endless lark ascending

Saturday of the Sixth

Week of Easter

May 23rd

READING: John 16: 16-28

‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.’ Then some of his disciples said to one another, ‘What does he mean by saying to us, “A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me”; and “Because I am going to the Father”?’ They said, ‘What does he mean by this “a little while”? We do not know what he is talking about.’ Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, ‘Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, “A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me”? Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labour, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

‘I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.’

~~~

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

REFLECTION

After a strange discourse about seeing and not seeing, going and returning, about pain and comfort, Jesus explains that he has used “figures of speech” in these conversations, and that all will remain somewhat confuzticated until the events about to unfold are complete. It is highly probable that John has undertaken a fair bit of editorial mix-n-match here, but the general thrust of these sayings are that the paradoxes of the disciples’ relationship with Jesus will be unknotted in the hours – and the “hour,” to come. “Hour” is another significant word in John’s usage, (see John 2:4) denoting the “moment” in which the full impact of the Christ-event reaches completion.

John plays fast and loose with actual chronology in order to represent sacred, divine time, (kairos time), so that the words “moment” and “hour” loosely covers a sweep of time from the arrest of Jesus to his ascension. In that moment the Incarnation of the Son travels through a maelstrom of physical and emotional turmoil. He experiences desertion and death. His experience of trauma is God’s entrance into all physical and emotional turmoil, desertion, death – as the Word completes the work of salvation.

The “lifting up,” which what the words “hour” or “moment” encapsulates in John’s use, is a kind of oscillation, a sweep from incarnate, human existence, through psychological and emotional and physical torment, actual “lifting up” on the cross, descent to the tomb and all tombs (other writings will express this as decent into and harrowing of hell), ascent to resurrection, and final ascent to the Creator-Father – imagine a sort of fallen over S, but with more twists and turns, and the final serif flicking upwards and onwards (eternally). And as the Spirit descends to us she invites us to join that upward flick to eternities unimaginable, where the footsteps of Jesus are still warm.

That extra upward flick of the fallen-over S, that final flight, that endless lark ascending in song and beauty and joy, that is the final word the triune God speaks to all creation, to you and me and all who we love and pray for. “I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.”

But at this stage Jesus is only glancing forward, and there is a humanly inconceivable hurdle or two to cross as yet. “A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.” We will journey a little further yet with John and his Lord and ours.