The Way to the Heavenly Mansion

May 14, 2017, Easter Five

GOSPEL LESSON: John 14:1–14 [I am the way and the truth and the life.]

“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 will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus speaks a couple of famous lines. "In my father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." And Jesus also said, "I am the way and the truth and the life."

Ｗhen Jesus spoke these words it was at the last supper, the evening before he was crucified. It was the Passover meal that they ate. Today I want to look at Jesus' words in relationship to the Passover.

The Passover was the festival and feast when Jews remembered how God had saved them from slavery in Egypt. At the time of Moses, on the night before they were saved, the Israelites gathered in their homes to eat the Passover meal. They took some of the blood of the lamb which they would eat and made a mark over and beside their doorways, to show that in this house there were Israelites who believed in God's promise of deliverance. And in that way they were saved from the angel of death. The angel of death passed by or passed over that house.

Moses had told the Israelites that God had sent him to lead them out of slavery to the Promised Land. At the burning bush, Ex. 3:8, God had spoken about the Promised Land. "I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey." And so it happened. The night of the Passover the angel passed through the Land of Egypt and killed all the first-born of the Egyptians. And then the Israelites fled the country, crossed the Red Sea, and headed toward the Promised Land.

We Christians think of Jesus' death and resurrection as the new Passover. This is the time when God saved us from the slavery of sin and death. He did this by the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, which was shed on the cross and which we in faith put over the doors of our hearts. In Baptism, we too pass through the Red Sea, washing away our sin. Jesus did not speak of heaven as "a land flowing with milk and honey." In today's lesson he calls it his "Father's house." "In my father's house are many rooms," he said. I like the old King James translation, "In my father's house are many mansions." I like this translation because the place in heaven prepared for us is not just a dormitory room or a refugee camp tent like the Israelites had for 40 years; Jesus prepares for us a spacious place which is suitable for paradise.

Just as Moses told the Israelites what was ahead of them after their long journey in the wilderness, so Jesus told his disciples what was ahead for us, after this journey of life. And he told it to his disciples before the Passover, before he gave himself up as our sacrificial Lamb. He said he was going to prepare a place for them and then return to get them and take them to the Father.

The disciples didn't completely understand what Jesus was talking about. Thomas asked what is also our question when he said, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" So Jesus explained, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." By his death and resurrection, Jesus has become our new Passover Lamb and like a New Exodus has set us free. We are now on the road to the Promised Land. This road is Jesus: "I am the Way," he said, or as the Japanese translation graphically says, "I am the Road (watashiwa michi dearu. )". When we are following Jesus who is the True Road, the True Way to heaven, we know the Truth about Jesus and the Father. And we know that through Jesus we have Life. In last week's Gospel lesson, Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Of course we Christians look forward to heaven in the Father's House, but we are alive now with Christ our Savior. Living our life in Christ now is truly life, a full life. It is a life full of prayer and service for our Lord.

Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father except through me." Last week we learned that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Jesus said, "I am the gate for the sheep .... whoever enters through me will be saved" (John 10:9). When Jesus said "No one comes to the Father except through me,” he is saying that there is no other way to heaven except through him. Or as Peter said in Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." When Jesus says that he is "the way and the truth and the life," he means he is the only true way to life. There are two results of knowing that Jesus is the "Only Way." First, we who believe have the confidence that we are truly saved. Since we believe in Jesus and follow him in the Way as our Savior and Good Shepherd, there is no way that we can get lost or get separated from Jesus who loves us. This security is the assured confidence of the disciple of Christ. The second result of knowing Jesus as the "Only Way" to heaven is that we want to do evangelism so that others can also go to heaven. In the Bible, there is no other revealed way to heaven except through Jesus Christ. We may wish otherwise, but there is no other way. And so when we pray "Thy Kingdom come," we pray that the rule of Christ the King might enter the hearts of those who do not yet know him as their Savior. What sort of furniture will there be in the rooms that Jesus is preparing for us? What will the view be like? Very nice, I am sure; like living in a mansion!

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


Sermon Index