Commentary on John 14:1-14

The night when Jesus is arrested, according to John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks for a long time (John 14–16). He talks about how he is about to leave his followers, and how he is also going to continue to be present with them. This notion of presence-in-absence matters for Jesus’s death, but it matters even more after his ascension, when Jesus is not present in the same physical way at all. Jesus’s Farewell Discourse focuses on how the Advocate (14:26) and this community of followers remaining with Jesus (15:1–17) are two ways in which Jesus “will not leave them orphaned” but will come to them (14:18). 

Don’t trouble your heart

Jesus begins this passage with the instruction, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (14:1). What does it mean for hearts to be troubled? Readers tend to interpret this as a troubling of emotions, meaning “Do not let your hearts be disturbed.” It is interesting that Jesus is described as troubled (11:33), his soul is troubled (12:27), and his spirit is troubled (13:21). What sense does it make for him to command his friends, not once but twice (14:27), to not let their hearts be troubled, when he has been troubled repeatedly?

In these accounts, Jesus seems troubled in the face of the loss of others, in the face of his own death, and in the face of evil. What he is calling his disciples not to have troubled hearts about, in this case, is his own absence, because he is both gone and not gone. This is an important difference from a general admonition not to be troubled, which generally feels impossible—and potentially unhelpful and unloving—to the world. He calls his followers to trust him even when events happen (death, loss) that threaten that trust.

It is important to consider what Jesus is responding to when he commands the disciples not to have a troubled heart. Immediately before this, Peter claims that he will die with Jesus rather than deny Jesus, and Jesus tells him, prophetically, that he has it all backwards. This is the result of a troubled heart that does not understand that Jesus isn’t really gone. 

Jesus’s command is difficult to render in conversational English: “You all, do not let your [plural] heart [singular] be troubled.” In other words, Jesus says to this group of disciples that they have one heart, and that they, collectively, have a responsibility for it not to be troubled at Jesus’s departure. When they are no longer a community together, it is much more likely for hearts to become troubled, resulting in things like Peter’s denial (and therefore, he is restored and forgiven in the context of community, in John 21:15–19). 

In 14:2, Jesus describes a place, “my Father’s house,” that has room for everyone and which Jesus is going ahead to prepare. Just as he did at the last meal, Jesus is the host, inviting others in (13:1–20). When Jesus says there are many “dwelling places” (monē), this has less to do with heavenly mansions and more to do with the relationship between him and his followers. The point is that “where I am, there you may be also” (14:3). The verb menō, meaning “remain,” “stay,” or “abide,” is used 11 times in Jesus’s extended metaphor of the vine and the branches (15:1–17), emphasizing the “abiding” nature of the disciples with Jesus, and how this is necessary for life and ministry. Jesus is promising that both here and hereafter, he and his followers will be together.

Begging the question

Translating John 14:4 in a wooden way that corresponds to the order of the Greek syntax, it reads: “And where I am going, you know the way.” Unlike in the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, there is no Greek word for “place.” This matters because it sets the stage for another of John’s favorite misunderstandings around wordplay (see 3:3–6; 4:10–11). Thomas hears what the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition translates as “You know the way to the place where I am going.” 

In other words, Thomas is asking about the destination, the place, where Jesus is going, as he says, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (14:5). Jesus is saying they have the directions (map, GPS), so why do they need to know the final destination? (Also, the directions and the destination are both Jesus!)

This misunderstanding produces one of Jesus’s “I am” statements: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (14:6). It is important to remember that in the context of this passage, this verse is reassuring (see 14:1–3, 12–14). It is to reassure the disciples that they know more than they think they do and that they should focus on their trust in Jesus. 

Philip continues, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied” (14:8; see 1:18). The intriguing part about this verse is Philip’s declaration that “we will be satisfied (arkeō).” It is notable that Philip is taking on the role of speaking for the rest of the disciples here (see also 1:45). Furthermore, this alludes back to a previous episode in John. At the feeding of the 5,000, only the Gospel of John narrates an exchange where Jesus explicitly “tests” Philip by asking him, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” (6:5). Philip responds, “Six months’ wages would not buy sufficient (arkeō) bread for each to take a little” (my translation). 

Philip seems to be asking about what would be sufficient or what would satisfy. He does this even after he has seen Jesus bring about abundance, and where he is in the presence of abundant life itself (14:6; see 10:10). Jesus could be concerned that with his departure, those who fear scarcity find their fears aggravated. If Jesus is not around to ensure abundance, will these fears of scarcity grow? They are called both to trust that Jesus hasn’t really left (see: the Spirit) and that Jesus has always demonstrated throughout his ministry that there is more than enough to go around. They have even “seen the Father” because they have seen the abundance of Jesus’s life. They are never alone.