John's Venn Diagram

A Reflection on the Gospel for May 17th, 2020:
​Sixth Sunday of Easter

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John 14.15-21

Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

“The one who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
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Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

Venn diagrams. Many of us did them in high school math, and plenty were convinced we would never apply them in the real world. This was true for me until I sat down to write this reflection. (Well, not really. I used them in undergrad, but just go along with me here to be nice.)

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A Venn diagram shows the relationship among a collection of things. The most familiar looking Venn diagrams have a number of circles clustered together like billiard balls, with the overlapping areas indicating things that the circle groups share in common.


Other Venn diagrams display circles within circles. This is the type of Venn diagram Saint John relied upon to illustrate to his students the message he was conveying in this Sunday’s gospel reading, namely: “This is the Spirit of truth … You know him, because he abides with you … I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” Here is John’s Venn diagram:

Actually, John didn’t use a Venn diagram — but he could have, and his account of the Good News would have been all the more mathematical for it.


In this Gospel reading, Jesus recognizes that the disciples will feel like “orphans” after He is gone. Although at Easter they will rejoice to see Him raised from the dead, the resurrection appearances will not go on forever. And so He comforts His followers with the promise that, even when He Himself has departed, His Holy Spirit will be with them. Moreover, even though He will no longer spend His days in their company, He will be with them in a new way. He will enter the Venn diagram and bring them within Himself. This is a much more powerful relationship than that which they have previously experienced. 


It is essential that Jesus, as Saviour, should enter the Venn diagram. After His death and resurrection, He cannot be allowed to become someone who “used to be,” a memory. Generations of followers cannot have a relationship with a mere memory. They must experience Him. And so if we cannot live with Him, we must live within Him — and we will never be apart from Him again.

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As followers of Jesus today, we are no less privileged than the first believers and followers of Jesus. He offers us the same relationship: the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we dwell in Christ, and Christ dwells in God. In this way, we are invited into the Holy Trinity. There is no distance between the human and the divine. The Trinity lives in us, and we live in the Trinity.


And as we do, the Holy Spirit, alive within us (just as Jesus said), begins to grow within us, bearing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). This is the truth. 


My high school self was wrong, it seems. Venn diagrams really do have a purpose in the real world.




Donna Davis

Photo by Evie S. on Unsplash

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