In my Father's house there are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you for I go to prepare you a place;
Jesus is about to leave, and His followers had hoped for thrones and crowns on earth. Instead He speaks of His Father's house, and of a place there for them.
The stress falls on whose house it is.
"In My Father's house are many mansions … I go to prepare a place for you." Notice this: it was in His Father's house — the place He had as Son, where He was at home. There He was going to prepare my place. That is unspeakable blessing! It was a comfort, a joy, to have Christ with them in the world, but that was passing. Think what the home of such a heart as His must be! There all His divine affections would flow out. He is the divine Son, and yet a Man. And this is the place where He is going to take us.
The verse here reads "many rooms." Older translations say "mansions," and that word has drifted.
In modern English, the word "mansions" suggests size and ornate display. But in the English of 1611 the word meant only what the original language conveys: "resting-places," "abodes" or "dwellings." The word appears only once more in the New Testament, in verse 23 of this same chapter, and there it is translated "abode." "Many" does not point to a variety of conditions. It points to plenty of room. There would be room not only for the Lord, but room for all of them too. That house will never be overcrowded, as the inn at Bethlehem was at His first coming.
The word "abodes" carries two things: a home no one ever leaves, and room enough.
Let us note that the word "mansions" is really "abodes" — a home which, once reached, will never again be left. There we shall stay. On earth we have "no lasting city." We are pilgrims and strangers here. Our lasting home is in the Father's house. What is more, in the Father's house there are "many" abodes. On earth there was no room for Christ, and little room for those who are Christ's. But in the Father's house there is room for all who are Christ's — the great and the small.
This is the plainest sentence in the verse, and it is a pledge of honesty. He had asked them to leave everything and follow Him; He will not let them build on an illusion.
These men had trusted that He would redeem Israel... The Father's house had never entered their earth-bound minds, but this is what He talks to them about, not thrones and crowns... To remove all question from their minds He says, "if it were not so I would have told you." Suppose I had nothing better for you than the earth can give, nothing better than your highest expectations. Then I would have told you. I would not have asked you to follow Me and then deceived and disappointed you.
The same honesty, one writer argues, runs in the other direction too:
"In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you," He said; and it is equally true that if there had been no hell to dread and avoid, He would have told us. He has told us in definite terms about both heaven and hell, and everyone who takes His words seriously is wise.
The preparing is not work done on the disciples. It is work done on the place.
A Man entered heaven, as a result of redemption, and so the place was prepared for them. It was not a question of preparing them for the place (that is the subject of chapter 13), but of preparing the place for them. The presence of their Forerunner, where He was going, accomplished it... The entrance of Christ left nothing to be done for them to enter; only those who will share the inheritance with Him still have to be gathered.
That entrance created something that had never existed:
Before He went there, the place had no existence. It was a new thing for man to be in heaven. Angels might have been there as servants, but men were to be there as sons... And that place is now prepared. It is not being prepared. The entrance of Christ, as man before the Father's face, has prepared it. He is there for us; not for Himself.
The place matters because of who is there.
"I go to prepare a place for you" — He Himself is the home-link, so close and precious, between our hearts and the place... So Scripture never speaks of our going to heaven, but of our going to Christ. The person makes the place, even in natural things; how much more in divine things!
- House — the promise names a home: the Father's house, where Christ is at home as Son.
- Rooms — "mansions" means resting-places. "Many" means room enough for all, not ranks or grades.
- Reassurance — He will never leave His followers hoping for something that does not exist. He would have told them.
- Preparation — Christ prepared the place by entering heaven as Man after redemption. Chapter 13 shows Him preparing us; here He prepares the place.
- Person — a Person makes the place. So Scripture speaks of going to Christ, not of going to heaven.
and if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be.
These words come the night before the cross, and the disciples are afraid: their Master is leaving. His answer is a promise, and it raises three questions: what place is He preparing, what return does He mean, and what does He promise us at the end?
What makes the place ready is that Christ Himself has gone in as a man, ahead of us.
He says, "I go to prepare a place for you." It was the eternal thought of the Father that man should be in that place. But Christ had to go in first as our Forerunner. His entrance prepared the place. He entered as Man into the presence of the Father, in the Father's house. He would have us know that that place is ours.
The house He speaks of is His own home.
Notice, it was in His Father's house, the place that He had as Son where He was at home — there He was going to prepare my place. That is unspeakable blessing! It was a comfort, a joy to have Christ with them in the world, but that was only along the way. He was going to prepare a place where He was at home. Think what the home of such a heart as His must be!
Some have read the promise as a poetic way of speaking about dying, or about a historical event. Commentators reject those readings.
It is clear that He did not mean death, nor the destruction of Jerusalem, nor the end of the world. He who was going away promised to come again. If the departure of Jesus was real and personal, the return would be just as real and personal. He does not come to reign over them in their place. He comes to take them to His place, so that He and they may be happy together in heaven.
Look closely at the wording. (Older translations read "receive you to Myself"; the ESV has "will take you to myself".)
"I will come again, and receive you to Myself." This is the language of affection. He does not say, I will send for you. No, that would not satisfy the heart — "I will come." He would not be content without having them where He is, and without coming to fetch them.
That choice shows what kind of Person is coming.
Had we known Him only as a great ruler, splendid in His glory, it would have been fitting for Him to send some noble servant to lead us into His throne room. But it is not glory, or dignity, or splendour of that sort that He shows us here. It is love — yearning, tender love that cannot wait for someone to bring us, and will not send another for us, but must come itself.
Look at what He does not name.
Notice, it is the Person here again. It is not "heaven," or "glory," but "to Myself." What joy there is in that! "That where I am you may be also."
The phrase "where I am" carries a settled meaning across this Gospel.
He went there to prepare a place where we can be and see the Father in Him. For this He had to enter the Father's house as a human being. That is what the Father's house is all about. The expression "where I am" occurs five times in this Gospel and each time it refers to the Father's house (7:34, 36; 12:26; 14:3; 17:24).
The last clause states a purpose — and the purpose is mutual.
The promise goes on, "that where I am you may be also." This tells us that the need of our hearts is His own need too. Not only for our joy but for His, we must be where He is. And that is the heaven of the Christian's hope. People have imagined a heaven of their own. It suits them, no doubt, but it does not suit at all what Christ desires for us.
Commentators distinguish two sides of the Lord's return. This verse belongs to the first.
One class of passages is found only in the New Testament. These refer to the coming of the Lord for His saints: John 14:3; Philippians 3:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; 1 Corinthians 15:23. Another set of texts is common to both Testaments. These teach just as plainly the coming with the saints: Jude 14; Zechariah 14:5; Colossians 3:4; Revelation 19:11-14.
- He goes — Christ prepared the place by entering the Father's house as a man, our Forerunner; His entrance makes that place ours.
- He comes — not a message, not a servant, not death: a real, personal return by the One who really left.
- He receives — the promise ends not in a location but in "Myself"; the destination is a Person.
- He wants us — being where He is meets His own heart's desire, not only ours.
- He gathers — this is His coming for His own, distinct from His later coming with them.
And ye know where I go, and ye know the way.
Jesus has just told His disciples that He is leaving to prepare a place for them in His Father's house. Now He tells them they already know both the destination and the road. That raises two questions: where was He going, and how could men who had never been there know the way?
(The writers below use an older translation: "Where I go you know, and the way you know.")
Where was He going? The answer is not a place on any map:
"Where I go you know," the Lord says, pointing it out even more definitely. He was not going into the universe, nor to any place that earth was part of. His hour had come to leave this world and go to the Father. But how did they know the place so well, and the way, despite Thomas? Because it was the Father's presence — a far more definite thing to me than the word "heaven." He was the way to the Father, just as the Father was revealed in Him. So they knew the Father's house.
How could they know a place they had never seen? Thomas said they could not:
Thomas contradicts this outright: "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" But Thomas was badly mistaken. They knew where He was going by knowing Himself. In Him they had learned everything that gave character to the place. If I wanted to know your house I might get to know it without knowing much about you, but in the things of God it is otherwise. We know divine things by knowing divine Persons. The way to get to know the place is to get to know the Person who is in the place.
So what makes that house worth going to?
I am going to the Father's house, and you shall be there too. And what makes the blessedness of the Father's house? The Father being there, and brothers and sisters there. We do not think about the place or the state in connection with the Father's house, though there are these as well. The great thing to our hearts is the Person there — the object in the house — the Father. No one can go to the Father "but by Me." If I know the Father, I know where I am going. It is He who makes it a home to me.
They had been with Jesus a long time, and Philip still wanted to know the Father:
Philip thought that if only he knew the Father, he could know the Father's house. Jesus says, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father." Every trait of the blessedness of the Father's house shone out in the Person and ways of the Son here below. The heart that knows the Son knows the Father too, even the feeblest baby. It is no matter of attainment; the Lord Jesus would start us with it.
The Lord credits them with knowledge they had not yet felt:
God always treats us according to what He has really given us, treating us as though we had realised it all. So in John the Lord says, "And where I go you know, and the way you know." They did know HIM who was truly the way to the Father. Yet Thomas objected, "We do not know the way," because they had never realised it.
One writer names the cause: "Then, as always, overlooking His glorious Person is what left them bewildered." (William Kelly)
Thomas's mistake carries a lesson about how to handle words of Christ we cannot yet follow:
What Thomas should have done was not to sit in judgment on the words of his Master. He was only trading words with the Lord. Instead of saying what he did, he should have asked, "Well, Lord, and what next?" and so taken the place of a learner. It makes a wonderful difference which place we take. Are we receivers from Him, or judges of what He says?
- Person, not place. We know divine things by knowing divine Persons. Know the One who is there, and you know the place.
- Person as destination. He was going to the Father's presence, not to any place that earth is part of. The Father makes that house a home.
- Person seen already. Every trait of that house shone out in the ways of the Son in front of them. To know the Son was to know the Father.
- Person overlooked. They lost sight of who He was. They had the knowledge, but had never realised it.
- Person to be trusted. Thomas judged his Master's words instead of asking, "Well, Lord, and what next?" — the difference between a receiver and a critic.
Thomas says to him, Lord, we know not where thou goest, and how can we know the way?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Jesus says to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father unless by me.
Thomas had just admitted he did not know where his Master was going, so he could not know the road either. The answer he received was not a set of directions but a Person — and with it a claim that shuts out every other route to God.
Thomas assumed that knowing a destination meant knowing facts about it. One writer points out that he already had what he said he lacked, because he had the Lord Himself:
But Thomas was mistaken, for they knew where He was going by knowing Him. In Him they had learned everything that gave character to the place. If I wanted to know your house, I could get to know it without knowing much about you. But in the things of God it is different. We know divine things by knowing divine Persons. The way to become acquainted with the place is to become acquainted with the Person who is in the place.
A road only matters where people are lost. One commentator traces the need back to the moment sin entered. Sin turned the world into ground with no path:
A way is a great gift, especially through a wilderness which by its nature has no way. Eden, or unfallen creation, had no way either; but then it needed none... But sin came in, and death with it, the forerunner of judgment. Everything was changed into a wilderness. Men wandered in every direction, all of them away from God and hopelessly wrong. It became a wilderness-world, an empty place with no road... Now there is a road, for Christ is the Way. He is the only sure Way for the worst of straying sinners. He is the open way for the lost, whom He came to seek and to save.
To be the truth is to be more than a truthful teacher. The same writer explains that Christ shows two things at once: God's own nature, and the true pattern of man:
Further, He is the Truth, the full expression of everyone and of everything as they are. He tells us in His own Person what God is; He shows us the Father, being Himself the Son. But He, not Adam, shows us man. Adam, no doubt, shows us falling or fallen man; Christ alone is man according to God... Moreover, as He shows us holiness and righteousness, so also He brings out sin in its true colours.
The three titles are not a list of equals thrown together. One commentator shows how each title answers a new problem. The last one gives man the power to receive the first two:
The Lord shows Thomas his mistake. He assures him that He Himself was the Way, and that only through Him could anyone come to God. And not only that; He was also the Truth — the revelation of God. But man was dead and could not receive the truth. So He was the Life as well, the life men needed in order to receive it. Everything man needed was found in Him.
The verse names a destination, and it is a Person, not simply heaven. This connects the answer back to the Father's house spoken of a few verses earlier:
We will notice first the beginning of it all, the way to the Father... No way but through Him — through His blood — the new and living way now opened for us into the holiest of all, the very presence of God. This links back to verses 1 to 3. Those who have access to the Father through Him also have entrance to the Father's house.
The little word "the" carries the weight of the whole verse. One writer presses each title in turn to show what the wording rules out:
"No one comes to the Father except through Me," said the Son of God. "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." This shuts out every effort of man apart from the Son. It shuts out man even at his very best. The Son is the Way, not simply a way! The Son is the Truth, not simply a portion of it! The Son is the Life, not simply a partial display of it.
That claim has always drawn fire. Another writer warns against softening it to escape the shame:
The Christian faith, and the gospel that proclaims it, still make this exclusive claim today. You can see it in scriptures such as John 6:68; John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Galatians 1:8-9. Some men today go to the Buddhist or the follower of Confucius and admit that their religions are ways to God. They claim only that "Christianity" offers a better way. In doing so they bring themselves close to the curse the apostle pronounces in Galatians 1:8, and perhaps under it. At the same time they escape the shame that the gospel brings. It is this exclusive claim, built into the gospel, which provokes the opposition.
- Way. Sin turned the world into a wilderness with no road; Christ is the road back, and the only sure one for the most straying of sinners.
- Truth. He shows everything as it truly is — what God is, what man was meant to be, and what sin is.
- Life. Man was dead and could not receive the truth, so Christ gives the Life that makes receiving possible.
- Father. The destination is a Person, not a place. Those who reach the Father through His blood also enter the Father's house.
- Only. He is not a way, a portion of truth, or a partial life — and that exclusive claim is exactly what the world resists.