"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my father's house there are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go there and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going" (verses 1-4).
It's clear that the disciples are distressed at the thought of Jesus leaving them. Knowing this, Jesus comforts them. The disciples must learn to trust in him. He knows what he is doing, and where he is going. And in the midst of this re-assuring language we find a promise: that where Christ goes, his disciples will go also. They will not be separated from him, but will instead know the joy of being reunited with him. They - and all the believers - will be the honoured guests of the father.
Ray Vander Laan and Judith Markham note in Echoes of his Presence (Zondervan, 1998) the deep symbolism of this passage. In the first century, a man and a woman went through an elaborate engagement ceremony, in which the woman drank a cup offered by the man as he said some words. They would then leave - the man to build an extension to the family house, and the woman to train in domestic duties. The man kept building until the house met the requirements of his father - in other words he had no idea when he would have fulfilled the element of the wedding contract. The woman would fill a lamp at her window every night, so that when the time came, her lover would know which window to take her from.
The words that were used at the engagement ceremony were those used by Jesus. He used language familiar to all of those gathered, and said that heaven 'is just like that'. When the time comes, there be a giant procession back to his house. That's where the party really starts! That will be where God enters his city, and provides the light for the global embrace that is set to follow for eternity.
Blygt.
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