I Will Send the Advocate to You

I Will Send the Advocate to You

May 7, 2013

Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter

By Beth DeCristofaro

When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted out in a loud voice, “Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.” … (He) said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus … then he and all his family were baptized at once.  (Acts 16:27, -28, 30-31, 33)

Jesus said to his disciples:  “Now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:5-7)

Piety

Look to Christ to be your light.

Follow…Follow

Leave behind your former self and live.

Don’t look back.

Don’t be afraid.

Follow…Follow

Come to Christ, walk with Christ, and live

            (David Haas, “Look to Christ”)

Study

At one time Paul was imprisoning or killing people because they believed in Jesus.   God called Paul by name and so here is Paul, choosing to remain imprisoned in order to bring an unbeliever to Jesus.   The jailor – whose job is probably even lower in the respectability scale than tax collector –finds that his inmates have not flown the coop.  He not only does not relock the doors on them but frees them and chooses to embrace Jesus.

Jesus calls us to follow Him in ways unexpected.  He chooses to go through death into life.  He frees us for eternal life and enfolds us in the Spirit who will also go through both life and death with us.  As Thomas Merton said, where God is there is no despair and even if I despair there is God within me.  The jailer found a life far greater than the security of his job in a moment of deep insecurity.  God is present in all moments especially when we move through death or imprisonment into life and freedom. 

Action

Where are you bound and thus restricted from fully embracing the all encompassing love that God has for you?  In what ways do you bind others, placing obstacles they must surpass to earn God’s love.  Ask God to free you from any imprisonment you find in your life.