Week 41: John 14

"We Don't Know"

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. 

Trust in God; trust also in me." (John 14:1)

“Lord, we don’t know where you are going, 

so how can we know the way?” (John 14:5)

In John 14 Jesus is preparing his disciples for what lies ahead: his death and the tough, world-changing, kingdom making road that would ask them for their lives. He seeks to comfort them saying: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me... I am going to prepare a place for you... you know the way to the place where I am going" (vs. 1-4). Thomas, though--always the one to say what some others were no doubt thinking--says: "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" (v. 5) Jesus responds: "I am the way and the truth and the life" (v. 6). Jesus responds that the way to God, to the prepared place, our home is a person, a body, a life--his life. Jesus says, I am the way, what I do with my life is the way to that prepared place, home. He makes this clear that the way is a life in v. 12 saying, "anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing." 

“What I Have Been Doing”

If the way to that prepared place, to home with God is a life, what is it that Jesus has been doing? For that, it makes sense to go back through the gospel of John. Here's a far from comprehensive sampling from my reading of what Jesus is up to in the Gospel of John: 

Jesus breaks norms (2:10; 4:9; 8:13 et al.)

Jesus teaches (chs. 3 and 4 et al.)

Jesus heals the sick (chs. 4, 5, 9, et al.)

Jesus feeds the hungry (ch. 6)

Jesus challenges religious leaders

 (2:16; 6:52; ch. 8; 9:41; 10: 31-32; 11:48 et al.)

Jesus shows compassion (3:17; 8:11 et al.)

Jesus brings resurrection (ch. 11)

Jesus washes feet (ch. 13)

And throughout all this doing, Jesus pushes back and suffers at the hands of those using religion to control and win power. These religious leaders repeatedly attack and try to stone him. In the end he is killed by these religious leaders who seek state power to help them kill their “enemy.” John 18:28 makes this evil cooperation and religious hypocrisy clear as "the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas (the high priest) to the palace of the Roman governor" and sought to keep themselves clean so they could celebrate the Passover. (Wow.) And then they beg Pilate to kill Jesus, pleading, "we have no right to execute anyone" (John 18:31). (Double. Wow.) Obviously this lethal cocktail of religion and political power is not the way of Jesus. It is the ethics of empire that the religious leaders have hypocritically taken up.

“Not as the World Gives”

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. 

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14:27)

How does the world give and how does the gift of Jesus differ? The world gives us--more often sells us--"fixes" that promise relief from pain, suffering, and fear that are temporary and often self-defeating. This is the ethics of empire. In the Gospel of John it looks like this: hand over Jesus and your power will be more secure--never mind that your temple complex will be destroyed by us in a generation. Never mind that this man is the son of the God you worship (and means nothing to me as a Roman). Empire refuses to suffer. Dominate the enemy to reduce pain and suffering. Fight fear with terror. Jesus shows us another way, calls us to another way.

God with Us

"If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. 

My Father will love him, and we will come to him 

and make our home with him." (John 14:23)

The gift of Jesus is not an escape from pain and suffering. It is his presence in the pain. It is communion with God in life (life, whose defining feature is too often suffering). In John 14 Jesus promises that his people will never be alone. The Spirit of Truth (v. 17), the Counselor (v. 16), the Holy Spirit (v. 25) will be with us, always. Where empire promises a chemical or pharmaceutical fix or a political win or a legal victory, the way of Jesus says God is with you in the suffering you experience on this path. Follow me.

At the end of John 14, Jesus returns to the words that open the chapter: “Do not let your hearts be troubled…” Perhaps sensing the disciples rising fear as he talks about what is to come, he repeats the call to “not let your hearts be troubled” though this time asking them to “not be afraid.” Fear was a given. It is the empire’s favorite tool of control. Jesus calls them away from that. He does the same to us. Asking us to follow him and not fear, promising us he will never leave us alone. It is the way of Jesus to be with each other in the pain. As so many of you have stood beside me, my family, and each other in our pain, God stands beside us as we do what he does because we are his people and we are never alone. 

—Andy Kelley