You’ve probably heard it said many times that Jesus did not meet
people’s expectation as the messiah.
They thought the messiah would be a great military leader who would
assemble an army and overthrow their Roman oppressors. Of course Jesus does not come as that sort of
Messiah. Instead of an army he assembles
a rag tag bunch of sinners and societal misfits. He rarely circulated with the rich and
powerful of his day, and when he did he seemed to cause conflict. Even so, the people knew God often chose
unlikely heroes to save them. Perhaps,
like the judge Gideon, God had some unforeseeable but effective plan in mind. No matter how you shaped it however, no one
was prepared for God to send a messiah who would be captured, tried and
executed.
We have the luxury of looking back on it. We can see what God really had in mind all
along; that Jesus would be resurrected from the dead and eventually ascend into
heaven. And yet I think we can also be
guilty of thinking we understand what God is up to, but not really
understanding it. Most people understand
God as somewhere up there as all powerful and judge. They work to keep God happy with them. Then if God is happy with you then you go to
heaven. If God is mad at you then you
burn in hell forever.
Now of course Lutheran theology is going to insist that God is
gracious and merciful. We understand
grace to mean “unmerited favor.”
Therefore the situation is not that you have to work to make God happy
with you, but that God is already happy with you. Now live in response to the news that God is
happy with you. Though that message has
been preached many times and for many years it is still a radical way of
understanding your relationship with God.
And yet it may not be radical enough for us to be able to
understand readings like the gospel reading we had from John today. You see it is still quite possible to say
that okay, God loves me. I don’t have to
earn my way into heaven. But does God
actually really like me? What if God is
just putting up with me? What if God’s
relationship with me is like the parents relationships with their teenage
children. They love each other, sure,
but really deep down. On the whole they
tolerate each other because they have to.
The law says violence towards teenagers is a crime and teenagers know
they don’t have a roof over their heads unless they put up with mom and
dad. Indeed is that to be our eternal
relationship with God?
The Gospel of John is a very confusing text. If you’re tired of the political rhetoric
this election season but you still want to see a bunch of really educated and
smart people vehemently disagree with each other, then read the way biblical
scholars attempt to interpret John. They
are all over the place! (Then again, one
could argue that the political rhetoric this election season is not between
people who are really educated and smart.)
The truth of the matter is there is an awful lot of stuff in John’s
gospel that no one can figure out. The piecemeal
way we’ve been reading from it for these last several weeks makes it even more
confusing.
But one thing these scholars do agree on is that we can make a
lot of headway towards understanding John if we’re willing to really embrace
what John reveals to us about God. Just
the same way people only thought they knew what the messiah would be like but
they were really wrong, so too we may be as wrong about God. John’s gospel upends a lot of the way we
think about God from other New Testament writers.
One theme you come across in John’s gospel over and over again
is abiding. Jesus says, “Abide in me as
I abide in you.” (15:4) “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved
you; abide in my love.” (15:9)
And also dwelling. In our
reading today we have, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will
love them, and we will come to them and make
our home with them.” (14:23) Also, “I am in my Father, and you in me, and
I in you.” And finally, “…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.” (14:3)
Jesus speaks of real closeness.
So now upend your assumptions about God for a moment and
consider these things from John’s gospel.
At the Last Supper Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. Foot washing was something you did to your
own feet when you entered someone’s house.
It was a way to get rid of the dust of travel and not soil the house. Sort of like today if you have the habit of
taking off your shoes so you don’t track dirt into the house. You take off your own shoes. No one does it for you unless you are
physically incapable of doing it. And in
Jesus’ day you washed your own feet. Not
even slaves were given such a task. But
Jesus washes the feet of his disciples to cleanse them and welcome them into
the house, the dwelling place, of God.
Also during the Last Supper John’s gospel records Jesus saying,
“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that
I go to prepare a place for you?” (14:2)
What on earth does that mean? Hear
these thoughts by theologian Arthur John Gossip in the Interpreter’s Bible
Commentary:
“When an honored and loved guest is coming, preparations are
made which are designed to meet his tastes and likings. The books that will appeal to him are laid
where he can find them; flowers which we remember are favorites of his are set
about the rooms. These preparations are
not merely general, but are thought out for very him. And yonder Jesus Christ is so lovingly making
ready for our coming; arranging a place, our place; and that with such an exact
remembrance of our particular needs and likings that it cannot fit anybody
else. It is your place. And it is waiting for you, yonder. We must not fail the Father; leaving him to
all eternity with that room designed for us still empty. For God wants all his family to gather home,
not one among them missing.”
(Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8, Pg. 699)
Talk about upending your understanding of your God! This is Jesus being the housekeeping service
preparing for you. There’s nothing about God standing above us
as judge. It’s like the whole thing is
turned upside down!
Why does Jesus have to leave his disciples? In order to prepare for them more fully! Our gospel reading is in that way of thinking
when Jesus says, “…the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in
my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to
you.” (14:26)
As Jesus steps out to prepare our room he sends someone to be
with us in the meantime so we do not get lost and don’t feel afraid. We aren’t abandoned, but always cared
for. Such is the image our gospel writer
John wants us to understand in our lives of faith.
This all sounds great – a God who serves us and prepares for
us! And indeed it is true. But this is not a recipe for a hedonistic
lifestyle. When God’s love is truly
abiding in our hearts we are not content to just accept. We feel compelled to give as well. Then we become instruments of God’s love –
not only proclaiming the lavish love of God for us, but also embodying it.
Then we too are willing to stoop down and wash the dirt off
other people’s feet in welcome to God’s kingdom.
Then we too are willing to take the place of servant to prepare
a place for those not yet here.
Then we too discover the wholeness and oneness of life in God’s
kingdom. That is what Jesus meant when
he told the disciples in our gospel reading, “Peace I leave with you; my peace
I give to you.” This is not just an
absence of conflict. It is a sense of
deep unity and tranquility. Though it
has not yet arrived in this lifetime its benefits come to us.
Only by upending what we think we know about God can we come to
really grasp what Jesus is teaching the disciples, and us. May we be willing and able to see God in new
ways all the time and may the peace of God abide in your life.
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