A, The Sixth Sunday of Easter - John 14:15-21 "The Help of the Holy Spirit"

John 14:15–21 (ESV) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

When a child calls out in the night, it’s usually mum who responds.  If it’s not mum and it’s dad who responds, it’s most likely still mum who hears the cry and digs dad in the ribs to get out of bed and go and help the child.

Most mums are the primary caregivers in the household; they help the children, and they help the husband, before they help themselves.

Today is Mother’s Day.  How do you remember your mother?  Some of our mums are living some have departed this life.  Some cherish the relationship they had with their mother, and some not so much.  Some mothers help us and some hinder us.

Despite today being Mother’s Day, the day is not so much about our mothers but our Father in heaven who gave us our mother and our father through whom we have life.  God gave us parents to help us.  We might harshly judge the help they give us as being overbearing or absent.  We might be tempted to worship them more than God himself, if we see them as the be all and end all of our existence in this life.  Even so, we’re called to recognise them as the primary representatives of God’s authority on this earth, regardless of how good or how bad their parenting might seem.

It should be obvious to us why we need our mother’s and father’s help.  As babies we are helpless and need the nurturing of a mother and a father’s protection.  Those who have lost their parents, receive this help through agencies and people that stand in the place of parents, under the authority that God gives to parents.  Such as governments, law enforcement, welfare agencies, and other social structures.

Although we might understand why we need parental help from mums and dads, today Jesus tells us that God the Father sends us another helper, the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is another helper, who  is our original help?  Are our parents­—our mums and dads—the original help?  And why do we need another helper in the Holy Spirit?

The first we hear of a helper in Scripture is in the Garden of Eden.  God creates Eve from Adam to be a helper fit for Adam. Eve was created to complement Adam.  They were created to be one flesh in each other since Eve was taken from Adam’s flesh.  Adam and Eve are our primal parents.

Adam was created in the likeness of the image of God, and Eve was taken from the flesh of Adam to stand opposite Adam—face to face—as a helper fit for him.  But in what way was Eve to help Adam?  Eve was to encourage Adam in being face to face with God in the garden.  Likewise, Adam was to lead the other half of his flesh in the goodness of God’s Garden of Eden, to Sabbath face to face with God in his holiness.

However, both Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of the serpent.  Instead of being a help to each other in their worship of God in the goodness of his garden, created to celebrate the life he gave them, in the likeness of himself, to have face to face fellowship with him. Their complementary relationship became opposition to each other.

Rather than eating the fruit of fellowship, the fruit they ate finished their fellowship and they hid from God.  The perfect three-way community between God, man, and woman was desecrated.  Man desired to be like God!  Woman desired to be like God!  God’s first family, his first son and daughter, helped themselves to his knowledge of good and evil; to be like God rather than knowing and trusting in the love of God.

Mother’s Day falls on the second Sunday in May.  We give thanks to God for the help of our mothers and fathers.  Ironically though our primal mother and father became helpless when they should have helped each other to worship face to face with God.  We can see Adam as the original pastor who gives Eve instruction to join him in worshipping God in the garden.  Yet Eve didn’t receive this leadership from Adam when it counted most. 

So, we come back to the promise of Jesus who says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.” (John 14:16-17a ESV)

This “another helper” is the Holy Spirit but the original helpers are not our primal parents, Adam and Eve, nor our mum and dad.  The function of the helper Jesus speaks of is one who is “called alongside”.  The Greek word is Paraclete (paracletos).  This word is found only in the writings of John’s Gospel and  First Epistle.  Here in John 14 to16 the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit.  Jesus promises the coming of the Holy Spirit because he is going to the Father. 

We hear in John’s First Epistle, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”  (1 John 2:1 ESV) Here paraclete is translated in English as advocate—one who defends or speaks on behalf of someone.  Jesus has now ascended to the right hand of the Father; he’s called alongside the Father to advocate for us through his righteousness. 

So, we have received the Holy Spirit to be our helper, our paraclete on earth, and at the same time Jesus is our helper, our paraclete, before the Father in heaven preparing a place for us there. It’s a comfort to know that in our helplessness we have a helper here and a helper there.  With these two helpers we are called out of ourselves and into God’s Word where, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV) Rather than hide from God we can walk in the light of his Word and do what God now commands us to do in Christ. 

Therefore, whenever we cry out in the darkness of our sin, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are here to help us to receive and believe the Word of God.  So, when we confess our sins, “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 ESV)  Now that we have the Holy Spirit as our helper, Jesus promises us when we do the greater works of confessing sin and asking for forgiveness, he will do it and cleanse us!  (John 14:12-14)

God calls us to thank him for our mothers today regardless of them being a help to us, or a hindrance.  We also thank God that Jesus is the New Adam—the Holy bridegroom­—and he awaits the coming of his bride.  As his holy church we thank God that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to be our helper who guides his church in the works of peace on our way down the aisle towards the heavenly wedding breakfast in God’s eternal garden of paradise.   We are his holy body who receives help from the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, and who makes us—his church and bride—holy in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ our bridegroom. Amen.

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Sermon Summary

The sermon begins with the familiar image of a child crying in the night and a parent—often a mother—responding. This everyday experience highlights the deep human need for help, care, and presence. On Mother’s Day, we rightly give thanks for our mothers and the help they provide, yet the sermon reminds us that the day ultimately points beyond earthly parents to God the Father, who gives us life through them.

Human parents—whether helpful or flawed—serve as representatives of God’s authority and care. But they are not our ultimate helpers. Scripture shows that even the first parents, Adam and Eve, failed in their calling to help one another remain face to face with God. Their fall broke the perfect fellowship between God, man, and woman.

Into this brokenness, Jesus speaks a promise: the Father will send “another Helper,” the Holy Spirit (John 14:15–21). The Greek word Paraclete means “one called alongside”—a helper, advocate, comforter. Jesus himself is also our Paraclete, now advocating for us before the Father in heaven (1 John 2:1). So we have a helper on earth—the Holy Spirit—and a helper in heaven—Jesus Christ.

These divine helpers call us out of hiding and into the light of God’s Word. When we cry out in the darkness of sin, the Spirit leads us to confession, and Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Through this ongoing help, we are drawn into the life of God, empowered to keep Christ’s commandments, and prepared as the Bride of Christ for the heavenly wedding feast.

On Mother’s Day, we thank God for our mothers, but even more, we thank him for the new Adam, Jesus Christ, and for the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the Church—Christ’s holy Bride—on our journey toward eternal life.

Reflection Questions

1. About Help and Dependence

•      When you think of the word “helper,” who comes to mind first—your parents, a friend, or God?

•      In what ways do you still try to “help yourself” spiritually instead of relying on the Holy Spirit?

 2. About the Holy Spirit

•      How does understanding the Holy Spirit as “one called alongside” change the way you think about his presence in your daily life?

•      Where have you recently sensed the Spirit calling you into deeper obedience or trust?

3. About Jesus as Advocate

•      What comfort do you find in knowing that Jesus is advocating for you before the Father right now?

•      How does this truth shape the way you approach confession and forgiveness?

4. About Family and Mother’s Day

•      How has your experience with your own mother shaped your understanding of God’s care—positively or negatively?

•      What does it mean to honour your parents while recognising that God is your ultimate helper?

5. About the Church as Bride

•      What does it mean for you personally to be part of the Bride of Christ?

•      How is the Holy Spirit preparing you—and the Church—for the “wedding feast” to come?   

C, The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany - Luke 6:17-26 "Word of Comfort"

Jesus is proclaimed from the mountains to the plains.  The comfort of his proclamation is this: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25 ESV) He says these words to Martha whose brother Lazarus had died some days before.

For us who are being saved in these days of death, before us are blessings and curses.  In a nutshell we are told: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” And, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” (Jeremiah 17:5&7 ESV)

Psalm One parallels these words of Jeremiah, speaking of the fruit of the blessed, and the wicked or cursed as being chaff, saying “the wicked will not stand in the judgement”! (Psalm 1:5 ESV)

The power of Jesus healed the diseases and touched the hearts of those with unclean spirits, at the “level place”.  What he then preaches is essentially the same he said at the sermon on the mount, recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. 

Matthews Gospel was originally intended to be a catechism for Jewish believers, who would have remembered the proclamation of blessings and curses commanded by Moses, for Joshua and the Israelites to speak the blessings from Mount Gerizim and the curses from Mount Ebal. (Please read Deuteronomy 11:26-29, 27:1-26, Joshua 8:30-35)  So, the Jewish hearers and readers who understood what God was doing through Moses and Joshua would have found great comfort in Matthew’s  Gospel account of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount”.  

But at the sermon on the plain here in Luke’s Gospel there’s a wider audience as we’ve heard.  Disciples, Jews from Judea and Jerusalem, and Gentiles from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon hear Jesus proclaim not just the blessings of the sermon on the mount but also the woes or curses. 

Now in this level place, Jesus levels the playing field between the Jews who knew the Law.  The blessings and curses of God made known on the mountains of God, are now plainly set before Jews and Gentile.  Jesus flatly addresses all the discomforts and comforts to all humanity on level ground from the word of God for the first time.   The word of God has descended from the mountain and the Jews, to the plain for the Gentiles too!

Then, all those troubled by unclean spirits heard him, and those with diseases were healed by him.  But he lifts up his eyes to address his disciples.  These are the twelve disciples whom he had just set apart as apostles, together with many other disciples who followed him.  Also in his hearing are other Jews, but furthermore the Gentile Phoenicians from the coastal areas of Tyre and Sidon hear him too.

But with all these present, it’s to his disciples he says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.  Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!  Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.  But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.  Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:20–26 ESV)

Are these comforting words?  How do you see those who were healed receiving these words?  As comfort or discomfort?  How do you think the disciples received them?  Jesus levels the playing field with his word of balance, his word of blessing and woe!

But it’s to you Jesus asks: Are you comforted by being poor, and discomforted by being rich?  Are you satisfied by being hungry, and discomforted by being full?  Are your tears comforting, and your laughter in these days of death discomforting?  Are you comforted by being hated, and treated as evil because you believe Jesus, and his word?  And are you discomforted by those who say nice things about you but hate Jesus’ word?

Are you blessed by your comforts this side of the resurrection, or blessed by the promised comforts coming after the resurrection?  Are you cursed and in despair by your comforts this side of the resurrection, or will you be cursed and in despair afterwards?

Jesus’ Word is the great levelling field!  In fact, Jesus himself is the great leveller!  He gives blessed balance to our existence calling out the comforts that need to be named as idols.  But he also shows us the true comfort we can have in him, despite knowing our existence, now, is broken. 

Your being was never meant to be dying.  Jesus teaches he is the way, the truth, and the life.  The Word of God reveals that human existence begins by being born only to be delivered into death, but through Jesus’ death and resurrection your being can continue forever with life!  Surely that is our comfort in this world of discomfort.

We have just sung: “Comfort, comfort all my people with the comfort of my Word. Speak it tender to my people: All your sins are taken away.”

Our sins are taken away!  That should be a comfort for us!  Why?  Because now we can focus on the true comforts of God’s kingdom.  However, using the forgiveness of sins to carry on in our own comforts that teach us to turn from God to selfishness, and the creation of our own kingdoms of idols to worship instead of God, is not what God intends for us. 

You and I are reminded of this in the woes with which Jesus balances the Jews and Gentiles at his sermon on the plain.  As God the Father did with the Jews at Mount Sinai and at Mount Ebal when they entered Canaan.  Jesus continues to balance us with the reality of blessings and woes today, as we’re moved over the mountains of our suffering and across the vast plains of temptation towards our resurrection, being led in the comfort of Jesus’ way, truth, and life.

Yet, we hear the true nature of our existence after Jeremiah tells us we are cursed by trusting ourselves, over against the blessing we receive in trusting God.  He says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”  (Jeremiah 17:9–10 ESV)

With our hearts being desperately sick, is there any comfort for us, is there any consolation from the blessings we hear and receive from Jesus and the Word of God?  Some might hear Jesus say, “…woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” (Luke 6:24 ESV)  And think, “My riches in this existence of suffering and death are the only consolation or comfort I can attain. I just can’t do what Jesus requires of me, even now that my sins are taken away.  Therefore, many are deceived into returning to the comforts of one’s self-seeking pleasures. 

Or, on hearing the blessings of being poor, hungry, weeping, and being hated, they’re too much to add to the suffering and death of our human existence!  So, there’s a temptation to reject these blessings as just nice sentiment.  But sentiment doesn’t have any eternal substance!  One quickly finds themself impatiently returning to pursue the passing pleasures of the heart, believing God’s word insufficient to console and comfort.

If Jesus was to just leave us with his word of comfort, for us to figure out his way, his truth, and his life, without any help, his word would end up being a discomfort to us.  But he doesn’t leave us to our own devices.  Jesus comforts us with a Comforter!

He has led us out of ourselves, and he continues to do so today.  Right from the Early Church era, after Saul became a believer, and became known as Paul, we hear, “…the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”  (Acts 9:31 ESV)

In John fourteen Jesus tells us he has left us the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter; our Helper.  The Holy Spirit helps us in the comfort that, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8 ESV)

Like Simeon who waited his whole life for the consolation of Israel in the birth of the Messiah, now that Jesus has come, has been crucified and has been raised from the dead, we too wait for the consolation of Christianity in the comforting promise of Jesus Christ’s second coming.  

The Holy Spirit comforts us in his work of faith building.  He does this, with ongoing forgiveness, to make us God’s holy people, with the work of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and his word and sacraments.

The Holy Spirit now wages war with the human self within each of us.  He seeks to hinder and stop the old human nature from resurrecting itself and re-creating its idols of comfort and recreation.  He’s sent to comfort and console, and to level us with God’s Word, so we’re easily led to Jesus Christ.   The Holy Spirit works within, so we believe and receive the comforts of Jesus’ Word. 

The Holy Spirit seeks to comfort you with the implanted word that Jesus is the resurrection, but he’s also the re-creation and recreation of life, right now!  That believing in him, although you die, you shall seek, and one day live in, the kingdom of God.  Amen.