John 14:1-31
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?3 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. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone 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.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
“Come now; let us leave.
St. John's chapter fourteen is a most beautiful and intimate conversation between Jesus and His disciples in the hours before His crucifixion...He speaks to their fears and doubts, promising them the Holy Spirit as a Helper and a Spirit of Truth who will guide them...This addresses the human struggle with believing difficult truths, uncertainties, and reinforces that God doesn't leave us to grapple with them alone...John speaks of Jesus's relationship with the Father and His promise that those who love Him will keep His commands and, in essence, not change them...This is because the Absolute Truth is unchanging...It is the same yesterday, today, and forever...
St. John is speaking to the human heart, in its quest for understanding and meaning and those things we truly can believe in, grappling with complex truths...When we try to understand these deep Truths, particularly when they challenge one's own deeply held beliefs or our personal comfort, we sometimes rationalize or consider interepreting them different or even changing them...We, sometimes take if further, and even make up conspiracy theories to believe what we want to believe to feel more comfortable and fit in better with others...It is a profound observation that not only the "small-minded" or "small-hearted," but also those of considerable intellect and influence, can choose to oppose the spiritual heart of humanity offered by Jesus...This extends beyond religious interpretations to how some engage with scientific findings, leading to what might be termed "my own opinionated Jesus" and "my own opinionated science"—approaches not in search of the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but rather something tailored to personal needs, greed, or even bigotry...This phenomenon, unfortunately, is not new; it has echoed through history since the dawn of time, and was certainly present during Jesus's earthly ministry...Even Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the country did such things and it continues today...Jefferson wrote his own Bible to reflect what he thought was the truth in the Bible...He removed miracles and other supernatural elements of the Bible in producing his own...So he wind up changing Scripture that he could more easily believe...Jesus' miracles offer several key lessons: they demonstrated God's Power and LOVE for us...They emphasized the importance of faith, and foreshadowed the gospel message of redemption...His miracles, like healing the sick and calming storms, show God's Authority and ability to intervene in human lives, while also highlighting the need for faith and trust in God's Provision...Furthermore, the miracles point to Jesus' role as the Messiah and foreshadow the Ultimate Hope of salvation and eternal life...So why remove them, one might ask...
At the core of this challenge of believing all the things in the Bible lies the nature of Truth itself...For the Christian, God's Word is the Ultimate Truth, unchanging and absolute...So all the Bible is the Truth, since it is God's Word...The same yesterday, today, and forever...Jesus Himself declared, "I AM the way, the Truth, and the life...No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6)...And in His prayer to the Father, He affirmed, "Sanctify them by the Truth; Your Word is Truth" (John 17:17)...True faith, therefore, is rooted in accepting God's Word as it is, without attempting to reshape it to fit personal preferences or societal trends...When individuals or groups manipulate religious teachings to justify their own biases, greed, or discrimination, they are perverting Christianity from its Divine Purpose, and therefore making it no longer Divine...Jesus is for everyone, a Universal Savior, and His message of LOVE, humility, forgiveness, and justice cannot be genuinely reconciled with bigotry or self-serving agendas...
This tendency to distort Divine Truth for personal gain or comfort is deeply ingrained in human history...In the Old Testament, we see countless examples of God's people turning away from His clear commands, often embracing idolatry or legalism (which is a strict adherence to laws, rules, and rituals is emphasized as the primary means of achieving righteousness or gaining favor with God, often at the expense of genuine faith, love, or the spirit of the law)....Prophets frequently condemned those who spoke falsely in God's Name, delivering messages that pleased the people rather than speaking God's challenging Truth (Jeremiah 14:14; Ezekiel 13:3)...The Israelites often sought to control God through rituals and sacrifices while neglecting justice, forgiveness, and mercy, effectively creating a religion that served their desires rather than God's (Isaiah 1:10-15)...This pursuit of human approval over divine commendation, a theme Paul often addressed, further fueled this perversion...This was a perversion of Truth, driven by a desire for convenience, power, comfortablility, or material prosperity, rather than genuine obedience and a humble search for God's Will...
During Jesus's own time, this pattern was starkly evident, particularly among the religious and intellectual elites...The Pharisees and Sadducees, often considered the "wise and learned" of their day, meticulously adhered to the letter of the Law and their traditions, yet they frequently missed the Spiritual Heart of God's Message in His Word...Jesus openly criticized them for prioritizing their human traditions over God's commands (Mark 7:8-13) and for using their religious positions for personal prestige and power (Matthew 23:2-7)...Despite witnessing Jesus's profound miracles and hearing His revolutionary teachings, many rejected Him precisely because He did not fit their preconceived notions of the Messiah...Their "wisdom" and established religious frameworks became a barrier to recognizing the very Son of God (John 5:39-40; John 7:48-49)...This is the paradox Jesus alluded to in Matthew 11:25: "I praise You, Father, LORD of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children."...Spiritual understanding, Jesus taught, comes not through intellectual prowess, but through a humble, receptive heart...
This historical pattern resonates powerfully today in the phenomena of "my own opinionated Jesus" and "my own opinionated science."...An "opinionated Jesus" emerges when individuals selectively embrace only certain aspects of Christ's teachings that align within their comfort zones, while discarding those that challenge their lifestyles or prejudices...This can manifest in prosperity gospels that promise wealth without demanding humility, or in religious justifications for discrimination and intolerance that stand in direct opposition to Jesus's command to love one's neighbor as oneself...If we cannot love all our neighbors as Jesus' commands, we are indeed lost...And if we avoid loving our enemies and praying for them, how many more of His TEachings can we omit and take out of our own personal Bibles...Such approaches are not a search for the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but a self-serving customization of Divine Revelation to justify personal greed, bigotry, or political agendas...The True Jesus, as revealed in Scripture, is a Radical Figure who calls for self-denial, sacrificial LOVE, and justice for the marginalized, a message that often confronts worldly power and comfort...Jesus speaks some, but not a lot on "accumulated wealth", instead He wants us to accumulate and grow our faith and our love for God and our love for all our neighbors...
Similarly, "my own opinionated science" arises when scientific findings are accepted or rejected based not on empirical evidence or the scientific method, but on whether they conform to pre-existing personal, religious, or political beliefs...For instance, the denial of climate change despite overwhelming scientific consensus, or the rejection of vaccinations based on misinformation, often stems from a discomfort with the implications of scientific findings on one's worldview or lifestyle...I personally do not know how old the Earth is...It may be close to 6,000 years old based on a literal interpretation of biblical genealogies, but I know that God's Word is Truth and I to continue to try to figure out what Moses is telling us in Genesis...I find many challenging mysteries in the Bible, but I will not dismiss them...We need to better distinguish between faith (which addresses Spiritual Truth and meaning) and scientific knowledge (which addresses the mechanisms of the natural world), and a "challenged relationship with science" is indeed a natural outcome...This is not true science, which is inherently open to new ideas, constantly testing hypotheses, and refining understanding based on evidence...A true scientist, driven by intellectual honesty, seeks to understand the universe as it is, without discriminating about the significance of evidence or, indeed, the inherent dignity and equality of different human beings...
The biblical lesson from this ongoing tension is that both faith and scientific inquiry, when pursued genuinely, should lead to a deeper understanding of Truth, not a distortion of it...God created science...He also knows their are mysteries in the Bible for us...But they are not mysteries to Him...So God is the Author of both Scripture and the natural world, and true understanding in one domain will not ultimately contradict truth in the other...The challenge lies in humility—the willingness to acknowledge the limits of human reason and to submit to Divine Revelation in matters of faith, and to follow evidence wherever it leads in scientific exploration...Those who pervert Christianity to fit their personal needs, justify their own comfort, their greed, or fuel their bigotry spend a long time twisting God's Unchanging Word...This is a betrayal of the very essence of Jesus's Message, which calls for radical transformation of the heart, not convenient customization...Jesus' message is all about the heart and about our relationships...He focuses on our relationship with God and our relationship with others, who are our neighbors...
In conclusion, the temptation to create an "my own opinionated Jesus" or an "my own opinionated science" and my own personal Bible is a perennial human struggle, rooted in the desire for comfort and control over Truth...It manifested in ancient Israel, during Jesus's ministry among the "wise and learned," and continues today in various forms...The antidote remains the same: a humble, sincere pursuit of Truth—the Way, the Truth, and the Life found in Jesus Christ...We are to believe only what is True, because why would we believe in anything else...This means allowing God's Word to transform us, rather than us attempting to transform God's Word...It means approaching both spiritual revelation and scientific discovery with an open mind and a discerning spirit, recognizing that all Truth ultimately points back to the Creator of all things, who made all men equal and desires all to come to the knowledge of His Saving Grace...