MUCH MORE TO SAY

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” —John 16:12, 13

Many readers have suggested that verse 12—Jesus’ statement that He had much more to tell the disciples—foreshadowed John’s visions that would comprise the book of Revelation. According to this interpretation, these are the difficult truths, more difficult than they could bear immediately before Jesus’ death and resurrection. What is recorded in Revelation was likely a partial fulfillment of this statement of Jesus, included in the description of the Spirit’s role to “tell you what is yet to come.” But Jesus’ promise also seems to be a broader description of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the disciples’ lives. It was not that Jesus did not want to share more or that He was reserving special information for a more select group.

Rather, this was an acknowledgment of the limited capacity that the disciples had—that all of us have—to grasp new ideas, particularly in relation to our understanding of the ways and purposes of God. The Spirit was to guide the disciples as they grew in their understanding of Jesus and their experiences in following Him. They were about to endure a dark and difficult experience as Jesus would be taken from them. They would witness His brutal death and experience their own fears and doubts before being astounded but also further troubled by the reports of Jesus’ resurrection. It would take time for them to fully appreciate what they were witnesses of, but Jesus promised them a guide and a comforter—and that they would come to accept and celebrate what they were now part of. “I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy” (John 16:20).