Mirror Confessions

Right before the covid-19 outbreak, technology was moving in the direction where people could see and speak to each other through online programs like Skype. The pandemic, however, forced people to rely totally on such online programs for teaching classes and hearing the convicted person’s defense in law courts. In all these, a person – student, faculty, accused, lawyer, or judge – addresses a camera, not a person directly. Those cameras then convert those images to pixels, transport them, and the recipients can see the unscrambled pixels into images that they recognize as the sender of the message. Technology is mind-boggling and amazing!

This reminds me of what the Lord Jesus said in Luke 12:8–11. The disciples’ speeches before people would be reflected before God and vice versa.

“I say to you: Everyone who acknowledges before people that they know me, I will acknowledge them to the angels before God that I know them. Everyone who denies before people that they don’t know me, I will also deny them before the angels of God that I know them.”

“Everyone who gives a witness against me will be abandoned (afiimi), but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be abandoned (afiimi).”

“When they lead you to the synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not be anxious about what you will confess or say because the Holy Spirit will show you in that hour what to say.”

Should Jesus’s disciples say to the synagogues, rulers, and authorities that they knew Jesus, Jesus would applaud their boldness and confess them before the angels who stand before God that he knew them, and vice versa. The disciples had the choice to acknowledge whether they knew Jesus or not. Jesus had already asked them not to fear those who could kill their body. Now, he encouraged them to stand firm while they were tried as criminals for following Christ. (A bit later, we see Peter failed in this challenge.)

In this context, the Lord Jesus introduced a second advisor or lawyer called the Holy Spirit. Unlike Jesus, that lawyer would never leave the disciples. After Jesus’s death and resurrection, he would depart from the disciples and return to the Father, abandoning his disciples, even those who spoke against him (e.g., Peter). The same was not true of the Holy Spirit. He would stay with them, even if the disciples spoke against him. The verb afiimi has two meanings – “forgive” and “abandon.” While the standard translations chose the former, I chose the latter because of the following verse. The Holy Spirit would stand by the disciples when they were led before the synagogues, rulers, and authorities and tell them what to say. The disciples didn’t have to worry about what their defenses were. The Holy Spirit took care of it. As such, they didn’t have to be anxious.

Like the disciples, we might be in situations where we might be put on trial to confess or deny Jesus. Even if we are tempted to deny him, the Holy Spirit will enable us to speak what we must say and confess Jesus as Lord, even if it would kill us. That was the promise the Lord Jesus gave his disciples and gives to us now.