jesus, they could receive the spirit of God into their very selves. Jesus makes some incredible promises about the benefits of this indwelling presence of God's Spirit. Here are just a few:

1. Conviction of sin. The hatred of sin that we so desperately need must come from within.

2. Conviction of righteousness.  Likewise, the love for holiness must also come from within.

3. Conviction of judgment. Specifically judgment on the ruler of this world, which comes through his spirit-filled people.

4. Timely reminders of truth. Notably, Jesus says there are things we should know, but we cannot bear to hear them until the time is right and we are ready. Lifelong learning directly from the Spirit within us.

5. Answered prayer. A new kind of access to God and assurance of answers comes only when he himself lives within us.

6. Joy and peace. When God himself lives in you, you experience his joy and his contented peace, even in the face of the most difficult circumstances. And those trials are promised in this passage as well.

And there are countless other benefits which explain why Jesus left and why the Spirit had to come. One more passage comes to mind, which reveals that this indwelling experience of God was no afterthought, but was in fact the plan of redemption all along. Lord, help us to treasure this incredible privilege of knowing you so truly and intimately.

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31:31‭-‬34)