21st April 2011

John 14:1-4 – Jesus comforts His Disciples

• “Many Rooms”
• In this passage Jesus comforts His disciples with the fact that where He is going there will be many rooms.
• I think we often think of this in terms of a large mansion that each one of us will get. And this leads to us fixating on how cool the rewards of Heaven and the things we will get will be.
• I don’t think that was the point of Jesus’ encouragement.
• The Jews by Jesus time had adopted much of the dining arrangements of the Romans.
• There are various clues in the NT of this.
• In the Triclinium of the Romans, an oblong dining room had a table in the centre with three couches alongside three of its walls [hence the name]. The fourth wall was left free for entertainment.
• You would lay on the couch with your head towards the table and your body angled away from it.
• The historian Pliny writes about how one diner would lie in the bosom of another referring to the way that a person’s head would be at the torso of the person next to them who was in a superior position – we see this with John and Jesus [John 13:23].
• The point?
• The Tricilinium usually flitted nine dinners comfortably.
• But at this meal there are at least thirteen people! Probably another couch was added and without doubt space was a real issue.
• Jesus had a habit of only including certain people at certain times and here he comforts His disciples that where He is going they will all fit in. There is a place for everyone of them.
• When Jesus encouraged His disciples about Heaven it was not about the reward of large mansions but that they would get to be with Him.
• Nowadays too many preachers entice us with treasures in Heaven and of course there will be many. But when Jesus offers comfort the best reward He can offer is time with Him.
• Is the best thing you can offer those you lead the things you can give then or time with you?
• If you are worth following; it is time with you..