John 14:1-14 has the theme of Jesus as the way to the Father for those who believe in him. The issue of this segment is what will happen to Jesus after his departure. He notes that they have troubled hearts. They have worry, fear, anxiety, or stress. John has portrayed a spiritual battle between spirit and flesh, light and darkness, sight and blindness, and life and death. Jesus assures them that while dark forces at work against him and the disciples, God will have victory. Their destination is to be in the house of the Father of the Son. Jesus portrays an intimate setting between God and human beings in eternity. They will not make this home in eternity, in other words. Their Father in heaven will make it. However, as is typical in John, Thomas, one of the disciples, shows he does really understand. He is thinking on an earthly level, while Jesus is speaking on a spiritual level. We have here one of many “I am” statements in John. He in his person is the way, because he is truth (revelation or that which grounds, sustains, and comprehends all things) and life (salvation). We also see Jesus distinguishing between himself as the Son and his heavenly Father, pointing the way to reflections on the Trinity. The Son is the revelation of the Father. We know the Father because we know the Son. God is transcendent, beyond anything we can imagine, but also known and revealed in the Son. We also read of the intimate connection between Father, Son, and Spirit. The Son asks the Father to send the Spirit. The Spirit is to glorify the Son. We also read of the world. He stresses the tension between world and disciple. Although the world does not always persecute the disciple, the disciple should always feel the tension. Yet, followers of Jesus are to keep presenting Jesus to the world, for disciples continue the work of Jesus in the world.
John 14:1-4, have the theme of the departure and return of Jesus. Here is the first of four consecutive chapters of unique material in which Jesus begins by addressing the disciples' fears concerning what will happen, both to him, and to them after he is gone. 1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. The heart has an affective role. The heart trouble of which Jesus speaks is worry, fear, anxiety, and stress. It can feel like a loss of hope, a lack of faith, a panic attack, or the pangs of uncertainty about the worth, value, and direction of life. Jesus is preparing the disciples to be without his physical presence. Their troubled hearts are a result of the spiritual battle John portrays between God and Satan, Spirit and flesh, light and darkness, sight and blindness, life and death. Death is Satan's realm. Given that Jesus has told the disciples of betrayal, departure, and denial, Jesus was to strengthen the faith of the disciples. Jesus refers to the kind of heart trouble that keeps one up at night thinking about money, biting your nails when you are worried about your child, or on the phone with a friend craving advice for a crumbling marriage.
Let us pause for a moment and reflect upon these powerful words. Jesus commands his followers to have untroubled hearts even in this screwed up world. He says them when he is moving toward his death and is preparing his disciples for his absence. Have you ever said something like this? We need to get to the heart of the matter, which is something like what the Bible means when it refers to the heart. What are the things that matter to you? What ought to be the core beliefs and values that guide your life? What will you do with your life in terms of a vocation? Most of us want our work to be something we genuinely enjoy and toward which have some passion. What is that for me, at this stage in my life? Such questions deal with the heart spiritually, and a good response will have a positive influence upon your whole life. Such spiritual questions are weighty.
Many people are quite health conscious today. I became somewhat that way in college and have listened to what I thought was good advice over the years. Eat well. Exercise regularly. Your heart is an important muscle. I guess the point of all this is to care for the heart, and you will care for your whole body.[1]
All of this stimulated some thinking on my part about preachers and teachers within the Christian tradition referring to the “heart.”
I have come across a few bits of wisdom about worry.
I have developed a new philosophy. I only dread one day at a time. -Charlie Brown.
As printed in a church bulletin: Don't let worry kill you - let the church help.
Some suggestions on how to keep from worrying:
Drag your thoughts away from your troubles ... by the ears, by the heels or any other way you can manage it. -Mark Twain.
For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe.
-Author unknown.
These words are some wise counsel for gaining perspective on what worries us. We even have a hymn that challenges us:
This is my Father's world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!
If you have gone to a funeral you have likely heard the openings words of this chapter. These are powerful words. Yes, the threat of life ending is always present. Yet, that does not get to the heart of the matter spiritually. The threat of never becoming what we could be, the twin threats of emptiness and lack of meaning, are always present as well. As Kierkegaard put it in The Concept of Anxiety (1844), too many rush headlong into life, continuing to rush forward, and yet, never find life. In fact, he says, the rush of a modern life does not give one pause to reflect upon matters related to meaning. If we are not careful, we will say “goodnight to all meaning in life.” If this was true in the time Kierkegaard, it is true at a greater level today.
Most of us have plenty of things about which to worry. I have no doubt many mothers worry about their children. It seems natural to do so. Family finances, the turmoil in the world, or the core beliefs and values that guide your life, ought to concern us. What does God want you to do with the brief time you have on this earth, and particularly at this stage in your life?
The danger of not taking care of your heart spiritually is that you will not be able to stand the test and trials of daily life. You may lack direction and crave a sense of peace. You will look for nourishment in all the wrong places. You will skip matters of the spirit and try being content with whatever this world provides. Thus, you may devote yourself to the latest politics, the latest pop psychology, the latest way to make money, or the latest health craze.
Believe (πιστεύετε) in God, believe also in me. Dark forces are against Jesus and the disciples, but God will give victory, even if in a quite unexpected way. To have faith, to believe, is a call to accept the victory of Jesus over Satan and death. 2 In my Father's house (the family house) hinting of the unity between himself and God, there are many dwelling places (μοναὶ, a rest spot for a traveler on a journey relating to “remain” or “abide”). Jesus portrays an intimate setting between God and human beings in eternity. The comfort and warning here is that disciples are not in their own house, but in that of the Father of Jesus, a house that has many rooms, including some of which they do not yet know. [2] Aside from the obvious meaning of this promise regarding eternal life and to unity with Christ after death, the phrase "Father's house" also carries meaning aimed at addressing their next fear, namely, how they are to carry on in Jesus' absence. How can they be sure of their future without their great leader? How can they be sure they will be able to follow after him, in either life or death? Note the double entendre in the passage. Not only does Christ go to make room for his followers in the heavenly home to which he is going, he also promises them a place in the very family of God. In this case, which is slightly different from the example of the "I AM" statements above, when Jesus stresses the unity between himself and God, this is a unity that is available to the disciples and all believers as well. By making a place for them in his "Father's house," Jesus reveals the disciples' adoption into God's own family through which they have direct access to all divine authority and power. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Knowing they fear separation from him, he promises that they will be reunited with him in his "Father's house," where Christ himself goes to prepare them a place. Although Gnostic authors thought in terms of a savior preparing the way for the elect, the thought of John is far from their conception. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. In what way did Jesus come for the disciples? A Passover reading of Deuteronomy 1:29 would suggest Jesus is leading them to the Promised Land. This promise keeps the church alive. The Parousia is a second coming. It could refer to soon after the death of Jesus, we may see a re-interpretation within the New Testament with the delay of the Parousia in the direction of a realized eschatology. Through the journey of death, Christ takes believers into the house of the Father. Paul could also have the hope that when our earthly tent in which we live is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going."
In John 14: 5-7, Jesus is the way because he is the truth and life, understood from the perspective of the mission of Jesus to humanity. Jesus is the way because he reveals the Father. 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" As is typical in John, Thomas is thinking on an earthly level, while Jesus is trying to get him to think on a spiritual level. 6 Jesus said to him, "I am (Ἐγώ εἰμι) the way, and the truth, and the life. John 14:6a is significant enough to demand some special attention.
John has many such “I AM” statements: "I am the bread of life" (6:35); "the light of the world" (8:12; 9:5); "the gate (for the sheep)" (10:7, 9); "the good shepherd" (10:11, 14); "the resurrection and the life" (11:25); "the (true) vine" (15:1, 5); and in this passage, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (14:6). They all express the role of Jesus in our spiritual lives, and therefore, the health of the heart – spiritually. Others of these statements are absolutes which remind one of the name of God in the Old Testament, "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3:14). For instance, "You will die in your sins unless you believe that I AM" (8:24); "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM" (8:28); "Before Abraham was, I AM" (8:58); and "When it does occur, you may believe that I AM" (13:19). The NRSV, in all but John 8:58, completes the phrase with the pronoun, "he," but notes that the Greek just says, "I am." Another, remarkably interesting "I am" phrase occurs in the episode of the storm on the Sea of Galilee. In John 6:20, when Jesus comes walking across the water toward the boat, he says to the disciples, "I AM. Do not be afraid." Here again, the NRSV gives a more nuanced translation, "It is I; do not be afraid," but the more basic meaning of the Greek is cited in a note. In these cases, when Jesus says, "I AM," however, it seems clear that he is making an obvious statement of identity with God by using God's most holy of holy names, the great "I AM."
In this passage, Jesus speaks of himself as the Way itself. The background is the Old Testament concept of the Way, with a moral dimension, and the Qumran community as seeing itself as the way, and early Christians viewing their community as the Way (Acts 9:2, 19:9 &23, 22:4, 24:14, 22). This would be natural since John views Jesus as personified Divine Wisdom. In John, Truth does not mean something static, but that truth imparts itself to others. Life does not mean self-sufficient life, but rather, the life that imparts itself and redeems from death. The Johannine Jesus describes himself as the true and proper object of all the metaphorical conceptions he uses, including that of truth and life here.[3] Jesus points to his own person as the Way, which is as such the Truth and the Life. [4] He also says that Jesus is the Way because he is truth (revelation) and life (salvation).[5]
This verse is important support for the reciprocal self-distinction of Father, Son, and Spirit as the concrete form of Trinitarian relations. God is infinitely above all that is human and creaturely. Therefore, one may know God only through the Son. Only through the Son can we as human beings know the Father. The Son is the revelation of the Father, since the one knows the Father only through the Son. [6] In using the word “truth,” John is identifying Christ with the truth of God that grounds, sustains, and comprehends all things. The saying is in keeping with the eschatological awareness that Jesus had at his coming. Therefore, any interpretation of his person and history claiming to be a relevant understanding of its object, has to do with the truth claim that defines the coming of Jesus and its confirmation by the resurrection of Jesus in which the Christian faith has its basis. Christians live with faith in this historical testimony to Jesus.[7] Only the doctrine of the Trinity could clarify the question of union and tension between transcendence and immanence. This doctrine makes it possible to link the transcendence of the Father in heaven with the presence of the Father in believers through the Son and Spirit. Therefore, in virtue of the consubstantiality and perichoresis of the three persons, the Father, notwithstanding transcendence, Christian theology could view as present and close to believers through the Son and Spirit, a point this passage makes clear. Therefore, the Trinitarian life of God in the economy of salvation proves to be the true infinity of divine omnipresence. [8] John in his notion of Logos and Son has resolved a tension within the Jewish faith, for God is transcendent and immanent. He identified the impersonal Logs with the person of the Son and presented Jesus as the incarnate Logos who explains the unseeable God, the immanent Son who makes the transcendent Father visible. Yet, in resolving the tension for the Jewish faith, he set up a fresh tension for the Christian faith. For when the divine power that seizes upon conscience and will, heart and mind, is identified with or as a particular person it is bound to have an encounter with God experienced as personal address, which had not been conceived in terms of a person distinct from God. However, now in John the word of God is identified with a unique historical person, whose pre-existence as a person with God is asserted throughout.[9]
The segment concludes: 6bNo one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." The implication is that they have not come to know him. God is so different from us that we must rely upon God to show us what God is like. We call this revelation. God has “revealed,” God has “disclosed” who God is, in Jesus. Now, if this is true, we need to spend some time deepening our relationship with him.
I offer a simple illustration. I have a GPS system in my iPhone. What can it do for me? Well, for one thing, I can plug in a destination, and it will provide me a route to get from here to there. Now, is there something even better than a GPS or a map? Yes, a person who has been there, who remembers, and who can guide us. In fact, sometimes the GPS is wrong, and we had better have another way. Now, God knows our difficulty with finding directions. Therefore, God sent Jesus to show us the way to our destination, namely, in the intimate communion we will have with God and each other in the eternal home God has made. Jesus is the one who shows us the way to get there, because he is truth and life. If we stay close to Jesus, we will reach our destination.
John 14:8-14 is part of the larger segment of John 14:1-14, where the theme is that Jesus is the way to the Father. Jesus is sharing his final words with his disciples. What we are going to read about is the intimate connection between the Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father sends the Son. We are going to hear about having faith or belief in this relationship. Christians have said from the beginning that if people want to know God, they need to look to Jesus. We are going to read about the close connection between loving Jesus and keeping his commandments. In this Gospel, though, this means the “new commandment,” that of loving each other. As often happens in the New Testament, faith and love come close together. We also learn that Jesus is asking the Father to send the Spirit of truth. As Jesus goes to the Father, his followers will have the Holy Spirit living in them. The role of the Spirit is to remind us of Jesus. The Spirit does not glorify himself. The Spirit glorifies the Son. We are also going to hear the word “world.” In this Gospel, that is his shortened way of referring to people who do not believe or resist the preaching of the apostles. The point is that if you allow the Holy Spirit to live in you, you will have to put up with a certain strangeness in relationship to the rest of the world. The world will not understand you and your values. At times, you will not understand why the world does what it does. He will talk about prayer “in the name of Jesus,” qualifying what it means to ask anything in prayer. What I want to stress, though, is the close connection between the Father, Son, and Spirit. The works of Jesus will continue in the works of the disciples, through the power of the Spirit. The Spirit keeps presenting Jesus to us. We are to keep presenting Jesus to the world, and the Spirit will help us do that.
John 14:8-11 become a commentary on the relation of Jesus to the Father. 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Philip is requesting a vision. Again, Philip is not getting the spiritual level at which Jesus is speaking. Our desire clear and certain knowledge is admirable. We want to get important things right. Often, that means analyzing all the evidence careful and coming to conclusions. Science, mathematics, and technology often encourage us to move this direction. Yet, another way we have that helps us to gain clarity is as we share our stories with each other. We invite others into our lives, and become part of their lives, as we give a narration of the events in our lives that tie our lives together in a way that makes sense in our minds as well as to others. Our stories reveal the nature of our commitments and the values we hold dear. Philip has an admirable desire for clarity. 9 Jesus said to him, with obvious disappointment, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Luther will make the point that the Trinitarian God is revealed in Jesus Christ. Implied here is a connection of the Father and Son to the distinction of the hidden and the revealed God. Yet, the point is not that the Father is the hidden God and incarnate Son the revealed God. In the event of revelation, the hidden God is revealed as the Father of Jesus Christ. The unity of the hidden and revealed God is manifest in the unity of the Father and the Son. If for Luther the unity of the hidden and revealed God will be definitively manifest only in the light of eschatological glory, this means that the unity of the Trinitarian God is still engaged in the process of history. The Trinitarian distinctions of the Father, Son, and Spirit are not hidden. The divine reality discloses itself in the event of revelation. What is hidden is the unity of the divine essence in these distinctions. [10] How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? The question implies a desire for a vision. If we are not sure how to describe God, we look to Jesus. One way we can reflect upon the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in that he is the story God tells humanity concerning what God is like. God discloses the heart of God to us. If we are open to the story, and discover ourselves in it, we discover the heart of God. 10 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; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Word and work complement each other. These “works” probably include the “signs” Jesus has done throughout the first half of the gospel, beginning at the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11) and continuing through the raising of Lazarus (11:1-44). On some level, the disciples and all who saw Jesus should have believed based on these signs (2:11; 12:37). The importance of the “works of God” has been defined before in John’s gospel, however. Jesus proclaims, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (6:29). "Works" refer to all the acts of his ministry, the purpose of which is always to make known the power and character of God.[11] He is the true Son - the Child of the Heavenly Father. He and the Father share an essence, an access to power, and a relationship that allow the full exercise of that power. The terms Father and Son in John are such that the content of the one presupposes the other, and there follows the declaration that from knowledge of the content of the one there can be knowledge of the content of the other. In John, one is form while the other is content.[12] The believer can have confidence in the providence of God because our creator is also a gracious Father to the children of God. In this verse, we can see that the Christian belief in providence sees the Father, and therefore God over us, and therefore the Lord of the world process. Revelation discloses the will that rules the history of created being. In addition to this most unique and overt naming of Christ's divine power, John also relates unique teachings of Christ, unparalleled in the other gospels, which make clear his plan for the disciples and for the faithful who will come after them. If the question of Philip implies the desire for a vision, Jesus' answer is that now that he is here, Jesus is the only vision they need.[13] 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, emphasizing the relationship between Jesus and the Father and exhorting the disciples to believe; but if you do not believe the Father within Jesus does the works that Jesus does, then believe me when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in me because of the works themselves.
John 14: 12-14 have the theme of the power of belief in Jesus. Here is encouragement and affirmation that the works the disciples would see in the generation after Jesus were still valid and part of his ministry. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. The disciples can wield the same authority, do the same actions and even greater acts, if they will only believe that they, too, share this familial bond with God through Christ. Christ is “coming again” in the mighty works in the disciples. The miracles of Jesus were signs of the revelation and salvation he brings. The works of the disciples continue this ministry.[14] When the disciples share in Jesus' works, they share in the ministry of Jesus in revealing of God to the world. Through faith, the individual is united to Jesus and the Father, and thus share in their power. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. The Spirit makes it possible to pray to the Father “in the name of Jesus,” to which Jesus promises a hearing. The promise that Jesus will do whatever is requested is coming in the last discourse. Undoubtedly, similarities with Synoptics suggest they are independent sayings of similar meaning. Making requests "in Jesus' name" suggests a request relevant to the Christian life. It suggests restriction, such asking in concert with others and in God's will, considering experience. Jesus' repeated promise that he will answer the believers' prayers makes clear that JESUS acts in and through the disciples and their works. All of this suggests that their works are, in reality, the works of Jesus- and by extension the works of God the Father. [15]
These are puzzling words. Could it be that one reason our faith feels so weak is that it never gets off the couch? Could it be that the very reason we feel so ill equipped to face life's obstacles is that we have only attempted to avoid them? Could it be that the very means of strengthening faith is jumping at opportunities that will test it? Let the fruit of the Spirit flow through us. Look them up in Galatians 5. Let the spiritual gifts find development in us. Look them up in I Corinthians 12-14. We may need to take the difficult step of reconciliation with a friend, co-worker, or family member. We may need to heed the call to serve on persons on the fringes of society. We may need to take difficult steps in managing the financial concerns of the household. We may need to stop making excuses for where we are now in our lives and make tough decisions that enlarge and expand our faith.
[1] The basis of my concern today is a few articles I came across recently. The Mayo Clinic has some simple advice regarding a healthy heart: eat well and exercise regularly. You need both. You cannot compensate for a bad diet by exercising more. I have jokingly said that I like to run in order to eat the desserts I like. Well, a health person on television this week said the body does not work that way. The point is, you really need both.
I have come across many statistics. I will not bore you with them. Here are a few. In 2006, 631,636 people died of heart disease. Heart disease caused 26% of deaths—more than one in every four—in the United States.1 White people die of heart disease at a greater rate than either African-Americans, Asians, or Native Americans. Death rates due to the heart are highest in Mississippi and lowest in Minnesota. Lowering cholesterol and blood pressure levels can reduce all forms of heart issues. The greatest risk factors involve inactivity, obesity, and high blood pressure, while smoking and high cholesterol are lower on the list. Finally, you put yourself at more risk when you do not eat breakfast. I have never been one regularly to skip breakfast. A bowl of cereal or something simple is usually enough. Sometimes, I get a treat with bacon or sausage and egg. Sometimes, I make my own buttermilk pancakes. Who knows, I may have gotten it from my mother. The first thing Mom would do early in the morning is have her coffee, cereal, and her cigarette.
[2] Barth (Church Dogmatics, IV.2 [68.3] 808)
[3] Eduard Schweizer.
[4] Barth (Church Dogmatics, III.2 [44.1] 56)
[5] Barth, Church Dogmatics, II.1 [25.1] 29)
[6] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 1, 308, 315)
[7] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 3, 155)
[8] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, 1988, Volume 1, 415)
[9] Dunn (Christology in the Making, 1980, p 250)
[10] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 1, 340)
[11] (C.K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John, 2nd ed. [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978], 460).
[12] Barth, (Church Dogmatics, I.1 [5.4] 176)
[13] Barth, (Church Dogmatics., III.3 [48.2], 29)
[14] Dodd (The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, 1940, p 395)
[15] Pannenberg (Systematic Theology, Volume 3, 204)
No comments:
Post a Comment