One morning as I sipped my coffee, I scrolled through the news stories on my laptop. Most of the storis were the usual procession of one unbelievably bad story after another. Much of it shocking. I felt a tightening in my chest, because so much of it was also alarming. If you had told me in 2018 what would be happening in 2023 I would not have believed you. It just wouldn’t have been fathomable. But here we are in a society that is profoundly broken and lost and angry and divided in so many ways. I took another sip of my coffee and closed my laptop. I sighed.
I began to consider the ways these large-scale news items play out on the individual level. These high-level troubles are mirrored in a million smaller and more personal ways for individuals. Through the use of social media, we are aware of so much more dysfunction, pain, and division that in previous generations. This creates a sense of personal dis-ease among modern men, women, and children.
I think we all live with a certain amount of dis-ease, desperation, and despair that we hide behind our smiles and conversations about the Tennessee weather. If we are honest, I believe many of us are troubled. We may be troubled by disappointment—this hasn’t gone they way I’d hoped it would. We may be troubled by grief or by loss. We may be troubled by stress at the office where you work with a whole bunch of other stressed out people every day. We may be troubled by the direction of society or a broken relationship or a financial hardship or just not living up to our hopes and expectations of ourselves.
Friends, whatever burdens, whatever troubles you are carrying right now, as you read this, please hear me. Jesus knows you. He sees you and loves you. There is no shame in having a troubled heart. There is no condemnation for carrying the burdens we carry as broken people in need of relief. The Gospel of Jesus offers real hope for troubled hearts. And we need real hope don’t we? We try in our own ways to deal with this, don’t we? We may rant with our friends. We may post angry tirades on social media. We may drown our pain in alcohol. We may distract ourselves with entertainment. But when all is said and done, we find ourselves still holding the burdens and the troubles life has thrown at us. Is there any hope? I believe there is.
Context
The context of this passage really makes all the difference. If we want to understand John 14, we must look back at John 13. This is the night of the Passover, the night of Jesus’ betrayal by Judas, the last night before he is crucified. John 13 opens with the washing of the disciples’ feet. It’s a tender scene where Jesus rises from dinner and begins– one by one– to pour water over their feet and dry them with a towel. This is not how a Rabbi, a teacher, would normally behave. The disciples are confused. Peter feels really awkward about it and in 13 verse 8 says, “You shall never wash my feet.”[1]But Jesus does and he tells them, “I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”[2] What does this mean? This is confusing to the disciples and a bit troubling.
Now look at verse 21. They are still at the dinner table. It says, “Jesus was troubled in His spirit and testified, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me.’”[3] What a bombshell to drop on his friends! What a tough thing to reveal and to hear. The disciples are confused again. You and I know that it was Judas of course, but that was not apparent to the disciples at the time. They ask Jesus who it is and he reveals that it is Judas. But this is incredibly troubling for them and they still don’t fully understand what this means and where it is all heading.
Then Jesus tells them that he will soon be leaving them. Look at verse 33, “Little children, yet a little while I am with you…where I am going, you cannot come.”[4] How can this be? They must have thought about how earlier in the week Jesus had entered into Jerusalem in triumph with people shouting “Hosanna” and laying palm branches at his feet. Where are you going Lord? Why can’t we come?
And finally in verse 38 Jesus predicts Simon Peter’s denial. Simon was “The Rock,” one of Jesus’ closest friends and one of the most enthusiastic of his disciples. But Jesus says, “Truly truly I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.”[5] This would have been a shocking prediction both to Peter and to the rest of the disciples.
My point in going over all of this is to help you see that these men were troubled, deeply troubled. So when we come to verse 1 of Chapter 14, which is where today’s Gospel lesson starts, Jesus is not giving some sort of generic platitude or cliché. He is not talking in generalities. He is speaking to deeply troubled people who are confused and alarmed at what he has just said. If we just start at 14:1, it may seem somewhat superficial. But if you understand chapter 13 and the context we see that Jesus is addressing truly troubled hearts. This is good news for us, for you and I often have deeply troubled hearts as well. So what does Jesus say is the way to deal with troubled hearts? I want to point out to you three things we see in this passage. All of them fall under the overarching idea of Trust.
Trust
We see this in 14:1. Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”[6] Jesus acknowledges that our hearts can be troubled. Obviously his disciples hearts were troubled. Why wouldn’t they be? Jesus has washed the disciples feet as a servant would. He has predicted his betrayal. He has told them he is leaving them. Yet, He doesn’t chastise their troubled hearts. Instead, Jesus shows them that there is something they are called to do when their hearts are troubled. He says, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Allister Begg said that in this passage Jesus is calling us to “not let the winds that beat against to destroy our spiritual equilibrium…” and to “not let the questions of our hearts overturn our faith but to allow our faith to overturn the questions of our hearts.”[7]
Trust is faith applied to real life. It is the proving ground of what we really believe. It’s like jumping out of a plane with a parachute. You might know how parachutes work, maybe you have read a lot of books on parachuting and watched a ton of youtube videos but until you leap from the plane yourself, it’s all theory.
Jesus says to his disciples, and us, when your heart is troubled, “believe in God, believe also in me.” Trust me. And I think Jesus gives us three distinct ways we can trust Him.
Trust His Promise
First, trust His promise (14:2-3). This is one of the most hopeful and strong promises in all of Scripture. Look at verses 2-3: “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? 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.”[8]
When our hearts are troubled, Jesus calls us to trust his ultimate plans for our future. There is a lot we do not know precisely about heaven. But what Jesus is telling us is that the ultimate destiny of the Christian is to be with Him. And he reiterates that he is telling them, and us, the absolute truth on this point.
Jesus calls us to remember that he has gone before us and is getting our eternal home ready for us. And he is calling us to remember that, while we are in this world, we are not home. Not yet. Troubles are common here, but they are extinct in heaven. Pain, and tears, struggles and disappointments which constantly swirl around us will cease to exist when we stand in the presence of Jesus. The imagery of this passage, the idea of rooms and a place, is meant to remind us that we are headed to the place where we truly are home. A place where we truly will rest and where we really belong.
This promise is for great saints and giants of the faith and for those whose faith is a weak and struggling. There is no distinction. Do not despair, you have a home. This is precisely what we proclaim in the Prayer of Consecration at communion when we say that He will “bring us with all the [saints] into the joy of [His]heavenly kingdom, where we shall see our Lord face to face.”[9]
When our hearts are troubled, we trust His promise.
Trust His Path
Secondly, we trust His path. Jesus contines in John 14:4-6, “And you know the way to 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.”[10]
The disciples are troubled. Thomas says what several of them may have been thinking, “How do we know the way?” Jesus reminds them, to focus on him. Jesus himself is the way, the path, that leads us through our troubles. When our hearts are troubled, we remember that we have a path to walk, a good shepherd to follow. And this path leads us to himself and to this home he is preparing for us.
He is the way. The way to heaven. The way to peace with God. The way that calms our troubled hearts.
He is the Truth. He is the whole and complete truth of God and He shows us the truth about ourselves. He teaches us the truth that leads us to himself.
And He is the life. He is the very life of the believer, the core of who we are. He gives life to our lifeless souls and animates our thoughts, and words and deeds with His very presence.
Don’t you see? In our troubles Jesus doesn’t leave us wandering in wilderness of our lives. He shines a light before us and calls us to keep walking, keep believing, keep trusting. This is balm for our troubled hearts.
Jesus’ last phrase, “No one comes to the Father except through me” is a reminder of His uniqueness. There is not another true antidote for our troubled hearts and our troubled lives. There is no other one that leads us to salvation. This is what we hear in Acts 4:12 which says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”[11]
Nothing else, and no one else will lead you home. Nothing else, and no one else can bind up your troubled heart, except Jesus. Trust His path.
Trust His Power
Finally, we trust his power. John 14:10-11. “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 authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”[12]
Any time we are asked to trust someone or something, we evaluate it don’t we? We ask ourselves if we can really place our trust in this person or this thing. Have you ever been to a small time country fair? The fairs with those squeaky and rickety rides held together by rusty bolts? The ones with the operators that seem to not care one way or the other if you survive this ordeal? It may make you think twice about riding that tilt-a-whirl!
Jesus, who knows our hearts are often troubled, reminds us of who he is, so that when those dark days come, we know he is trustworthy. The one who makes the promise of our heavenly healing, the one who gives us the path of salvation and hope, has to be the one who has the power to do so. If Jesus is not God, then there is no hope of heaven nor any path to get there. Jesus speaks these things to us because of who he is and by the authority He has. Friends, this is why we can trust Him and His power!
Conclusion
One of my favorite pictures is a photograph of Norwich Cathedral during World War II. It had been hit by a bomb during Germany’s blitz on England. As a result, it has no roof, no pews, no stained glass. All of it was destroyed except for the walls. In the picture, the cathedral is packed with people who have gathered to worship despite the destruction they had seen. It is a picture of troubled hearts gathered to express their trust in Jesus’ promise, His path, and His power.
This picture is a witness to us of the true hope for troubled hearts. It is a reminder to “not let the questions of our hearts overturn our faith but to allow our faith to overturn the questions of our hearts.”[13]
[1] John 13:8, ESV
[2] John 13:15, ESV
[3] John 13:21, ESV
[4] John 13:33, ESV
[5] John 13:38, ESV
[6] John 14:1, ESV
[7] Begg, Allistair, Jesus The Only Way, sermon archive, Truthforlife.org, 5/10/87
[8] John 14:2-3, ESV
[9] 2019 Book of Common Prayer, 134
[10] John 14:4-6, ESV
[11] Acts 4:12, ESV
[12] John 14:10-11, ESV
[13] Begg, Allistair, Jesus The Only Way, sermon archive, Truthforlife.org, 5/10/87