Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me

 

 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  And where I go you know, and the way you know."  

 

Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?"  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."  

 

Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."  Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?  The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

 

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.  And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.   If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

 

"If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."

 

- John 14:1-17 

 

This week the lectionary focuses on Jesus' final discourse to the apostles at the Last Supper, known as the Farewell Discourse.  He has given the disciples one final, new commandment.  He said to them, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35).  This is the foundation for His Church going forward. 

 

  "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  And where I go you know, and the way you know."   My study Bible comments that many mansions is a word-picture, a kind of parable, of an abundance of living accommodations around a central courtyard.  "Mansions" also speaks of the multitude of blessings that await those who enter the Kingdom of God.  In the ancient world, it was typical that extended families formed clans in which living accommodations were spaced together, and extended as family expanded.  Hence, "many mansions" conjures a picture of a very large extended family.  See Mark 3:32-35.

 

 Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?"  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."   Jesus defines Himself here as the way, the truth, and the life.  My study Bible remarks that the way we reach the Father is forever established in the Person and work of the Son.  The Son is the truth because He is the unique revelation of the Father.  Additionally, Christ is the life who became Man so that we may have life, and as He is our life, not even death can stop us from coming to Him.  Furthermore, only in Christ can we come to know the Father, because only in Christ is the way of all truth and all life found.  The word in Greek translated as "way" is also used to mean road or path.

 

 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."  Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?"  My study Bible explains that our response to Christ determines our relationship with God the Father.  It says that if we reject Christ then we will never find the Father; but if we believe in Christ and follow Him, then we ourselves will become "children of God," who live eternally in the love of the Father (John 1:12).  

 

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?  The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves."  While human beings are made in God's image (Genesis 1:26), my study Bible reminds us, the Incarnate Son is Himself the exact image of the Father (Colossians 1:15).  Jesus did not say, "I am the Father," for He isn't the Father.  Instead, here He declares that He and the Father are one in essence, and undivided in nature, while being distinct Persons of the Godhead, the Holy Trinity.  

 

 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father."  My study Bible comments that the greater works indicate that Christ's working through mere humans after Pentecost is greater than His performing signs and wonders directly.  These works find testimony in the Book of Acts.  They include spreading the gospel throughout the world, miraculous healings, and raising the dead.  

 

"And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.   If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."  According to my study Bible, to pray in Christ's name does not mean to simply attach the phrase "in Jesus' name we pray" to the end of prayers.  To pray in Christ's name means to pray according to His will.  Just as an emissary of a king can only be said to be speaking in the king's name if he says what the king would want him to say, my study Bible explains, so also we can only be said to be praying in the name of Christ when we pray according to what He wants.  The purpose here is not to get God to do our will (that would be akin to practicing magic), but for us to learn to pray properly, according to God's will (Matthew 6:10).  

 

"If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."  Helper (in the Greek,  Παρακλητος/Parakletos, often rendered "Paraklete") is a reference to the Holy Spirit.  This title, my study Bible explains, also means "Comforter," "Counselor," and "Advocate."  The Spirit of truth is in every believer, my study Bible notes here, and we are called to know Him.  Moreover, the Holy Spirit prays in us and for us when we do not know how to pray, thereby enabling us to pray in Christ's name (John 14:3-14; Romans 8:26) and giving us words of witness when we speak the gospel (Mark 13:11).

 

Let us consider what it means to pray -- and indeed, to live -- in the name of Christ.  For one thing, as we read in Jesus' words here, where Christ is, so the Father is also.  This means, additionally, the presence of the Holy Spirit, for where One of the Holy Trinity is, there the others are also.  The word used most often for the Holy Trinity, in describing the essence of God, is consubstantial.  This means that although Father, Son, and Spirit are three distinct Persons, they are one in their essence or substance.  So, therefore, Jesus can say, in His Incarnation as the Christ, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father."  Whatever we see Christ do, whatever we read that He said, the commandments He has given, and all the ways in which He has instructed the disciples from the beginning of His ministry right through this moment recorded at the Last Supper, He has reflected God the Father.  When, for example, He taught, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35), this commandment also reflects to us the Father, and indeed, the Holy Spirit.  St. John, the author of this Gospel, is also the one who wrote in one of his Epistles, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8).  As followers of Christ, so we are also called to participate in His life, and share in this nature; that is, to grow in "image and likeness" as we are able and through cooperation with the Holy Spirit, the Helper Christ names in today's reading.  In seeking to guide us regarding praying "in His name" we should consider that Christ Himself has said, as cited above, "For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother" (Mark 3:35).  This is about a lived reality, a participation in the life of Christ.  This understanding is particularly embodied in the Eucharist, which Jesus will introduce to His disciples at this Last Supper, taking place just prior to His betrayal and arrest, shortly before His death and Resurrection.  This lived reality is so essential to the understanding of Christ's faith that we receive Christ as a gift from the Father, Incarnate as the human Jesus, so that we understand what it is to be "embodied" in His name:  just as He explains that those who see Him see the Father, and so we are meant also to grow -- through God's grace and our acceptance and participation in it -- in the same image and likeness.  Thus, His final commandment that we love one another as He has loved us -- and that by so doing, all will know that we are His disciples.  In the same sense, our prayer, if we truly pray in His name, is to reflect our "embodiment" of our faith, our participation to the greatest extent possible for us at any time, in His life and the life He offers to us.  Let us endeavor to find His way, and truth, and life for us.  Jesus begins, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me."  In the Greek, to "believe" is translated from a word whose root is to trust.  Let us commit ourselves to this trust, for this is the way we learn how to live.