Theme: Apocalypse now

Exegetical note
This passage begins three chapters of Jesus' "farewell discourses," which follow directly the foot-washing and "new commandment." Among several distinctively Johannine themes here is the notion of Jesus' "coming again" presented in verse 3. But its elaboration does not occur until vv. 15ff., where it becomes clear that what John has in mind is not an event of the distant future, but rather precisely the gift of the Holy Spirit, which, in effect, makes the apocalypse a 'now" event for both the evangelist and …