Do not let your hearts be troubled

  John 14. 1-14        NIV

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 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. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going."

Jesus the Way to the Father

5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." 8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." 9 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'? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 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 miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.


"Do not let your hearts be troubled....."   This text is frequently used at funerals, and we can understand why.  What other occasion causes such turmoil within us as the moment when we say final goodbyes to a beloved? 

Let's look at that word:  troubled.  Do not let your hearts be......Stirred up?  Crushed?  Anxious? 
In the gospel story, this passage comes before Jesus has entered Jerusalem.  He has just washed the disciples' feet (13.1) and then told his disciples that he will be betrayed (13.21) and that Peter will deny knowing him (13.36).   Opening with 'Do not let your hearts be troubled...." now makes perfect sense.

Because they were troubled.  Who wouldn't be?  Knowing what will happen in the future is rarely a reassuring experience because all our lives have great highs and great lows.  To know the future ahead of time is to take on the burden of those great sorrows before their time.  This is what is happening to the disciples; their grief is already opening up for them.  But a troubled heart can be a weak heart, a lost heart, a heart open to the whispers of other leaders.

So Jesus also gives them a picture of what grace lies in wait for them:  "In my Father's house there are many dwelling places."  Jesus reassures the disciples that there is plenty of room in his Father's tent to receive each and every one of them.  Think about the comfort that comes when a parent reassures a departing college student:  don't worry, there will always be a place here for you.  (That comfort disappears when the student realizes that 'their' room has now become the library or such!)

Jesus goes beyond this:  "If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you,  I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also."  He is saying, 'It's you and me.   BFF."

None of this eliminates the truth of danger and sorrow and suffering that will come - for Jesus and for the disciples.  Jesus' promise of a heavenly home does not erase the reality of living in this world in this time.  It gives us, however, a bigger picture and the larger meaning of love that carries beyond the grave.

"And you know the way."  I often think Jesus expected too much of the disciples; they didn't know the way.  They often had no idea what Jesus was talking about - and Thomas, in his boldness, says just that,  "Lord we don't know where you are going, how can we know the way?"  I have a warm place in my heart for Thomas - every teacher needs a Thomas to keep us all honest and on the right track. 

Thomas is clearly eager to know, but confused and willing to say so.  Too often in today's church, folks are simply unwilling to admit that they are in the dark.  Most pastors will tell you that folks will say they want to study the Bible but no one will come to a Bible class because they don't know enough to begin with!  It's the ultimate Catch 22. 

Not Thomas.  He's right up front (and on other occasions within John as well).  We don't know the way.  Jesus says, "I am the way."

Jesus is our divine GPS.  Follow Jesus and know God.  Now and forever.  It won't eliminate suffering or the moment of death, but it does open to us a vista of God's glory.  Follow Jesus.  So simple, yet so difficult. 

But at least we got some directions.  In combination with the Peter text on holy living, we now have a glimpse of the life of faith.