John 14:1-4
“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? (John 14:1-2)
There are times in life when we make preparations for someone coming to our home. Sometimes it’s a matter of preparing a room for a guest. More extensive than that, it’s preparing a room for a new child. Some friends of mine have prepared places in their homes for elderly parents to live. In all such cases, preparations need to be made.
At some time prior to the events of John 14, Jesus has apparently told his disciples that he is going to heaven to prepare a place for them. The language in our text is a little vague, so it is difficult to determine precisely what Jesus means at a few points. What does he mean by “prepare a place”? Or what does he mean by “many rooms”? When did he speak of this previously? Don’t you wish we had that previous conversation recorded? And what does he mean by “You know the way to the place where I am going”?
We need not dig theological implications out of all these phrases. What we can understand is this: These words are not so much intended to teach the disciples as to comfort them. Jesus is preparing to leave them. Very soon they will see him taken to the cross, and within about six weeks he will be gone from their presence, at least in visible form. That is why he begins these statements with “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” His concern is to prepare the disciples for the traumatic events that are coming.
When your heart is troubled by the things going on around you, can you put yourself in the disciples’ place? Can you think of yourself as the one he is preparing a place for? Can you think of the day when the Lord will receive you into his home and show you the place he has prepared for you?
One day you will hear a trumpet call. Here is how the apostle Paul describes it in 1 Thes. 4: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” With that kind of hope, how can we despair no matter what we face? Do not let your heart be troubled.
Prayer: Lord, give us this kind of hope, this kind of assurance you are coming back to receive us to yourself, to take us to be with you; “and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
