“In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you with Me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3)
Suppose the heretics were right. Imagine if you will that all you and I believe about Jesus Christ were false—that the Church made up the story that our Lord were the Son of God, and that He were just another human being, even if He were somebody really special. Would it matter? Many who call themselves Christians in our time feel it doesn’t make a real difference. Indeed, they feel that it would improve the Church. If people don’t believe that Jesus Christ is one of the Holy Trinity, many would feel better in belonging to a more modern understanding of theology. How would that change things?
Well, first it would make Christ [and may God excuse the blasphemy] a liar. What would a human being like ourselves know about life after death? How could He say that there are many rooms in the house in God’s Kingdom? And what right has He to call the Almighty God His Father, if He is not much more than a Jew—but not a good Jew. If He were, He would have some respect for the Lord Adonai, and He would not go about pretending to have a special relationship with the transcendent Deity. It’s really why all of His contemporaries turned against Him, other than the disciples who followed Him even to death and beyond.
Why would He add the phrase, “if it were not so I would have told you”? He was trying to comfort His disciples—how could He possibly do that with false promises? And after following Him for three years night and day, spending the days listening to Him explain His message of salvation and life in the Kingdom of God, then having Him to themselves over the evening’s campfires, could they all have been taken in by someone who misspoke? And how long would they go on believing such a tale if it were not true? Would they give their lives for something they questioned?
Every human being at some time in a lifetime struggles with the question of death. Only God has the answer. If Jesus Christ is a mere mortal, then He has no more of an answer than any of us—we all speculate, but who really knows? If on the other hand, as the Church insists, He is the Son of God, what He tells us is true. I, like all Orthodox Christian priests, utter that glorious promise following each funeral and requiem that I celebrate. He, our Lord God and Master Jesus Christ is there ahead of us, waiting for us, eager to fulfill whatever bond of unity we may have achieved with Him on our journey through life on earth. We yearn for the time when this period of our existence is complete, so that we may go on to the ultimate stage of our existence. We understand the meaning of St. Paul’s words:
“Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on things earthly, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).
O joyful assurance! Indeed I am dead to the things of this world, and I yearn for what lies ahead. And when does it begin? At my baptism, when I was drowned in the precious water so that my sins would be forgiven even in anticipation. And death has followed me but not overwhelmed me, for I know that the rooms I occupy from my crib to my coffin are not where Jesus Christ wants me to remain—so I yearn for the last and loveliest room waiting for me in His Father’s house.