We have a beautiful Gospel reading this morning. Countless funerals, including the funeral we just had on Friday for Frank Wiebe, have used the words of the first part of today’s Gospel to convey the hope which we all so desperately need, especially in times of despair or disappointment. And it is fitting that these words of Jesus, spoken originally to His disciples on the night when He was betrayed, are used now in an Easter context. For now, we, Jesus’ followers, need not worry about what has not yet come to pass. Rather, these words, which gave such comfort and hope to Jesus’ disciples then, give even more now. For now we see completely and fully what hope our God gives us.
Let us meditate again on the Gospel reading for today:
"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:1-12 ESV)
There are many things in life which can bring you troubles, disappointments and discouragement. There are many times when you simply do not know where to turn. Events or situations arise over which you have no control, such as finding out our hot water tank is broken, yesterday. And it is at those times that Jesus calls to you and says, “Believe in God; believe also in me.” What gets in the way of you believing in God, trusting your Lord in those times of trouble and times of difficulty? What gets in the way of your Easter joy spilling into your lives and your worship?
Perhaps it is your view of God. Maybe you have put together in our minds a picture of God which is not the same as the God who created the universe and all that is in it by His Word. Maybe you don’t want the God of the Scriptures and instead want a custom God, one more along your ideas. Maybe you have put together in your hearts an image of God which is somehow more like you than it is like God. Perhaps you take God’s words of creating us in His image to mean that we can recreate Him in ours. Instead of the true God, you end up with some sort of localized and essentially harmless deity. Or maybe you like Jesus as a moral teacher and as an example, but to trust Him, and Him alone, for everything just takes too much control out of your own hands.
Perhaps your problem is that you spend too much time hanging out with Philip and Thomas, wanting to see God, and miss what He has already shown you. Philip and Thomas had been with Jesus for three years, had seen His miracles and how Jesus did everything with reference to His Father, so that people would know the grace and mercy of God first hand. We haven’t seen many such miracles, if any, for ourselves, other than in God’s Word. We want to know what these apostles knew. We want to see Jesus perform miracles for ourselves. If only we could have these great experiences, then we wouldn’t ever be disappointed! Then we would never get discouraged!
And this is always what causes discouragement. We want the big and the fancy. We want the special signs and the marvellous miracles, especially in those times when our hearts are troubled, when we feel like the world is crashing down around us. We want to see God and have Him explain Himself to us, but, like Job, we don’t realize what the answer would be if we got it. Our lack of trust simply shows us for the sinners we are–that we constantly and repeatedly break the first and most important commandment, of not having any other gods but the true God. And, whether we want to admit it or not, this behaviour on our part is not good or productive; rather, it merely makes the road to eternal death that much smoother.
The news for us, sinners who look for God in the wrong places, who have our own twisted and self-pleasing views on who God is and how He should act, is that He simply calls us to trust Him. Not to refashion Him or to explain Him away but to believe in Him, to trust Him, to let God be God and just to be His people. He claims us as His own in Baptism, through the hearing of His Word, and asks us in return to trust Him to be who He is.
And yet, how hard it is to let God be God and for us to get out of the way! Even though, unlike Thomas or Philip, we have already seen how Jesus has prepared a place for us, by His death and resurrection, we still want it our way. We are a “now” society, with labour-saving devices and contraptions which mean we can do more in less time. And we want our God to be there at the snap of our fingers to do whatever we want, as though God were some genie in a bottle, to be summoned at our will. So our hearts are troubled, for we take our troubles and burdens onto ourselves, instead of putting them on the houlders of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
But Jesus calls to us, even in the midst of our stubbornness, in the midst of our desires to do things our own way, and says, “I love you! I died for you! Can you not trust Me to do what is best for you? Trust me,” He says, “and even if not at My Word, see My works of living and dying and rising from the dead for you. Trust Me! I did this all for you!” For Jesus has prepared a place of eternal dwelling for all who trust in Him. Jesus has made a way into joy for those who are worried and troubled with the cares and burdens of this world. Jesus has opened a path for those who trust Him, a path to eternity, by His death and resurrection. By His blood you are washed and made clean, able to enter into God’s eternal and holy presence.
When you don’t know where you should go, Jesus calls to you, and tells you that He is the Way. When you aren’t sure who to believe, Jesus calls to you and reminds you that He is the Truth. When the worries of this world make you feel like death’s icy clutch is upon you, Jesus reminds you that He is the Life. There is no other place where you will find such hope, such comfort, such joy, as in the love and care of Jesus, our Saviour who still calls to you to trust Him, not your own selves. For He goes to prepare a place for you.
And while here, He has given us a place where we can join with other wayfarers on this journey. He has given us His church, this strangest of gatherings, where we, people from all different backgrounds and occupations, join together for liturgy, hymns, and readings which often seem like they are from another world, compared to the one in which we live our daily lives. And, in all truth, we do enter another world when we pass through the doors of the church. Here we catch a small glimpse of God’s glory, here we gladly receive our morsels of Christ’s body and blood as our source of hope and strength along this path of life. Here we bow in humble contemplation of how wonderful our God is. Here is not our place for trusting ourselves, here is not the place for boasting of our talents or abilities. Here is the place where we acknowledge that we are beggars before God, but that our God is pleased to feed us with His Word and with the Holy Sacrament, just as a shepherd is pleased to feed and water his sheep. And from here we go into our lives, rejoicing in the God who has been pleased to come and share such wonders with His people. We rejoice in our lives, showing others the joy we have, even in the hardest and bleakest of times, simply and entirely through Christ and the good news He has brought to us.
We rejoice as did St. Peter, when He reminded us that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, so that we should declare praises of Him far and wide. For our God who calls us to trust Him has made trusting Him possible in His choosing and by His grace. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us. He simply asks us to trust Him, and, trusting Him, to endure to the end. As you trust Him, the Father will work through you to do what He needs to do, will accomplish all that you need to continue in this faith until the Lord takes you at last to the place He has prepared for you. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Last updated April 2008 by the webmaster.