The Upper Room: gateway to a new dimension of life

An overview of ‘The Upper Room discourse’ (John 13:31-17:26)

These chapters are Jesus’s last testament, His last opportunity to teach His team and prepare them for the massive storm that is about to hit. As always, His concern is not for Himself: “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”

The disciples are in consternation. Though He had told them at least three times over the previous months, that he would be betrayed to the Chief Priests and handed over to the Romans to be crucified (Mt 16:21f;17:12;20:17f), and they had anticipated that returning to Jerusalem might mean His death, His revelation that He is about to be betrayed comes as a bombshell. A meal celebrating God’’s covenant to redeem Israel and their fellowship as a team, and prefaced by the deep intimacy of Jesus washing their feet, is completely upended by Jesus's announcement that the traitor is actually one of them!

Once Judas has left, Jesus is free to reveal to them all the wonderful benefits of the Cross, which now lies only hours ahead. It will bring about :

• His glorification and ascension to the right hand of the Father

• Their relationship with Him morphing into intimate relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit

• His resurrection life flowing through them, bearing wonderful fruit

• Love for each other creating communal strength to withstand the world’s hostility

• His mission - to bring men back to the Father - now continuing through them

This teaching is a portal into spiritual space-time, so to speak. What He is teaching is so far beyond anything He has previously said, that He has to introduce the new themes little-by-little, reiterating and gradually expanding on them through the whole discourse. There is a kind of corkscrew flow to it, coming back to the same themes repeatedly but each time developing or underlining them further.

His method is also partly determined by the preliminary need to reassure and calm them. (Fear is the opposite of faith, and His words will bear no fruit unless they receive them with faith.) They are afraid of losing Him because He is ‘going to the Father’. Despite all His teaching about His identity, culminating in Him saying “I and the Father are One”, the disciples hadn’t yet really grasped that ‘He who has seen Me has seen the Father’.

But there is also a broader unifying theme that seems to me to underlie the whole discourse. The corkscrew doesn't just go round and round - it moves deeper into the cork each time! He is preparing the disciples for their transition into resurrection life: knowing God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

He first addresses the disciples fears of losing Him when He returns to His Father (chaps 13 &14) . He explains that actually they will move from physical discipleship to spiritual communion with all three members of the Trinity - Father and Spirit as well as Himself. Far from them having to find their way to the Father, the Father will come to them! This will come about through His resurrection life in them. And it will be the basis of a peace deeper than anything the world can give.

Then He teaches them how to maintain the fruit-bearing flow of His life into their lives (chap 15). Love for His word; prayer; and keeping His commandments, especially in loving one another as He had loved them. Their union with Him will mean experiencing the same hatred and persecution He suffered, but the Holy Spirit - their new Encourager - will glorify Jesus through them, convicting people that their disbelief was sin, declaring His utter innocence, and pronouncing judgement on Satan. In addition He will guide the disciples into all truth, teaching them more about Jesus.

Though He has helped them see that the Cross is essential, and their fear has been assuaged by knowing that God's will is still in control behind the scenes, they are deeply sad. But He tells them that though they will weep and lament, their sadness will suddenly be replaced by utter joy at His resurrection. Just as a woman forgets her awful labour pains as soon as she has her baby in her arms, their trauma will be wiped away for ever by the joy of seeing Him again. Their relationship with Father God will blossom as they experience Him answering their prayers, and Jesus will also reveal more about Him to them. They can take heart meantime, that He (Jesus) has already overcome the world.

Finally He takes them into the inner sanctuary of His own prayer life, as He prays first for Himself, then for them, then for all future generations of believers - including you and I. He prays that we may behold His glory and the eternal love between Father and Son, becoming one in Christ and manifesting His name to the world.

The challenge of these chapters

When Jesus talks about us ‘knowing’ Him (14:7,9) knowing the Holy Spirit (14:17), or knowing the Father (17:3), he is obviously talking about something more than mere knowledge of Him or of Them. Thomas and Philip had spent three years following Jesus, listening to His teaching, observing His life - and yet, Jesus says, they have not ‘known’ Him - and thus have not known the Father. Knowing Him (in Jesus’s mind) is something deeper than having heard Him preach the Sermon on the Mount, or having observed His miracles.

[N.B. In everyday English, we make a distinction being knowing about someone, and knowing the person themselves. The Greek idea of knowledge was an awareness of facts about a static reality; but Hebrew thought focussed on life as a dynamic process, and therefore knowledge meant entering into ongoing relationship with something or someone. This required not only understanding, but choice (will). Thus Adam having intercourse with Eve is described as ‘knowing’ her (Gen 4.1). And God’s knowledge of us, is linked with His choice - His election - of us, to salvation.]

Some will think the kind of ‘knowing God’ of which Jesus speaks, is unattainable mysticism. Or that its unwise to open oneself up to ‘experiences’, as evidenced by the Toronto blessing controversies. But He’s definitely talking about something real and genuine, which He sees as a present-day fruit of eternal life (17:3). Paul talks about it frequently (Phil 3:10). And John later claims to be living in this joyful ‘fellowship with the Father and with His Son’ (1Jn 13,4), and wanting to link others into it too.

Others may see the essence of knowing God as being obedient to Him. Certainly that is part of it. But the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart and soul as well as our minds and strength. That has to include feelings. The woman who anointed Jesus’s feet wept with gratitude that she had been forgiven so much, and her tears were part of her worship. And though the Ephesian church had excelled in labouring patiently, in holiness and doctrinal discernment, Jesus said ‘I have this against you, that you have left your first love’.

These chapters represent the same challenge (if not more) to us as to the Twelve. Which of us would claim to have fully plumbed the depths of what Jesus is describing here? They are deeply experiential, yet they speak of a reality we have not yet fully realised. The reality of resurrection life within us enabling us to fellowship with the Father and His Son. The reality of the Spirit teaching us, leading us into all truth but actually indwelling us, not just an external teacher. The love and joy and peace of Christ flooding our hearts and changing us into His likeness.

Let us approach these chapters with a faith that says,

“Lord, take me deeper. Let me recognise the wind of the Spirit more sensitively. Introduce me to Your Father personally. Let my dried-up heart flood with fresh love for You. Sustain me and prune my life to bear more fruit. Let the sap of your vine bring all the beautiful character traits of the Spirit into fruition in me. Lead me into that abiding fellowship with You and Your Father, that You desire. Show me how to live out Your love for my brothers and sisters. Teach me to pray in the power of Your authority. Re-ignite within me Your love for the world, a passion to bring men back to the Father.”