A TROUBLED HEART THERE NEED NOT BE FOR WE WHO KNOW THE WAY
Spring Break began Friday and the radio announcer said “there will be more than 80,000 travelers to pass through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport” on that particular day.
If you yourself have ever passed through the Atlanta airport, you know that there are many entrance ways, passageways, ramp ways, moving walk ways, not to mention all the zig zagging pathways created by ropes snaked through hoops mounted on metal stands. And everywhere there are arrows with the wording “This Way” printed on them in order to point you in a certain direction.
So, if travelers want to get through security and get to the right concourse for boarding the plane that will carry them to their destination, they must follow the directions, and stay the course that has been laid out for them by folks who know the way to go to get to the specific place where everyone needs to be.
In the spiritual realm of life, the process by which we pilgrims just passing through this world, arrive at God’s intended destination, follows a similar pattern.
If we listen attentively to our Lord’s declarations about Himself . . . place our trust in Him . . . believe what He says is truth . . . follow His instructions . . . do His Will . . . He will bring us to the place He has prepared for all who believe.
To trust Him as Lord and Savior is to know the Way to get to the place He has prepared for us and, therefore, overcome a troubled heart - John 14:1-7 . . .
Martin Luther called this passage “the best and most comforting sermon that our Lord delivered on earth, a treasure and a jewel not to be purchased with this world’s goods.” Likewise, let us realize that true peace and real joy cannot be bought. It is matter of the heart . . . our innermost being . . . trust! So . . .
If you’re discontent, worried, anxious, bewildered, perplexed, confused, or otherwise in need of comfort, perhaps the reason is that you don’t trust Him like you should and could. For, you see, if we really trust Christ, what is there to fear or worry about? Why be troubled? A troubled heart there need not be for we who know the Way to glory!
Perhaps your plight has at times been like Thomas’s and mine: we thought we understood but, as it turned out, we really didn’t understand. You might have said to someone, in response to their distress, “I understand” when, truth be told, you did not because you had not “walked in their shoes” or “sat where they sat” - and therefore there was no way you could fully understand.
Let’s face it – the disciples’ faith was typified by Thomas who should’ve and could’ve but didn’t understand.
They believed what they saw, and no more. Jesus tried to get across to them that His visible presence was not as significant as their understanding of His continued presence spiritually speaking, following His ascension back to the Father. In essence what He told them was: “You can trust My presence . . . You can trust My promise . . . You can trust My person (I will go with you . . .).”
To them He said, and to us He says: You believe in God, even though you do not see Him. You also believe in Me whom you do see. Keep on believing and do not let your faith be diminished just because you do not see Me in person. I will still be with you in Spirit.”
Flashback to Deuteronomy 31:6 - “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble, for the Lord your God goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”
Such faith in the omnipotence and omnipresence of God was a basic tenet of the Jewish religion and is just as basic to our Christian faith. Jesus tells us what He told them: “Keep on trusting Me, just as you have been, and are, trusting God, even though I also will not be visible in the flesh.”
Trust that demolishes trouble and grants peace is a matter of the heart.
A framed crocheted work of art that I cherish was given to me by my youngest son . . . The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched but are felt in the heart. Peace (of mind, heart, soul) is one of those best and most beautiful things in the world!
We can trust His presence to “see us through” life’s struggles, and we can trust His promise to take us to His “Father’s House” to go on living.
Jesus’ favorite name for God was “My Father”. His favorite expression for his heavenly home was “My Father’s House”. We can identify with this description because of the joy that going back home brought us after we had moved out for a while for whatever reason.
Going home to heaven will not be like going as guests into a humongous unfamiliar palace of the kind where our ancient ancestors might have lived. We will be going home to our Father’s house where we will be residents, not guests.
There will be room enough for everyone who ever called upon the name of the Lord and was saved. We know this because Jesus said there will be so many “dwelling places” - a much better rendering of Jesus’s intent than the word “mansions” (used in early translations to help folks think of the glory of their heavenly existence - as they thought of royalty that was so prevalent in their day).
Heaven will be spacious and large but fellowship there is intimate because, as John visualized it in the Revelation, God the Father is there, among His people, dwelling with them in unbroken and unhindered fellowship . . .
What a reassurance it must have been to those frightened disciples at that particular moment of truth when it began to dawn on them that Jesus was about to leave them in a manner that, until then, had been unthinkable and furthermore would return to receive them in a manner just as unthinkable, and would remain unthinkable until a few days later when the greatest negative the world has ever known would be turned into the greatest positive the world has ever known.
Jesus summarized His reassurance in the best known of all His sayings . . .
“I am the way” was proved via dolorosa (the way of the Cross) . . .
“I am the truth” was proved via the Resurrection. Pilate would ask, “What is truth?” Jesus would answer by rising from the dead, “as He said”, thus proving that He spoke truth but more importantly that He Himself epitomized, embodied, was truth . . .
“I am the life” was proved by His appearances following His death, burial, and resurrection - with the exclamation point being His Ascension back to the Father in whose House all who have entrusted their lives to Him would one day be gathered together for experiencing everlasting life! Yet, the questions in their minds persisted:
What would be their fate . . . future . . . reason for living, let alone dying the death of martyrdom? All of which of course in due time would be revealed to them, but right now with so much uncertainty looming over their heads, Jesus reassures them that “it will have been worth it all” when they see Him again!
They would see Him again! And so will we! There would be the resurrection . . . His appearances . . . His Ascension . . . but the best for them and for us was and is yet to be! He will come again to receive His own (His Bride) unto Himself!
And, folks, not only will His coming to receive His own occur at the end of this “age of grace” in which we live and in which there is still time for repentant sinners to be saved but also, in a very real sense, He receives us unto Himself at our moment of death. For, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord!”
As much as we might like to go to heaven via a Delta 777 (their newest luxury airliner), there’s no need to go to the airport when we die . . . Nor do we need a GPS system to give us directions on how to get there . . . Nor do we need to spend excessive time speculating on what the place is like yet miss how to get there . . . We will not know what heaven is like if we do not know the way to get there. A troubled heart there need not be for we who know the way to the Father. His name is Jesus, God’s only Son, He’s the One, the only One. Of this you can be sure!
When He predicted His death, Jesus made this mind-boggling, soul-stirring statement: “But I, when I am lifted up, will draw all men (persons) to myself.”
God’s Son our Savior: lifted up via the Cross, lifted up via the Resurrection, lifted up via the Ascension! We have His promise: We who know Him whom to know is life eternal shall be lifted up by Him to be with Him!
Let this be the thought we carry with us: “Love Lifted Me”! Amen.
