John 14:1-14 (NRSVue)
[Jesus said to the disciples:] 1 “Do
not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In
my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I
have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 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. 4 And you know the
way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him,
“Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus
said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my
Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will
be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all
this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen
the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you
not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I
say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his
works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is
in me, but if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves. 12 Very
truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do
and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the
Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the
Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me
for anything, I will do it.”
Sermon
Have you ever been given a piece of information
about something in the Bible that just blows your mind; that changes how you
have always read a certain text; that allow God to speak right to your very
soul in a new way?
That happened to me when I was doing a word study on the phrase, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places” (NRSVue, John 14:2). You might have learned it as, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” This way of translating the Greek text combined with Jesus promise that “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2) sends me into imagining a grand house with many rooms, but one room in particular that has been chosen and decorated just for me. It has a brand-new Taylor acoustic guitar over in the corner ready for me to play, a massage table in another corner just waiting for me to find rest, a comfy couch to snuggle the children and cuddle with my wife, and a table with plates and plates of Resees’ Peanut Butter Cups and Nutty Buddy Bars. You know, a room full of life’s necessities. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places” and “I go to prepare a place for you.”
“In my Father’s house are many mansions,” never did much for me as a kid because all I imagined were lots of rooms filled with doll house mansions. How else do you fit mansions into a house? And what boy dreams of an eternal life playing with dolls?
But when I sat down to translate this Greek phrase from scratch, my understanding of what Jesus was saying here and promising to us was completely transformed, and it was like Jesus taught me something new and profound. So, are you ready to hear my translation? I kind of feel like you are going to be disappointed because it translates into something that barely resembles a sentence. But I promise it is great and I will unpack it. So here it is: “In my father’s household there are many abidings.”
There are two things to notice here. First is that I translated the word for “house” as “household.” House is a place, but the Greek word means so much more than a place. Not only is it your home, but it is also all of the people and relationships that make it a home. Going to my grandma’s home also meant playing poker upstairs with my cousins, eating hot dish (which you know as goulash, but it is a family favorite), climbing my Uncle Marlin’s back, and having deep theological conversations with my aunt. A household includes all of the people and relationships. That is what Jesus is really trying to get at here.
The second thing to notice is that the word “places” is not in the original text. We read, “In my Father’s household there are many dwelling ‘places,’’ but the word “places” is not actually there. It is just the word for “abiding.” “In my father’s household there are many abidings.”
And to help you understand that, I am going to tell you about tilling gardens.
When I was in elementary school, my father had a mowing and tilling business. In the spring, we would put the riding mower with a tiller on the back, drive it up onto the trailer, and drive to people’s gardens to prepare them for spring planting. Now, you have to understand that the tiller, though heavy was not quite heavy enough to really turn up the soil. You needed extra weight on top of the tiller to really get it good and deep in the soil. So, my dad would invite me to come along and stand on the tiller, to get it deep enough to till up the soil.
Now, you might be thinking, would not making your child straddle the hydraulic shaft, the one with the picture of the guy being wrapped around the hydraulic shaft and becoming decapitated, be sort of a bad idea. I would stare at that picture each time we headed into a new garden. But it did not seem to bother my dad, so it did not bother me.
“Where is this going Jira?” you might be asking. We are almost there.
You see, my dad could have used some sort of sandbag for the same purpose, but if he had done that, then there would not have been a child giggling behind him as we hit the bumps. There would not have been the conversations in his ear about the Minnesota Twins and their chances at winning this year. There would not have been the donuts shared together. As we drove to the next garden. There would not have been the love. There would not have been the opportunity to just abide together.
In Jesus’ household there are many abidings. In Jesus’ household there is always space for one more person to have that sort of close relationship of love and shared work together with Jesus. Jesus has made space for you in his household. There is always space, there is always room for another person, there is always a role for you that allows you to fit in. And Jesus has made an abiding for your neighbor as well. There is a place for them to live with all of us as well.
In Jesus’ household there are many abidings.
That reminds me of something that a good friend in High School said often. Whenever he felt pressured to care about the destination of his eternal soul, whenever he felt pressured to be “saved” and make sure that he “got to heaven” he would declare again and again: “I don’t care about heaven; I care about people.”
And it was true. He did care about people. His career became one about deeply caring for the metal health of others. He truly did not care about the place he was going. When choosing a college, he did not care about how prestigious the school was that he chose. He only cared about who would be there with him. “I don’t care about heaven; I care about people.”
In contrast to that, I think about the funeral of an acquaintance where the pastor read today’s reading from the gospel of John, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places,” and he preached about how Jesus had gone to prepare a room in God’s huge house for this man who liked to hunt and fish. Rather than Resees’ and guitars though, Jesus was welcoming this guy with fishing rods hung on the walls, a card table with new decks of cards stacked on top, a mini-bar in the corner (he would have loved that), and, of course, the beloved, comfy recliner with the shape of his back end already imprinted on the seat.
The pastor assured us that Jesus had prepared a place for him because Jesus truly knew him. Jesus had not forgotten him.
It was a comforting image. Really it was. It was a good sermon. It was the type of sermon that I have preached many times. But the talk of a “place” once again aroused the memory of my friend’s words: “I don’t care about heaven, I care about people.” And it made me think about my translation that reads, “In my father’s household there are many abidings.” Jesus is not only talking about an otherworldly destination. Jesus is talking about all of us living our lives with him. Jesus is talking about all of us walking with him. And this life begins now, not after we have taken our final breaths.
Hearing Jesus’ words in another way sounds like: “In my Father’s family there is space for you to live and grow. If that wasn’t the case, would I have mentioned to you that I go to prepare a spot for all of you? And if I leave to make a spot for all of you, I will come right back and will pull all of you along with me, so that where I am going, you can be right there with me also. And you know how to get to where I am going.”
It is like Jesus is saying, “I care about people.” In fact, it is not “like” he is saying that; he is saying that! Jesus is saying, “I care about you.” Jesus is saying, “I don’t care what others think about you. I don’t care if others choose to bring you into their family or not. There is a spot in my family for you and a role for you to play in that family. I am leaving to make a spot for you. I am going to the cross to forgive you, and I am going to the Father so that you can tag along too. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I care about people.”
People ask me all the time “What heaven is like?” “Can I jump as high as I want?” “Can I enjoy the pleasures that I never had a chance to experience here on earth?” “Can eat all the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups I want and not get fat?” I have no idea who would ask such a worthless question. What is heaven like? What does the Bible say?
Beyond hinting that the life to come it is like the Garden of Eden where we walked and talked with God, or hinting that it is a holy city that comes down to earth with streams of water spilling from it that restore the earth and a garden with a tree that heals all people and all nations, the Bible does not really talk all that much about a place.
Rather, it talks about who is there.
God is right there. Revelation 21:3 reads, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them…’”
The most important thing about our Father’s home is not the place itself but is the relationship. Jesus cares about you being brought to the heart of God, in a deep, holy and loving relationship.
What is Jesus preparing for us? He is preparing us to have God as our home, our life, and our existence. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” Jesus says (John 14:6). “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:11). Jesus’ life is about drawing us closer so that we can exist with God. God desires more than anything to be at home with us no matter where we are or when we are.
In God you will always have a home. Jesus has made a space for you. Your sinful past cannot keep you out. Jesus has made a space for you. Your rejection by others is not shared by God. Jesus has made a space for you. You have a home in God because Jesus made a space for you to be a part of God’s family. In God you will always have a home.
“This is heaven!” the young man said. He had a huge smile on his face while he sat at the table in his new church, a plate piled full of food sitting in front of him.
“This pile of food is heaven?” the pastor asked to the chuckles of the people gathered with them at the table.
“The young man giggled for a full fifteen seconds and then said, “No!” Then he typed something onto an electronic tablet.
You see, the young man had a disability that did not allow him to speak clearly. The disability made life very lonely for the young man. People could not understand what he said and so they shied away from talking to him. He was a lonely individual.
But one day a woman decided to sit down with this lonely man at a community meal at the local firehall and talk. When she could not understand him, rather than cutting the conversation short like most people, she got out her electronic tablet and told him to type what he wanted to say. That is how they got to know each other for the next hour, him typing his life into the tablet so that she could learn about him and understand. At the end of the meal, she said to the young man, “This was a wonderful conversation, why don’t you keep the tablet until Sunday, so that we can talk again at my church.”
Let us forward again in time to see him with a pile of food in front of him. The young man giggled when the pastor asked, “This pile of food is heaven?”
The young man said, “No!” and then typed something into the tablet. He handed the tablet to the kind woman who read to the others at the table, “Being with all of you is heaven.”
That is the way of God’s family. It is a household of those gathered by Jesus, forgiven, saved, and restored to live this life with one another. It is heaven, right here on earth, where all are gathered by Jesus to live in God’s ways of love.
“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes [who trusts] in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father,” Jesus said (John 14:12).
And the followers of Jesus Christ do. The followers of Jesus Christ continue to gather more people into the forgiveness, love, and life of Jesus Christ than Jesus himself could have ever done while walking this earth. The followers of Jesus Christ desire to be what God made them to be, a household where Jesus has made space for everyone to live.
“In my Father’s household, there are many abidings.”
“In my Father’s family there is space for all of us to live and grow.
