You’d Be a Spiritual Orphan without Pentecost by SAM ALLBERRY for The Gospel Coalition
It’s hard to take in even 24 hours of the news cycle without feeling a profound sense of loss. We see loss of life, loss of justice, loss of dignity, and loss of hope all around us. The briefest scan of our own lives and circle of relationship confirms that this loss is not just “out there” and faced by others, but is relentlessly present in our own personal midst. Tragedy, sickness, trauma, and death itself befall those close to us. It sometimes feels as though we stagger from one grief to the next.
This sense of loss was something the disciples of Jesus felt intensely in the hours leading to his betrayal and arrest. On what would turn out to be their final evening together, Jesus dropped the bombshell that he would be leaving them, and that they would not be able to go with him. It was crushing news. They had lived, eaten, and traveled with him for three years. Some had even left family and work to become disciples. They had staked everything on him.
So this was far more than how we might feel at the news that, say, a beloved CEO is leaving the company. “I will not leave you as orphans,” Jesus promises (John 14:18). This wasn’t the sadness of saying goodbye to a colleague; it was more akin to losing a parent. That was the level of abandonment they feared and felt. That was the depth of separation beginning to engulf them. No wonder their hearts were so troubled.
Now is your chance to support Gospel News Network.
We love helping others and believe that’s one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve God’s children. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force.
Our Troubled Hearts
Our hearts are often troubled, too. We aren’t in the exact same situation as the disciples; we haven’t been hanging around with Jesus for three years only to face the prospect of him leaving. But we do have to reckon with Jesus’s physical absence. There are times when we feel somewhat abandoned spiritually here on earth. Even if we don’t doubt that God is there, we wonder if he is actually here. And there are times when the difficulties of this life feel more than we can bear without God being right alongside us.
So we need to hear these precious words of Jesus: “I will not leave you as orphans.”
He’s not saying he won’t leave us. He will. He is saying he won’t abandon us. We will be physically without him. But we won’t be on our own.
The reason for this is what he previously said: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16–17). Jesus is promising the Holy Spirit. The Son’s departure will be followed by the Spirit’s arrival. Pentecost wasn’t just a watershed moment of empowerment; it was a form of consolation. Pentecost shows us we aren’t abandoned on earth as spiritual orphans.
