The job or mission of Jesus was to do the Father’s will. Part of that was to develop an understanding of God’s will among the apostles and disciples, which would become the foundation of what we know as the church. Spreading the good news to the ends of the earth is a big job, and Jesus gave the apostles the words and faith they needed to be a part of that effort.
Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Acts 16:22-34
John 16:5-11
What’s your job? When asked without much context, it could mean a lot of things. Various dictionary definitions of job include:
a paid position of regular employment
a particular task or piece of work that you have to do
a responsibility or duty
If you bump a timeframe up against the “What’s your job” question, you might answer that you work for a particular company, shop, or organization, or that you do a certain kind of work, or that your mission in life is to “do this.”
Consider a job description for Jesus. What would you expect to read on that list? Healing? Recruiting disciples? That water into wine thing? It may be easier to recall what he said during the Bread of Life Discourse, which happened the day after feeding the five thousand and walking on water. He told the crowd, “I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me” [John 6:38].
The job or mission of Jesus was to do the Father’s will. Part of that was to develop an understanding of God’s will among the apostles and disciples, which would become the foundation of what we know as the church. Spreading the good news to the ends of the earth is a big job, and Jesus gave the apostles the words and faith they needed to be a part of that effort. After 3 years of teaching, miracles, leading by example, parables, personal explanations, and course corrections, the apostles are almost ready to take on their new job, growing the church.
Today’s gospel reading is part of the Last Supper Discourse, also called the Farewell Discourse, which occurred during the final meal Jesus shared with his disciples before his crucifixion in Jerusalem. It spans John chapters 13 through 17 and is a profound teaching moment where Jesus prepares his followers for his departure, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the challenges they will face in the world. We join the discourse already in progress.
Jesus tells his disciples that he is “going to the one that sent him” and tries to comfort them in their grief and confusion.
“But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.
For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you.
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 16:7-11]
The Advocate (sometimes translated as “Paraclete”) is a helper, a bit of a job assistant. The word is used five times in John’s writings, always with reference to Jesus or the Holy Spirit. It is a legal term for an attorney or spokesman who defends the accused in court. Jesus uses it to refer to a heavenly intercessor who is called to the side of God’s children to offer strength and support. Jesus is an “Advocate” because in heaven he pleads to the Father for believers still struggling on earth [1Jn 2:1]. The Spirit, too, is an “Advocate” because he is sent to strengthen the disciples in Jesus’ absence [John 14:16], instruct them in the truth [John 14:26; 15:26], and defend them against the prosecutions of the devil.
The Advocate was introduced in John 14, and the notable detail in today’s reading is that if Jesus does not “go” to the Father, he will not be where he needs to be to send the Advocate, or Holy Spirit, to them. This seems to be a task, part of the job, that Jesus can only perform from the right hand of God. No going away would become no Holy Spirit, no Holy Spirit would effectively nullify the mission of the apostles to grow the church.
So how did that all work out? We get a bit of a look in the first reading. Our story begins with “The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas, and the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods.” We may have missed some useful details here, so let’s backtrack a bit in Acts 16 to find out why there was an attack going on.
During St. Paul’s second mission, he had a vision and traveled to Philippi, a leading city in that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. He and his fellow disciples were beginning to expand the church into Europe, having already been successful in their “job” elsewhere. They were welcomed by a woman merchant of purple cloth, whose household was soon baptized in the name of Jesus, and who supported their stay in Philippi. Luke (author of Acts of the Apostles) records what happened next:
As we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl with an oracular spirit, who used to bring a large profit to her owners through her fortune-telling. She began to follow Paul and us, shouting, “These people are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She did this for many days. Paul became annoyed, turned, and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” Then it came out at that moment. When her owners saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the public square before the local authorities. [Acts 16:16-19]
The slave girl had a job, fortune-telling, because she was possessed. Her proclamations that Paul and company were “slaves of the Most High God” were not unlike the man with the unclean spirit at the very beginning of the ministry of Jesus, crying out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God” [Mark 1:24]!
Truthful revelations by demonic spirits. In Mark, Jesus was not ready to reveal himself fully to the unprepared crowd, so he commanded silence and that the demon come out. Times had changed, and Paul didn’t react immediately to the slave girls' prophecy that they were indeed doing a job for the Most High God. After many days, Paul becomes annoyed and, as part of his job, commands the evil spirit to leave the girl.
No longer possessed by the oracular spirit, the slave girl could not perform her job of fortune-telling, which made her owners lots of money. The owner’s “job” was to build personal wealth, in this case by owning and exploiting a possessed slave girl.
The owner complained to the magistrates, the highest officials of the Roman colony of Philippi, essentially that they had been unfairly robbed of their lucrative business. This was a commercial crime! Oh yeah, the criminals were Jews from another country and had no standing there. The magistrates’ job was to keep the peace and protect the local business owners. Hence, the beating and incarceration of Paul and Silas.
The story continues:
After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely. When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake. [Acts 16:23-24]
The jailer has a simple job description. Hold onto prisoners delivered to you. Don’t let them escape.
Paul and Silas continued their job, growing the church and keeping the faith, by praying and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened. The acoustics of the hard-walled prison probably enhanced the prayers and songs in a jail where joyful sounds are not often heard.
About midnight, there was suddenly such a severe earthquake that the foundations of the jail shook; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted out in a loud voice, “Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.” [Acts 16:25-28]
The jailer, having apparently failed at his job, was prepared to take his own life, rather than face the consequences. Paul de-escalates the situation. By shouting to the jailer, other prisoners would have heard the “we are all here” as the wishes of those who were singing and praying. A peaceful ending for a potentially disastrous moment.
The clearly rattled jailer rushed in and fell down before Paul and Silas:
Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved.” So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house. He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized at once. He brought them up into his house and provided a meal and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God. [Acts 16:30-34]
The jailer, being a Greek employee of the municipality of Phillipi, would have had little reason to become a follower of Jesus. But Paul and Silas continued their work, their mission of prayer and song, and peacefully spread the message of salvation through belief in Jesus. The jailer became a better person and, though we are not told, he likely told and retold this story many times, each time picking up new followers.
So your job can be your work, your profession. It can be the next task on your list. Or long-term, it could be your mission in life.
What’s your job?