OUR NEED FOR PEACE
The daily news and world events should cause us a lot of concern and overwhelm us. Nations are more than at odds with each other and sometimes they even fight among themselves. We hear that economies are on the brink of disaster – like Greece among others. Any one of these issues could be a cause for anxiety. At times nothing feels safe or secure. We need someone in our lives who can calm our fears with a few words, a smile, or a hand on the shoulder. For many of us, as children, our mother was likely that person, and later there were times when our spouse was able to do that. Jesus offers more than comforting words. Jesus offers us something beyond the turbulent, insecure world we live in. Jesus offers Himself!! He is the way to the Father and an eternal home with Him.
Read John 14:1
John began his coverage of Jesus’ last week on earth in what we know as Chapter 12. By the time John arrived at the passage of this study, it was well into the evening of Jesus’ last night on earth. In the upper room only hours before His crucifixion, Jesus devoted Himself to the final instructions and assurances the disciples needed before He departed from them. This led to what we now call “Good Friday”. (There are a lot of versions for why this is called “Good”. The one I heard that is likely more accurate than others is one that came from a British concept a few centuries ago. Their ole English language translated “good” as “Holy”. So for them the day of Jesus’ crucifixion was “Holy Friday”.)
To better understand the passage just read, we need to focus on at least two literacy observations. First, we have jumped over to an entirely different part of John’s Gospel. This passage thrusts us suddenly into the second half of his gospel (Chapters 13-21). This part is concerned exclusively with the last week of Jesus’ life and a few events following His resurrection. John’s effort was to frame and interpret the significance and meaning of Jesus’ death. Second, in this part of the Gospel, John is telling us about the final Passover of Jesus’ life. Jesus’ words, in verse 1, show that the way to eternal life, though unseen, is secure- as secure as our trust in Jesus. He has already prepared the way to eternal life. The only issue that still may be unsettled is our willingness to believe.
Here Jesus is talking to His disciples and He knew they had concerns. He was sharing these words with His disciples just hours before His arrest. Jesus knew finding peace would be difficult for the disciples. The disciples of Jesus had reason for troubled hearts. Jesus had told them He was going away (13:33), that one of them would betray Him (13:21), and that one of them would deny Him three times before morning (13:38). To calm their troubled hearts Jesus told them to believe in God. And since they believed in God they would also believe in Him. By the same token, by believing in Him they believed in God (v.1). The identity of Jesus and the Father was so complete that belief in one demanded belief in the other. Belief could also be translated as trust, and trust is based on a relationship with God that is personal and intimate.
Read John 14:2-4
There are few verses in Scripture that describe eternal life, but these few verses are rich with promises. Here Jesus says, “I am going to prepare a place for you”, and “I will come and get you”. We can look forward to eternal life because Jesus has promised it to all who believe in Him. Although the details of eternity are unknown, we need not fear because Jesus is preparing for us and will spend eternity with us.
Still answering Peter’s question (13:36) about where He was going, Jesus promised that He was going to the Father’s house to prepare a place for them (v.2). The implication is that if He was going there and if He was preparing a place for them He was also expecting to show up there. The Father’s house had many rooms or abiding places. There would be room enough to spare for all to have and abiding place in the Father’s house. The reference to the Father’s house may have been suggested by the prominence of the Temple, which was often called the Father’s house (2:16), in their thoughts that week. Or it could have had a reference to the upper room where they were perhaps even then still gathered. As He had sent two of the disciples on ahead to prepare the upper room (Mark 14:12-16) for them, so Jesus would go ahead of the disciples to prepare an eternal dwelling place in the Father’s house for them.
This is a promise with two dimensions. On one hand, it is a future promise that the believer will live in the roominess of the Father’s house with perfect fellowship forever. On the other hand, it is a present promise that Jesus calms the troubled heart with the assurance that He has prepared both the place and the way, and will always be present with His believers to strengthen and guide them. Both in the hope of heaven and the help on earth the Savior can be trusted to have prepared the way.
The truth of Jesus’ preparation is pledged by His own trustworthiness. He would not have promised that He would prepare a place for His followers if that was not true. Jesus never gave a promise that He could not fulfill. In addition to that, having prepared a place for the believer He would return to take the believer with Him. The result will be a shared relationship for all eternity (v.3). He had already told them where He was going by previously mentioning that He would return to the Father who had sent Him. And He had already shown them the way by His teachings.
What kind of thought does Jesus’ statement “prepare a place for you” bring to mind? (It does not mean that Jesus is finishing heavenly houses for His followers. Neither has it anything to do with levels of rewards in heaven. Jesus death and resurrection was the “preparation”, the work to give us eternal access into God’s presence. Yes we will have a place that is prepared for our heavenly living– the Real Life. )
Read John 14:5-7
Thomas wanted it spelled out more specifically (v.5). He wanted to be able to know without a doubt both the destination of the Savior and the way to it. This is one of the most basic and important passages in Scripture. How can we know the way to God? Only through Jesus!!! Jesus is the way because He is both God and man. By uniting our lives with His, we are united with God. Trust Jesus to take us to the Father, and all the benefits of being God’s child will be ours. Jesus says He is the only way to God the Father. Some people may argue that this way is too narrow. In reality, it is wide enough for the whole world, if the world choses to accept it. Instead of worrying about how limited it sounds to have only one way, we should be saying, “Thank you, God, for providing a sure way to get to you”. As the way, Jesus is our path to the Father. As the truth, He is the reality of all God’s promises. As the life, He joins His divine life to ours, both now and eternally. Jesus is, in truth, the only living way to the Father.
It was not just that He showed the way to the Father by revealing it; He was the way to the Father by redeeming persons. He was also the truth. Divine reality rested in Him. He was totally reliable to express the truth of God and His salvation. And He was the life. He was both the source and the content of life. To know Jesus is to have life. The destination to the Father and ultimately to the Father’s house is personal. It is centered in the person of Jesus Christ. And it is relational. It is based on a personal relationship by faith to Jesus Christ. It is also exclusive. Only through Jesus Christ can one come to the Father. To know Jesus Christ in the personal relationship of faith is to have access to the Father and thus to the Father’s house.
To know Jesus is to know the Father (v.7). Jesus came to earth to reveal God and to redeem humankind. This may help to explain, in part at least, why we have not heard from God in the same way as people of the Old Testament did. We now have Jesus and His promises. We now have the Holy Spirit each and every day. In accepting Jesus Christ by faith any person both knows and sees the Father. The way to the Father is through the Son. He is our Peace.
