John 14: 1-14
Offered by Mel Prestamo to the First Church of Hanover, NJ on October 31, 2021
In the Gospel passage from John that we read today, Jesus is discussing with his disciples where he is going and that they can’t go with him – but that they will be able to follow him there. That’s a bit confusing. You can’t come but you can follow.
Take a moment to put yourself in the sandals of Anfrew, Thomas, Peter and John. They were more than confused. At the prospect of being separated from Jesus, being left behind…they were terrified.
In this passage, Jesus is talking with his disciples at a time of great uncertainty. Jesus has just spent a great deal of time trying to explain to his core group what will be happening to him. He would be betrayed, handed over to the authorities, beaten and ultimately put to death. Their reaction had to be a stunned silence. A fear of abandonment must have struck deep within their hearts.
After all, they had invested three years of their lives in following the person that they believed to be the Messiah. Now whether they thought that he would be a military leader who would reconquer Jerusalem and take it back from the Romans or in some other way establish a great kingdom here or in the heavens didn’t matter. They had invested time, heart and soul into this man and his ministry. But now, instead of riding on to great victory, they are being told he will be leaving them; and not because he had found a more worthy group but because he was going to be put to death.
Imagine their shock, their utter feeling of despair. Their visions of how they thought this journey would end were being shattered. Instead of being part of a glorious kingdom, he would be leaving them. But hey, he was going to make a place for them in his Father’s house. How cryptic! Their fear and anxiety left them looking over a great abyss of uncertainty.
Have we experienced this type of uncertainty? Have we sat beside family and friends trying to find comfort at the prospect of losing a loved one to death? Where we face the abyss of uncertainty that death causes, of being left behind. It is hard to have a rejoicing heart, celebrating with God when a child or elderly loved one will be joining God in heaven. For those of us who are left behind in this world, it is hard to find comfort. Yes, there will be glorious resurrection. But first, there must be loss.
It is at times such as these that we need to know that the Christ has sent his Spirit to us. His Spirit will guide and comfort us. The Spirit will be our Advocate, and it will continue to shepherd us on in this life, through its dark valleys, through pain and loss. It is in our faith in the Christ that gives us the assurance that he has gone to the Father, that he prepares a place for us and is waiting to receive us.
So, Jesus says to his disciples and to us, “Do not be worried. Have faith in God and have faith in me.” At times of great uncertainty, there is only one thing that we can do; that is, to stubbornly hold onto our trust in God. There are times that all we have is our faith in what we cannot prove or see. We have to accept what we cannot understand. In the darkest hour, if we believe that somehow there is a purpose in life and that purpose is LOVE, then even the unbearable becomes bearable and even in the darkest hour there is a glimmer of light.
Here is where we find the disciples. They are being told they are about to face their darkest hour. And what’s more, they will be facing it without him. He is leaving them.
Their immediate response is to ask that he would take them with him. But no.
Jesus tells them, “Where I am going, you cannot follow.”
What Jesus means here is that his path to reconciliation with the Father will lead to the Cross and on that road, there can be no surrogates. He has to walk that road alone. He is the sinless One. He is the only one who can display what total obedience to the Father looks like – a display that love of the Father is greater than a love of life itself.
But … “do not be afraid. Believe in God (the God that has always been steadfast to its covenant promises to Israel) and believe on me.
At the time when we do not understand what is happening, believe in God and believe in Jesus. When the hour is darkest, believe in God. When life is unbearable and we want to scream out in our anguish and pain, believe in Jesus. Believe in the God who bends down to hear your prayers. Believe in the God who gave up the Son submitting himself to the Cross to free us from our sins and death’s grip. All because God loves the world, loves you, and loves all that is good within it.
In Psalm 141, the psalmist writes hundreds of years before Jesus, “O Lord, God, in thee I seek refuge.” If the Psalmist could believe that, how much easier is it for us because we have Jesus. Jesus is the proof that God is willing to give us everything that god has to give. Paul writes in romans, the “God that did not spare his Son … (God) gave him up for us all. If God did this, will not God give all things in Christ?” With that amazing love to bolster us up, it may not be easy, but at least it is possible to accept what we cannot understand and bear the storms of life.
So, the disciples are facing an abyss of uncertainty. Jesus is telling that the Son if Man must be raised up on the Cross and that he will be going to the Father and they are stunned with the idea that they will be left behind and alone. Jesus speaks these words of assurance. To them and us:
“There are many abiding places in my Father’s house. If it weren’t so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and I will welcome you to myself, that where I am, there you may be too.”
Now the words “abiding places” have differing theological meanings. The Jews believed in gradations of blessedness. The Greeks held that there were stages along the way and we could progress from one level of blessedness to the next. Early Church thinkers spoke of degrees of glory in heaven. There is something attractive about the notion that our souls do not stop growing in closeness to Jesus and in revelation in god but that after death we continue to grow, ever onward growing closer to God.
But I would like to look at the more simple explanation and that is in heaven there is room for all. Jesus is telling his disciples that we are all living in a world where people close doors on us. Sometimes, those closings can be arbitrary done with very little reason. But God’s love is everlasting to everlasting. Heaven is as wide as the heart of God and there is room for us all. They (we) need not be worried and concerned about the uncertainties; for He will come again and take us to himself as He has the Saints that have gone before. This is the ultimate triumph of Jesus. He will come again and take us to himself. He has prepared the way. He has blazoned the trail so that we may follow.
That is the way it would be for the disciples and so it is for the Saints that have gone before us. Jesus has blazoned the trail and prepared the way for them to follow. And they are not growing closer to the Christ and to God in every moment of their everlasting.
Now for those of us who have doubts, there is Thomas. Thomas was never one to fear having doubts or asking for explanations. Thomas says, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.” Then he asks, “How do we know the way?” We should thank God for Thomas. Thomas asks the questions that we hide in the backrooms of our consciousness. And his questions give Jesus the opportunity to respond to our doubts.
Jesus explains to them, “I am the way, (I am) the truth and (I am) the Life.”
What better answer could we have to asway our doubts? But for a Jew of Jesus’ time, it had great meaning.
Jews talked about the “way” in which we must walk and the” ways” of God. God said to Moses, “You shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord, your God, has commanded you.” Isaiah speaks to us, “Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it”. That wee small voice you hear is the Advocate that Jesus sent to us. It is the Spirit whispering to us, “This is the way, walk in it.”
You know when we are trying to get around in an unfamiliar town and get lost, we might stop and ask someone for directions. They might give us instructions that sound like, “Well you go down to the third street and make a left and then make a right at the next intersection. Make sure it’s an intersection and not just a right turn. There will be a large office building with no signage on it, then you know you are on your way.
That might be helpful. But it would be easier if someone would say to you, “I’m going that way, let me show you the way. That, I think, would be more comforting. So it is with Jesus. He does not simply give us directions, He takes us by the hand to show us the way.
About Truth, the Psalmist says, “Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may walk in Truth.”
Truth today has become subjective. We are bombarded by media, social and otherwise, telling us that we can determine the validity of facts for ourselves and decide what is true or not. It tells us that we can be our own diviners, that truth is relative, and that we can pick and choose what is true.
But the Palmist tells us otherwise. The Psalmist tells us that Truth comes in walking in the “Way” of the Lord. And Jesus tells us that He is the “Way”, so it follows that Jesus is Truth. You know that many a person can say to you, “I am speaking the truth to you.” I could say that I am teaching you the truth here today. But I can never say, no other person can ever say, “I am the Truth.” Jesus is not only the best teacher of Truth; Jesus is the realization if Truth. In following Jesus in His Way, we can learn Truth.
In Proverbs the writer says, “He who needs instructions is on the path of life.” The Psalmist tells us “Thou dost show me the path of life”. In the final analysis, what we are all seeking is life. You can say that we seek knowledge or love; but that is true only if those things make life worth living. But what it is that makes life worth living for a Christian? It is knowing that Jesus is the Way; the Jesus is the Truth and from these we receive life, a new life in Christ.
Jesus tells us that if you see these things in me, then you see the Father, “No one comes to the Father except through me.”
What does that mean? Does it mean that anyone that does not confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior is condemned to eternal damnation? No, I don’t think Jesus is explicitly saying that. What I believe He is saying is, if you want to know God, if you want to see the Father, then Jesus is your best and only way of doing that. Other prophets, mystics and teachers can lead exemplary lives but none of them can be the Way of God. They can tell you the Truth but no one of them is the Truth. They can raise your spirits but none of them can give you life. That is what Jesus is for us and for anyone seeking to know God.
Therefore, do not be afraid. Believe in God. Believe in Jesus. Know that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Amen.
