As He Promised

I cannot begin to count the number of times the first few verses of the fourteenth chapter of John have been read at graveside services.  They are read because they are comforting.  They are read because they are true.  After telling the disciples that there were many dwelling places in the Father's house, He said, "If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare and place for you?" And without giving time for a reply, Jesus went on to declare, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself so that where I am, there you may be also."  (John 14:2-3).   

There is no reason for the living or the dying to question what Jesus has said.  What He says, He will do.  He is absolutely trustworthy.  To be anything else would be against His very nature.  Who is this Jesus who spoke these words which challenge all that cries out in our life for logic to prevail?  In verse 6 of the same chapter He speaks of His identity, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  He is the way from conception to eternity.  He is the way that goes from birth to Home.  He is not just a truth, but He is truth.  The very essence of His being is truth.  Finally, he tells those who are hearing and listening that He is life.  When death seems to have the final word, He stands as one who declares and illustrates that it has no power over the life that is in Him and in us because of Him.  

To read this section of Scripture is to hear Jesus say, "You can trust me on this one," but then, when has Jesus ever said anything that was not true? When has He ever made a promise He did not keep?  Jesus told the disciples that He would be killed in Jerusalem, but that He would rise from the dead.  He kept that promise.  As those at the empty tomb were reminded, it happened just as He said it would happen.  When we come to our own moment of dying, Jesus will have finished His preparations for us in the heavenly place and He will come to take us Home just as He promised.