Homily for The Fifth Sunday in Easter May 10, 2020

In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the Gospel Lesson for this Fifth Sunday in Eastertide, Jesus says to his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 

Many of us, when we hear this passage from the NRSV, something sounds off.  We are used to hearing the King James Version which reads, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.”  And while I tend to prefer the Authorized or King James Version most of the time, this is one of those times where I believe the modern translations are more than necessary. 

So many have heard this text as a promise for a life full of material wealth, and they’ve equated such a promise with heaven.  This is demonstrated through many old gospel songs such as “Mansion over the hilltop.”

“I'm satisfied with just a cottage below

A little silver and a little gold

But in that city where the ransomed will shine

I want a gold one that's silver lined

I've got a mansion just over the hilltop

In that bright land where we'll never grow old

And some day yonder we will never more wander

But walk on streets that are purest gold.”

The end of John 13 – John 17 is known as “the Farewell Discourse” in John’s Gospel. It is different from other farewell discourses, of course, because Jesus isn’t preparing his disciples for his absence from them so much as he is preparing them for a new way of being present with them after his death, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of the Father.  He knows they will need his words to re-assure them that he has not abandoned them, but rather, has enabled them to be closer to him than ever before. 

And in this farewell discourse, where Jesus chooses his words very carefully so that his disciples might recall them after he has ascended into heaven, why in the world would Jesus comfort his disciples by saying, “Times will be tough, you won’t have much…but don’t worry – one day I’m going to give you a mansion!” 

Yeah – he wouldn’t.  That doesn’t sound at all consistent with what we’ve read in John’s Gospel or any of the Gospels for that matter.  You see that word “mansion” is one of those carry overs from Latin which had more in common with the Greek word used in John’s Gospel than it does with the modern word itself.  When we hear mansion today, we think of a grand and luxurious house that only the richest of the richest inhabit.  But that’s not the meaning of the Greek word monē that we find here in John!  This Greek word means, “a temporary dwelling place” – kind of like a hotel room. A place to stay while on a journey.  When the New Testament was translated into Latin, the word they used to translate the Greek word monē was mansionem which had multiple meanings, one primary meaning being “a stopping place or halting place along a journey. A station.”

You see over time, in the English language, that Latin word became our English word mansion, and, over time, it came to mean something completely different. 

So, what Jesus is promising his disciples is not that though they are poor now, one day they will be materially rich.  What Jesus promises them and promises his church of all time is that as his disciples journey the way in the truth revealed in Jesus towards everlasting life, they will never travel alone.  Jesus will always come and tabernacle with them just as God tabernacled with his people following the Exodus.  The Exodus is a type of that which was to come, and its fulfilment occurred as Jesus passed over from death to life through his death, resurrection and ascension.  Just as Moses comforted the people in Deuteronomy 1:26-33 exclaiming to them that they need not be afraid, because the Lord God goes before them to prepare a place for them that will be the promised land, so Jesus comforts his disciples by saying, “Do not be afraid; I will go before you and prepare a way for you.”  This way he prepares will lead to life everlasting. And as we journey this way in the truth of our Lord’s revelation to us, he promises to pitch tent with us – to be present with us – until that day he returns to take us to himself once and for all so that where is, there we may be also. 

If you came today hoping for a mansion, I’m sorry – that’s not likely to happen.  But I hope that when you leave today you will be comforted in knowing God has prepared for us our true dwelling place – eternal life in the life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  I promise you that when Jesus re-appears and takes us to himself so that we might be fully where he is – in perfect relationship with the Father in the Holy Spirit – you will know contentment like never before and a mansion will seem to be a shack in comparison to what God has in store for us.  Silver and Gold will not matter.  Because as St. Augustine said, “our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee.” 

And until that day, be comforted in knowing that no place you go along the way will ever be traveled alone.  After the Exodus, God’s people built for him a tabernacle so that as they journeyed, God would pitch tent / or tabernacle with them.  Now, after the ultimate Exodus event of our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension, God promises to tabernacle/pitch tent with us along the way.  He will never abandon us.  He is with us most especially in the darkest, scariest, and loneliest of times of our lives.

Brothers and sisters, don’t put your trust in earthly things that will pass away; trust in Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no once comes to the Father – our ultimate dwelling place – except through him. 

In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.