12^th June 2014

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 18 May 2014

Lessons - Psalm 31:1-8; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; John 14:1-11,18-20

'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)

These words are often used at funerals to comfort us with the thought that the 'souls' of the dead, now separated from their bodies, move seamlessly from our 'earthly' to our 'heavenly room'. The message seems clear. We need not be afraid of dying because, freed 'from' earthly cares, we are going 'to' heaven.

This may be comforting but it is not what Jesus is saying! As always, we must read familiar 'texts' in 'context'. Otherwise, they will be misread.
Nowhere in Scripture do we find the devaluation of the body and the earth and the elevation of the soul to a disembodied heaven. We have been created by God as a unity of physical matter (body) and spiritual life- force (soul). We are en-fleshed souls and en-souled bodies. Hope is not to be found in going 'from earth' 'to heaven' but in the 'heavenly'
transformation of our earthly lives and the life of the world. In life and in death, we are called to participate in the Kingdom of Heaven 'on earth', now and in the future.

This is clear when Chapter 14 is read in the context of John's Gospel (and
Scripture) as a whole. It is a time of great foreboding. The Last Supper has ended. The betrayal of Judas is at hand. Peter will disown Jesus.
There is talk of Jesus leaving his disciples and dying a terrible death.
The future is bleak and comfort seems a forlorn hope for Jesus' disciples.

The disciples are bewildered. Earlier, Peter had 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 our time on earth has ended.

This may be reassuring, but it is not what is meant here! When Jesus says that he is 'going to prepare a place' for the disciples he is referring 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 God-forsaken place, the Kingdom of Heaven is embodied.

So, when Jesus says there are 'many rooms in the Father's house' he is talking about the breadth of God's love for the world. The point is that the 'Father's house' is not confined to a few disciples. At the foot of the cross of Christ there is 'room' for all who follow the way of the cross. The cross is the 'place' where comfort, hope and encouragement - for all whose faith is in Christ - is located.

Not that disciples, then or now, can grasp this! We do not expect the Christian life to be so demanding. We have come to expect God to meet our needs and guarantee our eternal happiness. That is why we often misread Jesus' words about 'a place' with 'many rooms'. In wanting to be assured that the journey of our souls from 'earthly life' to 'heavenly afterlife'
will be smooth and 'comforting', we miss the meaning of the cross and the hope that awaits all who follow the 'the way, the truth and the life'.

How easy it is to misinterpret a text when it is not read in context. When we read it as if it were proof of the automatic transition of our souls, freed from our bodies, from this life to the next, the crucified love of Christ and our calling to share in his costly love for the world are ignored. The text simply mirrors our fears about death, shields us from being bold and blinds us to genuine consolation found at the foot of the cross.

When Jesus says that he is '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 this grim reality. 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 in a strife-torn world, is magnificently displayed.

Jesus does not die in a hospital bed comforted by the assurance of a quick transition of his soul to the after-life. He is crucified, betrayed and deserted as if he, not us, were the enemy of God and humanity.
Astonishingly, however, and despite our failure to follow Christ, there is a place for us at the side of the one who goes to the cross. Broken and sinful people from every nation are not only not-expelled from the 'house of the Father', but are 'received' as guests.

This is 'comforting' to those called to follow the One who is 'the way, the truth and the life' (v6). In the company of the crucified One, imperfect disciples, like us, are enabled and encouraged to stand firm even in the midst of stiff opposition. Men and women from many backgrounds ('many rooms') will know real 'comfort' by following a way of life that is far from 'comfortable' - as our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world today know all too well!

What Jesus says is not about the smooth transition of our souls at death from an 'earthly' to a 'heavenly' room. It is about the universal scope of God's love displayed on the cross. Here is the 'place' where people of faith from every nation may find hope as they witness to the life-giving goodness and mercy of God in the dark corners of the world. They are assured that Jesus is with them in the midst of earthly conflict and in life beyond death.

The fact that this word of comfort is spoken in the shadow of the cross would still cause alarm except that Jesus also promises that 'I will not leave you desolate but will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also' (vv 3,18).

This promise is kept in a remarkable way. The crucified Jesus appears to the weeping Mary, the terrified disciples and the cynical Thomas (20:11-
29) as the Risen Christ who has triumphed over evil and death. Once the cross is known as the 'place' where 'comfort' is to be found, then Jesus'
resurrection and ascension find their proper 'place'. Those who have walked the way of the cross are reassured that the crucified Jesus has not been defeated by sin and death. His reign over all things shall be shared with them eternally in the 'resurrection of the dead' affirmed by Paul and the creeds.

Therefore, because Jesus' is the 'place' where God's costly love has triumphed, there is hope for the whole person, body-and-soul, in life and in life beyond death! But it would have been premature for Jesus to speak of this 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 discipleship.

However, when we are assured of acceptance at the foot of the cross and the entrance to the empty tomb, then we, with people from every time and place, shall rejoice in knowing that 'nothing in life or death shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Romans 8:38).

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. Then we may be assured that in the resurrection of the dead we may by grace participate, not in some disembodied unearthly 'room'
removed from earth, but in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. There our personal identity (as en-fleshed souls and en-souled bodies) and the now strife-torn world shall be transformed in ways that enhance, not diminish, God's good purposes for humanity and the whole creation.

Thanks be to God who raised the crucified Jesus to life for all.

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

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