Focusing
There is no arrival point in Christianity, only a following. We seek, we follow Him. We find Him, we still follow. We follow, and seek with all our heart so that we may find Him and be found more deeply. (John Skinner, Northumbrian Community)
Scripture Reading: John 14:1-14
In the reading today, the disciples are distraught. They have gathered with Jesus in a borrowed upper room in a house in Jerusalem, and the end of things is in the air.
Jesus has shocked them by bending down like a servant to wash their feet. He tells them this is his last supper with them. He says he will be betrayed by one of them, and then arrested. And then another will deny any connection with him, and all of them will desert him. It seems like the end of everything they have come to know and to be for the three years they have been with Jesus. It seems like the end of every hope he helped them to have.
It’s into this deep and fearful darkness that is gathering inside them, Jesus speaks words of comfort and encouragement.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
“Let not your hearts be troubled.”
Really? Have you ever tried to say this to someone whose heart is really troubled? Has anyone ever met your heartbreak with “Buck up! It’s not so bad! It’ll be alright. You’ll get over it”? Or, if they’re religious, maybe, “God never gives us more than we can manage.” As though that’s the end of it.
Sometimes we really are heart-broken, heart-sick, dis-heartened, or have the heart ripped out of us. And we deserve – we need, to have the trouble recognized for what it is, affirmed and accepted by the person next to us, and held in gentle love and care. Not denied, feared, argued away, or suppressed.
How can you be a parent, a partner, or a child without being heart-broken and heart-sick at times? How can any of us be a friend without at times having your heart troubled for them, or maybe by them? A citizen without being distraught at the way the country is going, or has gone. A real human being who is awake and aware of the crises – the many crises, we are living with, without feeling troubled, heart-sick and dis-heartened?
So why does Jesus say, “Let not your hearts be troubled”? Especially when he’s the reason his friends and followers are troubled. At least, the things he’s doing, and that are happening to him, and that he’s telling them.
They’re gathered with him in a borrowed upper room in a friend’s house in Jerusalem, and it seems the end of things is in the air. First of all, he – the one they see as the Messiah, the strong hero of the story of God, has shocked them by bending down like a weak and lowly servant to wash their feet. What a disconnect!
Then he tells them this is his last supper with them. This one who they count on to lead them. He says he will be betrayed by one of them, and arrested by the authorities. Says Peter will deny knowing him. That all of them will desert him in one way or another.
They remember how he’s been saying he is going up to Jerusalem to die. But like this? And with them having a hand in it? They feel the end of every hope and every certainty he helped them have about God, about the world, and about themselves.
Not that Jesus solved every problem. Not that when they were with him, there was no pain, no sorrow, no conflict, no distress.
But as long as he was with them, they knew God was with them in ways they’d not known before. As long as he was with them, they knew God was there lifting up the poor and the weak, God was there gathering in and making room for the outcast and unwanted, God was there embracing and loving the broken and the lost, God was there making a place at the table for everyone – especially those who’d been made to think there was no place for them.
It was a wonderful journey they’d been on with Jesus. It was the journey of a lifetime – with his way of seeing and loving God in all things and all people, and loving their neighbour, whoever the neighbour proved to be at any stage of the game. Without him, where will they go? What will they do? What will become of them? What was the point of it all?
To which Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God – not just in your head with ideas, but in your heart and the way you live. Believe also in me in your heart and the way you live. There are many rooms – many mansions, many dwelling places, in my Father’s house. And I’m going to prepare a place for you. If it weren’t, would I be telling that I am, and that I’ll come back and take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.”
A few things about this this – about what he says here.
One thing is, he’s not saying, “Don’t worry; this is just a temporary set-back; in three days, I’ll be back again, and we can pick up where we left off.” Jesus knows the promise and hope of resurrection from the dead, and he knows resurrection is not about going back to what used to be, and to what was. What was, really is ending and will not be again, no matter how good it was. Its passing is not just a problem to be solved, or a temporary glitch to be fixed; it’s a necessity to be accepted, and a mystery to be entered into. The loss of what was, is not something to get over; it’s something to go through.
Second thing, Jesus also is not saying – at least this isn’t the focus of what he’s saying here – “We’ll meet again in the by-and-by, after you die too, and all shall be well in the world beyond.” That may be true, and we believe it to be so. It’s why we read this passage at funerals and graveside ceremonies. Against the sting of death and bereavement it helps us remember there is a realm beyond the veil, that our place in God’s love is not limited to this life, and that there is life and hope – and even deeper love, beyond death.
But – and this is the third thing, Jesus is speaking here about the life his disciples will continue to live for some time in this world, on this side of death. He’s talking about the journey they are still on here and now.
The word Jesus uses for rooms – or mansions or dwelling places – is a word with a fullness of meaning not easy to translate into a singly English equivalent. It’s a word used also to refer to resting spots along the way on long journeys and trails through wilderness – oases, we might say – or inns, or other resting spots and dwelling places along the long journey through the desert. And it was the practice in caravans and companies of travellers, for one of them to go ahead of the rest, to scout out the next resting place and prepare it for them, so when the rest of the company caught up to the one who went ahead, it would be ready for them to stop at – whatever it was like, to unburden the animals, and to refresh themselves for the next stage of the journey.
In simplest terms, Jesus says, “I am going ahead, and I’ll be gone from your sight. I will not be with you in the way you have known. But as you let go of my body as you have known it, and some of the certainties you held that you thought were eternal, we will continue – me with you and in you, and you as my body in the world – you as a community, an incarnation of God for the sake of the world.”
“But how can we know the way?” Thomas asks. He wants a road-map.
“Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied,” says Philip. He wants a spiritual GPS, a five-point plan, maybe the 12 steps, the Ten Commandments, some clear doctrine and rules of morality – anything to give certainty.
To which Jesus says, “Really, Thomas? Really, Philip? You know the Way. You’ve seen it in me, and together for three years you have learned to make it your own. Not always. And never perfectly. But enough that as you continue in the Way I have shown you – the way of looking for and loving God in all things and all people, and therefore of loving your neighbour as yourself, no matter who your neighbour turns out to be in any situation you come into, you will know me and be with me, and I will be with you.
“And not that you will solve every problem. Not that you will bring an end to all pain, and sorrow, and conflict, and distress.
"But as long as you live in me, and let my Spirit and the spirit of the Father live in you, the world will know God is with them in ways they need. As long as you follow in the Way, the word will see the poor and the weak being lifted up. As long as you remember the living Truth that I am, the world will see the outcast and the unwanted being gathered in and cared for. As long as you live the Life that I lead you to live, the world will see the broken and lost being embraced and loved, will see a place being made at the table for everyone – especially those who’d been made to think there was no place for them.
“And it begins – always begins, with letting go of what was, when it no longer can be, and with letting yourself follow me – follow my way, my truth and my life, towards your always-new way of being my body in the world.”
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