I can only imagine that this question was going through his disciples’ minds when Jesus announced that he was leaving them (John 16:5–6). What advantage would it be to them for the Messiah to leave, when his mission was not yet complete, and to send them as his replacements? How could they be more effective than he had been? They could not have felt anywhere close to ready, and their collective behavior over the next couple of terrible days only seemed to confirm this.

Have you ever wondered how Jesus’s absence could be an advantage to us? I’m referring to something Jesus said to his disciples just before he died:

I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (John 16:7–11)

What “Helper” could possibly be better than Jesus’s perfect, powerful presence and witness with his people on the earth?

I can only imagine that this question was going through his disciples’ minds when Jesus announced that he was leaving them (John 16:5–6). What advantage would it be to them for the Messiah to leave, when his mission was not yet complete, and to send them as his replacements? How could they be more effective than he had been? They could not have felt anywhere close to ready, and their collective behavior over the next couple of terrible days only seemed to confirm this.

But Jesus knew his absence would be a huge advantage, not only for his closest disciples, but “for those who [would] believe in [him] through their word” (John 17:20). He intended to empower their (and our) experience of his presence and global witness beyond anything they had ever imagined.

Not Merely With but In

One advantage of Jesus’s physical absence, the one Jesus explicitly mentioned, is that the Helper would come to the disciples (John 16:7). The Helper is, of course, the Holy Spirit, who Paul calls “the Spirit of Jesus” (Philippians 1:19). This is where we strain our mind’s eyes as we try to peer into the mystery that is the Trinity.

Earlier that evening, Jesus had told his disciples that although he was going away to prepare a place for them (John 14:2–3), he would not leave them as orphans, but he was going to come to them again (John 14:18). But rather than just be with them—which is all they had yet known—Jesus was going to give each disciple (including all of us who would eventually follow) the deeper, more intimate experience of the Father and the Son making their home in them through the Spirit (John 14:17, 23).

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