Dear Christian friends:

Bishop Bergraw served as the leader of the Norwegian Church during World War II. He tells this story of a peasant who took his small son along on a trip to another village. One of the dangers of the journey was that they had to walk across a rickety, narrow bridge. It was even more dangerous because the water beneath it ran swiftly. The boy did not realize the danger until they were almost across, this being his first experience on the bridge. But when they returned from their visit, near the end of the day, as they came near to the bridge the young boy became frightened. Sensing his son's fear, the father picked up his son and carried him across the bridge and all the way home in his arms. The young lad fell asleep as the father carried him. When he awakened, he saw the sunlight shinning through the window of his bedroom and realized that he was home. Bishop Bergraw remarked, "That is what death means to me."

Here in our text Jesus was trying to reassure His troubled disciples that they need not fear anything that might happen to them in the world, not even death. He said to them:


Then He gave them several reasons why, they need not fear or be troubled. What Jesus said to His first disciples that night in the upper room, He might well say also to us, His disciples today.

What is the reason for this fear and trouble? Why were these first disciples fearful and troubled that night in the upper room?

They were troubled because Jesus had told them the He was going away back to the Father who had sent Him. He further told them that they could not follow Him there at this time. They should have rejoiced greatly and shouted alleluia! This is what they should have been waiting for. The greatest even in all history, the great redemptive act!

Well, they were not at all happy about this prospect. They wanted it to remain just like it had been before. They wanted the past to be once more the present. They cling to Jesus former and present lowliness, whereas it is His glory that will shortly confront them as He hastens on His way to complete glorification through His death, resurrection and ascension!

The disciples are troubled and fearful because they do not realize that in His leaving this world He becomes a greater presence, and the end of the visible, temporal communion becomes an incomparably more intimate, eternal communion. Then the risen Lord is no longer only here and there, now and then among them, but at all times He is everywhere among all who call upon Him.

So it is the blindness of the disciples in their not recognizing the glory of the cross, the glory of the crucified risen and ascended Lord, that causes them to be troubled and fearful.

Is not this also the reason for much of the trouble in our hearts? Are we not also often blind to the glory of our crucified, risen and ascended Lord? Do we not also often fail to see that His glorious resurrection and ascension is also our resurrection and ascension? Do we not also cling to His lowliness whereas it is His glory that confronts us?

Do we not often wish the past to be once again the present? How we long for the good old days when mom was still living and dad was healthy and we were all together one happy family. Oh how we, like the disciples, struggle against Jesus' victory and exaltation! Even though it is Mother's Day today, I say, "Let mom be gone; she is better off with her Lord in His glory!" Don't wish her back here again! Let dad hasten on to where his Lord has gone! Don't fret and be troubled by his stroke and the nearness of his death. Look to the glorious future; don't wish for the lowly past or present!

Let us in heart and spirit ascend where our Lord has gone and seek those things which are above at the right hand of God, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

Like the disciples, we need help in leaving the past behind and setting our sights on our eternal goal. Jesus gives that help in our text.

He told His troubled disciples about the "many mansions" in His Father's house, and that He was now going there to prepare one for them. This helps them, and it helps us to remember that we are not of this world, just as Jesus was not of this world. Jesus raises our sights and gives us an eternal perspective. Our ultimate goal is not a better life here on earth, a mansion here, but our ultimate goal is eternal bliss with our Father in His mansion above.

Our troubles in life need to be seen in this light. Those people who lost their homes in the floods in Texas this past week might not be so troubled if they had this perspective. And I'm sure that some of them do have it.

Jesus also told His disciples that they need not feel abandoned even while they remain here on earth and He goes on ahead. He reminds them of their intimate communion with the Father and with Him, although they will not see Him as before. He reminds them that He is the way to the Father, and that they already know the Father and have seen Him. They are surprised to hear this. (verse 8)

So Jesus tells them that since they have known and seen Him, they have known and seen the Father, that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. Jesus tells them also that the words He spoke and the miracles which He did were not just His words and His works, but the Father's words and works. He furthermore told them that if they believed on Him they, themselves, would be able to do the same works that He had done and even greater works than these.(verses 6-12) He is assuring these troubled disciples that He and the Father would not forsake them down here. In fact, His leaving them and going to the Father, actually means a greater presence and a more intimate communion than what they had before when He was visibly present with them here and there, now and then.

And this greater presence and more intimate communion would be kept alive in their hearts by the sending of the Comforter, the Spirit of truth. He would not leave them comfortless down here, but inspire them to do His words and works.

Nor does Jesus leave us comfortless as we wait here a little while for His glorious appearing. He sends the Holy Spirit to us through the Word and Sacraments, by which we see and know Jesus, that we may know and see the Father. The Word and Sacraments assure us and reassure us again and again, Sunday after Sunday, day after day that God has indeed forgiven all our sins through the crucified, risen and ascended Lord.

Because He has forgiven our sins in Jesus we have intimate, sweet fellowship with the Father. We can ask Him as children ask their dear Father any place any time. He delights to hear our prayers and to answer them in His great wisdom, power and love. By His Word and Sacraments our Father inspires us to do His words and works, the same great words and works which Jesus did when He was here on earth: ministering to the poor and the needy, the sick and the handicapped, the disposed and the oppressed, and above all telling the Good News that God forgives sins through His crucified, risen and ascended Lord.

The balm for troubled hearts is Jesus, the crucified, risen and ascended Lord. He is the way, the truth and the life. All may come to the Father now on earth, and then to the Father's house in heaven by Him.

Amen.