Last month, I grappled with the unity of Jesus’ farewell speech in John 13-17. This month, I focus on what, at first sight, appears to be a mere detail in this speech, even if a detail that tends to spark our imagination more than most verses in Scripture. I am referring to John 14:2: “In my Father’s house are many rooms”.
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The first term here, house, translates oikos. Notice there is only one house. The second term used, here translated as “many rooms”, is mone. It signifies a place to stay or a dwelling place, an apartment or even just a room (as in the ESV).
Apartment? So where are the mansions!?
The answer is: in the King James Version, where the translation reads: “In my Father’s house are many mansions”. The very location – “in my Father’s house” – suggests these cannot be mansions in the normal meaning of the word: a large and imposing house.
When: At the Second Coming or Soon?
There is yet another, more serious problem with the expectation of a big villa or palace in heaven. Is Jesus really comforting his disciples with a promise of heavenly real estate?
He goes on to say this: “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). This does not sound like what happens when believers die and go to heaven. It might refer to the second coming, of course. But does Jesus only return for a brief visit to take his own to heaven, or is he coming to stay – on a new earth?
And either way, the second coming is a long way off for the disciples. They need direction for the coming days, months, and years. Should not Jesus have something more immediate to say? The repetition of going away and of coming (John 14:3, 18, 23, 28) certainly suggests something soon rather than ultimate.
And: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 4:18) is limited comfort if they (and we) are to spend their entire earthly lives as just that: orphans.
Where: In Heaven or in the Spirit?
Let’s trace the development of the theme of place in the text and find out what Jesus might have had in mind instead. One thing to notice is that Jesus works with an odd sense of location (and how to get there): I am in the Father, and I am the way (John 14:6, 10).
The following passage is crucial to understanding timing and location as spoken of in this discourse of Jesus:
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while [!] and the world will see me no more, but you will see me [at the second coming, all will see him]. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you … If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (John 14:18-20, 23; emphasis added)
The ESV translation is unfortunate. “Home” translates the exact same Greek word mone that is used in John 14:2. It essentially means that Jesus will indeed come, with the Father, soon, and make his dwelling place with the individual disciple.
It is, of course, the Holy Spirit who will bring this about (John 14:26).
And as Jesus is in us, we are in him (John 14:20 and especially John15:4ff: “Abide in me, and I in you”). There is more.
Abide and Abode: We in Him and He in Us
The analogy of the vine in John 15 is by no means a change of subject. It continues the development of place. But again, this is lost in translation:
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4f)
The Greek word for abide (meno) is the verb form of dwelling place (mone). In English, we might say abide and abode. Jesus is promising not a future location, but a living, mutual indwelling even now. As we abide in him, he abides in us.
There is undoubtedly more, but it begins in the here and now. There is fullness of life (cf. John 10:10) for those who are in him as their dwelling place and have the presence of the Father and the Son indwelling them through the Holy Spirit.
It is not necessarily easy or luxurious, but it is a rich life.
In a Little While
In John 16:16-24, Jesus returns to the idea of “a little while”. It literally is little: Jesus appears to speak of their sorrow at his death and the joy that will come with his resurrection. The accompanying promise of answered prayer (“Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full”; John 16:24) means little after the second coming but everything for the in-between time.
Figures of Speech
So, the abode, or dwelling place, or mansion, is an image. Jesus clearly stated that he is speaking metaphorically: “I have said these things to you in figures of speech” (John 16:25). Place and space in John 13-17 are not about location but about relationship.
That is why Jesus prays:
that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us … I in them and you in me … Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am (John 17:21, 23f)
We in them and they in us – now. Jesus isn’t promising luxury accommodations in the afterlife. He is offering something much better: the indwelling presence of God himself – Father, Son, and Spirit. Not a distant hope, but a present reality. Heaven begins wherever we are truly at home in him.
That’s a great place to be.
Place and space in John 13-17 are not about location but about relationship.
Attribution
Pictures taken from Pixabay.com
References
Unless indicated differently, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.