Jesus told His disciples in John 16:7 that He was going away and that somehow that was supposed to be a good thing. I can see them staring back at Him, dumbfounded, the same look they probably gave Him when He said He was going to die a terrible death. So, what to make of it? They’d gotten used to Him saying the opposite of what they expected, but this was too much. And He wasn’t misquoted; He didn’t misspeak, and He wasn’t walking it back.
One reason I’ve always heard and preached about His statement is that as long as He was with them, they couldn’t experience His presence unless they were physically right with them. He said that when He left, He would send the Holy Spirit that would dwell within them, so they wouldn’t have to be physically present to experience His comfort and company. A sort of a “portable Jesus.”
I’m not unique in wanting God’s tangible presence, comfort, and reassurance all through my life each day, and when I don’t feel it for a period of time, I’m prone to begin to doubt His love. This is true especially on “bad days,” when it seems like God’s love and favor are remote.
So, it was time for his disciples to suck it up. They couldn’t conceive of any other way to experience Him outside of His physical presence. But in His ascension, He would be teaching them another way, other than having the Holy Spirit guiding and comforting them, that there would also be times when they’d have to trust Him by faith when faith was their only connection.
It could be likened to how a baby cannot tolerate being out of its mother’s presence, especially at first. But over time, as its trust increases by realizing that each time they are separated, she always returns, her absence becomes increasingly bearable, especially if there was a strong bond to begin with. Most believers get this strong bond upon salvation. Those who have had dramatic conversion experiences, where their lives were radically changed in a moment of time, have the advantage over those whose experiences were not so vivid.
What if babies, when they grew into childhood, teen years and beyond, still clung to having to have their mothers with them at all times? We’ve heard of such cases, truly sad. It can only produce a dysfunctional relationship and a stunted life. And so it is, even when we don’t sense God’s presence, by faith we can believe He’s still there.
Now, if you’re expecting me to say something like, “If you were just more like me, you wouldn’t have any problems with faith,” as many preachers are prone to do, ad nauseam (a little Latin lingo there). No, like you, I’m just another soul in the battle, but I see progress, changing from glory to glory.
So, Jesus was doing His disciples and us a favor by returning to heaven, out of our sight. It was the only way our faith could be stretched and strengthened. It is one reason Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” John 20:29.
The Apostle Paul said, “In Christ Jesus, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring souls to Christ.”
If we’ve been a Christian for any length of time, we all have stories of where and how God has brought us to where we are today. Perhaps we’ll see our life’s stories played out on the big screen; all the stands we’ve made, all the people we influenced for Christ, even as small a thing as offering someone a cold glass of water. And whatever difficulties we encounter in this life, difficulties that have helped to shape who we are, they will seem like nothing when we all gather together in glory around the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Changing from glory to glory 