"If It Were Not So"

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms: if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place I am going”
(John 14:1-3 NRSV).

Whether one interprets these words of Jesus to be a reference to the church or to heaven may be debatable. There are good arguments for either view. The one thing we can be sure of is that Jesus is reassuring His apostles that in his departure they will not be forgotten. Later in the same chapter He also promises to send the Holy Spirit so as to reassure them they will not be left alone (orphaned) in this world (vs. 18).

Here were men who had left all to follow Jesus for the glorious prospect of a future with Him because He was the Messiah. Consequently, as they saw their future wrapped up in Him, it was difficult for them to envision His leaving. Yet, Jesus reminds them of the essential element of faith.

That element is trust – “Trust in God trust also in me.” They were to trust in Him because of who God is and who He is. When life becomes complex and struggles ensue remember in whom you trust – “do
not let your hearts be troubled.” (see also 2 Tim. 2:8) They had a proven experience or “a track record” with Jesus. In fact, He had always proven to be even more than they expected. For the past three years they had often been “surprised by joy” in the most dire of circumstances.

For instance, gathering twelve baskets of leftovers, after feeding the five thousand with the five loaves and two small fish was no doubt impressive. Or in the next scene, as John records it, they are caught in a fierce storm in the midst of the sea. As they began rowing back to shore they encountered someone walking toward them on the water. They are terrified of what they see until he ventures a word saying, “It is I; do not be afraid.” After hearing his voice, the next verse says, “then they were willing to take him into the boat and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were headed” (6:5-13; 16-21). We see how the sorrow experienced by all at the tomb of Lazarus was turned into joy (11:17-43). What Jesus wanted to accomplish in all these examples was to direct their trust in the glory of God (11:40). Clearly, they had reason to trust Him – they had experience with Him.
Yet their trust would truly be made to shine forth in the full radiance of God’s glory through His word. Only in this way would their trust in Him prove to be genuine – if such trust were established on the veracity/ truthfulness of His word. If they were going to be where He is, they must continue to live lives which moved at the impulse of His word. Their future with Him was to be marked by their obedience to His word: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me” (vv. 23-24). Thus, Jesus declares, - “If it were not so, I would have told you.”

What Jesus has told us is sufficient to trust Him. To trust in Jesus provides the world with a clear path to knowing and experiencing him, if we live in obedience to His word. He does not provide us with false hope and views for the future. What we have given up in order to receive a glorious future with Him is assured—if it were not so he would have told us!

Will you trust Him to that end?