How many times have we heard this piece of scripture read? Separated out and individu sentences emphasized. How many times have we heard it or read it at a funeral? Just one
or two lines. I, in fact, just did that yesterday at a funeral.
Today I would like to back up a little and consider what is actually going on as Jesus is
speaking these words of hope and encouragement. I would like to allow questions and
wonderment to arise in us so that perhaps the Holy Spirit may speak a new thing. We
call scripture the “Living Word of God” because we believe it has life and breath. May
God’s word breathe on us today. Let’s consider John Chapter 13 first. I confess to some
paraphrasing.
Scene: Passover meal, Jesus has just washed the disciples feet, there is a feeling of
closeness, camaraderie, and the happiness that goes along with a good meal and good
wine. There is a glow about this moment.
Suddenly Jesus gets this look on his face: “One of you is going to betray me to the Jewish
authorities and the Roman leaders. One of you is about to send me to my death.”
Stunned, everyone looks at each other. Who? Who will betray you? Not me. I would
never.
Jesus hands Judas a piece of bread and Judas walks out the door. Somehow no one gets it.
Friends, I will only be with you a little longer. We have walked together for 3 years but
now I must go some place you can not come. But I am leaving you with this
commandment, a new way to live. Love one another even as I have loved you. People
will see that love and will know who you are.
Missing the whole love thing, worried about losing Jesus, the one they were certain
would save them from the Romans, the disciples ask for specifics, a road map, a way to
get to the place Jesus is going, wherever it is. Maybe they were afraid they were going
to miss the whole victory march.
Where are you going that we can’t go? I will follow you to the ends of the earth.
Shaking his head, sadness settles over the room. A rising fear permeates all.
No, you too will deny me.
No! Never!
Yes you will.
Tonight you can not follow, but one day you, in fact,will go where I am going.
The wine is left sitting on the table, the meal suddenly forgotten, the disciples are staring
at Jesus, pleading with their eyes. Frightened by what they are hearing. They had
certainly believed the Romans would be toast because of Jesus. But now….now what?
Jesus pauses then and says to them, “Don’t let your hearts and your minds and souls lose
hope. Don’t be afraid. My father’s house, the kingdom of God, has lots of room. I am
going to prepare the way for you to dwell with us in that kingdom.
I am the way, my life is the way, I have lived in the truth, I have given you life. It is
through following my way you will get to the Father. There is no other way but through
love, the kind that lays down one's life for another.
Show us the Father they ask.
You have known me, you know the Father. The works of healing, forgiveness, love,
radical acceptance of all people, that is the Father. We will be together. We will be one.
You will know, be intimately one, with the Father too. And you will continue with the
work I have begun.
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In my Father’s house there are many places to live, many dwelling places. This is the
closer translation than mansions. As hard as it is for me to shake the idea of this being
about heaven, where did Jesus even mention heaven in this discourse? Could it be his
Father’s house is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim
The Kingdom that we pray would come here on earth? The kingdom that is here in your
midst, in you? I have to wonder, did we miss the point?
He says that he is the way, the truth, the life. Jesus has lived out the way and truth and
life in their midst. If we want to find the Father we must love as he has loved. The
neighbor, the leper, the prostitute, the tax collector,---Judas. ( illegal immigrants, the guy
with the different political views, transgenders, you fill in the blank).If God is love then
the way to be one with God is through love. Love that lays down one’s life for another.
(Not necessarily physically).
What is God like? Who is God? Watch Jesus. See what Jesus is like. See what Jesus does.
See who Jesus is. And you will know what and who God is.
Jesus is looking at his disciples, his closest friends, knowing what they will be going
through over the next few days. He feels their pain, their fear, their confusion. And he
says, It’s going to be okay. You will not see me and then I will return. And because I
have done this you will be able to know and be one with God even as I am. Don’t
worry. You won’t be forgotten. You won’t be left behind. You won’t be alone. My
father’s kingdom, his house, is so big it will hold all of you, even when you don’t agree,
or don’t understand. It will be okay.
Certainly, Jesus could be talking about what comes after we die. Fact is I don’t know.
But Jesus, throughout his teachings, talks more about the kingdom here and now then
he ever does about after death.
And what about everlasting life, eternal life? In his prayer for his disciples in chapter 17
Jesus says this:
“And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you
have sent.”
And I quote “in biblical language knowledge is not merely the conclusion of an
intellectual process, but the fruit of an experience, a personal contact.”
This is where the kingdom of God is found, this is eternal life. To know and be United
with God through Jesus. There is room enough for all. Thanks be to God!