Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. 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. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14: 12-20
I was an atheist, convinced that God was a myth only believed in by weak people. I hated God, I hated myself, I hated just about everyone…except my future wife, Tami, and her parents. Tami’s Mom, Judith, asked me to read the bible in spite of me explaining that I did not believe in Jesus or in God. I loved Tami and her parents and, in the hope of finally getting this “god-issue” silenced, I read the bible…every night, trying to get all the way through it in one year. I read my way from Genesis on. It was absolutely meaningless to me, a bunch of stories that had serious scientific “holes”. I slogged on only because Judith kept asking me to do it. I made it through the Old Testament, through the gospels and the more familiar “religious stories” of Christmas and Easter completely bored, just trying to get it over with.
The very first words I ever really “read”, the first one that really affected me was John 14:18, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you”. In that moment I was struck by those words very, very deeply and in the next moment Jesus stood in my bedroom. I would be happy to tell you the whole story, but that is not what I am trying to point to now.
Up until that one moment in time, I lived in a very violent, hate-filled, abusive, and soul-deadening house with my parents. It made total sense, a few days earlier, for a thought to cross my mind saying, “You really are like an orphan. You have no real parents. They clearly don’t want you.” And for many years after that encounter with the Living God, the Creator of the Universe, and my Savior, I thought “orphan” described me at that time and I didn’t consider anything further. I now know it not only describes me, but all of humanity.
Have you ever asked yourself why Jesus, right in the middle of his very famous discourse, with no real introduction to the idea, interposes the statement, “I will not leave you as orphans”? The idea of his followers being orphans could not be rationally defended. James and John (the writer of that Gospel) were the famous sons of Zebedee. Simon Peter and his brother Andrew were close to their parents. And, in general, in that culture and at that time, family was a main component of the network of social interactions. Why did he say that they were orphans? Could it be that Jesus was identifying some fundamental characteristic of all humankind? A human dilemma that most all of us never really face?
Without getting too thick in the weeds, the Greek word “orphanos” is derived from the root “orphos” which means “deprived” or “bereft”. Culturally, it meant to be deprived of a father or teacher due to their death. It was often linked with “widows” and represented a segment of the population who were usually of the lowest socio-economic standing, without any social net.
I have come to realize that we are all orphans, that in the big scheme of things, we grow up struggling to make do without experiencing the sense of belonging that makes sense of everything. Then Jesus comes along and invites us to become real, to become part of Him, as He created us to be. We balk. We appreciate the offer but somehow we have gotten used to our plodding through our own lives. Our egos convince us that our condition only needs a bit of “assistance” to find real joy, happiness, and meaning. Jesus is more like the life-saver/life-guard who sits in the tall chair on the beach and lets us know if we are straying too far from the swimming area. If needed, he rescues us from trouble and maybe drowning. He is our “Fixer”; and we live to swim another day.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you”. Sounds much more than Jesus offering himself to us as a fixer. What if he is saying, “You have lived your lives deprived of your true Father, and I am here now to show you who you really belong to – what “family” in Me really means – and it will be totally different than the struggle and plodding you have experienced until now”? What if He comes to us and shows us what real Love means, what real Life means, what Truth actualized looks like?
I have brought to you the idea of belonging – that Jesus refers to us as sheep who need a Shepherd. Now add to that Jesus calling us orphans. You see, He is not that person on the high chair at the beach. He is the one who drags us out of the water as dead, and not only administers CPR and gives us breath (His Spirit) but also invites us to come to live with Him so we never have to drown again. So that we can be one with Him, so that we can become “in Christ”.
Have you ever felt like an orphan? Can you imagine the possibility of belonging to God so much that your IDENTITY, your meaning, your joy, and your love becomes a mosaic of living like you never dreamed before?
