Spare Room

John 14:1-14

Last weekend, in addition to helping to run a disc golf tournament, I was also hosting two disc golfers from out of town who were playing in the event. I took this as a good excuse to clean things up around my place a little bit. I had, to put it gently, let things get a little disheveled. Books, papers, clothes, dishes, boxes, shoes…wherever and everywhere. That week, in between shifts working at the hospital, I would rush home to run a load of dishes, fold a load of laundry, run a vacuum up the stairs. Perhaps this is why when I read of Jesus preparing a room for us in his Father’s house I think of him wiping counters, stocking bathrooms with TP, and setting out clean, folded towels on a freshly made bed.

I also had the experience, just this weekend, of being a guest and staying in a spare room at my brother and sister-in-law’s house. Whereas I welcomed my guests to an unrealistically clean townhouse, my brother welcomed me to his reality: two boys, blocks on the floor, storybooks in the chair, notes on the desk from the Chemistry test he’d been studying for, and a mattress-topper rolled out on the floor of the office. It was marvelous. Contrary to the image of Jesus with dust-buster and Lysol wipes, I was reminded of when Jesus calmed down an over-anxious Martha who was feeling burdened by the unrealistic expectations of what I’m going to call “Better Homes & Gardens”-style hospitality (the kind of clean and organized that is tremendously impractical but looks pretty in a magazine and makes us feel enormously inadequate). “You are burdened and distracted by so many things,” Jesus tells her.

To be fair, my brother and sister-in-law also keep an immaculate basement which they rent out as an “Air B&B” destination. It was already taken Friday night, so I got the office floor. Not everyone would get the office floor. Strangers would not be offered the office floor. This really got me thinking. In the next chapter of John, John 15 verse 15, Jesus famously tells his disciples, “Now I call you friends.” So when Jesus is going to prepare a room for them in his Father’s house, is he giving them an immaculate Air B&B suite, or is he welcoming them, not as strangers, but as friends to God’s office floor, the reality of life with God? Or does dwelling with God mean we are going to live an impractically immaculate life, a life that leaves us feeling inadequate all the time?

During his ministry and teachings, Jesus famously harped on the Pharisees for their pompous portrayal of piety and perfect adherence to the law. They puffed themselves up at the expense of others. Is it possible that life as friends of Jesus is a little messier than we feel inclined to admit? What’s really going on when Jesus goes to prepare a place for us in his Father’s dwelling?

For me, this question leads me deeper into the text, to the place where Jesus speaks of the “Father who dwells in [him].” He goes on to say, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Does Jesus’ preparing a dwelling place in God have anything to do with the Father dwelling in him and he in the Father? And might it have anything to do with the “Companion”, the Holy Spirit, which is sent to live with us?

What if, not saying that this is the case, but what if the dwelling place that Jesus prepares for us is not in some place and time apart, not in some “Better Homes & Gardens”-style perfect paradise, but a dwelling place in God’s presence in this moment—a reminder of God-with-us in the midst of the messy here and now? If I’m honest, that really appeals to me, inspires me, comforts me more than some promise of “perfection”: it reminds me of what I learned from Christ’s death and resurrection; it reminds me of the messy reality out of which God has offered me hospitality, grace, and life.

When Jesus speaks of God dwelling in him, he speaks of God doing God’s works through him. Then he says that whoever believes in him will also do the works that he does. Is this another way of suggesting that it is possible for God to dwell in us, also? Is he saying that we who follow him, seeking and striving to do God’s will, are settling into a dwelling place in God’s house for which he has prepared us and to which he has led us through his life, teaching, death, and resurrection?

I’m just asking questions, here, but here’s the reason: I want to give us a hopeful perspective on the reality of life with God. The yeast of the Pharisees still leavens our sense of sufficiency, adequacy, and what is to be considered a “good-enough” life of faith. Our culture is tremendously tainted by a notion that wealth and prosperity are signs of blessing while poverty and sickness are signs of spiritual inadequacy. That is simply not Biblical, nor is it conducive to a life of compassion. The reality is that life lived “in God” can still be messy; good Christian lives don’t always “photograph” well. When Jesus says he goes to prepare a place for us, and that he will show us the way, he is saying that new life is realistically attainable here and now. But if we prioritize perfection, we’ll miss the joy this life has to offer. If we demonize messiness, we crush our capacity for compassion towards others and grace towards ourselves. In short, we will be burdened and distracted by many things.

God’s dwelling place, revealed in Jesus, is not apart from us and this world. If we are to live life in God and God in us, doing the works of God, then we are to live life in the reality of a world under the influence of sin. Jesus did not avoid messy, broken, disheveled people…he loved them. Friends, do not be discouraged by this, do not be troubled by this, but trust in God and trust also in Christ Jesus that you may dwell in him in the works you do, and his Spirit might dwell in the love God shows through you. Amen.