May 10, 2020 Scripture Lesson with Notes

John 14: 1-14                      Scripture for  May 10, 2020                                          Rev. Peter Hofstra

14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.

I do not know how many times I have led with this passage.  With Psalm 23, they are the ‘go to’ passages in times of funeral.  “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”  The heart, then centerpiece of the person?  More basic than the brain, loaded with our emotional content, our reactional content.  It pulls on the psychological, but is more…primal. 

It is a prime passage for the middle of this virus quarantine.  Whose heart is not troubled by what is happening?  Jesus’ response is to believe in God and believe also in Jesus.

14:2 In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

Such is the promise after every death.  We know the promise of eternal life from Easter’s celebration, but what does it look like?  An earlier version says, ‘in my Father’s house are many mansions’, a more ‘upscale’ translation.  There seems to be some question as to what it means for Jesus to go and prepare a place after death.  So this is a way to make it comprehendible to the human mind.

14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

This is the promise of the Second Coming.  It is not just that Jesus is going to go and wait for us to join Him.  Now there are often conflicting understandings as to where we are going.  Are we going to heaven?  Are we going to the New Heaven and the New Earth predicted in Revelation?  One translation has it as the ‘renewed’ heaven and earth.  What we call the place is not so important as knowing that is where Jesus is, that we are with him there.

14:4 And you know the way to the place where I am going."

Notice how Jesus does not say it is ‘the place’ where he is going, but ‘the way’ to the place where he is going.  He is setting up to answer the question of ‘mode of transportation’ that follows.

14:5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"

Doubting Thomas, the man with the questions.  He sets up two concerns here.  He does not know this place Jesus calls “his Father’s house”, therefore, how can he know the way to get there?  Don’t know where the end of the journey is, how do we get there?

14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

This is where Jesus lays out the whole truth about himself, the way, and the truth, and the life.  What that means is no one gets to God without going through Jesus-the Way.  It is interesting to note that in the first chapters of Acts, the church is known as “the Way”.

14:7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

Jesus is not simply the Way to God, he is the connection to God.  To know Jesus is to know God, to see Jesus is to see God.  It is a straight up identification.  This plays back to the first verses of John, where he starts at creation with this identification between God and Jesus.

14:8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."

Point missed completely.  Or is it something else?  Does Philip get what Jesus is saying, but he wants more proof?  Jesus says He and Father are One.  Showing them the Father would allow them to gain evidence of that equivalency.

14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

If Jesus is the Father, and the Father is Jesus, and to know Jesus is to know Jesus is the Father, this is the argument that Jesus lays down for Philip.  There is NOT more that is needed.  It has already been set.  Now Jesus reverses the doubt.  You still don’t know me?  It is not a matter of proof on the part of his disciples, it is a matter of faith.  “How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

14:10 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; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

This is a step back.  Do the disciples not accept this equivalency?  Not even the words that Jesus speaks are separate from the Father.  The words and the works come from the Father who dwells in Jesus.

14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Proof has already been provided.  It is not a matter of Jesus suddenly opening up a supernatural window to show the Father to the disciples.  In the works that the Father has done through Jesus, there is the proof that God and Jesus are together.  If it is not enough to believe what Jesus says, the proof is in what Jesus does.  In both, the Father is revealed, the Father’s power is in action.

14:12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

Now we take the next level of the argument.  The Father is identified with the Son.  Now the disciples are identified with Jesus and, by extension, with God, because ‘the one who believes in me’ will do the works Jesus does-the works of God who dwells in Jesus-and even greater works, as Jesus is going to return to the Father. 

So there does seem to be a physical equivalency and a spiritual equivalency going on between the Father and the Son.

14:13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

So we move from the abstract believer to the actual believer, the disciples gathered with Jesus.  Whatever the disciple asks in the name of Jesus, this shall be done so that the Father is glorified in the Son.  The Father is revealed in the Son, so when the Son is called upon by the believer, it is faith that reaches up to the Father and therefore, they have identified with one another.

14:14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

Now this is opening the veritable cookie jar.  A ‘carte blanche’ for the disciples to ask for anything in Jesus’ name.  He binds himself to the promise that he will do it. 

But that comes with a hook.  What does it mean to do something or ask something in the name of Jesus?  Can this be divorced from who Jesus is and the mission he has laid down in this passage?