Easter 4
Beloved. Today’s Gospel is from that first Maundy Thursday evening. It was a time of great confusion and anxiety for the disciples—which is something I’m sure we can identify with especially now in our day and age. But the cause of their anxiety, confusion and sadness was much different than ours. Jesus had just announced that He would be betrayed; Scripture itself tells us that when Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit [Jn 13.21]. Of course the disciples pick up on that and become troubled themselves. Jesus told them that He would only be with them for a little while longer and that where He was going, they could not come [13.33]. And then St. Peter chimes in asking “Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.” And then Jesus warns St. Peter, perhaps the boldest and most zealous of the disciples, that Peter would deny Him three times.
The disciples got it. They knew very difficult times were ahead—Jesus Himself was troubled; He would be betrayed; He would be taken away from them; they would end up denying Him. This is not what they were expecting—from either Jesus or themselves. Jesus was to be taken from them and this did not fit into their views of how the Savior, the Messiah would be and do things. And so their hearts were troubled. And the same thing also goes with us. When things don’t go how we plan and expect them to go, don’t we get anxious and troubled? After all, at the very least, doesn’t it show us that we are not in control and that we are not the captain of our fate and destiny? It’s that feeling of helplessness—even as we are “safer at home” as a pandemic sweeps by. It’s that feeling of helplessness of even ordinary things in everyday life not going as we had hoped and planned and when these things mount up and weigh us down. To us as well today Jesus says: Let not your hearts be troubled. But Jesus doesn’t just give us some command like that and leave it like that/ leave it without a reason for us not to be troubled. He tells us why/ gives us a reason not to be troubled in heart. And here, that reason? Believe in God; believe also in Me.
The way Jesus’ words read literally are like this: Stop letting your heart be troubled. Keep believing in God and keep believing in Me. Notice, the force of those words and what they mean/ imply. Just because our hearts are troubled, does not mean that we are no longer Christians/ believers. The slightest doubt and worry does not negate our faith. Remember the prayer of the father who brought his demon possessed son to Jesus [Mk. 9.24]: Lord, I believe; help my unbelief. So yes, our hearts can be troubled—but what? Keep believing in God, and in Jesus. A troubled heart is one that is sort of a no-man’s land between hope and fear; there is the back and forth. Utter despair does not take hold because there is still hope; but great calm and peace do not reign because faith and hope are not perfect in us frail sinful beings. But what does Jesus do? He tells the disciples who are letting their hearts be troubled to keep believing—that is, putting their trust/ confidence in God, in Him. He turns their attention away from themselves, away from their situation and toward Him who is their/ our help and hope. As the psalmist writes: From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. In the midst of our troubles, even with/ in spite of a troubled heart let us keep believing in/ putting our trust and confidence in the Lord. The thing is, God is not distant; He is not inaccessible. He is there ready to help us, guide us, lead us, and protect us. He is not distant, watching us at a distance unwilling or unable to do anything. Instead, as the apostle tells us, our Lord is working all things for our spiritual good—even/ especially those things that are troubling our hearts. So as hope and fear fight it out in our hearts and our hearts are troubled—as they so often will be—let us turn our gaze toward heaven and see our gracious God and Savior who loves us.
At the end of our text Jesus says: If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him. Again with a troubled heart, in our fears, let us turn our gaze heavenward and what do we see? Our gracious God and Savior! We truly know God rightly as we know that He is gracious to us. Through Jesus, who is the very God Himself, we know God rightly—after all how much more clearly could God show us Himself than by coming to us—and as we know God as our dear loving heavenly Father, we know that He cares for us and so in our fears and troubled heart we call upon Him for help, hope and mercy. There’s the antidote to that troubled heart.
After telling us: Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me, Jesus then directs our eyes heavenward for a different reason. Not only will we see there our gracious and merciful God and Savior, but there, as a Christian, we see our true and heavenly home: 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. Not only does turning our gaze to heaven turn our attention to our gracious God and Father, but it puts everything into the proper perspective. There is the big picture: our heavenly home where we will one day come home and be with the holy angels, all the saints and the holy Triune God Himself. Our hurts and sufferings and sorrows here are very real and very painful, but they are not the end. When it looks like that’s all that there is, it isn’t: a glorious eternity in heaven awaits us. That richness and abundance of blessing, far beyond human description, awaits us. Jesus describes it this way here: In my Father’s house are many rooms, or dwelling places. Heaven is where God is, where we will see the Beatific Vision, God Himself, in all His glory and majesty! Then our every longing will be fulfilled. There is that perfect peace, joy and contentment. There is our true home and what a multitude of blessings await us who enter heaven! And, dear Christian, the most wonderful thing for us is that we can be certain of heaven because by His life, suffering and death, by His glorious resurrection and ascension, Jesus opened the Kingdom of heaven to all believers.
I go to prepare a place for you. Jesus spoke these words on Maundy Thursday evening, right before the depth of His Passion started in the agony of Gethsemane as He felt the weight of the sins of the world being placed on Him, right before His arrest, trials, beatings, crucifixion and death. By taking all our sins on Himself and dying on the cross for them, enduring the wrath and punishment of God over the sins of the world, Jesus reconciled the whole of sinful humanity to the holy God. Because Jesus is that perfect, once for all sacrifice for the sins of the world, He rose from the dead. He destroyed death for us. And He ascended into heaven. And where He has gone, we, His dear Christians will also go for we, dear Christian, are united with Jesus in baptism and faith. Notice what Jesus says: In my Father’s house are many rooms, or dwelling places. They already are there now by the Father’s love and now, through faith in Jesus, we will one day possess them, that is, be in heaven; the way is narrow and the gate small that leads to heaven—faith in Jesus.
That’s why we turn our gaze, attention heavenward especially in the midst of trial when our hearts are troubled. Not only do we look to the Lord for help, not only do we see our gracious God and Savior, not only does it put everything into the proper perspective, but we are reminded that our faith in Jesus is the main thing, that we only reach heaven through faith in Jesus, who is as He tells us here: I am the Way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. That’s why all the time but especially in times of trial, it is vital that we not take our gaze off of Jesus and His work; it is vital that we look at the big picture of eternity—lest the daily or great trials and sorrows fill the heart; it is vital that we keep ourselves close to the word and Sacrament for in these and through these our Lord is working to strengthen and keep us in the true faith, that faith alone through which we can come to heaven, our true home. In every trouble and trial, let us find our home in God; and with Him we have our eternal home.
It doesn’t just stop here. Not only do we look forward to coming home to our Lord in heaven, but even now something amazing has happened: He comes to make His home in us. Jesus says a few verses after today’s Gospel [vs. 23]: If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with Him. What’s exciting is that God comes to us, to dwell in His dear Christian even now—now in the midst of trials and troubles; now, even though we are still sinners; now, even though our faith may be weak or faltering. This is what is called by our theologians the “mystical union”—the holy God dwelling in His dear Christians. We are the dwelling place of God; He has made His home with us. Elsewhere, St. Paul, for example, says [1 Co 3.17; 6.19]: For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are; and: Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God? This is really amazing to ponder. The very ones who will one day be soul and body in the glories of heaven with Him eternally, in the house of God are the very ones that He now dwells in.
What an amazing thing: we who find our true home with God in the glories of heaven and long to come home, God comes to make His home with us/ in us now. And now by living in His dear Christian, our Lord is preparing us for a glorious eternity with Him in the dwelling places in His house/ temple—heaven. With the Holy Spirit in us—in fact, the Holy Triune God in us—He is leading us in a life of faith and good works. He is strengthening us to fight against sin, to fight against that old sinful nature we all still have and its desires. Do you feel that struggle in you against sin? Do you feel that battle going on in you when you are tempted? That’s because the Lord is in you. Do you have a longing for the Lord, to do His will? Do you have a longing for heaven? That’s because the Lord is there—in you!
Now, precisely in the midst of our trials and struggles, the Lord is preparing us. It looks like He has gone, that is, we can’t see Him and precisely through that He is exercising our faith, faith to hold to Him, His word and promise even when it looks like He is not there or that He has forsaken us. Precisely in those times where it looks like that He has utterly left us, He is still with us—and preparing us by exercising our faith so that we long for Him all the more, so that we long all the more to be out of this vale of tears, so that we long all the more for heaven and to be with Him and all the angels and saints in perfect joy and fulfillment.
Dear Christian, our Lord is preparing us now to come home to our heavenly home. In front of our very eyes He is preparing us for heaven, right now, as He dwells in us. And, on top of that, by prayer and receiving Jesus in the sacraments, we begin to experience His dwelling in us. In Holy Baptism He came to us, claimed us as His own; and He continues to come to us in Holy Communion as He gives us His Body and Blood and all His gifts and blessings He won for us. How glorious it is to come home: we find our home in God who has come to us and made His home in us now, preparing us for His home. So in all sorts of troubles and stresses we heed Jesus’ words: Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you. INJ Amen.