In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
From the earliest days of our childhood, we were taught the importance of telling the truth. We learned the proverb, "Honesty is the best policy." And that's what we want from others. We complain when our elected leaders stretch the truth or when spouses and friends and co-workers lie to us. But if we're completely honest with ourselves, then we'll have to admit that the truth is something we're really not entirely comfortable with. For while we'll agree and even tell others that the truth will set you free, in reality we find it easier to fudge the truth, to spin and re-shape it to our advantage, and to tweak it here or there. That's really where we find our freedom–not in complete and honest truth-telling, but in telling our version of the truth, the truth as we want others to see it, the truth according to the way we think it ought to be.
In all our dancing around and reconstructing of the truth, what we forget is that truth ultimately is not a series of facts or a virtuous concept. Truth ultimately is a person–the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't Jesus say, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life"? And if He is Truth, then He is the sum and substance of all true things. And if He is Truth, then to tinker with the truth in any way is to tinker with our Lord Jesus. And so when we bend the truth and tell it to our advantage, then we are offending not just our values but our Lord; and we are recalibrating not just our moral compass but our faith; and we are playing games not just with the facts but with our Savior.
He who is the Truth in the flesh, our Lord Jesus says in today's Gospel, "When I depart and you see Me no longer, then I will send You the Helper. And He will help you to know and confess the Truth. For He is the Spirit of Truth. When He has come, He will guide you into all truth."
And how does the Holy Spirit do that? He does so first of all by helping us to see the truth about ourselves. He helps us to overcome our blind spots. Just this past week my wife and I have been taking some classes for foster care, and in one of the modules the instructor was giving an overview of the history of children in society and how they've been treated over the centuries. The teacher spoke of how in ancient times children were treated as little more than property, and infanticide was commonly practiced. If the child wasn't wanted or was the wrong sex, it would often be killed after birth. And the implied message was, "Haven't we come a long way? Aren't we much more civilized about children today?" My unspoken reaction was, "Actually we're still doing the same thing today. We don't hear about killing infants too often, but there are over 1 million abortions just in this country every year. How is that not treating children like our property to do with as we please? How is that not uncivilized child abuse?"
Just as our society has a huge blind spot when it comes to our compassion toward children, so also we have our own blind spots that the Holy Spirit exposes. That's what Jesus means when He says that the Spirit of truth "will convict the world of sin." It's so easy for us to see other people's problems and so hard to see our own. And so the Spirit must hold up the mirror of the Law in front of us so that we confront reality–that our old nature really doesn't desire the freedom from sin that Christ brings. We don't want to let go of our old ways and our worldly loves. Our old Adam hates the truth of Christ that makes us truly free. And so the first preaching of the Spirit is that we all need to repent, every single one of us here.
However, our Lord Jesus, does not send His Spirit only to convict us. For the Spirit of our Lord Jesus comes not to lead us to despair, but to lead us into all truth. And so the Holy Spirit's real preaching is about Christ, who is all Truth. The Spirit's ultimate work is to empty us of ourselves so that He might then preach into our hearts the truth of Jesus and fill us with His righteousness.
That is the second part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Having convicted and brought us to repentance, He then pardons and saves us by giving us the righteousness of Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father. That is what the Holy Spirit is all about. Jesus said that the Spirit will "take of what is Mine and declare it to you." That is the Holy Spirit's job, not to point to Himself or glorify Himself but to point to Jesus and glorify Him, to take the gifts of life and salvation that Jesus won for you and dish them out to you. Just as the Son of God was sent to reveal the Father, so now the Holy Spirit is sent to reveal the Son and thereby bring you back into fellowship with God, the Blessed Holy Trinity.
The Holy Spirit, then, is the actual One who preaches the Gospel to you so that you may be led into all truth. St. Paul declares in Romans 1, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ . . . For in it the righteousness of God is revealed." Through the words of the Gospel, the Spirit reveals and gives to you Jesus' righteousness. Even now He is speaking that righteousness into your ears. The heavenly Father no longer counts your sin against you because He has already counted it against His own Son. Now He declares you to be holy because of Christ. Jesus came into this world to make that trade with you–your uncleanness for His holiness. Through the cross you and Jesus exchanged places. He became the guilty One so that you would stand before the throne of heaven as the innocent one. That is the truth of who you are as one who is baptized into Christ. You have been put right with God. It is written, "Having been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Martin Luther once said when preaching on this Gospel. "It
is a particularly consoling message which the Comforter, the Holy Spirit,
proclaimed in the world through the mouths of the apostles. Indeed,
what is more comforting than that all sins, regardless of how many and
great, are canceled, forgiven, covered up, and not reckoned to our account
because we believe in Christ, and that he who has such faith is declared
righteous before God without any work or merit on his part, but solely
through faith in Christ? A more comforting message could not be preached
to the world!"
Indeed, your righteousness is not based on the uncertainties of your
own works but on the certainty of Christ's work. It doesn't come
from within but through faith in Christ from outside. And therefore
it is sure and true. The Lord God blesses you and deals graciously
with you simply because He is merciful in Christ and abounding in steadfast
love. Cling to that message of the Holy Spirit with all your heart.
For there is one who hates the truth, who is the father of lies, the devil. And he will do his level best to get you to doubt what Christ has done for you, or to make you disbelieve that Christ's righteousness is really yours. And so the third and final part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to proclaim the judgment of the devil. The Spirit of Truth unmasks the devil and exposes the liar that he is. The Holy Spirit convinces and persuades us to believe that Satan, who rules this world with his distortion and deceptions, who has most people fooled–he who is the enemy of the truth of Christ is judged; the deed is done. The devil's deadly reign is over, finished on Good Friday, destroyed Easter morning. And so even though Satan may rage and fume and spew his infernal lies, he can harm us none. The victory is won–given to you in your baptism, confirmed and strengthened in you as you receive the risen body and blood of Jesus who came to destroy the devil's work.
In Christ we have Him who is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So then why dance around the Truth? Instead, dance with Him. And why fear the Truth? Instead, live with Him. And why run from the Truth? Instead, walk in His footsteps. Embrace the Truth and love Him, even if you must suffer because of Him. For just as it was to your advantage that Jesus went away through suffering into glory, so also it is to your advantage that you suffer for the Truth, that you may rejoice all the more fully in His victory and share all the more gladly in His glory when the Truth is revealed on the Last Day.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
(Some of the above was adapted from a sermon by the Rev. John Fenton.)