In chapter 14, John continues to tell us about the things Jesus said to his disciples during this final Passover meal, the Last Supper. He’s told them some pretty disturbing things. There was a traitor in their number (Judas has by now left the room), Jesus himself would not be with them much longer, and they wouldn’t be able to follow after him when he left them, at least not right away. Now Jesus comforts them:
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 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. 3 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. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” (NIV)
The main point of the Passover meal was to reflect on how God delivered his people from bondage in Egypt. Jesus turned his disciples’ attention to the deliverance he was about to win for them, bringing all mankind out of the bondage of sin forever. The parting of the Red Sea, the ten plagues, the blood of the lamb on the door posts and the killing angel, the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai—all of this would pale compared to what Jesus Christ was about to accomplish with his own blood on the cross.
Jesus beckons us into heaven with his amazing words: “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” The word for “rooms” (monai, μόναι) occurs just about twice in the Bible, here and later in this chapter, when Jesus says: “My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” It’s a word that refers to a dwelling, not necessarily a single room, but a place to live. The word chosen in the Seventeenth Century for the King James Version, mansions, was at that time (1611) a country house without any fortifications, a dwelling without high walls or towers or a gate. It’s easy to see why such a word would be brought into the translation, but our idea of a vast estate isn’t what “mansion” really meant in 1611 when the King James Version was published, nor is it necessarily this to which the Greek word monai refers. There is a verse in the prophet Amos that leads us toward the idea of a vast home, when the prophet calls God the one “who builds his lofty palace in the heavens” (Amos 9:6).
Heaven will be our dwelling place, the place where we will stay, live, work, and be fulfilled. Jesus himself has prepared a place there for us, and if we cannot follow him just this moment, we shouldn’t despair: He will come back for us. When he said, “I will come back” (verse 3), he was talking about his second coming on the Last Day. “This same Jesus,” the angel said, “who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go” (Acts 1:11).
The reason he will come back is to bring us all home; we are his family. He shed his blood for us, he rose again to insure our own resurrection, he has prepared a place—a palace—for us, and he will bring us home. If his disciples responded to this assurance with a question, we will hear his answer. But we don’t need to question him at all. He has prepared his heaven to receive us, and there is no other heaven waiting. When we rise from the dead, we will be with him there forever.
We have his Word on it.
More about “mansion” in the Seventeenth Century: Shakespeare used the word “mansion” as a synonym for a “dwelling place” of any kind, as we hear him talking about life and death: Why so large cost, having so short a lease / Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend? (Sonnet 146, lines 5-6). Also, in another of his poems: Her house is sacked…her mansion battered by the enemy (The Rape of Lucrece, 1170-1172).
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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