JOHN 14.1-3: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. (2) In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (ESV)
I posted a blog about verse one above on November 7, 2019, before the year 2020 would unfold with all of its challenges, horrors, and sorrows. Death, economic destruction, loss of certain types of freedoms, and all manner of carnage was perpetrated by the COVID-19 virus, and in some cases, the political responses thereto.
I recall exiting the year of 2019 looking forward to 2020, after a year of family sorrow. And I am certain that many people entered the year 2020 with high hopes. And so looking forward into the year 2021 can easily be filled with anxiety and an uncertain, troubled heart.
The verses above are always applicable to our lives, and it is especially so here and now. When Jesus spoke these words to His disciples, the terror of the Roman Empire method of execution, crucifixion on a cross, was confronting Jesus in the upper room. John 1.1-4 teaches us that Jesus is God, He always has been, and all of creation came into being by and through Him. Yet, it was appointed for Him to submit physically to the torture and agony of crucifixion.
And in this context, Jesus gives His disciples the exhortation to trust God the Father, and also trust in Him. And this trust is focused on a certain outcome. The faith Jesus is calling for points to the eternal life that Jesus Himself prepares for His disciples. It points to dwelling places Jesus will go and build for His disciples.
The promises made by Jesus to His disciples in the upper room are offered to every person, everywhere. Jesus’ last words to His disciples before He ascended into heaven commanded them to, “make disciples of all nations”. The promise of eternal life is offered to each of us, but it must be accepted by us to be personally realized. John 1.12 says, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, He gave the right to become children of God.” (ESV)
So as we face this year, the ultimate confidence and strength to proceed forward is realized by this trust in Jesus and God the Father, and through Them, the promise of eternal life. Notwithstanding whatever unfolds in the year 2021, this promise of eternal life is the way Jesus comforted His disciples during this time in the upper room, and it comforts us.