Sermon for Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year A)
Trinity Lutheran Church – Madison, WI
May 10th, 2020

Preaching Text: John 14:1-14

Beloved of God, grace and peace to you from our mothering God and from our comforting Christ. Amen.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places.”

I’ve most often heard these words at funerals. There’s something powerful about hearing the voice of Jesus say, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” – especially in those troubling days.

In some ways, it is strange to hear this text read in the Easter season. After all in John’s narrative, he’s taking us back in time to Maundy Thursday – before Jesus’s betrayal, arrest, and death. But perhaps we hear this story differently in the Easter season than we would hear it during Holy Week or at a funeral.

Jesus has high hopes and big plans for his disciples, and they are completely bewildered by it.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled, Jesus says. And yet a lot of troubling things have just happened for the disciples.

First of all, in John’s narrative, this text comes shortly after Jesus foretells the betrayal of Judas – a betrayal by one of his closest friends. After Jesus washes his disciples feet, Judas slips out into the night.

Secondly, Jesus has just told his disciples that he is departing and that where he is going, they cannot follow him. What are these disciples supposed to think of that? Your teacher, your Lord, your friend is saying your time together is up.

Third of all, and immediately before today’s Gospel reading, Jesus foretells that Peter will deny him three times. Peter, who is often one of the leaders of the disciples and one of Jesus’s closest friends is going to deny even knowing him.

So Jesus in John’s narrative drops three bombshells. 1) Judas is going to betray him. 2) Jesus is leaving and they can’t follow. And 3) that Peter is going to deny him.

And then the next verse is: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” How can Jesus say “do not let your hearts be troubled”? Of course, the disciples are going to be troubled in this time! Of course, they’re going to have troubled hearts!

And the bewilderment in the story doesn’t stop there either. After Jesus says that he is going to prepare a place and that they know the way to the place where he is going, Thomas speaks up. He asks a question that I think all of the disciples must be wondering. Thomas says,  “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

And then eventually in the text, Philip also will pipe up with his own confusion. “Lord, show us the father,” Phillip says, “and we will be satisfied.”

I feel for these disciples. Their hearts are troubled. How could they not have troubled hearts in the midst of betrayal and loss and denial? Trouble is in the iar.

And yet Jesus says to them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

Perhaps our hearts are troubled in a similar way this morning. We are an Easter people living in a Good Friday world. And it is hard not to see the disconnect between God’s dream for our world and for us and the often nightmarish realities that we run into.

Jesus, how can our hearts not be troubled when the coronavirus is affecting some of the most vulnerable people in our world? I read a statistic from the New York Times earlier this week that one third of deaths in our country have been of people living in nursing homes. Driving home the point that when this coronavirus gets into those care facilities, that it can affect the most vulnerable among us the most. How can our hearts not be troubled by that, Jesus?

How can our hearts not be troubled by the ongoing legacy of racism and the violent death of Ahmaud Arbery – an unarmed black man who was killed while he was out for a run in Georgia.

I’m sure each one of us has our own trouble that is resting on our chest this morning. Perhaps you and I feel like these disciples troubled and confused and wanting to know the way and wanting to know God.

And yet Jesus says to us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

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

“Belief” in John’s Gospel is a relational word. We tend to think of belief in terms of intellectual ascent. But the way the gospel writer uses this term is much more like a trusting intimacy perhaps between a child and a parent or between close friends. We don’t believe in God like we might believe in the tooth fairy or not believe in the tooth fairy. We believe in God like a child who trusts her mother, trusts that her caring mother will be there for her. That’s the kind of “belief” Jesus in John’s Gospel is speaking of.

Jesus from the beginning of this gospel has been on a mission. His mission has been to make God known. In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, we hear that “no one has seen God.” It is God the only Son who has made him known. God the only Son who is close to the father’s heart, who has made him known. That phrase – “close to the father’s heart” – could literally be “laying on the bosom of the Father.” (See John 1:18)

And we see that come up again later in the Gospel. Jesus invites the beloved disciple to lay on his chest. (See John 13:23) Jesus is inviting us into that tenderness, into that closeness with God. Some scholars – including Karoline Lewis, who is an expert in the Gospel of John – suggests that the character of the beloved disciple is perhaps a stand in for the reader, for you and for me, for all of us who are hearing the story. In that way, we are being invited to lie close to the heart of Jesus.

In a world where humanity has been cut off and turned away and alienated from relationship with God through sin and through death, Jesus has come to make God’s heart known to us. Jesus draws us into the tenderness and intimacy he shares with his Heavenly Parent.

Perhaps this is what Jesus is up to in this chapter. When the world seems to be falling apart for the disciples, Jesus says: you know me and that is enough.

You know me, and if you know me, you are close to the Father’s heart. Trust that this relationship is big enough to change this weary world. “Believe in God. Believe also in me,” Jesus says.

Perhaps this is why Jesus sounds so exasperated by Philip’s request: “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.

Jesus says, “How can you say “show us the father”? This is what I’ve been about the whole time! Making the Father known to you! Jesus wants them to know that if they have seen him, if they know him – and the implication is that they do – If you know me and you do, you know the heart of God. Jesus wants his disciples to know that this relationship is enough, is sufficient for this troubled world and for their troubled hearts.

This relationship is enough because Jesus has high hopes and big plans for these disciples. Jesus is ascending to the Father and he reminds them that their true home is to dwell with him in the house of the Lord.

But the mission of Jesus isn’t over. Jesus believes that these bewildered disciples are going to continue his mission: To make God known. He even says that these disciples are going to do the same kind of things that he did to make God known and that they will do “even greater works than these.” Wow!

We have an advantage over these disciples because we are reading this text in the season of Easter. We know that there is more to the story.

Jesus speaks into our reality today: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.” The risen Jesus continues to make God known to us and brings us close to the heart of God. And this relationship is enough for the work that we’ve been called to do this day.

Because just like those disciples, Jesus is empowering us – and that means you, that means me, that means all of us – to continue his mission: To make God known.

That’s the question that I’m left with after reading this text this morning: How is Jesus calling us to make God known here and now? How is Jesus empowering us to show up for the vulnerable in the time of a pandemic? How is Jesus empowering us to show up for racial justice in this country? How is Jesus calling on you, my dear siblings, to make God known in the midst of the world’s troubles?

Because Jesus has big plans and high hopes for you. Jesus makes God known to us. And here’s the thing: when we know Jesus, strange things start to happen. Sins are forgiven. Old enemies are turned in to new friends and even death itself can be conquered. Jesus says we will do the kinds of things that he did to make God known and that we will do even greater works than these. Wow! We know Jesus and Jesus has brought us close to the heart of God. May we make God known in this troubled world. Amen.