His Going, His Coming, Our Following

 

“‘Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, Where I am going, you cannot come.’” Jn. 13:33

 

“Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.’” Jn 13:36

 

“’…for I go to prepare a place for you. 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.’” Jn. 14:2c - 4.

 

“After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.” Jn. 14:19.

 

“You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’” (Jn. 14:28a).

 

“’A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.’” Jn. 16:16

 

The Upper Room theme of His going, His coming, our seeing Him, and our following Him flows through Jesus’ words, His unveiling of Himself to His followers. Here is an example of why living in the Word and meditation on the Word is critical, for there is no sermon, no book, no commentary, and certainly no footnote in a Bible that can explain these words. We are called to live in the Upper Room with Jesus, to know its furniture the way we know the furniture in our homes so that we don’t need to turn the lights on at night to walk through our rooms.

 

It is not enough to preach through the Bible verse by verse (the way most of us think of this today), the Bible was not written that way and we are not meant to “see” it that way, we are called to see Jesus and to see the glorious images and narratives and interconnectedness of the Bible. When the Fathers, such as Augustine, preached the Bible verse by verse, they did so by unfolding the interconnectedness of the Scriptures – they roamed the entire book in Christ as they were centered on Christ – much as the Apostles did when writing the New Testament letters – including Revelation.

 

We have a microcosm of this challenge in the Upper Room, for what is introduced in John 13:1 – 3 and continued in 13:33, expands throughout chapters 14 – 17. The only way to see and experience what Jesus is saying about going away and coming again, about not being seen and being seen, is to live in these chapters with Him (and others). Therefore, in our preaching and teaching and reading we must keep coming back and coming back, and reading and reading again in order to hold the entire image and Word of Jesus before us, allowing the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and plant Him in our hearts – taking us farther up and farther in, deeper into Jesus Christ – the inside is larger than the outside. I suppose we might say that the Upper Room holds all that is outside it…and beyond.

 

And may I say, that we are called to be in the Upper Room as we read this passage, we are called to see Jesus – we are not called to read about what Jesus said, we are called to hear what Jesus is saying – for He is the Living Word. The Upper Room is birthed in the eternals before creation, it comes forth into time and space and history, and it continues onward and upward in Christ and in His People – it flows from the Father and returns to the Father – John 13:1 – 3; 16:28; 17:24. I may be in my office or in living room when I read John chapters 13 – 17, but I must also be in the Upper Room with our Lord.

 

Here, in the Upper Room, we have the vision of the “mystery of His will” (Eph. 1:9) in the “the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.” (Eph. 1:10b – 12).

 

As you read what Jesus is saying above, what do you see? What do you wonder about? What themes? What patterns? As someone in the Upper Room, what do you hear? If you imagine yourself as being one of the Eleven, for Iscariot has now gone out into darkness, what are you hearing and thinking and feeling? What is Jesus saying to you about His going and coming and your not seeing and then seeing and following Him?

 

Do you know this experience? Have there been times when it seems that He has left you? Do you know what it is to look for Him but not find Him…if only for a season, if only for a moment? Do you know what it is to see torches in the night sky and for a mob to come and take Him away? Have your hopes and dreams and expectations been shattered?

 

Have you seen Jesus on trial before religious leaders? Have you heard the crowds crying, “Crucify Him!”? Have you denied Him three times?

 

Well, whatever our experience, whatever season of life we may be in, Jesus says to us, “Do not let your heart be troubled…Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” (Jn. 14:1a, 27).