The first thing I want us to consider this morning as we look at this passage is to

Transcription

1 John 14:1-11 An Untroubled Heart The first thing I want us to consider this morning as we look at this passage is to think about who is not here in the scene. In the previous chapter Judas had already given his heart to evil and decided to betray Jesus, and last week s sermon text had Judas eating the morsel of food Jesus gave him and then going out into the night to bring the soldiers and temple security to the place where they might arrest him. It s a very remarkable thing, really, if we think about it, that only Judas ate. This last meal of Jesus and his disciples is an important part of our understanding of Jesus and the Christian faith. In fact, we believe that even today we take part in that meal with Jesus as we share communion Sunday after Sunday. So what are we to make of it that this gospel writer has only the betrayer eating? It may help to tie this betrayal story to Judas betrayal in the other three gospels, when he comes to the garden of Gethsemane and betrays Jesus with a kiss. Maybe you ve wondered what that was about. The kiss was the special greeting of fellowship in the early church, and Paul writes to the churches at Thessalonica and Corinth and Rome to greet one another with a holy kiss. And in 1 Peter we are told to welcome each other with the kiss of love. But when Judas kisses Jesus, as the sign of betrayal with evil in his heart, he is breaking fellowship with Jesus;

2 and it is no longer a kiss of love and humility and friendship but a kiss of disunity and a kiss of pride. It is the same at the last supper: Judas eating in John 13 is a blasphemous act of anti-fellowship as he eats and turns away from communion with Jesus and from his brothers who had followed the Lord with him. So, we have to ask, who is left after Judas goes away? The eleven disciples- with all their faults, their lack of understanding, Peter s false bravado and denial; even with their weaknesses and fear, they are still the faithful followers who remain with Jesus; they are just like the rest of us, they are the community of believers. Thus, Judas, eating from Jesus hand and kissing Jesus, in both tales of betrayal, betrays the Lord and the community to which he belongs using or misusing- or abusing-the community s best expressions of love and fellowship. Ok, I may have taken too long to get here, but this is the point. Even with Judas betrayal of the community of faith and of the Lord of the community, the bond of fellowship amongst the believers is not broken- because Jesus is present. We should consider these last chapters of John to be teachings and assurances to a community of faith, probably a persecuted community, that may have had many questions about what creates or destroys fellowship, and here we can read the words of Jesus and his assurances that he would reside with those who believe in

3 him, with those who remain in loving relationship with others. And even a betrayer, even one who turned away from faith or caused the suffering of a fellow believer, even a Judas who had shared fellowship with brothers and sisters, even he could not tear apart the communion of saints, because Jesus lives in the community. Later in the chapter, Jesus tells the disciples that the Father will send the Counselor, the Spirit of truth he calls him, the Holy Spirit, to be with them forever (verse 16); Jesus says that he and the Father will be in them (verse 23), and they will understand this by their love for one another (verse 21). I will not leave you desolate, he says to them (verse 18); and thus he can say to us in any situation, let not your hearts be troubled. This is how we should understand this scripture. Jesus is not talking about heaven, but about his continued presence with those who believe in him. Yes, he is going away, but he s coming back again- not some dramatic descent from the clouds in the distant future, but very soon- in just a few days- after the resurrection. He will return to them; and he is preparing a place for them- not the heavenly mansions, but a household of faith; and he will take them to himself so that where he is, they may be also (verse 3); he takes them into the community of the belovedthe fellowship of those who love- for that is where he is, still giving love to them

4 and demanding that they share his almighty and eternal love, his selfless and humble love. In chapter 14, Jesus promises this little community, these eleven disciples, that they will not be set adrift. And the words also hold true for that suffering community John wrote to at the end of the first century. In the midst of their fear and pain, he still was with them, loving them. They had only to love one another to experience his presence; they had only to remember his love for them to know that God had not deserted them. And these words hold true for us today, so let not your hearts be troubled. Certainly, there are times that we do not feel Christ s love and presence with us, during times of distress or loss, when we may feel confused or alone in the darkness, or when the pain seems too great to bear. These words are his promise that he will remain with us in the community of faith, where his love resides and where his kind of love is practiced. Let us take heart, for we are loved. Sa I was working on this sermon, I began to wonder if the title should be something other than An Untroubled Heart. A Changed Heart, perhaps, because of the certainty of love and mercy that the heart will receive from its Lord; or The Brave Heart, for the love of Jesus lives there and nothing can overcome it; or

5 maybe, A Shared Heart, because the heart most at peace with God, most connected to God, is the one that receives love and gives God s love to others. We are few in number in this congregation, and sometimes that may be frustrating to us, and maybe we are frightened for the existence of this church in the future. We don t have to look far to see full churches and successful church programs. Some do so well, they start franchises, the same church at a second location, or a third, The Such and Such Church Downtown, or a West Campus, or whatever. I hope all the people in those churches get what they need. But I wonder if they are able to give what they need. Truly, how much is required of them for their big church to succeed or to do the ministry it has set for itself? Does their giant congregation require that they love one another with foot washing kind of love? I hope so, because that s the only kind of love that counts. Well, I am not trying to denigrate what other churches are doing, or even trying to celebrate smallness, but here at little First Christian we have an opportunity to experience real community. In our passage Jesus is talking to eleven men, just eleven, and the church John addresses in the gospel is very likely small. The promise of the presence of the Lord among any of us- of any size- is

6 the only hope we have, and the experience of his presence happens as we live for others as he did. In our church we are not blessed just by our smallness, but by our need for one another. Perhaps because we are small and know each other well, we are given the opportunity to love each other with humility. Here, we are not just part of a denomination, not just fellow church members, but friends of Jesus, brothers and sisters together, and loving and serving one another. Jesus says in verse 6 of our passage, I am the way and the truth and the life. Think of him as the truth and the life of our fellowship- he lives with us and the only truth and life we possess are his. And let us think of his love as the Way, the only way, fellowship can exist. By his love that we give to each other, our community will live. We will know God as we share that love with each other, and the world will see God among us, in our love. Let not your hearts be troubled, for the love of our Lord is with us.