5 Easter

 

May 3, 2026

John 14:1–14

 +Oh, if I had a dollar for every single time I heard this Gospel reading at a funeral!

 I would be a rare commodity---a rich pries and poet!

 In fact, just this past week, I heard this Gospel twice at funerals.

 One of which I did.

 It’s a great funeral scripture.

 It’s the standard.

 And why shouldn’t it be?

 These are exactly the words we want to hear during a time of loss and pain.

 “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

 It sounds nice, I know.

 But let’s face it:

 This is one of the most unreasonable commands in all of scripture.

 Do not let your hearts be troubled?

 Seriously?

 Because, I hate to tell you—my heart IS troubled at times.

 A lot of times.

 But Jesus is insistent,

 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”

 Now, to be honest, this is the exact point most sermons get a little sentimental.

 There is all this talk of “mansions in heaven.”

 And this is what most people at a funeral really hear.

 It almost sounds like a kind of celestial real estate brochure:

 “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places…”

 Which is fine, really.  

 There is comfort here.

 Real comfort.

 We are comforted maybe by this promise that we are headed toward a place already prepared for us, a place where we are known.

 When we travel, we like knowing we have a destination—a nice hotel with a reservation in our names.

 It’s one less thing to have to concern ourselves with as we actually travel.

 But, the problem here is that the mansions part of this scripture is not the main point.

 Jesus isn’t giving them (or us) some kind of  roadmap to the afterlife.

 I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the film Beetlejuice, but it isn’t A Manuel For the Recently Deceased.

 So, what is he doing?

 

He’s trying to keep them (and us) from falling apart.

 We get caught up on the mansions part.

 And doing so we forget the real point Jesus is making,

 “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

 It’s important to remember, trouble is not something that just randomly happens to us.

 It’s what happens when the world no longer makes sense.

 And we’ve all be there, right?

 And in this moment of the Gospel story, the disciples are troubled.

 Deeply.

 We too know what it’s like to live in that space where the story we thought we were in begins to unravel.

 When everything we thought we knew, gets broken apart and thrown to the wind.

 And suddenly we’re not just sad. We’re disoriented.

 We are. . . troubled.

 So when Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” he is not dismissing that reality.

 He is redirecting it, shall we say?

 “Believe in God. Believe also in me.”

 Now, belief here is not just some kind of  intellectual checklist.

 It’s not checking a box that says yup, Ok. God exists.

 So long, trouble!

 Now, finally! Everything’s right with he world!

 It’s more like having something to lean on.

 It’s what you do when it feels like you’re walking on quicksand.

 You shift your weight to something that feels firm and solid.

 Then Jesus says something even stranger:

 After he says, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places…” he then says, “I go to prepare a place for you.”

 He’s not creating this mystical place from nothing.

 He is telling us about something that has always been there—this place from which he came and to which he is returning.

 A place of belonging.

 A place in which we are truly home.

 Thomas then asks, in that way that Thomas always does,

 “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

 Now, Jesus does not, at this ppint,  give him directions.

 Instead he gives him what?

 He gives him himself.

 “I am the way.”

 “I am the truth.”

 “I am the life.”

 Not,  I will show you the way.

 Not,  here is the path, now go walk it.

 He says, “I am the way.”

 Who I am, what I am, everything I represent, my teaching, my Gospel---that is the way.

 Which means that whatever “home,” whatever these “dwellings” are, it is not just a place.

 It is a relationship.

 Philip then says, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”

 Which feels like a reasonable request.

 Just show us God.

 Give us something clear, something undeniable, something we can hold onto.

 And Jesus responds with what sounds almost like exasperation:

 “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?”

 If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.

 Now, that could be a claim about Jesus’ divinity.

 But, there is something so much more amazing in what he says.

 He is essentially saying to Philip,

 You’ve already seen God.

 And God is not what you thought God was before.

 God isn’t only what’s up there somewhere, in some cloudy city in the sky.

 God is right here.

 In the things we do.

 In the words we say.

 God is in what Jesus did when he washed feet, when he ate with sinners, when he forgave way too easily, when he refused violence, when stood up against despots and overturned tables, when he accused self-righteous religious leader and called them, when he went to the cross instead of around it.

 If you’ve seen that, Jesus says, guess what? you’ve seen God.

 “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do,”  all these things they God doing in Jesus’ actions, “and, in fact, will do greater works than these…”

 We can’t put Jesus up on that God pedestal and think to ourselves, “well, he did the work, so now all we have to do is kneel here like good Christians, humbling worshipping and admiring what he did.”

 No.

 Sorry to break that news to you today.

 Now, we are told, go out and do what Jesus did.

 We are told to go out and BE the Presence of God in this world to those who need God’s presence.

 “Do what you have seen me do,” he saying to us.  

 And when you do, you will bring God’s presence into this world.

 You will bring forth the Kingdom of God.

 Now, that too is very frightening.

 That too causes us to feel anxious…and maybe troubled.

 We now are expected to what Jesus did?

 How am I going to that?

 I’ve got a job.

 I’ve got work.

 I’ve got family.

 Well, Jesus says, don’t worry about it.

 Just do it.

 “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

 Don’t be troubled.

 Because bad stuff will still happen.

 But you’re not alone in this.

 Remember this, The way we are seeking isn’t a set of directions.

 Rather, it’s a persistent presence that refuses to leave.

 The place prepared for us isn’t just waiting for us at the end of the story.

 It’s right here. 

 Right now. 

 Right smack dab in the middle of the story.

 So, don’t let your heart be troubled.

 Don’t let your anxiety and fear have the final word.

 But rather, let’s keep going.

 Let’s keep following the One who says, “I am the way.”

 Because if we do, it is then, that we will also truth find truth and life.