Listening, as we frequently do, to a religious radio station during the night, we recently heard a brief publicity promotion ("blurb" in the trade) by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association featuring a quote from The Reader's Digest (date and article title not given). Emphasis was to the effect that meaningful life necessarily requires: 1.) Someone to love; 2.) Something to do, and; 3.) Something for which to hope. One need not, of course, be a theologian to discern the outline's applicability to spiritual interests.
Relative to the third point, we were also pleased recently to hear a pastor advise his congregation that the primary objective of meaningful faith does not lie in one's having attained a "mansion over yonder," but rather in becoming "conformed to the image of [God's] Son" (Rom. 8:29). The rest, he stated, will ultimately follow. It is sound doctrine.
We have sometimes missed a point here. The Disciples' "troubled hearts" to which Jesus alluded in John 14:1 did not reflect a disquietude engendered by their longing for mansions in which to dwell. Anxiety derived rather from Christ's having announced his impending departure and separation from them (John 13:33-14:6). To their disheartened response he then promised that the separation would not be permanent; he would in time return to them (John 14:28).
In the meantime, Jesus continued, he would return to the Father in the interests of mediating their acceptance with Him ("now to appear in the presence of God for us," Heb. 9:24). The effecting of this desired end would result from the presentation of his own blood, sacrificially shed on their behalf (Heb. 8:1-6; 9:11-15; 10:9-25) - hence their "place" in the "Father's house" (i.e., family or "household of God," Eph. 2:19).
Not only would the Twelve (as representing the believing community) be reunited with Christ upon his return but in the interim both he and the Father would come in the person of the Holy Spirit to establish their "abode" or "dwelling place" (the same word rendered "mansion" in verse 2 of the KJV - see any contemporary version) with the waiting believer (John 14:16-23).
Simply stated, faith's primary objective does not lie in a heavenly materialism. Jesus' answer to the Twelve was that upon rejoining them, he and they would never agaqin be separated (vs. 3) - or in the words of the apostle, "So shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4:17). The Disciples' angst and focus of Christ's promise to them are both to be seen within this frame of reference.
Scripture here offers a progressive development of thought. In awaiting Christ's return, the believer's present quest for conformity to his image (again, Rom. 8:29) finds ultimate fulfillment in that day wherein - despite, as noted by John, our present lack of full understanding - "we shall be like him" (I John 3:2). As per our pastor friend, the rest will then fall into place.
Perhaps we need to do a little more thinking here.
Burl Ratzsch
