Joy M. Nelson-Jeffers April 20, 2008
First Presbyterian Church Wausau, Wisconsin
In Jesus' Name
John 14:1-14
When you have officiated at as many funerals as I have, you expect to see a casket or an urn and several sprays of flowers around when you read from John 14 -- at least when you read the first six verses which give great comfort to families when a loved one dies. But today it is the lectionary reading for this 5th Sunday in Easter that draws me to the first half of John 14. I welcome the opportunity to take a closer look at it in its larger context with you today.
The gospel writer still has us in the upper room with Jesus and his disciples. Jesus has washed their feet, shared a meal with them that they will never forget, and has had some confusing and disheartening conversation.
Jesus comforts his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” he says to them. But how could they not be troubled? Jesus has told them he’s about to die, that Judas is about to betray him, that Peter is about to deny him, and that he’s going to the Father and they can’t go with him – yet.
“How are we supposed to know where you are going and how to get there?” We can almost hear the panic in their words. Jesus continues to comfort and teach as he asks his disciples for their "trust". The word that has been translated for us as “believe” here in the Greek (pisteuo) is not a call to an intellectual assent that something is true, but a call to trust and faithfulness.
"You trust in God, now trust in me. -- You are faithful to God, stay faithful to me."
It’s about the relationship, not just belief. Jesus tells his followers that they are not going to lose him, he is just going to where God is and "You know the way to God." But the disciples did not find this helpful.
Implicitly, Jesus also tells them to trust in themselves and in their relationship with him. “You do know the way,” he asserts. “I am the way,” You know me. Trust yourself to know what you know. Trust what we have done here together. Keep doing it. Keep on loving each other as I have loved you. You know God, because you know me. You know the way, because you know me. Trust me. Trust God. You can do this.
Barbara Brown Taylor and others call the kind of communicating here love language, meant to reinforce the love relationship between Jesus and the disciples as he prepares them for what is to come and what he hopes they will continue. It is language of devotion and commitment. [1]
We know this kind of devotion expressed when we say to someone we love: “There is no one else in the world for me” or “You are the love of my life” or "I will be faithful to you as long as I live." They are words meant as a sign of deep connection.
Whatever we might think that John is trying to say theologically here for the church down through the centuries, in the immediate context when Thomas pipes up and asks how they can possibly know the way to where God was and where Jesus was going, Jesus answers, “I am the way.” Don’t be distracted, don’t be afraid—TRUST ME. Look at me and only me. Stay focused on what we have done together, on what you have seen me do. That is the true way God wants you to be in this world – this is the life giving way to be in this world.
This talk of devotion is intensified because it is shared in the face of death. Perhaps you know what it is like when someone you love is dying We want them to know how we feel and what our relationship has meant – and it is a powerfully emotional time.
So it is here. Jesus says to his disciples, you belong to me and I belong to you. Nothing will ever be able to separate us or keep us apart. My love will live on in you. As he had just washed their feet, he said they must love one another as he had loved them. That’s how you will be identified as my disciples – that is how people will know that you are my followers. Love is the distinguishing mark of those who follow me.
So it is in the company of the people who had come to love Jesus most and who would go through the serious trauma of his suffering and death with him, that Jesus makes his claim that he is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through him. It’s not language intended to exclude others, but rather language intended to embrace those closest to him and comfort them, to encourage them to continue doing what they had been doing with him.
Even the language of "Father" here in reference to God underscores the closeness of relationship. The word translated Father is "Abba", a word we might more readily translate "Daddy", supports the intimacy of relationship. Invite others to come to the Father in the way that we have done all along, through the way of love. Love is what the father is all about which you can see because to watch me is to know the Father.
Phillip says, "Could you help us with that? What is the Father like? Can you show us?"
"Phillip, I already have. You know me so you know what God is like. Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."
It's the little like the little girl who was drawing a picture in school one day. The teacher leans over her and asks, "What are you drawing?"
"God," she said.
The teacher chuckled and said, "No one knows what God looks like, dear."
To which the little girl replied confidently, "They will when I get finished with this drawing!"
We know what God is like because of Jesus. He tries to tell them that. To have seen me is to see the Father, he says. To know me is to know the Father. Trust me when I say that I am in the father and the father is in me. And if you cannot believe what I am saying, look what I have done –it is God who has done these things through me. And you know what? You will do even greater things than these when I go to the Father.
So why is it that it seems we can’t do what Jesus did? Even though I believe that miracles do happen today, I haven't been able to walk on water, or heal my friends with macular degeneration or any other disease, let alone raise someone from the dead like Jesus did. Is it because I don’t have enough faith? Some might say so, but Jesus doesn't put that qualifier there. He just says, "You will do greater things than these after I go to the Father."
Tony Campolo says. "We are so impressed with the power of God that we fail to see that the miracles are not about his power but about his love. What Jesus did he did not do to demonstrate his power but to express his love. How many times does he perform a miracle and say to the people who benefit: don’t tell anybody, keep it quiet; I don’t want people to get the wrong idea."[2]
Jesus made wine at the wedding of Cana not because he was thirsty or because he wanted to start his ministry with a bang, but to express his love for people who otherwise would have been publicly disgraced in this difficult situation. Jesus raised Lazarus back to life not as a demonstration of power, but because he wept for the grief he saw in Martha and Mary. He healed the man who had been blind from birth not for the attention, but because he was moved by compassion for him.
We may not be able to replicate the miraculous acts of power that God worked in Jesus, but we can replicate his love with amazing acts of caring and kindness. When Jesus was here in the flesh he was only one person loving and caring for one person at a time. But now he has given us his Spirit and his love. Imagine the love of God unleashed in this world if all who claim to follow the ways of Christ would stay focused on loving in his name.
When we love in Jesus' name, we do so in the same Spirit that Jesus did. We seek to love as he loved -- responding to those in need, reaching out to the broken hearted, visiting those in prison, helping those who cannot help themselves. When we pray in Jesus name, we pray in the same spirit as Jesus did, open to the will and way of God. Jesus says, "If in my name, you will ask me for anything, I will do it."
Let's take Jesus at his word. I challenge you to faithfully pray, along with me, for eyes to see people as Jesus did, and to have the kind of love for people that Jesus had – and let's be amazed at what God does through us!