Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled. May 7, 2023. The Reverend Kathleen M. Sturges

John 14:1-14

Do not let your hearts be troubled. I’m of two minds when I hear Jesus say that. On the one hand I respond like a dry sponge to water. My heart says, “Yes,” as it longs to soak in those words, let go of whatever troubles it, and settle into God’s rest. But then there’s the other hand…the part that pushes back saying, “Really?” I think, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” How can anyone get through this life without a troubled heart? Beyond the common concerns and worries we might have for ourselves and for those whom we love, how can any person with a heart look at the world with all it’s pain and suffering and not be troubled? And in addition to that I’d like to point out that even Jesus’ heart was troubled - troubled when he saw Mary and others weeping at the death of Lazarus (John 11:33). Troubled when speaking of his coming betrayal (John 13:21). And when anticipating what was to come in the hours before his death, Jesus confesses, “Now my soul is troubled.” 

So what is Jesus talking about when he says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled”? Partly what he seems to be doing is bringing the reality of our hearts and our lives into the light. He’s naming what already is. We have troubled hearts. Jesus knows because he, himself, has experienced it. But along with this Jesus also knows something else. He knows that our lives do not have to be defined by nor limited to what troubles us.

In our reading from the gospel of John, the disciples' hearts are troubled because Jesus has just told them that he’s leaving them. “I am with you only a little longer,” he says a few verses before our reading begins, and “Where I am going you cannot come.” Now we have the gift of hindsight, we know it’s all going to turn out ok, but that’s not the perspective of the disciples. They only know what they know in real time and being told that their friend and teacher is leaving them must have been very hard to hear. They had given up everything to follow him. Their whole world revolved around him. And now he’s saying he’s leaving them? Just like that? Their world was falling apart.

Do you know what that’s like? I certainly hope not, but given life’s twists and turns it’s likely that you do have an inkling. I’ve lived it and I’ve watched others live it as well. Someone we had hoped to spend the rest of our lives with leaves - either by choice or by circumstance. A loved and cherished child has a heartbreaking struggle of a life. The career that everything was invested in fails. A dreaded diagnosis is made. A dream is lost. In so many ways life does not go the way we had hoped and our hearts are troubled.

There’s really no disputing that. That can all be true - and yet that is not all  that is true. Even with troubled hearts Jesus seeks to reassure the distressed disciples that even in their circumstances they know the way forward, the way deeper, the way that is truer - it is the way to the place where he is going. But "Lord,” protests one of the disciples, “we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” To which Jesus responds, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

Now given that I’m talking about troubled hearts I feel compelled to take a bit of a detour here in regards to Jesus’ words - I am the way and the truth and the life - and how often it is used to do a whole lot of damage in people’s lives. Sadly, in way too many Christian circles, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” operates as a license to judge, exclude, and condemn God’s beloved people. I know this because I heard the stories and seen the lives. And I feel confident in saying that when Jesus’ words are used - or really abused - like that, it is God’s heart that must be the most troubled of all. Because it’s just wrong - wrong on so many levels. The big gospel message that God so loved the world is good news - not bad news - good news for us all. And all does indeed mean all.

And Jesus’ words here are also good news. That is clear if you take the bible seriously and pay attention to the context. For I am the way, and the truth, and the life is not prompted by the question, “Hey, Jesus, tell me, is everyone going to heaven?” or “What’s going to happen to Muslims or Jews or other world religions?” No. The context is that the disciples are afraid, confused, lost. Their friend is leaving them and the only question that is burning in their troubled hearts is where are you going Jesus? And how can we know the way? Jesus' response is meant to be a reassurance that the disciples are not being abandoned. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. These words are not a threat. They are a comfort. Jesus is insisting here that fear and worry, the sense of abandonment and any other troubling feelings of the heart are not the final word. They are not the last chapter in our story. Because even though Jesus will no longer dwell in the disciples’ physical presence he will still be with them - but in a different and even richer way.

That is because he is not leaving them to go to another local - a place where you can point to on a map. Rather by sacrificing himself for the sake of his friends and giving up his life for the world, where Jesus is going is into a deeper reality, into the depths of love. And it is in that way, that truth, that life where he will be found.

 We know this because, again, context is important. Right after Jesus drops the bomb that he is leaving he offers the disciples this, a new commandment, that they love one another. That is the way. Because it turns out that as we act in love and go deeper into love that is where and how we will know and experience Jesus. He will dwell in you and you in him. Just like it is with God the Father as Jesus says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Through love we are being invited into a dynamic, mystical way of dwelling with the divine that brings healing, wholeness, and life.

So if your heart is troubled today know Jesus’ words are especially for you, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Like the disciples we only know what we know. We don’t have any perspective but what we experience in real time. Even so, Jesus knows that whatever troubles you is not the final word. And you experience the truth of this if you are willing to enter into God’s invitation to love. Find a way to love today. Give of yourself for the sake of another. For in doing so you will become even more rooted and grounded in the source of all love. Christ Jesus will dwell in you and you in him. Now does that mean that your heart will no longer be troubled? Maybe, maybe not. There’s no guarantee. But what is guaranteed is that our hearts and the hearts of all whom we love will always be held secure in the love of God. And, ultimately, it is in that divine love that troubled hearts will find their rest.