IDK

I’ve been studying up on the Holy Spirit lately, so Jesus’ words in John 14-16 have been percolating in my thoughts a lot. Here’s the verse that jumped out at me recently: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (14:12)

The works you've been doing, Jesus? Really? Hmmm . . .

In the verse immediately before this, Jesus refers specifically to his miracles. So, it’s really hard to read “the works” he mentions in verse 12 here as anything other than miracles. Yes, miracles. Like, healing the sick and other such wild stuff.

And the disciples he was speaking to did do miracles after Jesus went to the Father – at least some of them did, the book of Acts tells us. But this passage doesn’t say “you”, referring just to the people he was talking to at that moment; it says “whoever”, which is pretty wide-reaching. (And I looked up the Greek, y’all. The explanation I read was quite complicated, but this word seems to be a pronoun, and one that is only translated in the third person, not the second person. “He” or “whoever”, not “you”.) I point all this out because I think it’s important to let the Bible interpret itself, to read other passages looking for insight into the confusing ones. I also believe it’s important to look to the original words in the original language so we can be confident in the translation we are reading – and to consider the people being spoken to (who were NOT 21^st-century, gentile Americans) and what those words would have meant to them, as best we can determine.

On the other hand, when God wrote this book, he knew there would be people reading it as his Word who would have no access to such scholarship and who might not have much ability to understand it even if they did. And it was written for them, too. So, there IS something to just considering what the passage is telling us at face value. Jesus seems to be saying that I – who believe in him – should be able to do miracles.

I don’t do miracles. Sorry if that disappoints you. I have some charismatic Christian friends who would say, “But have you tried?” And no, I haven’t. But I’m pretty confident that if I tried to walk across the top of a lake (one of those works Jesus had done), I would not succeed.

Let me note, however, that I’m aware Jesus speaks frequently, especially in these chapters, about things we ask and do “in his name”. If I go trying to walk on water just for my own edification and pleasure, that would probably not qualify as something I’m doing in his name, which might explain my failure. And I also see that he says we’ll be able to do these things because he is “going to the Father;” I assume that has some bearing on the situation here.

I also recognize that there is some interpretation to be done on the phrase “believes in me” – what exactly does it mean to believe in Jesus? I mean, I believe in gravity . . . I don’t believe in Santa . . . I believe in my daughters . . . I don’t believe every word I read on the internet . . . “believe” has many shades of meaning, and intelligent, spirit-filled Christians have disagreed for centuries about what precisely is involved in “believing in Jesus”.

So . . . what exactly does this verse mean? Here’s what it boils down to, people:

I don’t know.

And I hope you realize just how important it is that I can say that.

1) It’s okay that I don’t know. I can sit in my uncertainty and still be good with God. I don’t have to live in fear of my ignorance or my errors. I don’t have to fight through the scads of challenging biblical passages to come up with a systematic theology that makes sense of everything. The things in scripture that are critical for me to understand are clear. It’s not like he’s stacking the deck against me, expecting me to live up to truths he refuses to reveal. As long as I’m trying to hear his voice and live by his words (even if I don’t like what he has to say – and I can’t say that I always do), we’re good. If God needs me to understand what this troubling little verse means, he will make it clear to me in due time. Good ‘nuf.

2) I don’t walk away from the faith or question the rest of the Bible just because I don’t understand this sentence . . . or even because there are a lot of sentences I don’t understand. I believe the Spirit inspired the words in this book, and they are true, whether I understand them or not. There are people reading this who will think I’m an idiot for believing such foolishness. That’s okay. It’s an act of faith – not blind faith, but faith. Everyone operates from a faith system, whether they recognize it or not. One can certainly do worse than mine.

There is so much more I could say about the Bible – and HAVE said about the Bible in this blog. Feel free to disagree with me. But let’s be gracious and loving as we disagree . . . yes? I think Jesus’ command to love each other is one of those critical things that is QUITE clear.