In
the last month, we have experienced the passing of Linda’s mom and our
daughter-in-law, Danielle’s grandmother.
Linda’s mom passed away on St Patrick’s day and Danielle’s gramma this
past Monday. The funeral is today, Good
Friday. Both ladies knew the Lord as their Savior. Linda’s
mom was 88 and had been in an Alzheimer’s care facility for the past six years,
slowly passing in front of our eyes. Her
passing was a welcome blessing as she had prayed that she might die. Danielle’s gramma was a vibrant 80, still very
much enjoying life. We sat next to her every Sunday in our Milan church, most
recently when we went back to Michigan for Linda’s mom’s funeral. We, chatted at our granddaughter, Gracie’s ball
game the previous Friday. Her passing
was a surprise and not welcomed, but received in God’s grace. Life will be different with these two ladies
gone. This all leads me to share some thoughts with you.
This
week is known as the Passion Week, during which we commemorate the death burial
and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
When we reflect on Jesus’s life and death, we usually think of His life,
death, suffering and resurrection as preparation for our “after life” or
eternity. And certainly, He did; but He
also prepared us the “life after death”, the life we must live after a loved
one dies. Life goes on. There is work to
be done, kids going to school, meals to be prepared. The hardest hit is usually the spouse. Linda’s parents were married almost 71 years
and Danielle’s grandparents over 60 years.
Now the husbands are alone, for the first time in their life, no parents
back home. The house is empty. We
prepare ourselves poorly for “life after death”.
However,
Jesus spent most of His ministry dealing with just that, preparing us for life
after His death. If you read the
gospels, all of His sermons dealt with this life. His prayers centered around this life. In fact, His last message to His disciples
addressed this expressly.
Only
the Gospel writer, John records this message and prayer. Most Christians don’t even know that this message
was spoken after the last supper, after Jesus predicting Judas’ betrayal and
Peter’s denial. If you ask the average
Christian to quote any passages from Jesus’ sermons, most will quote from the
sermon on the mount. If you ask for the
most quoted prayer, it would be the Lord’s prayer. If you ask for His longest prayer, most won’t
know it or even where it is. If you ask
what was His last sermon, most won’t be able to identify it. Most don’t remember when Jesus prayed for
Himself. If you ask for the prayer specifically for us and His disciples, most
won’t know it. Once I quote it, most
will remember the first part; most will not recall the entire message and
prayer. Far fewer of us will have
internalized this prayer and live in the entirety of it daily. It starts in John 14 and goes through the 17th
chapter; where upon Jesus entered the garden of Gethsemane to pray alone.
His
message begins:
"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God,
believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not
so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that
where I am, there you may be also. KJV
The Common English translation says:
My Father's house has
room to spare.
The Holman Christian Standard says:
In My
Father's house are many dwelling places;
In the
Latin Vulgate, the word means: a traveler's resting place. The Greek word is
related to the verb “meno” , meaning remain or stay, which occurs 40 times in
John.
We
often think of it as a mansion as in the southern gospel song, I’ve got a
mansion just over the hilltop. Do we
really think Jesus was building houses for us?
We sing it. Talk like it. Read the entire sermon. Jesus talks about “knowing the Father”,
praying in the name of Jesus, of doing the works that he did and greater works,
keeping His Word, receiving the Holy Spirit, abiding in Him and His words
abiding in us.
Jesus
prays that we may be one with the Father just as He is one with the FATHER.
Jesus
was not talking about houses for our bodies.
He was talking about dwelling places, resting places for our hearts, our
minds and our spirits. It is the same
place that the psalmist in Psalm 91 says:
The
one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the
Almighty.
I encourage you to re-read John 14-17
sometime during this weekend. Read it in
a couple different versions. Read it,
realizing that Jesus was speaking to you, about you and praying for you, the
last night of His life on earth, His dying prayer was for you. He has prepared a special place for us; but
to occupy it, you must know Him and know His Word. Without Him and without His Word, we are
homeless and lost, physically and spiritually.
You may be saved but without abiding in Him and His Word, you will never
experience the fullness of what Jesus suffered and died for. He prepared us for “the after life” and “the
life after”. The life after we die, and the
life we must live after our loved ones die and the life we now live in the
light of His death, burial, resurrection and His imminent return.
He is risen!
