When You’re Down Series

5 November 2005

When You’re Down

John 14:1-14:6

1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

2 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.

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Have you ever had one of those days when everything goes wrong? It doesn’t make any difference how hard you try; it just seems that everything backfires on you? The harder you try, the worse it gets. I’m convinced that all of us have had days like that. I want to tell you a story that may illustrate very well what I mean.

It is about a lady at the airport who stopped in the shopping area to buy a Kit Kat candy bar to eat while she was waiting for her plane. In the crowded waiting area she spied an empty seat at the end of one of the rows. Rushing to get it, she quickly leaned her hang-up bag against it, placed her purse & several other small items on the table between her & a rather large man seated there, & then turned to straighten her hang-up bag. With everything finally in order, she was ready to eat her Kit Kat candy bar. But to her surprise, as she started to reach for it, she saw the man in the next seat unwrapping her Kit Kat candy bar, & she watched in utter amazement as he broke off a section & ate it. She thought, "Well, my goodness, I’ve never seen such gall." She glared at him, & he looked at her, but no words were exchanged. She was so furious at what he had done that she decided that if he was going to be that brazen about it, she could be brazen, too. So she reached over to him, broke off a piece & ate it herself. Then he broke off another piece & ate it. It became almost a duel between the two of them to see who would get the most. Quickly the candy bar was consumed, & she sat there just boiling that someone would be so rude & so presumptuous as to eat half of her candy bar. Well, after a few minutes of silence, the man got up & left & then came back with another Kit Kat candy bar. He unwrapped it, broke off a piece & started eating. She thought, "Well, since he ate half of mine, I’m going to eat half of his." So she reached over & broke off another piece & ate it. Once again the same scenario was repeated until the whole candy bar was gone. She sat there thinking, "This is the most ridiculous thing that has happened to me in all my life." She continued to glare at him, & he looked at her, with neither one saying a word. Just then, over the intercom came the announcement that her plane was ready for boarding. So she opened her purse to get her boarding pass &, to her utter embarrassment, there was her Kit Kat candy bar. She had eaten half of 2 of his candy bars, & her’s was still in her purse!

There are times, I suppose, when things really start to go wrong. Your whole world seems to be crumbling around you & you wonder what is going on. That is kind of the way the apostles are feeling as we come to the 14th chapter of John. They have been on a roller-coaster of emotions. Their week had begun gloriously with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, & people waving palm branches & shouting, "Hosanna to the King!" Even the chief priests who had been plotting against Jesus cried out in despair, "What can we do? The whole world has gone out after Him!" But Jesus had not come to establish an earthly kingdom, & He refused the crown. Disappointed & stymied in their dreams of a Jewish kingdom with Jesus as their miracle-working king, the fickle crowd began to change. And soon the priests were once again seeking someone to betray Jesus into their hands. So as the 14th chapter of John opens, we see Jesus & His apostles in the upper room where they have eaten the Passover meal together.