He gets nothing

John 14:29-31

This short passage highlights a principle that Jesus observed all of the time and which we would do well to imitate; namely, that you share information on a need-to-know basis, and that your enemy needs to know nothing.

I will confess that when I first heard this principle taught, I thought it was well “over the top” and completely ridiculous – until I started to observe how many deals (for example) that I told others were happening, then proceeded to fall through; the ones I kept to myself, actually happened. And once you see it, you recognise that it was the constant practice of Jesus.. Paul refers to it when he says “None of the rulers of this age understood it [i.e. God’s plan], for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Exactly; because then, where would we have been?

Let’s look at this short passage in John:

καὶ νῦν εἴρηκα ὑμῖν πρὶν γενέσθαι, ἵνα ὅταν γένηται πιστεύσητε. οὐκέτι πολλὰ λαλήσω μεθ’ ὑμῶν, ἔρχεται γὰρ ὁ τοῦ κόσμου ἄρχων· καὶ ἐν ἐμοὶ οὐκ ἔχει οὐδέν, ἀλλ’ ἵνα γνῷ ὁ κόσμος ὅτι ἀγαπῶ τὸν πατέρα, καὶ καθὼς ἐνετείλατο μοι ὁ πατὴρ οὕτως ποιῶ. Ἐγείρεσθε, ἄγωμεν ἐντεῦθεν. (John 14:29-31, SBL Greek Testament)

Literal-as-comfortable rendering goes like this:

“And now I have said [this] to you before it happens, in order that when it happens you will trust. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world comes; and he understands nothing in me, but [this is happening] in order that the world may know that I love the Father and just as the Father has authorised me to act, that’s what I do. Get up, let’s go from here.” (John 14:29-31, my rendering)

So a few notes: first, most translations have something like “so when it happens you may believe.” This comes back to two points, one about translation, the other about context. πιστεύω (as in πιστεύσητε) is fundamentally “I trust, put my faith in, or rely upon a person, thing or statement”. When we render this as “believe”, we are in danger of jumping over a whole process and simply portraying “the Christian believer”, filled with faith and the Holy Spirit.

I don’t think Jesus can be saying this; and if He was, then He must have been disappointed. Not one of the disciples saw Him die on the cross and then leapt up and down saying, “Yes, now I believe! Hallelujah!” (This is the contextual part). Surely He was saying, “there is some unimaginable stuff coming down the line towards us, but I am telling you as much as I can now, so that – since I told you it was coming – you will keep trusting me, even though every logical faculty will be telling you it is all over.” And that happened; I see no evidence that any of the disciples got angry because they felt Jesus had been lying to them and had betrayed them – which would have been a perfectly reasonable response to what happened, otherwise. They still trusted Him, even when they thought He was gone for good.

Second, Jesus has explained as much as He can, but now He will say little more to them. Why? Because the ruler of the world is coming, who understands nothing in Jesus, and Jesus intends to keep it that way. So He won’t be talking in any more detail about what is going to happen.

Most translations have something like the NIV’s “he has no hold over me”, and it could be that (more properly “he has nothing in Me”). But the use of the verb ἔχω in its sense of “understand” is much overlooked in our NT translations (in my opinion). The original meaning of ἔχω is “check”, as in stop something in its tracks by grabbing it, from which “have”, “hold” and “understand” all derive. We have a couple of similar idioms in modern English – grasp (with the hand or with the mind); and get (get the cup, do you get it?). And as I suggested above, this then makes sense of why Jesus will no longer speak much with the disciples; Satan is coming and Jesus wishes to maintain his ongoing lack of comprehension about what is going on.

So let me ask you, as I have had to ask myself too often in the process of learning not to be a blabber mouth: why do we feel we need to tell everyone we meet what we are planning to do?

Insecurity. We don’t really know if we have got it right, but we are hoping someone (everyone) is going to say, “wow! that’s really amazing”. We will then feel better (momentarily); until the next person comes past and we try again to bolster our self-confidence.

Would you be surprised if I said this was not an issue for Jesus, and in the Kingdom, it shouldn’t be for us either. Jesus, having referenced the ruler of the world, says this is happening so that the world (currently ruled by Satan) will know a) that He loves the Father; and b) that exactly as the Father has authorised Him to act, just exactly that is what He does.

Assuming you are married, hear what God is saying by His Spirit, be in full agreement with your spouse, and that is as far as it needs to go, until God tells you otherwise (and even then, pay close attention to what He says: “tell Fred and Mary” means just that – not your or their ten best friends as well). Keep your powder dry, and your enemy ignorant. If you are single, ask God to show you who you have in your life, who should know and be in agreement with you – your parents, a couple who mentor you, or someone else. Love the Father, and whatever He has authorised you to enact, you do it. Just like He said.

And stop worrying about whether everyone else you meet will approve your plans: if Jesus had done that, none of us would be here.