Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.” (John 14.23-29)
On this Sixth Sunday of Easter, we are nearing the end of the Easter Season. Next Sunday we will celebrate the Ascension of the Lord and the following Sunday we will celebrate Pentecost. When it ends, only we will know how we have spent these weeks. Ideally, they have offered us the time to examine our hearts to see if they carry the same love that the sacred heart of Jesus carried. If they do, then we have heard his call to carry his words and his ways into the world. If they do not, then we have wasted the opportunity, choosing to stay in the tomb rather than to embrace the new way of life that Jesus calls us to live.
Of course, the scriptures have been selected specifically to support us in making the right decision, hopefully choosing to continue the presence of the Lord Jesus in our world through our manner of living, a life centered on love, peace, and joy. As we look at the text offered to us today, we find these three attributes highlighted in the words that Jesus offered his followers shortly before his death, resurrection, and return to his Father in heaven.
The short text that we have before us is part of a larger text that is often called “the Farewell Discourse,” the name given to Jesus’ words in this section because they focus on his final words to his followers. Jesus is clear-eyed about his approaching death and departure from this world, even if his disciples are less certain about it. As was often the case throughout their time with Jesus, they simply do not understand.
However, understanding will come to them down the road. At this point in their journey, Jesus wants to prepare them for his departure from their midst, offering them both assurance and directives, telling them, “I have told you this before it happens so that when it happens you may believe.” Loving them to his last breath, he maps out for them a future without him.
This so-called Farewell Discourse begins with his words, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me,” found in the first verse of Chapter 14. As the evangelist John is fond of doing, the discourse ends with Jesus saying much the same thing, “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid,” these words found in verse 27 of Chapter 14. We find bookends in this same phrase used at the start and at the finish.
It is apparent, then, that one of the primary objectives of the discourse is to offer consolation or comfort to the disciples who soon will find themselves alone, lost, and forlorn, like sheep without a shepherd. Even so, Jesus wants his followers to know that he is not abandoning them, telling them shortly before these verses, “I will not leave you orphans.”
His presence among them will continue, although in a different way, in the Spirit that the Father will send to them. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” As Jesus was with them in the past, the Spirit will be with them in the future. In other words, the Spirit will replace Jesus’ physical presence, but will continue to provide them with his guidance, teaching them and reminding them of what Jesus had told them when he lived among them.
We don’t want to overlook the beautiful image that Jesus uses when he offers this assurance of his continued presence among them. It is found in his words, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” Dwelling. The Greek word that is used here for dwelling is sometimes translated as home. It also can be translated as lodging or abode. The point is the same. Jesus is promising a continued divine presence among his followers.
Of course, we want to remember that the Gospel of John begins with the same word, the evangelist writing, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” So, it makes sense that we find the word dwelling used here as Jesus leaves the world, assuring his followers that the Divine Presence remains or dwells among those who love as the Father loves.
For the Hebrew people who wandered in the desert of Sinai, the Divine Presence was found in the Ark of the Covenant, and later as the Davidic Kingdom was established in Jerusalem, it was found in the Temple of Solomon. But now, that presence or dwelling has shifted, found in the Son of God who pitched his tent among his people in the Word made flesh and found after Jesus’ departure from the world in the Spirit sent by the Father so that the children of God will not be orphans.
With Jesus’ promise that the Divine Presence will continue to dwell with those who love as Jesus loved and who keep his word as Jesus kept his word to the Father, we certainly want to scrutinize our own souls, asking ourselves if that same Divine Presence finds a home in us. Do we provide a dwelling in our innermost sanctuary where divinity can find a place to lodge, a place to abide, a place to live?
The answer is found in those three virtues that Jesus speaks of in these few verses: love, peace, and joy. At the start, he puts before his followers the new commandment of love, fleshing it out clearly for his followers when he tells them, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” That call to love is followed by Jesus saying to them, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” He draws a distinction between his gift of peace and the peace that the world gives, making it clear that his peace is life-giving, life-affirming, and lifelong.
Then, he calls them “to rejoice that I am going to the Father,” insisting that joy also should be a part of their lives because it affirms God’s rule over the world, whatever the evidence to the contrary or the rejection that his followers will face as they continue to bring his presence into a world hellbent on destruction, injustice, and enmity towards others.
These three virtues–love, peace, and joy–must be found in the heart of each follower of Jesus if God is to dwell within our hearts. Without them, the Divine Presence simply cannot feel at home because these are the very marks of God himself. If we want God in our lives, then we also have to open our hearts to love, peace, and joy so that God can dwell within us, at one with us and we with him.
It is no mystery, then, why godly people–people who have an aura of goodness and holiness about them–almost always exude these qualities of love, peace, and joy. They have made a dwelling for God in their hearts and his presence can be seen and felt by others around them. In much the same way that we can feel immediately at ease when entering a certain person’s house, so we find ourselves drawn into the warm embrace of these people who have God dwelling within them.
The signs are everywhere. Their lives show a true commitment to love others irrespective of color, caste, or clique. They bring with them a sense of inner peace that cultivates peacefulness wherever they go and with whomever they interact. And they have a joyfulness that is almost childlike, finding contentment in the simple things of life, appreciating the ordinary experiences of a day, seeing beauty both in the morning sunrise and in the evening sunset.
The opposite also is true. A person whose life is empty of love, who is at war with oneself and with others, and who is surly and rude, happy with no one and nothing, such a person shows no sign that they have provided lodging for the DIvine Presence under their roof. Their hearts are as locked up as their front doors. They bring with them into the world darkness, dreariness, and dread, the opposite of the love, peace, and joy that Jesus says must fill the lives of his disciples.
If upon closer inspection of our souls we find ourselves running low on or living without these three marks of discipleship–love, peace, and joy–then we have some serious soul-searching to do, asking ourselves how and why we claim to be Christ-like, as the name Christian implies, while we are without his love, his peace, and his joy. It is a conundrum that calls for more than a passing scrutiny of ourselves, instead asking us to remove our blinders and our sanctimony that prevent us from seeing ourselves as we truly are.
Obviously, making a dwelling fit for the Divine Presence extends beyond our hearts and applies to our homes, our communities, and, yes, to our country. If we feel or find any of these habitats lacking in love, peace, or joy, then it means the people living within them are not allowing the Spirit to make a place in their hearts.
In his recent book, “On Character: Choices that Define a Life,” General Stanley McCrystal reminds us that character defines who we are as individuals and who we are as a country. He sadly notes the lack of character in our society today and reminds us that it is not only a problem of top down, our leaders lacking good character, but more importantly, a matter of bottom up because, as he says, we are the ones who ultimately make the choice of whom we want to lead us. It is a book worth reading.
His words force us to reflect on whom we have chosen to follow and why we have made that choice. In his farewell to his followers, Jesus informed his disciples that if they wished to follow him then their hearts must be filled with love, peace, and joy. These are the marks of his followers because they are the marks of his own way of life in the world. Anything less, and we have not provided a dwelling for the Holy Spirit within our hearts.
It is not a question of whether or not God wants to make his dwelling within us. His Son Jesus has given us the answer when he told his disciples, “Whoever loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our dwelling with him.” The question is whether or not we want God dwelling within us. If we do, then the way to make it happen is to do as Jesus said: “Love him and keep his word.”
–Jeremy Myers
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