“There are still many things I have to tell you, but, at the moment, you’re not strong enough to bear their weight” (John 16.12).
In practically every story of a quest or journey, there’s a scene of equipping. It’s the moment those who have found themselves far from home are given something that will aid them on the journey ahead. Think of the children receiving gifts from Father Christmas in Narnia, or the light of Earendil received from Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings.
These gifts come to be used in very unexpected ways on paths that have wound very differently than expected. And, if the person were told why they would need this object, they might well have found themselves unable to continue. That knowledge, before they’re ready for it, would be too much for them.
At the table, the night before his death, Jesus senses time is short. He wants to tell his friends what’s coming. There are things they will need in the days and years to come.
He tells them of the Spirit that will come upon them, guiding them and giving them the words to say to rulers and councils. You will be, he tells them, tossed out of synagogues, beaten, and even killed by those who believe they are serving the Holy One. And this, it seems, is the gift to be given.
But then he says that there is more he has to tell them. But, right now, he can’t. If I did, you wouldn’t be able to bear it. You wouldn’t be able to continue on the Way ahead.
What could be worse than Jesus’ mention of expulsion, rejection, and death that he’s already shared? Maybe the better question is, if the Spirit is not the gift for the tasks to come what is?
In the verses that follow this one, Jesus seems to repeat himself. He tells his friends that sadness and sorrow are coming. That they are not of the world. They will find joy despite tribulation. He’s telling them that there are things he can’t tell them; because, they’ll try and bear them alone. Because, what you will need for the Way ahead, he is saying, is each other.
At this moment, Jesus is what binds them together. And when he is taken and killed, they scatter. They are parts each thinking they are a whole, and none of them has the strength that all of them together holds.
I pray, Jesus says in the Garden later, that they all will be one. That they will discover that the gift I’ve given them is each other. And as the difficult days come, they will see that they are no longer individual units but part of a greater whole, one with everything it needs to face the wolf or the creature in the darkness.
The same gift we are given, which will help us bear the weight to come.
Light of lights, you have given us not only your Spirit but one another. But, like the Disciples, we believe we can handle everything on our own, bearing even the heaviest of weights. Help us as we learn to embrace this gift, so we may be one.