John 14:1-14 – The 5th Sunday of Easter – for Sunday, May 18, 2014
“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places…†(John 14:2)
Do you have plans for a future trip to heaven?
Where will you unpack your baggage upon arrival?
Will you be shown to a mansion, room or dwelling place?
The King James Version, first published in the early 1600s, translated Jesus’ claim with, In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
As a Sunday-school-attending, baby-boomer, I was raised on the Revised Standard Version’s, In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
Much of my preaching and teaching used 1989’s New Revised Standard Version, In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
Of course, John’s 14th chapter, regardless of translation, doesn’t mention heaven as the post-death zipcode for a “mansion†or “room.†Still, we think that way, don’t we? (Okay I think that way.)
With my current hospice ministry, I often hear grieving families declare a once-suffering spouse, parent or child is now “in a better place.†Isn’t “better place†another phrase for “heaven?†Continue reading →