About That Mansion

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“Let not your heart be troubled:

ye believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so,

I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

John 14:1-4 (King James Version)

We are all familiar with this passage as it is often used as a central text in funerals to encourage mourners that upon death a Christian goes “home” to the mansion or dwelling place that Jesus has been preparing for them.  A traditional approach to this passage is reflected in Merrill Tenney’s book on the gospel of John when he says:

“In discussion the important problem of human destiny, Jesus used very simple language, and spoke in clear, though restrained fashion. Two thoughts stood out in His statement: human destiny involves both a place and a person. The place is the Father’s house  The person is Christ Himself, whose presence would make the place glorious.”[1]

In this brief study I would contend that John 14:6 is not just a verse about how to “get to heaven” but part of a bigger picture that Jesus is trying to get across to His disciples before He goes to the cross.

Analysis

When Jesus uses the word translated “mansions” or “dwelling places” He uses the Greek word monai (μοναὶ). It is derived from the Greek word meno which means to stay or abide. This particular form of the word is used in the New Testament only here and in verse 23 of this same chapter[2] where Jesus says “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make our abode (μοναὶ) with him.” So in verse 23 Jesus defines the “dwelling places” not as some kind of future heavenly dwelling but as being Himself and the Father making their “abode” with the disciples.

In verses 2 and 3 He tells them “I go to prepare a place for you” and then repeats this phrase when He says in verse 28 “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away…”  In the span between verses 2 and 28 Jesus tells them;

• about His relationship of abiding in the Father which He says they will experience as well (10, 12)

• about the coming of the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send to them (16)

• that this “Spirit of truth … abides with you.” (17)

• that “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (18)

• that “you will behold Me” (19)

• that “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” (20)

• that “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode (μοναὶ) with him. (23)

• that “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things …” (26)

Then in verses 28-29 He comes back to what He said in verse 2 and makes the main point of the entire discussion when He says “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ … “Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.

Before what happens? Before they die, as we typically interpret verse 2?  No, I think He is referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts and the new relationship with the Father that they will experience because the presence of the Holy Spirit will allow them to do the “greater works” He talks about in 14:12. I have placed the entire context of John 14 below and highlighted key phrases so you can see the relationships in the context. Please take the time to read it carefully.

Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places (μοναὶ); if it were not so, I would have told you; 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.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.“In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said* to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode (μοναὶ) with him. “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. “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. “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. “Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.  “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.

[1] Tenney, Merrill C., Ph.D., JOHN: The Gospel of Belief (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, 1948) 213-214.

[2]. Vine, W. E., An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words with their Precise Meanings for