John 14:26 – "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
The simplest thing can provoke the most powerful of memories. The aroma of baking bread can remind you of family dinners around the table. A single red rose can remind you of your first love. The sound of a baby crying can raise images of those wonderful years when your own children were just little ones.
Not all memories are good, though. The empty chair at the table can remind you of that day your wife or husband died. The check-out lady at the corner store can remind you of a friend you once betrayed. The sound of a familiar song can remind you of an impetuous youth.
The Christian story is one of both good memories and bad, failures and triumphs, persecutions and unity, betrayal and loyalty, healings and deaths. The very heart of salvation rests in Jesus Christ who died on a Friday and rose again from the dead 3 days later. In the context of lives characterized by contradiction, the human heart finds it difficult to understand the Gospel. This is why we need the Holy Spirit.
Why do bad things happen to good people? If God really loves us, why does he allow suffering? If we can just ask for forgiveness when we sin, then why even try to eliminate sin in our lives?
There are so many questions like these that confront God’s faithful every day, whether they originate from our own hearts, or are challenges to our faith made by others.
Jesus knew this would be the case. He knew that there were some things that the disciples, and we, would have a hard time understanding. He knew that we would forget what he taught us, and so he promises the Holy Spirit.
In Luther’s Small Catechism we learn with clarity what the gift of the Holy Spirit means for us.
"I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true."
During troubling times, we can draw strength from Christ’s wonderful promise of the Holy Spirit.
