doing big things

Friday of the

Third Week of Easter

May 1st

READING: John 14: 1-14

‘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. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

~~~

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

REFLECTION

For years of community ministry this passage was my go to for funeral celebrations. Yet as I read or heard the words “No one comes to the Father except through me” I heard echoes of torrid evangelism (so-called): turn or burn, bro. “If you die tonight where will you spend eternity?”

I was told in my first blooms of faith that funerals were an opportunity to proclaim the gospel (no problems there) because otherwise people would be going to hell. Big problems there. Last time I checked these words of Jesus, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” were in a document called “gospel.” Good news, not news of eternal anguish: “sorry your mum/partner/baby has just died and probably gone to eternal torment, but if you’re quick you can escape that fate (and be eternally separated from the one you loved).”

Good news is that there is a Way. That “no Way,” or Jean Paul Sartre’s “no exit,” is not the final word, that “no” is not the final word. I have no idea what the daily programme for this incomprehensible state of “my Father’s house” (a.k.a. heaven, eternity, and a whole heap more inexplicable labels) is. I am very certain it’s not a place where we sit eternally thinking “Praise God but what-ever: I wish grandma were here.” Nor is it a place or state of being where a few celestial brain surgeons quickly rewire our circuitry, so we don’t recall grandma, don’t miss her. Worse: historically some Christian writers have dealt with the pain of eternal separation by suggesting we suddenly see grandma in all her odious, filthy, degenerate sin. That sounds like another circuitry rewiring to me, dark and evil, incompatible with the God who searches for the lost sheep. Divine sleight of hand is so unbecoming of the Creator of the Universe.

Jesus invites Thomas (not for the last time, because love is patient) to believe, to know, to trust. Us, too. Believe, know, trust, and a whole lot of other related verbs. Jesus did a whole heap of things that helped his witnesses, eventually, get it. He was trustworthy. Big call, especially as this included being “obedient, even to death.” Oh, and being resurrected: “In a little while you won’t see me. Then you will” (John 16:16). Jesus’ witnesses went on to do some pretty big things, too, once they were empowered by the Jesus-imparting, belief-engendering Spirit. “If I do not go away, the ‘Paraclete’ will not come” (John 16:7). She makes him present even to Thomas, even to us.

While you and I might not do “bigger things,” Jesus will later suggest (to Thomas, as it happens) that believing is a very big thing indeed.