» R. W. Dale, Christ and the Future Life, 41. • J. Ker, Sermons, ii. 258.
ST. JOHN XIV. 2 75
minds, and the world of thought and feehng had no perplexities, and all things were our ov/n by the joy they gave us, by the love we bore them. These were the days when we inherited the earth: we had a kingdom fit for any king, greater than any possessed, and our wealth brought no pain or envy, because our hearts were simple and our minds were pure, and every day was bright, and everything a wonder. Does it not soothe our hearts, tired with pain and sorrow, with very weariness that nothing is fresh and new, that over all the dull light of commonplace is cast, when, in the light of Christ's words, we realize that God regards us still as children who will yet dwell with Him and with each other, one family, in His own house ? ^
(3) Christ Himself is there. — Our Lord has taught us to connect heaven with the thought of Himself — "My" Father's house. Heaven is the house of Christ's Father. It is as when an arch is built, and last the keystone is put in which binds it all into one ; or as when a palace has been raised with all its rooms and their furniture complete, but it is dark or dimly seen by lights carried from place to place. The sun rises, and by the central dome the light is poured into all the corridors and chambers, and by the windows there are prospects over hill and valley and river. The Lord Jesus Christ is the sun of this house.
^ Let us remember that these are His words. We must not take them rashly out of His lips or borrow them for ourselves, without considering very reverently that they belong in their first and proper sense to Him who is the only begotten of the Father, who was with God and was God in the beginning. As He left the world, Jesus said indeed, " I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God." That and links us to Himself; but it is a bridge thrown across an infinite chasm, spanning the distance between the Divine and the human. For He had given it to be understood that God was "his own Father making himself equal with God." Heaven was to Jesus Christ " My Father's house " ; by this title He brings it near to His disciples and lights it up with welcome.^
^ Heaven is the Father's house of Jesus Christ ; and as " a son over his own house," He invites His friends and promises them places in it, — He, the well-beloved, unto whom the Father has committed all judgment. " Father," He prayed in the hearing of these men, " I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be
^ D. Fairweather, Bound in the S2nrU, 157. 2 G. G. Fiudlay, The Things Above, 187.
76 THE HOUSE OF MANY MANSIONS
with me where I am " ; and He said to the dying robber on the cross: "To-day shalt thou be unth me in paradise." His word opens heaven to men His fellowship assures our place there as nothing else can do.^
II. The Many Mansions.
The Greek word here translated " mansions " is the same as that in the 23rd verse of this chapter, where it is said, " We will come unto him, and make our abode with him." It is a somewhat uncommon word, not elsewhere found in the New Testament, and once only in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament and Apocrypha. Possibly its use a second time in this chapter may not be unintentional. As the Father and the ,Son make an earthly abode in the hearts of those who prove their love by keeping Christ's commandments, so also shall heavenly abodes be prepared for those who love Him. There is an interchange, as it were, between earth and heaven, man abiding with God, and God with man. i
Three things seem to be suggested by the phrase "many mansions " — Permanence, Spaciousness, Variety.
1. Permanence. — It is a place of " mansions " — both the English word and the Greek intimate this — a place where the dwellers shall abide, like a city to wanderers in the wilderness. "You have known Me," He says to His disciples, "for a few years, moving to and fro, but I leave you for the city of God, where you also shall enter in, to go out no more at all."
Indeed, the assurance of an abiding union fills the entire discourse. With this thought our Lord would soothe the hearts of His friends, and His own heart that suffered with them. He seeks in this way to heal the sore wound of their bereavement. A dreadful change is coming for them. They will be scattered, He tells them, as sheep without a shepherd — sheep in the midst of wolves ! They are to be friendless, homeless, hunted, martyred men. But beyond it all, for them as for Him, there is rest, safety, permanence, — an everlasting home. " Him that overcometh will > G. G. Findlay, The Things Above, 190.