"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and
6. PRESENCE
"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:3) In the previous chapter we looked at Jesus' great promise of renewal for those who believe in him. Superlative as that promise is, it simply tells us that those who turn to Christ in faith – meaning living, active, belief (John 14:12; James 2:26; etc.) – will be granted eternal life. In the promise we now look at in John 14:3, Jesus makes his promise of eternal life even more personal by tying it to his personal presence with us throughout eternity. In other words, one is a promise regarding time, the other a promise regarding location: while John 6:40 promises we will have eternal life, John 14:3 promises us eternal life with him. As we have done with the previous promises we have looked at, we will consider this promise in detail.
Jesus begins his promise by saying "If I go," but this does not imply any kind of doubt or conditionality on his part. The expression is really no different from saying "when I go" – the emphasis is on certainty – as if he had said "as surely as I go, I will return."
But Jesus' words "I go" require a little more thought. They could refer to his death or his ascension as both events separated him from his disciples. The expression might also imply both events – the whole process of Christ's physical separation from his disciples which began with his death and culminated in his return to heaven. But just as surely as he predicted his going, Jesus also predicted his return and reunion with his followers. Of course, we have union with Christ now through the indwelling of his Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:5; etc.), but in his promise of John 14:3 he was speaking of his actual presence with those who are his.
Preparing a Place Jesus also explained that the purpose of his leaving was to prepare a place or a habitation for us after his entrance into heaven. It helps us understand the analogy Jesus used in saying this if we realize that travelers – especially pilgrims – would often send one of their number ahead of them to arrange lodging or secure rooms in the city to which the group was traveling.
During his earthly ministry Jesus often did exactly that – sending one or more of his disciples ahead of him – just as we read in Luke that "the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go" (Luke 10:1). The same situation applied, of course, when Jesus sent Peter and John ahead of him to prepare a place for the Passover meal (Luke 22:8).But in his promise of John 14:3, Jesus took the role on himself of going ahead to prepare. It was the job of a disciple or servant, but just as Jesus had shown himself as a servant in washing his disciples' feet (John 13:1-17), he now humbly took on the responsibility of preparing an eternal place for his followers of that and every age.
Jesus gave a little more information regarding the place he would prepare for us when he said: "My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?" (John 14:2). The word translated rooms (or "mansions" in older translations) can actually mean either the act of living somewhere or the place where one lives. It is a form of the Greek verb to "remain" but was often used in Greek to refer to temporary places of habitation as the word actually suggests a place of less permanence than the word "house."
It is possible that this temporary aspect of the word ties into the analogy just explained – of someone going ahead to arrange lodging for travelers on an ongoing journey – but the temporary nature of the places or dwellings may also tie into another truth the Bible appears to teach that we will see next.
I Will Come Back As was true of the words "I will go," Jesus' words "I will come back" can be understood in different ways. Christ may have meant his return through his resurrection, through the giving of his Spirit, his presence in the Church (as when he said "For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them" – Matthew 18:20 NLT), or his second coming.
The last of these meanings seems most probable as Jesus continued by telling the disciples: "I will ... take you to be with me" which best fits the context of his second advent and other verses in the New Testament that refer to Christ's end-time return. If we understand Jesus' words about going to prepare a place as an analogy of someone going ahead to prepare a place for travelers, then the task is not completed until the person preparing lodging returns to guide the travelers to the place that has been arranged for them. Yet the analogy should not be taken too far, and we should look primarily to what the Bible clearly states rather than what it might indicate.
If we pull together all the verses that speak of Christ's return and the afterlife, we have a composite picture which seems to show that the spirits of those who die in Christ before his return are taken and dwell in the temporary places he said he would prepare. Thus Paul wrote that at Christ's second coming "we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him" (1 Thessalonians 4:14), and: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17)
That You May Be Where I Am However we understand the exact details of the resurrection, Paul's words to the Thessalonians – "so we will be with the Lord forever" – clearly dovetail with what Jesus said in his promise of John 14:3 – "that you also may be where I am" – and what he prayed a little later in John's account: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am" (John 17:24.). The amazing truth of this promise is that just as we long to be with, and long to always be with, those we love – so Christ makes it clear that he desires to be with those he loves and who love him. This promise shows the depth of Christ's personal relationship with those who are his, and it transforms the concept of the resurrection from our simply being given eternal life – transcendent as that gift may be – to the even deeper and more personal truth that the resurrection is not only Christ giving us eternal life, but also granting us never-ending life with him.