Wingham United Church

May 3, 2026

Do Not Let Your Hearts be Troubled

John 14:1-14

     The setting for today’s gospel reading is the Last Supper. The meal has been shared and the disciples’ feet have been washed. Judas has left to carry out his betrayal and Jesus begins what theologians have come to call Jesus’ Farewell Discourse; one final teaching for those who would carry on his ministry after his death.

          In the verses just before our reading begins, Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment. A commandment that his followers should love one another as he has loved them. However, he prefaces that new commandment by saying that he would not be with them much longer, and that where he is going, they cannot follow.

          Peter seems to miss the whole “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” He has gotten hung up on the statement that Jesus is leaving them. That happens a lot. People get hung up on a certain detail and miss the greater message. “Where are you going? Why can’t I come too? I would die for you,” he pleads.

          Yet, Jesus predicts that Peter would deny him three times that very night, then turns to the rest and says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”

     They all knew that coming to Jerusalem for the Passover would be dangerous. They are all, quite understandably, anxious about the possibility of being arrested, or worse. Jesus does his best to put their minds at ease. Believe in God, and in Jesus, and things will be alright. Believe, and trust. The core teaching of our faith.

     I share this, and the following three verses of today’s lesson at nearly every funeral service I conduct. Those words from Jesus just before his death seem like the very words we all need to hear when mourning someone else’s passing. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and Christ, and all will be well. The following verses likewise offer a message of hope and comfort. Jesus goes to prepare a place for us, and if he does that, then we know he will come back for us when the time comes to take us there, so that, in the end, we will be with him. What comfort at such a time! Of course, this is only comforting if we believe.

     I have been asked, rarely, to conduct a funeral service devoid of such mentions of faith, or God, or Jesus, or heaven. I refuse. What do I have to offer people at the end of a life without hope or assurance of the next? Apparently, there are clergy who will accommodate such a request, but I will not. I will not, ever, deny my faith for the sake of an honourarium.

     My task, at such a time, is to comfort those left behind, and there are few words more comforting than this assurance that Christ prepares a place for us, and we know how to get there. Or, at least, we should. Thomas is not so sure, but then again, that’s Thomas. Thomas leaves nothing to chance, as we will see when he demands to touch Christ’s crucified hands. Thomas wants a road map. He doesn’t know where Jesus is going or how to get there, or so he thinks. The truth is, he has been given all the direction he needs.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

     And we circle back around to the beginning.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”

That is the way.

     The next part troubles me, though. “No one comes to the Father except through me.” I’ve wrestled with that one for a long time. What of Jews who have lived good lives of faithful obedience and worship the same God as we do? Are they really excluded? Or equally faithful Muslims who live by the same principles of care, compassion, mercy, and love as any true Christian; what about them? Or good people living in parts of the world who have never heard of Jesus Christ – is there no way to God for them?

     There are people who would say ‘No’. Only through Christ can people come to God. He said so himself. But, as is often the case, I wonder if we have fully understood what Jesus meant. Surely there is a way for people who believe in God, but do not know Jesus as Messiah. What about them?

     Then I am reminded that they are not really my problem. That might sound callous, but truthfully, I have enough to worry about on my own. Scripture, as I like to say, is not a window through which we look at the rest of the world and judge, but a mirror into which we gaze at our own reflection. Perhaps God does have another way for those people, but I am not among them. For me, who is not Jewish, or Muslim, and have been blessed to have been brought up in the Christian church and a Christian home, Jesus is the way. I do believe. I believe in God and I believe also in Jesus Christ. While I might not be sure about a lot of the details, I rest in the assurance that when the time comes, Jesus will come for me. I don’t have to know the exact way to get where I am going. Jesus will lead me. He is the way. He is my way. So, my heart is not troubled.

     But then again, how can I be so certain? Here’s Philip, one of Jesus very first disciples, and he is still not satisfied. He wants to see God. Where the ancient Israelites were terrified of the possibility of a direct encounter with God, Philip won’t be satisfied with anything less.

     Has this ever happened to you? You are attempting to tell someone something very important, but they keep interrupting you with questions that, if they would just wait patiently and listen carefully, you would answer. Jesus is trying to impart his final words on his closest friends and followers, and they keep cutting him off with questions to which they should already know the answers.

     “Have I been with you all this time, and you still do not know me?” he asks.

In Jesus, God has fully revealed God’s self to humankind, or at least, as much as we are able to bear this side of the Kingdom. All we need to know about God, all we can know about God, is revealed to us in the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Christ. If we have seen Jesus, and I mean really seen him through the eyes of faith, then we have seen God. And if we cannot believe what Jesus tells us, then we need only look at the things he has done and continues to do through the Spirit. Who else could do these things?

“Believe in God, believe also in me.”

     It’s important that Philip and the rest get this message because those who believe will be able to do these and even greater things, because Jesus is now leaving them to carry out their mission while he rejoins “the Father” to enable them. As Jesus was able to do these amazing things because “the Father” was in him, so they will be able to do greater things because Christ is in them.

     They will not be able to do it alone. None of us can. But Christ working with them can accomplish all things. They need only ask. We need to be careful here. This last passage of our reading this morning has been misunderstood, and that misunderstanding has led people away from faith and the church.

     Some people read these last two verses and understand them to mean that anything we ask for in Jesus’ name will be given. This has led people to believe that prayer is like a vending machine; you just ask for whatever you desire, say the magic words, “in Jesus’ name,” and you will get whatever you ask for. Then, if their prayers are not answer in the way they expect, they lose faith in the power of prayer, or the power of Jesus to grant their desires. What these people miss is the phrase “so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

     The requests Jesus will grant are those prayers we ask that align with the will of God. This is not a blank cheque that can be used to fulfill our own self-centered desires. In fact, it is less of a promise of gifts given as it is a limitation and responsibility to seek that which serves and brings glory to God, not to ourselves. Faith means letting go of our own ideas and trusting that God knows better and loves us enough to make it that way. That is not always the easiest, most comfortable path, but it is the one that will take us to where we eventually want to go. And if we get lost along the way, Jesus will come to get us and put us back on the right path, if we believe and trust.

     So, do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe in Jesus, who has shown us who God is, and have faith that all will be well. That is the Way.

Rev. Colin Snyder, MDiv