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?
The Place Prepared by His Own Entrance
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!
A Real Return, Not a Figure of Speech
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.
He Comes Himself
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.
The Destination Is a Person
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).
His Desire, Not Only Ours
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.
Which Coming This Is
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.
Summary
- 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.