John 14:1-14
May 7, 2023
“I do believe in Opie.”
It’s no secret around our house that
The Andy Griffith Show is my comfort television. I can turn it on and not have
to think a whole lot. Not because the show is simple minded, although some
episodes are deeper than others, but because I know it so well it’s like hanging
out with old friends more than watching television.
Some of the episodes are formulaic,
true. But some of them have a depth that you don’t expect from a sitcom,
especially a sitcom from that time period. There is one episode that centers around
Opie telling Andy stories about a man he’s met in the woods named Mr. McBeevee.
Mr. McBeevee wears a silver hat and walks through the tops of the trees, always
jingling. He wears a belt around his waist that is filled with his extra hands,
and he can make smoke blow out of his ears.
Opie, who was probably 7 at this
time, has been playing a lot of make believe, so when he begins to tell these
stories about Mr. McBeevee, they sound just as made up and pretend like
everything else he’s been telling them. But then Opie starts bringing things
home, like a hatchet and money, that he claims Mr. McBeevee gave him. The
audience sees that Mr. McBeevee is real. He works for the telephone company and
is putting in new lines. He wears a silver safety hat. He wears a tool belt
that has a multitude of tools that he calls his extra hands. He walks through
the trees because he is up on poles working on the lines. The belt jingles, and
because this was the 1960’s and no one thought twice about showing smoking on
television, when he inhales his cigarette, he can make smoke come out of his
ears.
Everything Opie tells them about Mr.
McBeevee is true. But the adults in Opie’s life haven’t seen Mr. McBeevee and
the description that Opie gives of him is so strange and fantastical that he
sounds made up. They think Opie must be taking these things and using Mr.
McBeevee as an excuse. So, the time has come for Andy to force Opie to tell the
truth, to admit that Mr. McBeevee is make-believe or face the consequences.
Opie tries to do what his father asks, but he can’t. He’s telling the truth.
And, with tears in his eyes, he asks Andy,
“Don’t
you believe me?”
The scene switches to Andy coming
downstairs to Barney and Aunt Bee. They want to know what’s happened. Andy
tells them he hasn’t punished Opie, instead he told Opie that he believed him.
But, but, but … everything that Opie has said about Mr. McBeevee is impossible!
Andy agrees. Barney wants to know if Andy actually believes in Mr. McBeevee,
and Andy says,
“No, but I believe in Opie.”
Andy has asked Opie to believe in
things that probably seemed just as impossible to Opie as Mr. McBeevee is to
all of them. But what matters is that Andy believes Opie because Andy has faith
in his son. He has a deep and abiding relationship with his son that is built
on love and trust. Of course Andy soon finds out that Mr. McBeevee is real and
that his trust in Opie is not misplaced and everything ends with a laugh.
Opie asked Andy to believe him, to
trust him, and that’s what Andy does. The Andy Griffith Show is a far cry from
the gospel, but Jesus is asking the disciples, who are shaken up and rattled by
what is coming, to believe in God and believe in him. Eugene Peterson, in his
translation, The Message, used the word trust for believe.
Trust God and trust me. Trust me.
Why would the disciples be troubled
in the first place? The previous verses in chapter 13 hold the answer. It is
the Festival of the Passover, and Jesus has eaten what we know as the Last
Supper with his disciples. He washed their feet, even the feet of Judas. He
told them that he knew that one of them would betray him and sent that one out
to do what he was going to do. He gave his disciples a new commandment to love
one another as he has loved them. And he predicts that Peter would deny him
three times. So, it’s no wonder that their hearts are troubled, that they are
shaken up and unnerved by everything that they have experienced, seen, and
heard. It’s a good bet to say that my heart would be troubled by all of this
too.
And now, Jesus is telling them that
he is going to his Father’s house, a house that’s large enough and roomy enough
for all of them, and that there he will prepare a place for them. He’s leaving
them! He’s leaving them!!! He might be telling them that they will know the way
to him and that he will come back for them, but all that really means that he
is leaving them.
And even though this is John’s
gospel, and in John’s gospel the disciples are far less clueless than they are
in the other gospels, the disciples at this moment can’t see beyond the fact
that Jesus is leaving them. Thomas tells Jesus that they don’t know where he is
going, so how can they know the way to that place. And Jesus responds by
saying,
“I am the way, the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Knowing Jesus means that they know
God. But Philip wants more.
“Lord, show us the Father and we
will be satisfied.”
And Jesus, perhaps a little
frustrated now, responds,
“Have I been with you all this time,
Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
In other words, trust me. Trust God.
Trust me. You have been with me all this time. You have witnessed my healings;
you have heard my teaching and preaching. We have created a relationship that
goes beyond teacher and students. We now call each other friends. I have shown
you what it is to love one another and to love this world. So, trust me.
But trust, even when, maybe
especially when, it comes to faith, can be challenging. And the disciples are
clearly challenged by Jesus’s words and by everything that Jesus has told them
lies ahead for him. We believe what we can see, and we trust what we know. And
even though the disciples have experienced Jesus up close and personal, they
are struggling to trust. If they struggled to trust, than it’s no wonder that
we do.
I think our very human trust issues
have led to this passage being traditionally interpreted as exclusionary and
narrow. When it comes to Jesus, you are either in or you are out. He said he
was the gate after all. That must mean that the gate is about closing off
people rather than opening. I don’t really want this sermon to wander off into
universalism, but I do wonder if there is more to what Jesus is saying to them
than what we have previously considered.
When Jesus says he is the way, is he
speaking only about a road or a path? Or is he also speaking about behavior,
how we live and act and be in the world? As I said, in the previous verses he
showed the disciples what he meant by loving, and that was to wash their feet.
To love was to serve, to love was to do for others. Love was about being and
acting with kindness and compassion and being willing to serve rather than
expect service. And the truth and the life? They are connected to the way as
well. The more we love, the more we see that love is at the heart of God’s
creation and God’s relationship with us and the world, then the more fully we understand
the truth that Jesus spoke of. And when we can more fully love, aren’t we more
fully living?
And the more we see that Jesus is
the way and the truth and the life, our relationship with him becomes deeper
and stronger. And the more our relationship with him deepens, the more our
relationship with others deepens. The deeper the relationship, the deeper the
trust. \
And a commentator made another point
about verse one that I never knew before. In our English translation, we read,
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” The word hearts is translated in
the plural. But in Greek, the your is plural and heart is
singular. What does that indicate? Jesus was speaking to all of the disciples
about their one heart, their collective heart. Clearly, this is not literal. We
all have our own physiological hearts, but in this context, Jesus is speaking
about their collective heart in community, in relationship. Do not let your
collective heart be troubled. You are in this together, just as we have been in
this together. So, trust me.
What would our life together look
like if we lived as though we had one heart? I’m speaking to our congregation,
yes, but I am also speaking to the larger church. What would it look like, what
would our life together be like, if we lived and acted as though we had one
heart? If our hearts are one and we are really in this together, than when one
of us is sick, all of us are sick. When one of us is mistreated, then we are
all mistreated. When one of us has reason to rejoice, than all of us have
reason to rejoice.
When we take away the individual
hearts and realize that Jesus is speaking to the collective heart of his
followers, it can no longer be us versus them, insider or outsider. It is us,
all together, one life, one heart.
Jesus reassured his followers that
he would be with them even when he wasn’t with them, and that he is the way and
the truth and the life. He spoke to their one heart and called them to love as
he loved. He calls us to do the same. He calls us to remember that our lives
are intertwined, that we need one another, that we share one heart, and that
our relationship with him and with each other is built on love. Trust me.
Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.”
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment