John
14:23-29
23 Jesus answered him, "Those who love me
will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and
make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words;
and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. 25
"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the
Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you
everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do
not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28 You heard me
say to you, "I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you
would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than
I. 29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does
occur, you may believe.
Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them,
and we will come to them and make our home with them.
· Ever wonder why Jesus
says both he and the Father will “make our home” with us?
· Ever wonder why the
book of Revelation speaks of a new Jerusalem and a new heaven and a new earth?
· Ever wonder what
Christian hope is for and what it is about?
· Maybe I’m strange and
weird, but I think about that from time to time. Maybe I’m not busy enough with
all the regular things of life. Maybe it’s something I do while cutting the
grass.
· For some Christians,
earthly life is something to be escaped, something to be overcome. It’s an
annoying stop-over on the road to heaven. If your life on earth is rotten and
painful and unsatisfying, then heaven is the place to be. If you live a
privileged life of wealth or comfort or happiness on earth, heaven and the real
loss of all those things is something not to be thought about. Maybe it’s
something to be avoided.
· What is life on earth
about then? We could say it’s a trial, testing us to see if we’re ready for (or
worthy of) what is to come. However if we say that, it makes salvation our work
rather than a free gift of grace from God. The same could be said if we say
that life is a search for God. Again that gives us over to our own effort
rather than the grace of God.
· John says that those
who keep Jesus’ word out of love for him will be loved by God and will become
that home of God. Although this may sound a bit like a reward for proper
behavior, it is a statement of grace. Hearing Jesus’ words and keeping Jesus’
word can only be done in God’s grace and the presence of the Father and of
Jesus is certainly grace.
· Notice there is no
talk of removing the Christian from life in this earth nor is there any talk of
all this being a heavenly reward at the end of a life well lived. Rather this
presence, this “in-dwelling” takes place in the here-and-now. Not at some
mysterious place and some unknown time, but now.
· If we make Christian
hope all about somewhere else at some other time, we miss the point of the
Kingdom of God and of the Resurrection. Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom was
that it has “come near” and it was to be seen and accepted now. It is Good News
to those who heard the proclamation when they heard it.
· As Jesus told his
disciples, this is not peace as the world gives, but it
will be peace in the middle of any and all troubles. It will be peace as peace
was meant to be.
· At Easter, our
festival of the Resurrection of Christ, we glimpse where the whole of creation
is going – renewed life. In the readings during the Easter season, we hear of a
promised future in the passages taken from that strange book, Revelation. We
hear of a new heaven and a new earth and an intimate closeness with God that is
coming even as it begins now. Even hearing this, we can remember that the
revelation of God takes place in this world and is given to “average” people
like us. We can begin to see the full beauty and depth of God’s creation and
the fullness and renewal of that creation promised to us in the book of
Revelation, but most wonderfully in the Resurrection of Jesus, whom death could
not hold bound. Death itself will be defeated and the world death held in
chains will be freed and renewed, completed and –in a way- even transfigured.
· It’s a lot to hope
for and a lot to digest, but I suppose that is what eternity is for. It might
be too much to ask, but it will not be too much for God to give.
Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them,
and we will come to them and make our home with them.
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