Christ who lives in the future, and the church's mission to prepare the world for the future to arrive

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Structurally, it is clear that Jesus' packed statement of John 13:31-35 is explicated by the disciples asking a series of questions which Jesus answers in 13:36-14:31.

Peter: “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus: You can follow me later

Peter: “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Jesus: You won't lay down your life. I will prepare the place ON YOUR BEHALF to prepare the destination.

Thomas: “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Jesus: I am the way to the Father.

Philip: “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”

Jesus: The Father, and so the Kingdom/New Creation, is already present in me. I will send the Spirit to help you when I'm gone and you can no longer see the Father in me physically.

Belief -> missionary miracles

Prayer -> receiving

Loving -> obeying

I will appear again after the resurrection to those who love me though.

Judas (not Iscariot): “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”

Jesus: Because God only makes his home with those who love and obey me.

It still isn't crystal clear to me, but this is the line of logic I see going on behind Jesus' answers:

1. I'm going to die an Old Creation death, and then live a New Creation life in the presence of the Father.
2. You can't follow me all the way yet because you are not yet made holy, but I will go as your representative ahead of you.
3. However, you can see the Father and the New Creation life already in me as it bursts out even in this likeness of sinful flesh.
4. When I'm living a full New Creation life in heaven you will still be able to see me by faith given by the Holy Spirit whom I will send.
5. As those who have been reborn and love God, I will be able to give you fuller experience of New Creation life and the presence of the Father after I have been resurrected, because you will be holy enough to be in the presence of such life.
6. However, the world cannot experience me in my New Creation life because I will be so burning in holiness that I would be Christ-the-judge to them (in contrast to pre-cross when I am their suffering servant). Out of mercy, as I did in the Tabernacle, I will hide my holy presence for a time to give them time to repent.
7. However, as you follow me you will repeat the same story. For now you will live a life of self-sacrifice and suffering servanthood with your glory as children of God veiled. In this role you will represent me to the world by a life of loving obedience and miracles.

That's a bit hastily written and I'd like to write that up neatly, but what do you reckon? Seems to tie together a lot of the Bible, and this passage in particular.

Categories to apply:

• sinful/holy
• servant/judge
• Old Creation/New Creation
• death/life
• suffering/glorified

Basically, Jesus is further down the road than the church on every count and prepares the way for us. Because the world is still at the starting point, the church mediates the destination to them because if Jesus was present now there would be no time to repent.

PS I'm sorry for the note-taking form of this post. I wanted to write it up but when I'm going to be short on sleep tonight finishing off some law study I couldn't justify editing. Thought it maybe of interest though - some significant stuff.