Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Mansions over the hilltop

Sunday, April 20, 2008

John 14:1-12
After their last supper together, Jesus spoke to his disciples. "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you ...

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me ...

"Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

"Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves: I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."

This is one of Jesus' gentler moments; he shows his love for the guys who have walked with him for three years. He knows he'll be tortured and killed, and he already feels the agony of their grief. These men are his band of brothers.

His message, however, is not essentially gentle. He has opened the way to God the Father, and he expects us to follow him in. "Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing." What's he been doing? He has been raising his friend from the dead, healing the sick, casting out evil spirits, and he's about to be lifted up on the cross to die.

And he's expecting the same thing from me? That's exciting! No, that's scary! Jesus never failed; he always did the right thing, chose the right words. And I think he's saying that if I have faith in him, it will be the same for me.

Jesus set the highest possible standard and lifts me right up to it. "Come into my Father's house." This is not about dying and going to heaven. This is today. Here. Now.

That's scary! No, that's exciting! The Kingdom of God has come to earth, and all I have to do is open my eyes, open my arms, open my heart ... and it comes also to me.

Can I believe this, even though I notice a big difference between Jesus' track record and my own? Or should I dial down my hopes, shut up between my blinders and live a careful life, shy, circumspect, sort-of-safe, like T. S. Eliot's Prufrock:

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

My God is too small. I know that. When I take big risks, have big faith, then He grows. I grow. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1). I hope so. Don't be tentative, Dave. Don't be so Pru-frocky:

Though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet--and here's no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

One of my favorite preachers recently said, "Doubt and faith are two sides of the same coin." The more faith I have, the more doubt will come in its wake.

No matter. In my Father's house are many mansions.

All of me, why not take all of me. Lord, you are the safe place and the right place for me to be.

Devotions Archive

Mansions over the hilltop

Sunday, April 20, 2008