“You Will See Me”
Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. –John 14:19
Jesus departure is now less than 12 hours away, at which point he will disappear from the eyes of the world. The world would only know Jesus in so much as he dwelt with it physically, but this would not be the case for the disciples. Like the world they would no longer behold his physical presence, but Jesus tells them that they “will” see him and commune with him. They will do so because they will be alive. They will not have the dead eyes of the world, which can only see what is in the world. The disciples will live because Jesus lives, and his life is imparted to them by the Holy Spirit.
The world does not believe what it does not see. Indeed, even when Jesus walked on earth most of those who saw him did not believe he was who he said he was. We do not see Jesus with our eyes any more than the world can, but he tells us in this passage that he will make himself known to us, and that we will believe as if we see. This occurs because we are connected to him by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit opens the Word to us, and makes us to see he who we have not known physically. In fact, what takes place through the Spirit is more powerful than anything that could happen in the physical realm. It is a small thing to believe what we see, but it is miraculous work to intimately and powerfully know one whom we have had no contact with in the flesh.
Such is the power of Jesus life. In him we are made alive in the soul. United to him we are quickened spiritually and made to see that which is not part of this world. Because he lives so do we, which means we partake of a life that is beyond this world, and outside of the experience of the unsaved. Through the Spirit we are enabled to see things he sees and know things he knows – things that are well beyond the borders of this world. Christians are often criticized for believing what cannot be seen, but this is amongst our greatest blessings; it is a sign of true and profound strength – strength more powerful than anything in the physical world – strength born of the resurrected life of Jesus.