Knowing the way

14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

John 14:1–14

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

In John 14, Jesus is speaking to His disciples on the night of His betrayal. These words from Jesus are known as the ‘farewell discourse’ which is actually a very poor title. As we walk through it today, it will become evident that these words are focussed on arrival rather than farewell and it is not a discourse (i.e. a carefully crafted speech) but a proclamation of the gospel (i.e. a sermon). A better title would be “The Sermon of Arrival”.

From this section of John 14, three things are clear:

• Jesus prepares a place for us

• We know the way to the Father

• We do greater works than Christ

Jesus prepares a place for us

14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

John 14:1–3

Jesus is fully aware of what is going to happen to Him in the next 18 hours or so: His closest friends will abandon Him, He will endure excruciating pain and extreme embarrassment, and He will die one of the slowest and most painful deaths possible. But, in this sermon to His disciples, He looks beyond what will be only temporary to His long-term destination.

Jesus knows full well that His death will not be the end. Rather, it is a necessary part of the Christ’s journey to His rightful place at the right hand of the Father. That’s why Jesus goes ahead with it despite what He will have to suffer. He is obedient to the point of death on a cross not just because the Father says so, but to achieve the salvation of the world and defeat death forever.

But Jesus is not going to His Father just to be in His company—He is going to prepare a place for us.

When Jesus talks about the many rooms in His Father’s house, He is talking about “dwelling places”. These rooms are not just the spare room or the sofa bed in the lounge room, but permanent places of residence.

At your house, you might have enough space for a dedicated guest bedroom for when family or friends come to stay. When someone tells you they are coming to visit, there is some preparation to be done. Make the bed, clean the bathroom, vacuum the floor. If there are more than just one or two people coming to stay, you might have to resort to a sofa bed or shuffle around some other spaces in the house. It’s only temporary, after all.

When Jesus goes to prepare a place for us in heaven, He prepares a permanent dwelling place for us. It’s not a rotating guest bedroom. It is just for us. He is anticipating that we’re going to stay for quite some time. And He can’t wait to have you. Just as you are getting excited to see your family while you’re making the spare bed, He is very much looking forward to inviting you to be with Him and His and our heavenly Father.

Now, Jesus doesn’t actually mention ‘heaven’ here, but He does describe this place. He says, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” Although these things might happen, the main point of being in heaven is not to eat whatever we want and not gain weight, to be reunited with a pet that has died, or even to walk down streets of gold. Jesus wants us there “that you also may be where I am.”

Just as Jesus came into this world to be present with His people (Immanuel), He desires to return and take us to His place and our true home.

We heard in our first reading about the death of Stephen, the first martyr. The moment before his death, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and got a glimpse into heaven. What did he see? Not choirs of angels or majestic palaces. He saw the Father with Christ at His right hand. That is what heaven looks like—when everything is in it’s rightful place.

Martin Luther says that Stephen is not the only one who gets to see heaven opened in this way.

When you are baptised, partake of Holy Communion, receive the absolution, or listen to a sermon, heaven is open, and we hear the voice of the Heavenly Father; … Heaven is open, as St. Stephen saw it open (Acts 7:55); and we hear God when He addresses us in Baptism, in Holy Communion, in confession, and in His Word as it proceeds from the mouth of the men who proclaim His message to the people.

Martin Luther

We know the way to the Father

This brings us to our next point. Jesus said, “You know the way to the place I am going.” Almost immediately, Thomas responds, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

This is a logical thing to ask—Thomas resorts to logic rather than faith. It’s logical and reasonable to conclude that if we don’t know the destination, we can’t know the way to get there. But this is precisely how the Christian life works—we know the way, but the destination is not always clear.

The disciples didn’t know where Jesus was going, but we do: the cross, the grave, hell itself, back to life, and finally to the Father. The final destination, the presence of the Father, is the place Jesus says we are going. And He also tells us the way there.

So, how can we know the way, Thomas asks? Not, “I’ll show you the way,” or “I’ll take you there,” or even, “Follow your heart.”

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn. 14:6)

We know the way to the Father when we know Christ.

Let the humble pilgrim look at Christ.… Behold he who wants to go, has the way, for Christ is the way, and whither he wants to go, for Christ is the truth, and where he wants to abide, for Christ is the life.

John Hus

Jesus wants to go to the Father, so He is the way. Jesus wants us to come with Him, so He is the truth. Jesus wants us to live forever with Him, so He is the life.

We cannot come to the Father or even know Him apart from Christ. Remember, Jesus is the gate for the sheep—Jesus is not just the way to the Father, but the only way.

Even in the times of the Old Testament, before Jesus came into the world, God’s promises and His long-term view for His people hinged on the arrival and work of the promised Messiah. And we know that God always keeps His promises.

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.

John 14:8–11

Jesus says He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. The miracles that Jesus has performed and the authority He shows in His teaching is not His own, and He is the Son of God! Everything Jesus ever does, His works, are evidence of the Father living in and through Him.

We do greater works than Christ

12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

John 14:12

Looking at this in reverse helps us to understand what Jesus is saying. Because Jesus is going to the Father, taking His rightful place at His right hand as Stephen saw, we, as His followers and believers in Him, will do greater works than Christ.

What does Jesus mean? Will the disciples perform wondrous miracles, healing the sick and making the blind see? Yes. Just read the book of Acts. But that is not what Jesus means by ‘greater’.

Jesus’ works (the miracles, the teaching, the way He lived) were all about revealing the Father to us. Now that the Son’s work is complete with the victory over death won and return to the Father, any works we do are only because of what has been done for us.

Jesus’ works were prophetic, pointing forward to what He would do for the world on the cross and by rising again. The works we do are proclamation of what is complete.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 2:9,10

Having received mercy, having had our sin forgiven through the work on the cross, having been given new life through Christ’s resurrection, having had a place prepared for us in the Father’s house, we do His work.

We declare His praises. We pray for ourselves and the world. We have our sins forgiven and forgive each other. We live in God’s peace and be peacemakers in the world. All of this is God’s work. All of this is greater work than even Jesus’ miracles because they witness to something that is complete.

We are not to brag—this is all only because we’ve been shown mercy, after all—but we are to proclaim Christ and declare His praises as His chosen and holy people.

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.