When I was 8, my grandmother moved into a 12 story apartment building. I still remember pulling up in the parking lot at the back of the building, going through the entrance, and pressing the button next to her apartment number, hearing her voice through the intercom, and riding up on the elevator to her floor. I also remember distinctly, how, after many times visiting her, I told my mom one time when we were ready to leave, that I wanted to ride the elevator by myself and I’d meet them at the entrance. My mom probably thought this was an important milestone in my young life, riding the elevator all by myself down to the entrance, so she said yes. Man, I was out of my grandmother’s apartment in a flash, pushing the elevator call button and jumping in when it came. I was riding it all by myself.
I put out my hand to press the floor where I was going, and it was then that I experienced my first twinge of doubt. Which floor? Obviously, the first floor. I pushed it and settled back with an excited smile. The doors opened on the first floor – and it didn’t look anything like the entrance I knew. Completely different. In fact, it looked as if I had jumped in the wrong elevator and was in a different building! I got back in and scanned the row of buttons with the floors labeled. Maybe it was not floor 1, but floor 2. I Tried that. No entrance there, just a floor of apartments. Better go back and start from the beginning, back to my grandmother’s floor – except that know I wasn’t sure what her floor was. Every time we had come before, my mom or older sister had pushed the button for the floor, or I had been told which floor and never bothered to remember. So, I guessed. The doors opened. Not the right floor. I thought she was on the 9th floor. Maybe it was the 10th. That didn’t look right either. I tried the entrance floor again and got the wrong entrance. Panic began to set in as I tried my 8 year old best to find my way in what seemed like a maze. Up and down I rode on that elevator, now crying, confused and afraid. My mom later said she could hear me as her elevator went down and mine went up beside it. More trips up and down, then the doors opened and there stood my mother! I was never so glad to see her. This I know, however; when it was the worst riding up and down that elevator, in the back of my mind, I knew my mom would come for me. I knew she would come.
When John writes in his Gospel about Jesus’ last night, when he eats the Last Supper with the disciples – which we will celebrate in a few minutes – he hardly mentions the meal. Instead, he gives us the words of Jesus, over three chapters worth. In the passage we are looking at today, Jesus says, “Do not be disturbed….” (14:1) That sounds like positive thinking, doesn’t it? No matter what comes our way, don’t be disturbed. Take it easy. Don’t worry. It will be okay – you ever notice that those who say it will be okay aren’t in the midst of a hard situation? Is this what Jesus is telling us, “don’t worry; be happy?”
Hardly. This is all part of a wider picture. Beginning in 13:31, Jesus tells his disciples that he is about to go away. He will be arrested. Jesus intentionally teaches them, not about his going away, but about how they should live when he leaves. His leaving should not worry them. They should not be disturbed.
Ever get thirsty, real thirsty, and you pick up a glass of water and notice there’s some dirt in the bottom. You figure if you are real careful and don’t disturb the glass too much, you can drink the water without disturbing the sediment in the bottom? Because, if you cause too much motion, the dirt gets all stirred up throughout the water. (demonstrate) “Don’t’ be stirred up,” says Jesus. Then, he says, either, “You believe in God, you believe also in me,” or, you can translate it, “You believe in God, believe also in me.” It seems to make better sense that Jesus is asking his followers to have the same trust in him and the words he is about to speak, as they do in God, the Father.
Then, Jesus says these familiar words, “In my Father’s house are many rooms….” (14:2) The King James version translates the phrase as “In my Father’s house are many mansions….” This comes from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, about 400 AD. The Latin word he used was “mansio;” “In my Father’s house, there are many mansions.” Then, in one of the first English translations, by Tyndale, the word translated “mansio” becomes “mansion” in English. What Jesus is saying is that in his Father’s house, that is heaven, there are many rooms. In heaven, there is room for all who will trust their lives to him. According to an online search, there have been over 100 billion people who have lived on the earth so far. If there is room for all, that means there are a lot of rooms up there!
Jesus is not speaking in literal terms. Heaven is not one room after another, like some gigantic hotel. Here is what I think Jesus means in speaking of heaven as rooms. In the Jewish culture, a young husband and wife would not go out on their own and buy a house for themselves. Instead, they would go to the groom’s family and on to that small house, which basically was one room, they would build their one-room house sharing a common wall. It was called an “insula.” Brothers would marry and build on to their parents’ insula as well, so that gradually, the one-room house, became a many room larger dwelling where all the family lived together. The closeness and bonds and love that united an ever-expanding family on earth is the illustration Jesus chose to describe what heaven will be like; full of welcome and closeness and love. And none will be closer than Jesus. Right after this he says, (read verse 3) Jesus will go first to prepare a place for them in heaven. His death and resurrection will prepare a place for us, too. And, then, he will come again and take us to be with him, literally, to take us into himself. It’s the language of family, reaching out, embracing another, pulling someone to one’s chest and hugging. That’s the closeness of heaven with Jesus. So, that, says Jesus, “Where I am, you will be, too.”
“Don’t be disturbed” by my going away, says Jesus. I will come back. Never forget it. Hang on to the fact that I am returning. I will not abandon you. Don’t mistake my leaving as forgetting you. I will return. That is encouraging to know that. When I was riding up and down on that elevator as an 8 year old, I had enough experience with my family to know they would not leave me. In the back of my mind, I knew my bad experience would end. It was just a matter of time. When we are pressed into a corner and squeezed, we can remember that Jesus has promised us it will end. He will return or we will pass through death and live forever with him. There is an end to our difficulties, and that gives us the capacity to endure and hope and hang on.
Of course, we don’t know when Jesus will return. We can wonder why he has not come back yet. The only hint at a reason is found in II Peter, chapter 4, where, it says, “God is not willing that any should perish.” That is one reason why he has not yet returned. But, there is something else going on here, as well.
You may recall that the Gospel of Matthew ends with these words, “Go and make disciples of all nations, teaching and baptizing them…. And lo, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18 – 20) Or, Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Even though Jesus has gone away, he has never left.
It is not mistake that it is here, in these chapters of John’s Gospel, we find the greatest number of references to the Holy Spirit. IN John 14:16, Jesus says (read 14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7, 8 and 16:13, 14. It is the function of the Holy Spirit to teach us, convict us, remind us, empower us, and more than anything, to be with us. Jesus says, “Another counselor to be with you.” If Jesus is speaking of another counselor, which is the Holy Spirit, who is the first counselor? That is Jesus. When Jesus ascends into heaven, he sends the Holy Spirit, the non-physical presence of himself to live inside every follower in every age. This counselor, John also refers to as the Paraclete. Paraclete means, “to call alongside of.” The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, is called to come right alongside us.
Just like a team doctor is called out onto the field when a football player is injured. He or she comes right up along side the injured player, drops on one knee and comes right along side.
It’s like a tutor who helps a student struggling with math. The tutor doesn’t sit across the table from the student and teach them about math. No, the tutor brings up a chair and sits down along side the student, so they can both see the page and the math problems and talk them through together and the tutor can see what the student is writing as he is writing. The tutor comes right along side.
It’s like a boat in trouble off of Cape May. Praise God for the Coast Guard Cutter who responds to the distress signals and comes up along side the boat to help out and to tow the boat if necessary. It is the Spirit’s glory to come along side us, to encourage us, to support us, to convict us of our sin so that we turn more fully to God, and, above all, to give to us the very presence of Jesus Christ. We are not alone, not now. We don’t have to wait for Jesus’ return to experience the presence of Jesus.
Jesus speaks of this intimate connection with us, and to emphasize it, he says, “That where I am you may be also; and you know the way where I am going.” (14:4)
One of Jesus’ disciples, Thomas, doesn’t understand what he means. Thomas, you may remember, doubts that Jesus has risen from the dead when the first reports come in. He says, “Unless I see with my eyes the print of the nails and feel the wound, I will not believe.” (John 20:21) Thomas needs things plainly seen. He’s a logical thinker. He colors between the lines. So, Jesus tells him plainly. “I am the way…. to the Father.” (14:7)
When Jesus says “I am the way,” some think that he is a guide. I sure could have used a guide the first time I tried to get from Route 73 to Route 38, going around a clover-leaf with multiple exits. I tried to follow that through and ended up exactly where I was before without even knowing how I did it! Having someone in the car or a GPS would have been handy. Some think Jesus is like that, a guide, and if we follow him, he will lead us to God. This is not what Jesus means. This confuses the means and the end. I use a guide as a means to get me to the end, where I want to go. When Jesus says, “I am the way,” he is not speaking about a place to go to. He is the way. He is the end. He is the goal of our living! Jesus, who, through his Holy Spirit, now lives with us and in, to give us himself! It is amazing!
I hope many times these weeks of Advent, you will intentionally pause at the wonder of Christmas. Think of this. A pet is a beloved animal. Our cat or dog is something we have affection for, appreciate; we even say we love it. But, it is not the most important thing in our lives. We go on vacation and we don’t think about bringing our pet along with us. Or, if we do bring the pet with us, our dog or cat is not the same thing as a brother or sister or parent or child. I hope you don’t think so! If it ever came time for you to decide between a human being, any human being, and a dog or cat, I hope you would choose the human, because we value humans much higher than a dog or cat. We humans are at a much higher level than any animal, in intelligence, morality, emotion, and sheer value. A dog is not at our level.
And, yet, God came down, to our level. How can you, how can I compare in value with God’s only Son, Jesus Christ? And yet, Christ came down to our level, to give himself to us, so that where He is, we are, too. This is the wonder of Christmas. Think on these things. Wonder at these things. Jesus is Come.