5 Easter A
May 2, 1999
The Rev. Valerie Ann Hart
John 14:1-14
“Do not let
your hearts be troubled.” Do not let your hearts be troubled? That sounds easy.
These are beautiful comforting words from Jesus, but sometimes in the context of
life, it is not so easy. Do not let your hearts be troubled? As if we could
stop our hearts from sometimes being troubled. As if we could listen to the
news and not let our hearts be troubled. As if we think about my children and
all they have to deal with and not let our hearts be troubled. As if we could
deal with grief, and loss, and arguments, and random violence, and warfare, and
running out of money and, and, and, and not let our hearts be troubled. Maybe a
monk off in a cave could let his heart not be troubled, but in real life, in the
context of real life, it’s not that easy.
It wasn’t
that easy for the disciples either, in the context of their lives. The
placement of this passage, this call from Christ to not let their hearts be
troubled, comes in an odd place in the Gospel of John. It is during the last
supper, Jesus has washed their feet and then told that that one of the
disciples will betray him. Judas has left and just before this line Peter is told
that he will betray Jesus three times. After all that, after hearing of
betrayal and death and losing their teacher, Jesus says to them “Do not let
your hearts be troubled.” How could they possibly have not had troubled hearts,
yet Jesus says to them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
Is Jesus
completely out of touch with reality here. How could they possibly not have
troubled hearts? Of course Jesus knows how troubled their hearts are, what he
is trying to do is give them a broader picture that can free them from the
suffering they are experiencing. How are they to not have troubled hearts? By
believing in God and believing in Christ. The way to an untroubled heart is to
trust in Jesus. To trust that even though he is going away, he is going to
prepare a place for for them. To trust that there is so much more that they don’t
understand. He tells them that they know the way, yet they don’t think that
they do. "How can we know the way when we don’t even know where you are
going?" they respond. The disciples are caught in the physical realm, in
their day to day reality. In that reality, things were looking pretty bleak.
There were plenty of reasons for a troubled heart. But Jesus wanted them to
look at another reality, the reality that is beyond physical limitations. The
reality in which Jesus and the Father are one. The reality in which all that is
happening around them is part of a larger plan for the salvation of the world.
Rather than being something to be troubled by, it is something to be
anticipated and to accept with peace in the heart. From the questions of the
disciples it is clear that they were not yet ready to accept this other
understanding of reality, and in fact they were extremely troubled of heart,
hiding away in fear, until they experienced the resurrection.
But after
the resurrection, there was a transformation. Those living in fear with
troubled hearts, lived a fearless life. Those whose hearts were troubled lived
with hearts that were free and filled with joy. It is not as if the world
suddenly became easy. The early Christians were persecuted. It was only after the
resurrection they too were able to see the broader perspective.
Take a look
at the life that Paul was living as described in the reading from Acts. Paul
would go into a city, preach, convert a few while disturbing a lot of other
people. These people would then form a mob, attack the home Paul was staying at
and quite literally drag Paul or his friends before the judges. At this point
Paul would escape and run to the next city to do it all over again. During his teaching
missions, Paul was threatened with stoning, arrested numerous times, ship
wrecked, lowered over the city wall at night in a basket, jeered at, harassed,
betrayed, abandoned and all the while he was suffering from an ongoing physical
disorder. He heard that the communities he established were getting into all
kinds of trouble, with in fighting, back biting, and questionable theologies.
If you think your life is tough, look at what Paul went through. Yet, he would
have been able to say that his heart was not troubled. He knew the secret of
how to have an untroubled heart while living in real life. He had the broader
perspective. He knew that Jesus and the Father were one, and that Jesus was
there with him, supporting him, aiding him. He knew that there was a place
prepared for him. From this larger perspective, what happened to him in his
daily life was minor. For example in 2 Corinthians, after having detailed the
sufferings of his ministry, including beatings and imprisonments, he describes Christ’s
response to his prayers to be free of an continuing problem (12:9-10) “but he
said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in
weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the
power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses,
insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for
whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”
To be
content with insults, hardship, persecutions, to be able to boast of one’s
weaknesses, to know that true strength is found in weakness - these are the
statements of an untroubled heart. To be able to live a life of difficulties,
losses, pain, fear, and yet remain inwardly at peace, that is the life that
Christ offers. To believe in Christ, to believe in the father, to be confident
of Christ’s resurrection and that he is waiting for us, that is the source of
true peace of mind - an untroubled heart. If we look for peace of mind in the
outside world, we will never find it. If we trust in guns, or money, or walls,
or a ‘safe’ suburban home for our security , we will never find it. Our hearts
will remain troubled. But if we seek our security in Christ. If we learn to
trust that he is the way, the way to God, the way to Love, the way to Peace,
then we will discover that we can have an untroubled heart, even in the midst
of pain and suffering. We will find that our security is no longer based on the
things of the world, but on the one who created this world. We indeed will be
able to follow, for we will know the way, the truth and the life.
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