Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 07 June 2021, by Captain Michael Ramsay
Today is Fathers’ Day. At one point this week we actually had a glimmer of hope that we would see Rebecca this weekend and for most of the week it looked like Susan, Sarah-Grace, and Heather would be able to head to the mainland this weekend to see her, but it didn’t work out.
Fathers’ Day is often a chance when children are able to visit their fathers. This can be quite an occasion if the children live a distance from their fathers – as Susan and I have for most of our adult life – and/or if they don’t get to see their parents very often. If they live quite a distance away sometimes the visits are longer because of it. Children, even adult children going to see their fathers can be quite an occasion.
Jesus, in our passage today is speaking about going to see his father. Jesus is unmarried and probably in his early thirties and he is at dinner with his students and closest friends when he tells them that he is going to see his father and the conversation that ensues with his disciples is quite interesting.
Jesus says, 13:33-34: “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me…[but] Where I am going, you cannot come...”
Simon Peter then asks Jesus, ‘Where are you going? What do you mean that we can’t come with you? Jesus tells Peter, 14:1-4, “I am going to my Father’s House;” he says, “…My Father’s house has many suites… I am going there to prepare a place for you. And …I will come back and take you to be with me…. [and then he says] You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Peter and the others don’t really know the way and are still not entirely sure where he is going, so Thomas now tries to get a clear answer. He re-asks Peter’s question his own words, he asks, Verse 5, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answers, Verse 6, “I am the way... No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.”
Thomas was trying to help, by rephrasing Peter’s simple question ‘where are you going’? And now Thomas, like Peter, is left to ponder Jesus’ responses. Jesus’ answer to, ‘how do we get to where you are going?’ is ‘I am the way to where I am going’. This probably isn’t all that helpful for Thomas and Peter.
Philip takes a crack at finding out exactly where Jesus is going as he asks for further clarification; Verse 8, Philip asks, “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough.” Jesus says that he is in the Father and the Father is in him and that they will know that Jesus is in the Father and that they will be in Him as long as they obey His commandments. Jesus is in God and God is in Jesus, He says, and they too can be in God as they obey Jesus’ commandments.
But the disciples still don’t quite understand where Jesus is going, so now Judas (not Judas Iscariot) asks, 14:22, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus then more fully explains to his disciples that He is going away but He is not leaving them (or us) alone – the Paraclete is with us to comfort and help in times of trouble – and Jesus will come back too (15:28) and when he ultimately comes back, he will be with those of us who love him and so keep his commands forever – for we will receive a suite or a mansion that he has prepared for us right in his Father’s House (14:2). We never need to be alone. We can be with the Lord forever and for now,
So the answer to the question, ‘where is Jesus going?’ After dinner, Jesus will be arrested. He will be tried. Jesus will be executed. Three days later He will rise from the dead and come to his disciples, then he will go to His Father’s House, he will ascend to the Father who is in Heaven.
That is where Jesus is going now in our text and then sometime very soon now in our world he is coming back. Jesus went to the Father and Jesus made the only way to the Father. Every one of us who loves Jesus (as shown by obeying His commands) will continue to live our life with him even after we pass away; as we go to be with Jesus in our eternal mansion. So the question for us today is not where is Jesus going – we know that - but rather the question for us today is where are WE going? Are we going with Lord? If we are going with the Lord now then we can be assured that our journey will not end even at the grave. The Lord will never leave us or forsake us and even after we leave this life we can join him in the suite, the mansion, that he has prepared for us in his Father’s House for eternity.
Let us pray.
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