8^th June 2011

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 22 May 2011

Lessons -- Psalm 31:1-8; Acts 7:55-60; John 14:1-14

'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 take you to myself, so
that where I am, there you may be also.' (John 14:1-3 RSV)

For the second week running we have a well loved reading often used to give comfort to Christians and others at funerals. Last Sunday it was Psalm 23; today it is John 14. Once again we learn that God's 'comfort' is radically different from what we usually imagine.

What Jesus says in John 14 is widely thought to mean that the dead pass automatically from their 'earthly room' to their 'heavenly room'. Do not be afraid because your 'heavenly place' is assured!

This does not take account of what Jesus is actually saying. The setting in which a text is read helps us to understand its meaning. If it is plucked out of context then it will be completely misinterpreted.

The situation as Chapter 14 opens is enough to make the bravest heart quake. It is a time of great foreboding. The Last Supper has ended. The betrayal of Judas is imminent. Peter will disown Jesus. There is talk of Jesus leaving his disciples and dying a terrible death. The future is bleak. Comfort seems to be a forlorn and unrealistic hope for those who have followed the way of Jesus.

The disciples are bewildered. Previously Peter asked Jesus, 'Where are you going, Lord?' (13:36). Here Thomas says, 'We do not know where you are going, Lord; how can we know the way?' (14:5). The answer seems obvious.
After his death Jesus is going to 'heaven' to get things ready for us when we die.

That may be reassuring but it is not what is meant here. When Jesus says he is 'going to prepare a place for the disciples' he is referring first and foremost to the crucifixion. The 'place' where he is headed is the awful bloody, brutal, murderous cross! His 'place' is on the cross -- the one 'place' in history where the enormity of human sin and the magnitude of God's costly grace are revealed. In this place, the 'way, the truth and
the life' which is God's will for all is embodied in Jesus.

When Jesus says there are 'many rooms in the Father's house' he is talking about the magnitude of God's costly grace for the world -- not only for a few disciples. That's the issue here! It has nothing to do with slipping quietly from our earthly rooms / mansions to our heavenly rooms / mansions at death. The point is that the 'Father's house' is not confined to a particular group. God's mercy is extended to the entire human race. That is to say all who worship at the foot of the cross of Christ and follow the way of the cross find 'room' in God's house.

As with Psalm 23 this is a word of hope and encouragement to pilgrims whose faith in God is being threatened. It is a word of 'comfort' to disciples whose faith is endangered by following the way of Jesus.

Not that the disciples, then or now, can grasp this. We do not expect the way of faith to be marked by conflict or crucifixion. We expect God to meet our needs and guarantee our eternal happiness. We do not think that the Christian life should be demanding, confronting and unpopular!

Therefore we misunderstand Jesus' words about 'a place' and 'many rooms'.
Naturally, many of us want to be assured that our journey from 'earth' to 'heaven' will be smooth and we will be comforted in the 'after-life' for 'our earthly troubles'. But what is natural blinds us to the true meaning of the cross and the hope that awaits all pilgrims who follow the One who is 'the way, the truth and the life'.

How easy it is to misinterpret a text that is meant to bring comfort to pilgrims who follow the crucified and risen Jesus. When we read it as if it were proof of our automatic transition from this life to the next, then the crucified love of Christ and our costly discipleship are put to one side. Then the text is mis-read so that it mirrors our fears about death, protects us from being courageous in faith while on the earth and blinds us to the genuine hope and comfort to be found at the foot of the cross and the entrance to the tomb.

There certainly is 'consolation' for pilgrims but it is not found in believing in automatic transition of the spirit from life to death, earth to heaven. Anyone can believe that without following the way of Jesus!
'Comfort' is found in a most unexpected 'place'.

This is the primary meaning of Jesus 'going to prepare a place for his disciples'. He is preparing the way for them to walk the way of the cross after him. In 13:36 this is clear when Jesus says to Peter, 'Where I am going you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.' Peter too will be 'placed on a cross'!

We should not be too quick to pass over the grim reality of the cross. It is the 'place' where we are confronted by the power of evil and where God's costly love for us all, with our flawed humanity and our strife-torn world, is magnificently displayed.

Jesus does not die in a hospital bed comforted by the assurance of a quick transition to the after-life. He is crucified, betrayed and deserted as if he, not us, were the enemy of God and the people. On the cross, sin is judged for what it is: our rebellion against God whose goodness and mercy have been embodied in Christ. Astonishingly, despite misunderstanding, failure and betrayal, there is a place for us at the side of the one who goes to the cross. Broken and sinful people from every nation, like you and me, not only are not expelled from the 'house of the Father', but are welcomed as guests.

This is good news for pilgrims called to follow the One who is 'the way, the truth and the life' (v6) on earth. As the crucified One stands with imperfect disciples like us, they are enabled and encouraged to stand firm in hope even in the midst of stiff opposition. Men and women from every time and culture ('many rooms') will know real 'comfort', paradoxically by following a way of life that is far from 'comfortable'.

What Jesus says is not about everybody having a smooth transition in death from an earthly to a heavenly room. It is about the universal scope of God's love displayed on the cross which brings hope to the faithful, many of whom would suffer and die for their faith. In this place there is a place for people of faith from every nation under heaven!

They are words of hope for those who, however falteringly, have ventured on this pilgrimage. They are words of 'comfort' to those who have answered the call to costly discipleship -- who are prepared to witness to the life- giving goodness and mercy of God in the dark corners of the world where death holds sway. They are assured that the self-giving goodness and mercy of God / Father is with them in the midst of earthly conflict!

The fact that this word of comfort is spoken in the shadow of the cross still might cause alarm if it were not for the fact that, in speaking of the cross, Jesus also promises that 'I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also' (v3). His 'place' on the cross is not his final 'resting place'. His 'place' is with the Father as the risen-and-ascended Christ who receives into eternity those who have
walked the way of the cross.

Once the centrality of the cross is identified as the 'place' where comfort and hope are to be found, then Jesus' resurrection and ascension find their proper 'place'. Disciples who have walked the way of the cross can know that the crucified Jesus has not been defeated by sin and death and that his reign over all things with God the Father shall be shared with them eternally.

There is, after all, hope beyond death! But it would have been premature to speak of it before speaking of 'the place prepared for disciples' at the foot of the cross. We would have misunderstood Jesus to be a teacher of the 'easy comfort' and 'shallow hope' that is often given at funerals -- regardless of whether a person has ventured on the path of costly discipleship.

When, however, we are assured of our acceptance at the foot of the cross, and know that Christ has triumphed over sin and death, then we, along with people from every time and place, will know that 'nothing in life or death . . . shall ultimately separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord' (Romans 8:38,39). Then we may glorify God in the hope that others, too, will find comfort and strength to walk the way of the cross -- no matter how stiff the opposition may be.

-----------------

Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of
Confessing Congregations within the UCA.