1 “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.
John 14 begins the farewell address of Jesus after the Last Supper. He begins with planting the seeds of hope, the apostles should not let their hearts, their emotions be shaken despite the fate awaiting Jesus. His resurrection is interwoven intimately and inextricably to trust in God the Father and God the Son. If they maintain that focus, they will be not be troubled unnecessarily.
2 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?
Jesus now hints to heavenly realities, kind of like if you had an arduous journey ahead of you, you might talk about the joy of the final destination. Jesus does this here on a heavenly level. He reveals to them some particular truths of the heavenly realm. In the heavenly temple, of which the earthly temple is only an icon of, both known as God’s house has many rooms. Jesus says that his promise to prepare a place for them proves this to be true.
On one level this is divine bridegroom language, it was the responsibility of the bridegroom, in between the betrothal and consummation stage of marriage, to prepare a house, a home, where the consummation would take place. This was a normal part of marriage but Jesus is saying, this natural marital process is actually an icon of a divine reality, like how a husband prepares a home for himself and his wife and future children, Jesus does the same in the heavenly realm. The sacrifice the bridegroom makes to take however long it takes to build a home is analogous to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, he must die to go prepare the home for his bride, the Church.
The Old Testament is littered with references to both the Temple, the Tabernacle proceeding it, the Garden before that along with Heaven itself of course being the Dwelling place of God. What is especially curious about Jesus’ words are the extra details, there are “many rooms”. There is no reference for this in the Old Testament, it could be deduced from the infinite aspect of God’s dwelling place that there might be many rooms but this focus on the many rooms seems specific and a core part of his promise to his apostles. This is where Second Temple Literature comes into play that expounded upon inspired scripture, kind of like a biblical commentary written as a biblical fiction, inspired by the divine but not divinely inspired. Stories and sayings attributed to ancient patriarchs of the Hebrew people to convey a contemporary Midrashic understanding of an inspired text. This idea of multiple rooms in God’s house is explicitly referenced in 1 Enoch 41:1-2a
“And after that I saw all the secrets of the heavens, and how the kingdom is divided, and how the actions of men are weighed in the balance. And there I saw the mansions of the elect and the mansions of the holy“
Jesus with his divine knowledge, knew that this understanding in the Pseudo-epigraphical text was actually correct and since 1 Enoch was one of the most influential non-inspired texts of the Second Temple Period, Jesus isn’t inventing some novelty here, nor is John placing Hellenistic frameworks into Jesus’ mouth. He is speaking of a concept dominant before the Incarnation. The father of Gospel Scepticism, Rudolf Bultmann, who sought to “demythologise” Jesus and his Church actually pointed to this verse as a Hellenistic-Christian reinterpretation of modern Jewish understanding of the afterlife. Bultmann’s ideological descendant, Bart Ehrman, suggests that this verse was later Christian editing of Jesus’ words to cope with the perceived delayed eschaton. It turns out they’re both just retarded and German.
3 And when 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.
4 And you know the way where I am going.”
Now Jesus assures his apostles that his death, although sad in the immediate sense, is intimately connected to his “going” to prepare a place for them. They should not worry because he will come to them again to bring them to himself. This is when they die or when anyone dies, if you have abided by him he will say “good and faithful servant, come to your lords embrace” and so on. We will be with him in the afterlife, like a bride with her husband.
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”
Thomas speaks up, a rare occurrence but also foreshadows his doubt after the resurrection. We call him “Doubting Thomas” a lot but I think its more appropriate to call him “Worried Thomas”, Doubt always has an air of animosity of which Thomas really seem to only exude human frailty which I find very understandable. Thomas does not know where Jesus’ is going, he does not know death himself, so he says so and asks the question of how could he know the way if he has never gone there? I don’t think he is assuming that Jesus is going to some different place geographically speaking, he is speaking of death and he, as most people, does not intimately know death and has not gone to it.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.
Jesus gives one of my favourite lines in scripture. He doesn’t provide a checklist, he does does not provide a formula or an instruction manual, Jesus says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”. First of all, divine statement “I am”. Second of all these are all immaterial concepts, non-tangible notions…until the Incarnation. Many a discussion has been had on Jesus’ human and divine natures but I like talking about what it enabled. It enabled for the first time in history for “the way” a person should act, “the truth” they should attest to and “the life” they should live to be so tangible they could touch him and love him the way we do to another human being. The way, truth and life could be as intimate as a parent is to their child, no longer lofty mental frameworks but an embraceable person because he was God.
Jesus also gives a qualifier that can be interpreted in both a positive or negative sense. The negative sense is that no one can receive the beatific vision, dwell with God face to face, unless they come to Jesus. Or the positive interpretation, that anyone who does receive the beatific vision does so because of the Son, whether they knew him or not. I’ll leave that kind of stuff to the theologians.
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