The Holy Spirit has been given the authority
'Condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned'
Like a vice, the rescuing grip of God’s creation begins with Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension. The squeezing of evil’s juice from our world has been tightening for two thousand years. Soon, it will be completed. Sin will be excised, and righteousness will prevail.
Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Acts 16:22-34
John 16:5-11
You also might turn your head a bit when hearing the last four verses in today’s gospel.
“And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned” (John 16-8-11).
John writes the words above, announced to the disciples in his last discourses before his arrest. Much has been said about the “he” identified here by Jesus as the Holy Spirit. So, we should be good at making that assumption. The visual reminder is that the Holy Spirit has been given the authority to grasp the universe with the ultimate authority of God.
Consider this teaching within a further context. This is a capsule summary from Jesus on Trinitarian authority. Jesus’ work is finished. He is returning to the Father, the person of the Trinity who exhibits all authority. Jesus has surrendered himself to the Father, setting aside his shared authority within the Trinity while he lives out his incarnation.
The Holy Spirit, whose profile in cloud and fire was translated into a dove-like entity at Jesus’ Baptism, foreshadowed the future for all of further human life. Instead of Jesus wandering within the confines of a space less than the size of Colorado, the Holy Spirit will alight upon and then enter, worldwide, into our bodily selves. No longer reserved as a prophetic anointing for the few, the Holy Spirit will be the authority of the living Church, anointed and exhibited in all of its members.
That’s an authority shift unknown by creation since the fall of Adam and Eve.
We shouldn’t get too twisted up in our thinking on this, because it’s likely we’ll get turned around on matters of three persons in one God. The theology on how the three persons interplay is a never-ending study — something our eternal lives can chew on forever.
But this we do know. Jesus is about to display his Lordship of the universe, his authority over all creation, as a holy preparation for Pentecost, the dramatic entrance of the Holy Spirit. The creation was built for Jesus, by the way, not as its only godly member, but as God incarnated. That makes Jesus the physical Lord.
In a day or two from this discourse, Jesus will finalize his submission to the wiles and weaselly ways of a creation run by satanic forces. He will then arise and conquer death, giving proof of life — eternal life — for those who want to and will know him.
He won’t perform his earthly physical function anymore in person, not quite yet, unless you count the Eucharist, as most of us do, as his physical presence. Again, it’s easy to confuse ourselves with the intricacies of God’s movements. So Jesus' real presence in the Eucharist is affirmed. We’re talking instead about the exercise of authority. A shift took place upon Jesus’ prophecy that the Comforter, the Counselor, would come to indwell the followers of Christ — “I will send him to you.”
And what does the Holy Spirit have on his task list? The Holy Spirit convicts the world regarding sin, righteousness, and condemnation. Jesus outlines this. Those are mouthful words, but worthy of our study.
In essence, the Holy Spirit reveals sin through the behaviors of those who do not believe in him. We each know this behavior.
The Holy Spirit reveals righteousness in Jesus’ upcoming Resurrection and Ascension when he officially exits from the boundaries of creation. In other words, by his unfettered travel from this realm into Heaven, he opens a portal unavailable before to everyone of us. Jesus will even go into the depths of hell to retrieve everyone of righteous nature to join him. He then would shatter the grip that death had on all who have already died!
Jesus tells the disciples this before the shift takes place. These cosmic changes have not yet taken place as he teaches them. However, one thing has been accomplished:
“… condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”
Unlike our existence, a tragedy of errors and repentance, we live in sin, and the angels do not. That is, those of us who survive long enough to grasp the personal choice of sin (not the aborted, certainly, or those taken in infancy or who died as a young child). Jesus has a message for us, but he also includes the consequences of another realm of creation. It’s important that we hear this because we must choose the righteousness of Jesus over the sin of the evil one and his minions.
The angels did not, and do not, experience time as we do. Their choice of holiness over evil was offered differently. They, as a host, chose the way of evil or to remain among the heavenly union in a cataclysmic event. One third balked at God’s plan for them. They were left to live in the universe as beastly barnacles and poisonous beings. God allowed them to take over the hierarchical stewardship of creation, a fallen world. This decision by the creator fits well into the realm of “God only knows why.”
Yet, here we grasp that Jesus declares the cosmic reality for these fallen angels under satanic rule in the same breath as he announced the Holy Spirit’s weaving into the fabric of every willing human life.
“… condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”
This is not a pithy dramatic phrase at the end of a fantasy novel. This is the vice of authority over the entity that offered, manipulated, and coerced humanity into choosing death.
Like a vice, the rescuing grip of God's creation begins with Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension. The squeezing of evil’s juice from our world has been tightening for two thousand years. Soon, it will be completed. Sin will be excised, and righteousness will prevail.
Our heads are supposed to be turned. We should be shocked. Each of us has our time to decide which entity we want to live in. There is no other bigger decision to make. Our decision is lifted up against the choices made by the angelic realm.