The text for today’s sermon is the Gospel lesson, with special attention to verses 1-4, which read as follows: ¹“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. ²In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. ³And 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. ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Dear Friends in Christ,

My Dad died in his room at the Lutheran Home, 9 years ago next Friday. This was, of course, very hard on my family and me and we all dealt with it in different ways. I should actually say that we ARE dealing with it in different ways because as many of you know, the death of a loved one is something that stays with a person for the rest of his or her life. It may get a little easier as the years go by, but the pain and the heartache are always there.

Anyway, as I have said in other sermons, I was on vicarage during the time that my dad was sick and then eventually died. Shortly after his funeral, I had to return to Highland, Indiana and get back to work. Those last few months of my vicarage were really busy and I pretty well immersed myself in my work. It wasn’t until August came that I really took the time to mourn the loss of my Dad.

And oh, was August ever a tough month for me. Here I was, back in St. Louis, my vicarage was over and my school work wouldn’t start again for a month, I just left a wonderful vicarage in a church filled with people I had grown to love, I was now 6 hours away from my mother, and I had really nothing to do to pass the time during the day but think about my father. I don’t think I was ever so depressed as I was that month, nor do I think I could ever get quite so depressed. My heart was definitely troubled.

I actually think it is quite easy for us to become troubled by the hardships and struggles of this world. There are so many bad, awful, sad, discouraging things that happen in the world, it is quite easy for people to get depressed at times – and the death of a loved one is only one of them.

And now I look at the text for today and I think to myself, what a wonderful text this is for people who are focused on the troubles in the world, the troubles in their lives. But we need to see the context this text is in. Jesus has just had the Passover meal with his disciples. He has washed their feet in an act of servanthood. He has foretold his betrayal which Judas will soon perform. He has predicted Peter's denial. He has told them he is leaving. This is pretty bad stuff. Its kind of like, Jesus came in and said, “Ok, I’ve got bad news and worse news, which would you like to hear first.” But he adds this word of hope: ¹“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. ²In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. ³And 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. ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Hardship has a way of getting our attention. Pain slows us down. Very few us, after facing a trial, come out the same way we entered in. Jesus understood this and attempted to prepare his disciples for the road ahead. He wanted them to know: If you have faith in me you will...Overcome your worry, your pain, your heartache, you will have direction in life, and you will have help along the way.

I once heard a comment from someone who didn’t like the majority of the hymns in our hymnal. This person characterized our hymns as basically saying one thing: “Life is terrible, but Oh Well, at least we are going to heaven.” Now I truly believe that this is a major oversimplification, but I responded to this person who was complaining with something along the lines of: “Yeah, so, and your point is…” You see, this person was trying to say that we should be rejoicing now, not always looking toward heaven. He was saying that we should be thankful for the gift that is life now. And for that he was right, we should be thankful for all the gifts that God has given us – we should be rejoicing now.

But what I also reminded my friend is that the way he characterized most of our hymns is exactly where people are at times. Life IS hard. We DO have to face sickness, death, pain, heartache, the loss of loved ones, financial struggles and so on. We DO get into car accidents, break bones, lose our jobs. Bad things happen to good people all the time and sometimes bad things seem to pile up on good people. And it is at those times that the words of many of hymns that we sing are so very comforting to us. It is at those times that the words of our text for today become very comforting to us. It is at those times when maybe the only thing that can help us go on, the only thing that can keep our heads held up high, is that promise of heaven. And that is what Jesus gives His disciples and us in our text.

He says, ¹“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. ²In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. ³And 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. ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going.” What does Jesus say to comfort His disciples concerning the trouble that they are about to face? He reminds them of heaven! That is what is going to help them through their hardship! That is what is going to help them through their pain and heartache. He tells them and us that He is going to prepare a place for us! What comforting words to hear from our Savior! He personally is going to prepare a place for us in Heaven. We have a great deal to look forward to. And He says that He is going to come back to take us to be with Him. He didn’t just leave us. He promised to come back.

And He says, “⁴You know the way to the place where I am going.” You know the way, he says. You know the way to the place where there is no more sorrow. You know the way to the place where there is no more death, no more pain, no more sickness, no more troubles at all. You know the way to heaven.

Of course, by saying that, Jesus is setting up His disciples for the next question that they ask. “⁵Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Lord, what are you talking about? We don’t know the way!!! We don’t know what you are talking about.

This gave Jesus the chance to say those now well known words, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” We talked about this a little last week: Jesus is the only way to get to heaven. Jesus tells us over and over again in scripture: the only way that we have to get to heaven is to believe in Him. There is no other way. Unless a person believes that Jesus came into the world, lived a perfect life, and the died on the cross for our sins…unless a person believes that on the third day Jesus rose from the dead…He will not be saved. This is the plan of salvation begun at the moment that Adam and Eve fell into sin. Since sin came into the world, we could no longer live without sin. We could therefore no longer be saved on our own merit. But Jesus came and died in our place, wiping away all the sins that we have committed, or ever will commit. Our slate has been washed clean, we are forgiven, our sins are forgotten, and we have been promised that whoever believes in Jesus as their personal savior; whoever believes that He died for them, whoever has faith in Jesus will be saved. He is the way – He is the only way.

So not only is having faith in Jesus and His promise of eternal life comforting to us, but it also gives us direction in life. We have a goal – we have something to focus on other than all the troubles of this world. We have that goal of eternal life, that we want to be there for all eternity and we want all of our friends and loved ones there as well.

And finally, if we have faith in Jesus, we have help along life’s way. Jesus promised many times in scripture that He would be with us always to the very end of the age. He says He will never leave us nor forsake us. He promises to help us through life’s troubles and hardships. And with Jesus by our side, we have nothing to worry about or fear. I have recently seen a sign out in front of a church that said, “If God is your Co-pilot, quick, switch seats.” None of us could make it through this vale of tears without Jesus helping us.

Jesus also promised the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came to dwell in our hearts from the moment we began to believe in Jesus, most of us at our baptisms. And He dwells in there giving us faith, strengthening our faith, and giving us the courage and the very words to say to tell others about the wonderful news of Jesus and what He has done for us.

So, in this text that we read today, Jesus is talking to all of us. But He is especially talking to those of us who are hurting, or worrying, or those who are sad or depressed. He says again, ¹“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God^; trust also in me. ²In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. ³And 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. ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going.” In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Now the peace of God…