Tuesday, October 27
When we’re with someone who is grieving, it’s so hard to know what to say. My best advice is to say little. Just be there, and trust God to minister to them with your presence. But Jesus, suffice to say, was a better minister than you or me. I find it amazing that, in His last hours, with all the horrors that awaited Him, He chose to comfort His friends. Thanks to John, we have those words of comfort recorded. The most well-known portion is John 14:1-6. Jesus offers them (and us) three things to hold onto in times of grief and uncertainty: A place, a promise, and a person.
The place He offers them is what we call Heaven. He says, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms.” The old King James Version said “Many mansions,” and lots of songs have been written about that idea. But when the KJV was translated, half a millennium ago, the word “mansion” had a different meaning. Instead of the palatial estate of a wealthy person, mansion simply meant “a place to stay,” which is what the Greek word in v. 2 means. Jesus is not picturing River Oaks. He is picturing the family home of His own day, where the father of the house would add on rooms as the family grew. Jesus is saying, “There’s room for all of you in my Father’s house. None of you will be left out.” He’s the son of a wealthy man who is telling His poor friends, “You can come live with us. Dad says so. And when you get there, you’re going to love it.”
When I first started preaching, a lot of older folks still carried the KJV, and they would get upset when they heard “rooms” instead of “mansions.” They would sometimes say, “I am counting on my mansion. Don’t take it away!” As a young pastor, I didn’t know how to respond to that. But if I could go back in time, I’d tell them, “Based on everything you know about Jesus, how much He loves you and what it cost Him to get you there, and the fact that He owns all things, do you seriously think that when you first get to Heaven, that you’ll find anything at all in which to be disappointed?”
The promise is His return. “I will come again and take you to myself.” Jesus is coming back someday, and when He does, everything in this world will be set right. We will live with Him as our King in a perfect world. For centuries, Christians have held onto that hope. There’s a biblical word, “Maranatha,” that means “Come, Lord Jesus.” It’s found several times in the New Testament, and Christians have prayed it through the years. They’ve said, “Take my money, my friends, my family, my health, even my life. But you can’t take away the hope that I have in my coming King.” Today, I don’t hear Christians talk about that very often. I take that as a bad sign. How you feel when you think about the return of Jesus is a fairly good way of taking your own spiritual temperature.
The person is Himself. He’s telling them, “I’m leaving you physically, but I’ll always be with you. And anyone who has me has everything they need. Yes, things will be rough at times, but I will get you there, I promise.” In a world when no one wants to take responsibility for anything, Jesus says, “Trust in me, and no one else.”
“Lord Jesus, I do trust in you. And I am so grateful for your promise to return, and my assurance of the place called Heaven. But help me to trust you more. In your name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
