Continuation of the Final Conversation.

(chapters 15 and 16 from John).

As surmised, while walking through the vineyard and pointing to the grapes, the Lord applies a grapevine as an example of the spiritual relationship between Him and those that believe in Him: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” As the owner of the vineyard, the Father vinedresser cultivates it Himself and through others; He sent His Son to earth and planted Him, like a fruit-bearing Grapevine, so that the feral and unproductive branches of humanity would graft with this Grapevine, obtain new sap from It and become productive also. Branches that are unproductive, are severed: those who do not prove their faith through deeds, are ejected from the community of faithful — sometimes in this life, and definitely on Judgment Day. The faithful that bear a harvest, are cleansed by the Holy Spirit of the multitude of temptations and sufferings, in order to further improve their moral life. In listening to the Lord’s teachings, Christ’s Apostles had already cleansed themselves. But in order to effect and sustain this purity, they have to be continually concerned with being as one with Christ.

Only he who stands in continuous spiritual communion with Christ, can realize the fruits of spiritual progression: “Without Me you can do nothing.” Grapevines that do not bear fruit, “they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” When the Lord was making this statement, it was the season for pruning and burning dead grapevines. Perhaps as He spoke, the Lord and His disciples were witnesses to pyres of burning grapevines. This was an expressive form of spiritually dried up individuals, for whom a fiery Gehenna had been prepared in the next world. Further on, the Lord promises that if they abide in Him with constant spiritual communion, every one of their prayers will be answered — naturally, if it conforms to God’s will. In order to realize this, it is essential that they dwell in Christ’s love and fulfill His commandments.

The expression of dwelling in Christ’s love serves as their mutual love for one another, which should extend to a willingness to sacrifice one’s life for a neighbor. “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” — their mutual love among themselves makes them friends, and as the union of this mutual love is in Christ, Who has the same love for them, then in becoming friends with one another, they become Christ’s friends. Having fully portrayed His love toward the Apostles, which is manifested in their being chosen for a great ministry, in this section of His dialogue (verses 12-17) the Lord again concludes with an exhortation: “These things I command you, that you love one another.”

Further on (verses 12-17 and 1-3 of the 16^th chp.) the Lord extensively warns the disciples of those earthly persecutions that await them from Christ’s enemies. They should not be disturbed by this hate from the world, knowing that their Divine Teacher was the first to be subject to this hatred. This hatred is understandable, because the Lord separated the disciples from the world that loves only that, which belongs to it, which corresponds with its spirit of every type of sin, evil and deceit. In the persecutions from the world, the disciples should comfort themselves with the thought that they are not greater than their Lord and Teacher. However, the sin of the world is unpardonable, inasmuch as the Son of God Himself came into it with a sermon to atone and the world — seeing His glorious works — did not repent but also began to hate Him: to hate the Son is to hate the Father. Enheartening the disciples in their pending sorrows, the Lord once again reminds them of the forthcoming ascension of the Helper, Spirit of Truth, Who proceeds from the Father, Who will give witness about Christ to the world through the Apostles. The Lord Jesus Christ will send the Helper through the right of His redeeming deeds — not from Himself, but from the Father, because the timeless beginning of the Holy Spirit is not from the Son, but from the Father: “Who proceeds from the Father” (verse 26). This verse completely rejects the false teaching of the Roman-Catholics that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, but also from the Son. Further, the Lord also foreshadows that the Apostles, as eyewitnesses to His glory and being the first to have received His grace and truth, will give witness of Him to the world.

All this “I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble,” i.e. so that your faith does not waver in the forthcoming persecutions against you. These persecutions will reach stages, where you will be excommunicated from the synagogues and where they will regard killing you as God-pleasing. Indeed, the Jewish fanaticism did reach such stages of blindness. The Jews were convinced that “who sheds blood of the unholy, is doing the same as bringing a sacrifice.” Thus Saint First-Martyr Stephan was a sacrifice to this fanaticism. The persecutor Saul, who later became Apostle Paul, also thought that by participating in the killing of Christians, he was pleasing God (Acts 8:1;22:20; 26:9-11; Gal. 1:13-14). Evidently, these words from Christ plunged the disciples into deep sorrow. In comforting them, the Lord started to explain to them the importance to them and to the whole world of His departure, because only then will the Helper come to them, Who “will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” “Convict” was used to mean: expose, bring them to the realization of injustice, crime and sin (John 3:20; 8:89; 8:46; 1 Cor. 12-24; Titus 1:9; Mat. 18:15; Luke 3:19). This censure is the same as a moral judgment over the world. The consequences of such a judgment can only be one of two: either converting to Christ through repentance, or complete spiritual blindness and bitterness.

The censure of the world by the Holy Spirit should be realized through the sermons of the Apostles and their successors, and all the faithful in general that have accepted the Holy Spirit, becoming His appendages.

The first point of this censure is the disbelief in the Lord being the Messiah. This is a most substantial and grave sin, because it rejects the Redeemer and Savior of the world. The second point — “of righteousness, because I go to My Father — is about Christ being truly the Son of God, Whose righteousness is completely distinct from that of the Pharisees, being attested by God by being seated at the His right hand (Ephesians 2:6). The third point — judgment over the prince of this world — the devil, who is subject to this judgment and condemnation, as well as all those like him that are unrepentant and hard-hearted. Thus the Apostles, with the help of the Holy Spirit, will be able to secure a great moral victory over this world, steeped in evil, even though it will pursue and persecute them. This prediction by the Lord did come to pass when the formerly timid and anxious disciples, having run for cover in all directions with the seizure of Christ and hiding in a locked room, began to fearlessly preach (after the Holy Spirit descended upon them) Christ to large crowds of people, giving witness of Him to the whole world without any fear, even when they were “brought” before kings and leaders of the world (Mat. 10:18).

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” — the Lord is saying that before they are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they are incapable of properly understanding and assimilating that which He has to say to them. But when the Holy Spirit comes, “He will guide you into all truth,” i.e. He will guide them to the now unreachable realm of Christian truth. All these revelations by the Holy Spirit will be drawn from the source of God’s wisdom, like the teachings of Jesus Christ: Like Christ, He will speak “just as the Father had told Me” (John 3:32; 5:30; 12:49-50), as from the Primary Source of Divine truth.

Christ will be glorified through these actions of the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit will be teaching the same thing that Christ taught, and in this way seemingly vindicate Christ’s mission on earth. He will take of Mine,” because the Father and Son — is One, and everything that the Spirit will be saying, belongs equally to the Father as to the Son. “A little while, and you will not see Me” — the Lord returns anew to thoughts of His departure from the disciples, but immediately reassures them with the hope of a new meeting with Him, apparently in both the Lord’s appearance upon Resurrection and through the mysterious spiritual communion. To some of the disciples, these words seemed mystifying — again revealing the immaturity of their spiritual intellect. The following course of the conversation was devoted to explaining these words from Christ. Once again, the basis of the disciples’ bafflement lay in their same preconception of the Messiah’s earthy kingdom. If the Lord wants to establish His kingdom on earth, why is He leaving? And if he doesn’t want to establish this kingdom, why is He promising to come back again?

The Lord responds: “A little while, and you will not see Me.” This means that you will “weep and lament,” because the world will fulfill its murderous intention — a veiled indication as to His impending suffering and death. “Again a little while, and you will see Me” means that “your sorrow will be turned into joy,” just as the sorrow from labor pains of a woman giving birth turns to joy. The joy here is that of the disciples, who experienced it upon seeing resurrected Christ — a joy that never left them for the rest of their lives: “And your joy no one will take from you. And in that day…” the day when the Holy Spirit descends upon them, they will enter into a constant spiritual communion with Christ, when all of God’s mysteries will become clear to them, and every prayer from them will be answered, in completing the fullness of their joy.

“I go to the Father” means “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.” Thus, for the Lord to go to the Father, means to return to that state in which He was before becoming incarnate, as the Hypostate Word. The clarity of these words stunned the disciples. In noting with special satisfaction that the Lord is speaking to them directly and not using veiled parabolic sermons, they expressed their fervent love in Him as the true Messiah. While theirs was a genuine and deep faith, the Lord saw its deficiency, which had not been enlightened by the Holy Spirit. “Do you now believe?” — He asks: no, your current faith is deficient. It will not stand the first test, which it will soon (in a few hours) be subjected to, when “you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone.” “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace,” — so that you don’t let your spirits fall in your hour of ordeal, recalling that I have warned you beforehand. You will find essential tranquility of spirit in your spiritual communion with Me.

“The world” — you will be unhappy in the company of people that is hostile to Me and My work. But do not lose your courage, remembering that “I have overcome the world” — conquered it through the fulfillment of the great work of redeeming humanity through My death, conquered with My humility and self-abasement —even unto death — the dominating spirit of pride and hatred, and established the commencement of converting this world from a satan’s dominion into God’s Kingdom.