John 14:1-14 NRSVUE
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 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. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No 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.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 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. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves. 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. 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.
You can follow along in your bulletin…
Verse 1 – “Do not let your hearts be troubled”
I’m already troubled, but I believe in God and Jesus and Spirit, so here I am… But I’m troubled about the Gospel of John.
As I mentioned last week – the Gospel of John is not my favorite Gospel because of the way it has been used to justify anti-semitism, and certain very narrow, exclusionary interpretations of Christianity.
But what Jesus was telling the Disciples to not be troubled about was his crucifixion.
In John chapter 13, right before today’s passage in chapter 14, it’s Maundy Thursday. We call it Maundy, in Christian tradition, because in John 13:24 Jesus says, “I give you a new mandatum – mandatum is Latin for Commandment… “I give you a new mandatum, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
Maundy Thursday is a nick-name for Mandatum Thursday – Commandment Thursday. And the commandment is LOVE.
So why are they disturbed?
Love is a good thing, right?
Well, Jesus is giving them last instructions after telling them that he’s about to be arrested and crucified, betrayed and denied. So they’re a little shook. Here’s what happened.
Jesus washed their feet and Peter got very dramatic about the whole thing.
Then, Jesus told them that one of them was going to betray him.
Which would get him killed.
So Jesus gave them a new mandatum – a new command to love one another.
After which Peter is like, wait, no, you’re going where? I’m coming with you!
And Jesus is like – bruh – you’re not going to follow me, you’re going to deny me 3 times before the roosters wake up.
So, justifiably so, they were feeling more than a little troubled!
So Jesus tells them, in verse 1, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Just Believe in God and believe in me.
And since Jesus has just told everyone that they can’t go where Jesus is going, Jesus reassures them that there will be a place for them in the house of God.
By this time the disciples are sooo confused.
Like, where is Jesus going?
Why can’t we come?
What house?
What do you mean not even Peter can come?
So Thomas,
I like Thomas, he’s not afraid to ask the questions that everyone is thinking.
So Thomas, asks in verse 5, So… where are you going, so we can catch up to you?
And maybe because the authors of John are kinda extra, or maybe because Jesus is definitely extra, Jesus responds in verse 6 and 7:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No 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.”
And Philip decides to be a good friend and back Thomas up, because this is making less and less sense to them because they’re just trying to figure out where Jesus is going, like *geographically,* so that they can meet up later, and now Jesus is talking about being one with the Father….
Soooo will we be meeting up with the Father too?
Really the Disciples are just so confused at this point because the idea that Jesus was going to be executed by Rome was just not comprehensible to them.
So that’s what’s going on in the story.
What troubles me about this passage in the gospel of John is the way some Pastors have interpreted verse 6 while ignoring verses 7- 11.
What troubles me is an understanding of how salvation works, called Penal Substitutionary Atonement.
This is a relatively new understanding of how salvation works – it only dates back to the 19th century.
The idea being that no one can come to the Father except through Jesus, which is what verse 6 says, in part….sort of.
Penal Substitutionary Atonement – or PSA goes like this:
Father God is angry because He (it’s always He in PSA!)
He is angry because He made a perfect creation and we screwed it up with all our sinning.
Then, they take Romans 6:23 completely out of context by reducing Paul’s, long explanation of why we should try not to sin anymore after we decide to follow Jesus, down to just, “the wages of sin is death.”
Then they take “the wages of sin is death,” and interpret that to mean that sin must be paid for with death. Rather than the obvious meaning that is in alignment with the rest of Romans 6 that sin doesn’t end well.
Maybe you’ve seen the PSA diagram where:
God is here sinful humanity is here
And Jesus is a bridge between us
The logic of PSA being that God *REQUIRES DEATH* to pay for sin, and since the plan of flooding the whole earth and Noah’s arc thing didn’t put a stop to sin, The Father decided to have his son killed for our sin. Jesus’ death becomes the substitute for our punishment.
Hence the term substitutionary.
The main problem with Penal Substitutionary Atonement is that PSA ignores one of the foundational ideas of Apostolic Christianity: Trinitarianism.
Look at verses 9- 11, starting in the middle verse 9
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 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. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
Trinitarianism is only complicated if you’re trying to figure out how it mechanically works. Do I know precisely how Jesus, God and Spirit are one and yet separate – no. Nobody does – it’s what we call a mystery of the faith. Don’t worry about it. We’ll understand it better by and by!
However, Trinitarianism is very simple to understand in how God functions as Trinity.
Creator, Christ and Spirit are all the same personality.
If you’ve met Jesus, you’ve met the Father, and you’ve met the Spirit.
If you’ve met Spirit, which is more common these days, you’ve met Jesus and the Mothering God who gave us birth.
Jesus has the same personality as the Father and
Creator has the same personality as Jesus.
If, as believers in Penal Substitutionary Atonement argue, Father God cannot bear to be close to sin, then how could Jesus stand to be around all those sinners?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
It makes no sense for “Father God” to be an angry, abusive father who kills his son because He can’t stand His sinful creation and for Jesus to be a loving, forgiving savior who wants to be with us always if Father, Son and Spirit ALL HAVE THE SAME PERSONALITY!
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
Penal Substitutionary Atonement, and the way it misuses scripture, troubles me.
But I believe in God, and I believe that Jesus is God.
I believe that God decided to come down here Godself, not out of anger, but out of love.
To command us to love one another, just as God loves us.
I believe that it is not Jesus’ death that saves us from an angry Father.
I believe that Jesus rose from the dead to prove that it is love that saves us – and love cannot be killed.
There is no Angry Father God.
You know who was angry?
Zeus.
Zeus, the King of the Roman gods, was an angry old man sitting on a cloud ready to strike people down with a bolt of lightning for annoying him.
Zeus, made half-deity sons with unwilling human women, who sometimes intervened on behalf of their human mothers and siblings.
I think that the old religion of the Roman Empire bled into the new religion of the Holy Roman Empire, such that the personality of Zeus was substituted for the personality of Yahweh, which is the personality of Jesus.
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
There is no Angry Father God and gentle Jesus – there is only One God.
Does God get mad?
Absolutely!
Jesus got mad at the money changers in the Temple and at the bad Pharisees, not all Pharisees, just the bad ones, in the Pharisee movement who spread bad theology.
God got mad at the Kings of Israel for failing to care for widows and orphans, overtaxing the poor, treating Bathsheba the way David did, and allowing the worship of other gods like Molach who demanded child sacrifice. Ewww.
Scripture shows us that God is capable of anger…
at injustice, mercilessness, and oppression.
Scripture does not show us a God who sits on a cloud with a bolt of lighting in his hand, waiting to smite you for walking into a church!
God loves you. No ifs, ands or lighting bolts!
Let’s continue into verse 12.
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,
Not only does God love us – Creator, Christ and Spirit loves us –
God empowers us.
God empowers us to do even more than Jesus did while on this earth.
That sounds a little crazy right?
Like, I can’t raise the dead, or feed 10,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish!
But hasn’t the church fed multitudes more since Jesus fed the 5,000+ people?
Jesus was able to heal people with a word or a touch, but haven’t the hospitals founded by the Church healed Billions more in the last 2000 years?
Jesus taught many people, but haven’t the schools, Universities, and Seminaries the Church has founded taught Billions more?
Because since Jesus went to the Father, followers of Jesus have asked God to help us love one another as God loves us.
God isn’t waiting for us to screw up so They can hit us with lightning.
God is waiting for us to ask Them for anything in the name of Jesus.
Well, not just anything, God isn’t a convenience store in the sky!
Anything that is in alignment with the teachings of Jesus.
So, I’m going to ask God to get our housing project moving again.
To get it built soon enough for us all to see it finished.
For us to be the church for the people who live there.
Because Jesus said, in verses 13 and 14:
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.
