In my Father’s house are many mansions:
if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. – John 14:2
This chapter in John opens with Jesus saying “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” (John 14:2-4). We are all familiar with this passage as it is often used as a central text in funerals to encourage mourners that upon death a Christian goes “home” to the mansion or dwelling place that Jesus has been preparing for them. A traditional approach to this passage is reflected in Merrill Tenney’s book on the gospel of John when he says:
“In discussion the important problem of human destiny, Jesus used very simple language, and spoke in clear, though restrained fashion. Two thoughts stood out in His statement: human destiny involves both a place and a person. The place is the Father’s house … The person is Christ Himself, whose presence would make the place glorious.” [1]
In this brief study I would contend that John 14:2 is not just a verse about how to “get to heaven” but part of a bigger picture that Jesus is trying to get across to His disciples before He goes to the cross.
Analysis
When Jesus uses the word translated “mansions” or “dwelling places” He uses the Greek word monai (μοναὶ). It is derived from the Greek word meno which means to stay or abide. This particular form of the word is used in the New Testament only here and in verse 23 of this same chapter[2] where Jesus says “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make our abode (μοναὶ) with him.” So in verse 23 Jesus defines the “dwelling places” not as some kind of future heavenly dwelling but as being Himself and the Father making their “abode” with the disciples.
In verses 2 and 3 He tells them “I go to prepare a place for you” and then repeats this phrase when He says in verse 28 “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away…” In the span between verses 2 and 28 Jesus tells them;
- about His relationship of abiding in the Father which He says they will experience as well (10, 12)
- about the coming of the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send to them (16)
- that this “Spirit of truth … abides with you.” (17)
- that “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (18)
- that “you will behold Me” (19)
- that “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” (20)
- that “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode (μοναὶ) with him. (23)
- that “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things …” (26)
Then in verses 28-29 He comes back to what He said in verse 2 and makes the main point of the entire discussion when He says “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ … “Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.
Before what happens? Before they die, as we typically interpret verse 2? No, I think He is referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts and the new relationship with the Father that they will experience because the presence of the Holy Spirit will allow them to do the “greater works” He talks about in 14:12. I have placed the entire context of John 14 below and highlighted key phrases so you can see the relationships in the context. Please take the time to read it carefully.
Take a look again at John 14:6 … Jesus does not say “no man gets to heaven except through Me”, He says … “no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Now granted, the Father lives in heaven so sure this can be taken as a reference to that, but the main point seems to be about Jesus’ relationship with the Father and that they will experience that same relationship when the Holy Spirit comes. This entire chapter has less to do with people dying and going to heaven and more to do with what it means to be intimately related to the Father through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was comforting His disciples with the truth that His going away was to their advantage as they would experience a more intimate relationship with Him and the Father through the indwelling Holy Spirit whom He would send on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else, but I think it is a more accurate way of understanding John 14:6 and certainly became a reality on the Day of Pentecost when the promised Holy Spirit does arrive and fill the disciples.
[1]
Tenney, Merrill C., Ph.D., JOHN: The Gospel of Belief (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, 1948) 213-214.
[2]
Vine, W. E., An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words with their Precise Meanings for English Readers, Fleming H. Revell Company, Old Tappan, New Jersey, Vol. III, p. 39.