In Jesus Holy Name May 7, 2023
Text: John 14:1-14 Easter V Redeemer
“The Longing of the Human Heart”
What do you fear? What makes you afraid? An ambulance isn’t the only ride that demands valor. You may be down to your last paycheck. Are you afraid of being rejected, or does that new mole appearing on your back bring worry and fear? Fear can lock us into an emotional prison. Life is important to us, so we do everything we can to keep our heart ticking strong and vibrant.
Most of us this morning are not old enough to remember the name of Dr. Christian Bernard. He was the cardiac surgeon who performed the first heart transplant in 1967. (My gosh…that seems so long ago) He tells the story of one of his transplant patients who asked to see the removed organ. So Dr. Bernard brought the man his heart in a large bottle. As the man looked at the big muscle which once pumped life through his body, the famed surgeon realized that this was the first time in human experience that a person had ever seen his own heart. A historic moment.
But for the patient it was a very personal and moving experience. His old heart was worn out, it if had not been replaced he would no longer be living. After a long pause, the man in gratitude simply said: “I’m glad I don’t have that old heart anymore.” Yet he knew that his new heart would eventually stop and death would come.
The words written by John in chapter 14 are words we have memorized. “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” It is a promise of our eternal destination when our heart stops beating. As we read this passage we find ourselves “listening in” on a conversation between Jesus and his disciples. He is about to be arrested and crucified. Jesus just told Peter that he would deny knowing Him 3 times. He told them that Judas would be a traitor. They are confused. (pod cast Chuck Swindoll December 14, 2022)
Jesus is going to die. He knows it. So He tells his disciples that they will not be able to go with Him where He is going. It will bring a question from Thomas. This news is unexpected and shocking. I’m going to die, but I will live on…so don’t let your hearts be troubled. One of you will betray me but not one of you will miss my return. The words He spoke, we know by heart.
Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.1 There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I am going there to prepare a place for you and I will come back to take you to be where I am.
The Jewish religion was divided on the topic of death and resurrection. For the Sadducees there are no angels and no resurrection. That’s why they are “so sad you see”! The Sadducees saw the grave as a tragic one way trip. There are people today who agree with the Sadducees view of life and death. It is sad. For they are living life with no hope.
The Pharisees believed in a resurrection, but it was only a spiritual resurrection. Jesus was about to change that reality when on the third day after His crucifixion He would rise with a resurrected glorified body. What did Jesus say to the disciples in the Upper Room on Easter morning when He suddenly appears?
“Why are you troubled? Why do you doubt? Look at my hands and feet, touch me and see that I am not a ghost. A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” (Luke 24:37-39)
Max Lucado in is book “Fearless” writes: Jesus is promising His disciples more than what the Pharisees believed. Jesus is promising an eternity in God’s eternal home in heaven. Jesus is elevating funerals to the same level of hope and joy we have at weddings. For Jesus, His eyes have the perspective from heaven…He knows what is beyond death’s door. The trip to the cemetery, the trip to the borrowed grave on the outskirts of Jerusalem, for Him is like a walk down the wedding aisle.
There is a wonderful song by the music group, “Mercy Me”.
You probable are familiar with the words:
I can only imagine what it will be like When I walk by Your side
I can only imagine what my eyes will see When Your face is before me
I can only imagine
We don’t deserve it. We haven’t earned it. The halls of heaven are ringing with
music. The music is like none we’ve ever heard. Suddenly, silence. Now, light—blinding light. It is not the end of our journey, but it is the beginning of eternal life in a new heaven and new earth with glorified resurrected bodies…a return to the paradise of Eden. A place of perfect harmony and peace.
Jesus tells Thomas and the others… You believe in God, keep on believing in me.” Though there are many religions in the world there is only “one” way to know the true God. “Philip, the Father is in me and I am in the Father….I am the way the truth and the life… no one comes into the presence of the Creator and heaven except through me.
The Bible tells us that “God has planted eternity in the hearts of men”. (Ecclesiastes. 3:10 TLB) It doesn’t take a wise person to know that people long for more than earth. Unhappiness on earth cultivates a hunger for heaven. By gracing our hearts with a deep dissatisfaction, God holds our attention. The only tragedy, then, is to settle for earth, as did the Sadducees. They were content in a strange land, to intermarry with the Babylonians and forget Jerusalem.
I came across a sad story this week, a story about a honeymoon disaster. The newly weds arrived at the hotel in the wee hours with high hopes. They’d reserved a large room with romantic amenities. That’s not what they found. Seems the room was pretty skimpy. The tiny room had no view, no flowers, a cramped bathroom and worst of all—no bed. Just a foldout sofa with a lumpy mattress and sagging springs. It was not what they’d hoped for; consequently, neither was the night.
The next morning the sore-necked groom stormed down to the manager’s desk and ventilated his anger. After listening patiently for a few minutes, the clerk asked, “Did you open the door in your room?”
The groom admitted he hadn’t. He returned to the suite and opened the door he had thought was a closet. There, complete with fruit baskets and chocolates, was a spacious bedroom!’ Can you just see them standing in the doorway of the room they’d overlooked? Oh, it would have been so nice… But they missed it.
How sad. Jesus has made a great promise. Unfortunately many have missed His words of promise because they do not believe Jesus is God (Lucado “Heaven Our Highest Hope) ? “Where there is no assurance of heaven, no assurance of salvation, there is no peace. No peace means there is no joy.” Lucado In the Footsteps of the Savior p. 105)
At every Lutheran grave side we read the promise of Job 19:25-27
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last.
And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God!
I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.”
The human mind wants to know if there is more than life now. What is beyond? The human heart knows there is something more, because God has placed that inquisitiveness in every human heart. We are “like foreigners and strangers in this world” (1 Peter 2:11). Because there is nothing on earth that can satisfy our deepest longing. We long to see God.
I can only imagine when that day comes
And I find myself standing in the sun
Surrounded by Your glory What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for You Jesus Will I sing hallelujah?
I can only imagine
I don’t think the disciples of Jesus fully understood His promise. Thomas could not sit on his hands any longer so he asks: “Lord, we don’t know the way where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Jesus answers with His greatest title: “I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Note the definite article “The”. The book of Proverbs states there is “a” way that seems right to man but it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12 Jesus does not say “I am a Way”. I am the Way.
Jesus stilled the storm, gave sight to the blind, healed the leper, raised the dead. What more proof does one need? Philip…you have seen these miracles. It is the Father who is in me and I am in the Father. We are “one” and the same. Wow! What a statement!. Can we even comprehend it?
(Tell the story of John 5) (take out your bibles and follow along)
Jesus is in Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. He heals a man who was invalid or 38 years at the Pool of Bethesda. He got up and was in the process carrying his mat home. The problem? The Jewish leaders called both the newly healed man and Jesus out as law breakers. They both were working the Sabbath. The healed man carried a mat. Jesus healed on the Sabbath. (read 5:16-18) They knew He was making Himself equal to God.
What is Jesus saying? I think something like this. My Father and I created a perfect world, a paradise, and then we rested, not that we were tired, but stepped back as it were to enjoy the perfect display of our own glory revealed in our creative handiwork. That’s what Sabbath is for—the restful, focused, enjoyment of God.
But then sin entered the world, and through sin came sickness and calamity and death. And from that moment, my Father and I have been working again. We have been working—in many ways that you don’t understand—to restore a Sabbath paradise to the universe. We have been working to overcome sin and sickness and death, by my death on the cross, my resurrection will change the world. There will be hope and no longer will the fear of death control your heart. (Hebrews 2:14)
When I healed this man, intentionally, I healed him on the Sabbath, I am showing you something about myself. What was happening at the pool of Bethesda was that my Father and I were revealing the new heaven and new earth. It is a world in which there will be no sickness and a world in which there will be no sin. “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” (John Piper Jesus Equal to God 9/6/09) Philip, the miracles tell you who I AM, I AM the one who spoke to Moses. The Father and I are One. That is the truth that Pilate missed.
It is the truth the two on the road to Emmaus missed until Jesus opened their eyes. It is the truth that the disciples missed until Jesus appeared in the Upper Room. He is the truth, the way, the life. All who believe in Him have eternal life.
He is Risen!
