Another Advocate: The Genius of Johannine Spirituality

Even the casual reader of the New Testament is aware that the Gospel of John is different from the other gospels. The main reason for this is that the Synoptic Gospels -- Mathew, Mark, and Luke -- belong to the same literary tradition. Matthew and Luke actually use the text of Mark, the earliest gospel, as the basis of their own. John, however, represents its own unique tradition. 

Nearly all scholars agree that John’s gospel was composed at the end of the first century CE within a group of believers that owed their existence to a follower of Jesus, cryptically known as “the beloved disciple.” This disciple may have been the Apostle John himself -- hence the traditional name of the gospel -- or someone claiming to have been a student of John. For this reason, scholars call this group the “Johannine” community.

The Johannine community appears to have been unfamiliar with the Synoptic gospels and/or suspicious of other letters and gospels in circulation (of which there were many). Bart Ehrman suggests that this community was originally made up of Jews who became convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, but were reluctant to give up their Jewish identity. This inevitably led to conflict with Jewish authorities and their expulsion from the synagogue. 

While other early Christian communities were content to see Jesus simply as the Davidic Messiah sent by God to initiate God’s Kingdom, the Johannines insisted on something much more. They held that Jesus was in some sense divine, i.e. the Word of God in the flesh. The Gospel of John was written to
establish this core belief over against other claims. 

Yet, in time, the Johannines gradually amalgamated with other communities into one “catholic church,” with each group accepting the sacred writings of the others as their own. This is how the Gospel of John ended up alongside three otherwise very different gospels in the NT canon. The decision to include John has proven foundational to what it now means to be Christian, showing its impact on subsequent doctrinal development, church councils, and of course the language of the Creed. 

One of the most striking features of Johannine spirituality is seen in today’s Gospel reading (John 14:15-21). While all four gospels talk about the Holy Spirit only John’s gospel describes a special impartation of the Spirit to Jesus’ disciples after Jesus departs. The Johannines accordingly believed that they too enjoyed this intimate union with the living Jesus, and with each other, through the agency of God’s Spirit. So, Jesus begins,

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you” (John 14:15-16).

“Advocate” here translates the Greek word paraklētos. Some Bibles translate this as “Comforter,” “Counselor,” “Helper,” or simply “Paraclete.” But none of these terms is able to capture the full meaning of the word. Its primary use in the Greek world was to designate a person who “stood alongside” someone else, like a lawyer or a friendly witness in a court of law. But paraklētos had many other uses as well. Today we might think of advocates in a healthcare network, or an educational institution, or persons who act on behalf of those with little or no voice in society. 

It is interesting to note that Jesus refers to the Spirit as another Advocate. This assumes that Jesus too was an Advocate, which is exactly what we see in the First Epistle of John (another revered writing of the Johannines). In 1 John 2:1, Jesus is described as "an advocate with the Father." In context, this carries the sense of someone pleading our case before God when we fall into sin. But calling the Spirit “another Advocate” does not mean that the Spirit takes the place of Jesus. For one thing, the Spirit is not incarnate, which actually turns out to be to the believer’s advantage, because, unlike Jesus, the Spirit is not confined to one place or time.

But even the direction of the Spirit’s advocacy is different. Rather than making an appeal to God the Spirit makes its appeal to us, making faith possible as a result. The Spirit does this by disclosing the truth of God’s love as embodied in Jesus directly to the believer. Thus the Spirit becomes the agent of our union with him. This is why Jesus calls this Advocate the “Spirit of truth,” who abides with them and will be in them (17). Yet Jesus also warns them that this “abiding” will impact their relationship to the world.

The Johannines knew the world to be indifferent to the message of Jesus and hostile to his followers. Indeed, the world’s estrangement to God is pervasive throughout the gospel: “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him” (1:10).

It can be no coincidence that John’s gospel was written around the same time that historians believe that Jewish followers of Jesus began to be expelled from synagogues. The healing of the blind man in John 9 provides a unique insight into what that experience must have been like. It certainly explains the statement of Jesus in verse 17 that the world “cannot receive” the Spirit because it “neither sees him nor knows him.” But this created a paradox for the Johannines. Somehow they had to explain the hostility of the world in light of God’s love for the world (John 3:16) -- a paradox that still exists for many Christians today. 

Yet the world’s antagonism did not mean for the Johannines (nor should it for us) that those without faith in Jesus could never come to faith. Rather it meant that those who believed in Jesus were no longer identified as being “in the world,” that is, estranged from God. Later on, Jesus will tell his disciples, “If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own” (15:19). 

For the Johannines, unbelief was easy to explain. The true mystery resided in the question of why anyone believed at all. As Jesus explained to Nicodemus earlier in John, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). This presses home the importance of what Jesus says next:  

“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (14:18-20).

Here Jesus anticipates both the crisis of his impending death and the joyous reunion of Easter Day. We typically think of orphans as those who have lost at least one parent. However, in ancient times the term could also refer to disciples who had just lost a great teacher or master. How easy for those who no longer belong to the world to feel stranded in it! Yet Jesus’ words were meant to assure his disciples that Easter follows Good Friday; that their reunion would be joyous indeed.

However, the Johannines were keenly aware that the resurrection appearances ceased after that first generation, and that people were now called to believe in a Jesus that they would never physically see or hear. Like other groups, they had to rely solely on their traditions to convey Jesus’ words and actions to a world that was indifferent at best to the story of a crucified Messiah. They also knew, even if only by intuition, that their converts had to be able to relate to Jesus, not as a historical figure, but as a living reality -- a Jesus who is present, not absent. Otherwise faith would be reduced to mere memory.

Here is where we see the true genius behind Johannine spirituality. Faith for them was not a matter of mere memory, but rather a matter of encounter - encounter with a person. John’s gospel presents the “Spirit of truth” as a person. We see this in the use of “Paraclete” (Advocate), as well as John’s use of personal pronouns in the text to designate the Spirit.

For centuries ever since, Christians have recognized the Holy Spirit as a third Divine Person. But something more important is happening here than just providing a proof-text for the Trinity. John’s gospel asserts that the Divine Life includes not just Father, Son, and Spirit, but believers as well -- a “Quadrinity” (if you will). This is not just some idiosyncrasy. Rather, it permeates the Fourth Gospel’s entire presentation of what it means to possess eternal life. The Christian message as we know it today would be impoverished without it.

“They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them” (14:21).

Our passage begins and ends with a mention of “commandments.” Obeying Jesus’ commands frames John’s understanding of the work of Spirit. Many assume that this refers to the Ten Commandments. Yet, the author has already informed readers that “the law was given through Moses,” but “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (1:17). Rather, in John’s gospel the word “commandment” is always associated with “love.” After washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus gave a “new command” to “love one another” (John 13:34). 

To follow the example of Jesus, then, is to follow the way of love, that is, to obey Jesus’ command to love each other, and to love the world as God so loved the world, even in the face of hostility from the world. To outsiders, this may seem like an impossible task. But to those united to Jesus through the indwelling Spirit it is inevitable. This is why Jesus tells his disciples, “By this the world will know that you are my disciples” (John 13:35).