Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, teach us to know You. Amen.
Text: John 14:1–6
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Devotion
“In My Father’s house are many mansions,” that is: there are still enough rooms in heaven for all Jesus’ friends, and each of them shall find his own special glory there. – All shall be gathered there, and all are perfectly blessed, but not all have the same glory. The brightness with which we shall shine in heaven shall be greater or less according to the gifts we have received from God and how we used them. Some have the gleam of a diamond, others the sheen of rubies, and others emeralds, but all of them surpass the brightest gem. There is no envy in heaven, and no discord belongs in the songs of praise before the throne of the Lamb.
Whoever believes on Jesus and remains in faith to the end cannot be lost, but must and shall inherit salvation. For believing hearts are steadfast with Jesus and remain where He is, so that Jesus leads them with Himself to heaven. If the Lord has gone through death and has conquered death, this is for us. If He is light and life which can never be put out, this He is for us who believe in Him. “I am the way,” He says. He is the bridge for us from death to life. He has thrown Himself into condemnation’s gaping chasm, so that upon Him we may be carried home to the Father’s house. “He is the living way” (Heb 10:20): like the flowing stream He carries the ship of our life out into the blessed harbor of eternity. “I am the truth and the life,” He says. How then should anyone who is one of heart with Him be lost in death? Whoever has the Son already has life. No death can slay Him any more, – and isn’t He indeed your life, the joy and desire of your heart, dear believing friend? So we know the way then and we have the life and are certain that we shall be gathered into the mansions of glory. For “we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”
But “he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1Jo 5:12, 20). “Therefore we must learn to regard and know the Lord Christ as He who always is and remains with us and in us, namely in the hour of death. Yes, He is so near to us that He and He alone is found in our heart, which happens, when I fully and firmly believe in Him as my Savior, who by His death for my sake has gone home to the Father, to bring me there. Then I am on the right way which leads from this life into the life to come. Faith clings firmly to Christ. Where He is, it must also be and remain. And the stronger the faith is, the more sure one goes on the way. This journey then is nothing other than being steadfast in faith and becoming more and more certain of eternal life in Christ. Now if I remain steadfast in this faith, and then death grabs me and overcomes me, and all my senses disappear, then the way is all behind, I have attained the goal and cross over into the other life.” (Luther)
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help us to hold fast to You in faith and to know nothing else for salvation except You crucified. Amen.
Hymn
Thyself, Lord, art my Way to heav’n,
The Key of the creation
Who finds Thee has his passport giv’n
To life’s eternal station.
Ah dearest Savior, ne’er let me
Expect a heav’n divest of Thee,
Of man’s imagination.
Thou art the Truth, and that alone
My intellectual prize is,
Without Thee words and husks are shown,
Thou all things realizes.
O make my heart entirely free
To be devout alone to Thee
Where its true paradise is.
Thou art my Life, its flowing pow’rs,
Through every part dispersing;
Thy Spirit with its vital show’rs
Both soul and body piercing.
So let me be all life and spirit,
My Jesus, always Thee inherit;
No pow’r the grant reversing.
Lange: Sweet Jesus, Thou my heart’s desire L 538:3-5 tr. Lyra Davidica;
tune: Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr (ELH 35); alternate hymn: Thou art the Way ELH 363