Easter 6

Easter 6
John 14:15-21
I will not leave you desolate


“O God, from whom all good things do come. Lead us by the inspiration of Your Spirit to think those things that are right, and by Your goodness help us to do them.”

Jesus Christ  your Lord and Savior reaches out to His fearful, lonely and hurting followers of all ages when He says to us, "I will not leave you desolate." These words of comfort and hope mirror the last five words that He spoke to humans before He ascended into heaven. When He said in Matthew 28, "I am with you always..." Jesus your Savior gives you His guarantee that He will not walk out on you. Consider His words and promises this day.

We too can experience the same feelings of abandonment.

We experience trials, sickness and death. And what do we feel? We can feel as if Christ has left us too.

When these things happen, all of our options all seem to be bad ones. We feel as if we are thrown to the wind. With no one to help us. We lose our sense of direction and our sense of perspective because these fears of loneliness can overwhelm us.

These feelings of hopelessness have become a product of our times. We live with such rapid changes all around us. There are family problems, jobs that are threatened, economic situations and issues that appear to be out of our control. Social and societal shifts we cannot understand.  And because so much is beyond our control, we can feel the sense that we too, are losing control.

It is then that we conclude that our life is full of troubles and challenges and how weak we really are. As the old quip reminds us, "any fool can handle a crisis...it's the day to day living that wears me down!"

In this midst of this trouble and strife, this chaos and confusion that the Savior comes to us with His Word of comfort and promise. Jesus understands our station in life and He promises to do something about our sorry lot.

He promises us the Counselor. For your aid and comfort.

Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will come and appears on our behalf to be a mediator, an intercessor, and a genuine helper for us.

Who is this counselor? He is the Spirit of truth, the One who can be known and revealed  only by faith. He is the One who dwells and lives within you. While so many live with the mistaken notion that perception is reality, the Savior confirms to you that He is the reality and the solution to any feelings of abandonment.

Jesus promised His disciples that He was leaving. They reasoned, they concluded, that they must solider it alone. This perception became their reality. Yet Jesus' promises trump any and all false conclusions. You are not alone. He sends you the Counselor, the Spirit of truth.

You are not alone.  "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."  John 16:13.  "The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." John 14:17

He will guide you - as a father leads his child by the hand, so will the Holy Spirit lead and guide you.  You are not alone. Christ has conquered. Christ has risen. The Spirit has come. He leads you still. Into all truth. Wherever you might go.