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THE AGONY OF SAYING GOODBYE - Part 2

Hello friend, on this Friday we come to the last of our month-long series on the four Gospels. We’ve called it The Four Faces of Jesus. We’ve looked at Matthew’s Jesus, and found Jesus portrayed as king and Messiah. Mark’s portrait shows Jesus in His full humanity. He shows Jesus as one of us. Luke’s Jesus is our Burden bearer. He carries our griefs and sorrows. He came to take away our sins in which He had no part, so we could receive His perfect righteousness in which we had no part.

And finally all through this week we’ve been looking at John’s portrait of Jesus. And John wants to show us Jesus’ deity. John makes clear from the opening words of His book that Jesus is truly, fully God.

These four contrasting but complementary portraits are our most precious literary treasure. We did not see Jesus when He lived on earth two millennia ago, but the Gospel writers did, they were there. And the stories these four tell, and the way they recount His life in such wonderfully enriching ways, let us know today who Jesus really is and what God is like!

Of course I’ll be back with you next Monday for the start of another series, but we end this series today talking about the pain of saying “Goodbye,” and how Jesus experienced that pain too as revealed in the Gospel of John. And because of the most terrifying of all possible separations that Jesus experienced, we can be sure that He fully understands us when we have to say “Goodbye” to the people dearest to us on earth.

Some time ago PBS had a nature program on eagles. It showed them making a nest in very high inaccessible place, and soaring on wind currents in even higher places. And with their incredible sight, they can see a meal on land or in the water and swoop down and catch it in their talons and take it to a place of safety to eat alone. But when a mother eagle’s eggs are broken from inside and the chicks emerge, they are faithfully fed and nourished. Over time they exercise their wings and strengthen their muscles. But the day comes when the parents nudge each chick to the edge of the nest. The young bird can see hundreds, or thousands, of feet of open space below. Then a parent pushes the young bird over the side, and they fly . . . or die!

In John’s Gospel we read how Jesus began to nudge His disciples out of the nest as it were, right at the end of His public ministry, for the time had come for them to fly, because He was about to die.

At the Last Supper, Jesus identified Judas as His betrayer and Judas left to do his dastardly work. After he left, Peter was told he’d become a denier of Jesus before the following morning. Then Thomas was named in the unfolding drama. He exclaims, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going! You say we do, but we don’t” (see John 14:5)! Oh Thomas, have you been sleeping your way through Jesus’ talks?

Then Phillip takes center stage. Three and a half years before, the day after Jesus’ baptism, Peter and Andrew had joined Jesus as His first two disciples. Then Jesus invited Phillip to join Him, and Phillip recruited Nathaniel, who sneered, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth,” and Phillip replied so convincingly, “Come and see” (John 1:46)! But now, that same Phillip asks, “Lord, show us the Father, that will be enough for us” (John 14:8)! With a heavy heart, Jesus replied, “Don’t you know me Phillip, even after I’ve been with you for so long? To know me is to know the Father” (see John 14:8-14).

The long conversation stretching from John 13, the Last Supper, to John 17 (and all exclusive to John’s Gospel) is a kind of goodbye from Jesus to His faithful eleven. He continues:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit . . . . I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:16-18, NIV, emphasis supplied).

Here is the heart of this long conversation. True, I’m going away, He says. I’m leaving. But I’m not leaving you alone. I, personally, will come back to you. Later in this passage, Jesus repeats this great truth, this great comfort, this great paradox, that even in separation He’ll remain connected with them. Here are His words:

“Now I am going to him who sent me . . . [and] you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth . . . I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:5-13 NIV).

Here’s Jesus’ promise to support us when we face the pain of saying “Goodbye.” But note the personhood of the One that offers this comfort. It’s God the Holy Spirit. And Romans 8:9 says that the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is “the Spirit of Christ.”

This is the explanation of how Jesus would have a personal connection with many after He ceased His bodily presence with a few. And that’s a crucial point. The disciples would all soon be separated. A great scattering would take place. They would go into all the world to fulfill His commission. Jesus couldn’t physically walk with all 11 as they went in different directions, but the Spirit of Jesus would be with each one as surely, as comfortingly, and as wisely, as the physical Jesus had been for their brief three-and-a-half years together.

Note there’s a three-fold ministry that the Spirit of Jesus performs to comfort us. It’s common for me to think I’m so bad, so riddled with guilt, that Jesus couldn’t love someone like me. Yes, He can! For Jesus sees in you and me the people we’ll become! He removes the terrifying feeling of worthlessness, and the nagging weight of guilt for the wrongs we’ve done and the rights we’ve failed to do. He proclaims before God and all the angels: Forgiven! New born!

Newborns are filled with potential, but they lack maturity! But because we need to appear good before God immediately, Jesus’ righteous life is placed to our account in heaven’s records. No matter how often we slip and fall, it’s Jesus’ life to which we point as the reason we have been given the gift everlasting life by God.

With sins forgiven and righteousness given, our future is secure, and at the last day, the day of judgment, He’ll vindicate us from every suggestion from Satan that we’re in the slightest degree inadequate. Not good enough? No, no, no way, when it’s Jesus perfect life, given to us. That’s the final test!

Which brings us to one last wrenching goodbye for Jesus in His earthly life. Saying “Goodbye,” to His real mother . . . and His real Father.

Come with me to the place called Calvary. Walk the deceptively gentle slopes of that hill on an awful Friday afternoon. Knowing the end was near for Jesus, John brought Mary to the cross. And as Jesus sees her threading her way through the crowd, all His thoughts and failing energies were directed to her. Looking into her grief-stricken face and then at John He said to her, "This is your son," and then to John He charges, "This is your mother" (John 19:27). John fully understood the significance of those words, and he took Mary to his home where he cared for her for the rest of her life. How Jesus trusted John!

Even the sun refused to shine on this tragic scene. Darkness enveloped the cross for about three hours. In the eerie darkness, lightning occasionally flashed, illuminating the cross and the Crucified. Then at about three o’clock, they heard Jesus cry out, “My God . . . why have You forsaken Me" (Matthew 27:46)!

Can you visualize this scene? In His humanity, God’s Son is dying on a cross. His back is shredded from being lashed by Roman soldiers. The hands that had always reached out to bless and heal others have been nailed to a wooden beam. The feet that had walked the trails of Palestine, seeking out people to bless, they are nailed to the upright beam. The kingly forehead is punctured, from thorns in the shape of a mocking kind of crown. And all this agony, all this pain, all this ridicule, He suffers at the very time He senses His Father is withdrawing from Him. He is doing this alone, completely alone, carrying the sins of all the world of all the ages on His sagging shoulders.

Late on that blood-soaked Friday afternoon, a voice is heard from the central cross. In perfect clarity that all at Calvary could hear, Jesus announces, “Father, into Your hands I place My spirit" (Luke 23:46). And then He adds, "It is finished,” (John 19:30). It’s . . . His . . . final . . . terrifying . . . “Goodbye.” His head drops forward. . . and He dies.

Oh yes, Jesus knows and understands what it means to be alone, to say “Goodbye” to the dearest person on earth to you. And in your goodbyes He’ll be with you, never leave you, never or forsake you, but always be with you to comfort you.