Jesus’ Intimacy With His Disciples
Jesus also talks to his disciples in a way that beautifully demonstrates the intimate relationship he had with them. This is a dynamic and profound passage, filled with love, tenderness, and pathos. Jesus has spent three years with these men, and he is now just hours from the end of this life on earth with these friends. In spite of knowing that Peter — one of his closest companions — would deny him, Judas would betray him, and Thomas would doubt him, Jesus drew them all close with his words and bared his heart. Notice how Jesus used the emotion-laden word pictures of an abandoned orphan and the pain of a woman in childbirth (John 14:18, 16:21) to communicate his heart. I always read this passage slowly — it feels like I’m in a holy place.
In John 14:1 Jesus begins by saying, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” That’s one of the most profound statements in all of history. Jesus equates belief in God with belief in him, thereby equating himself with God.
It’s possible to put on an act in public and fool some. But you and I know we can’t fool our friends, at least not for any length of time. Ever been camping? If you have, you know what it was like for Jesus and the apostles for those three years. The twelve knew him the best. They had ministered together, shared all their meals, slept side by side, and suffered the hardships of traveling together. A person’s real character comes out in those circumstances.
What had the disciples seen of Jesus’ character, what had they observed over the three years? They had heard him preach and teach from Sidon to Jericho, had seen the miracles, the feeding of the multitudes; they had seen him walk on water, speak to the elements and watch them come under his control; he demonstrated again and again that he was the Lord over all creation.
They knew what it was like to work all day together in the heat of the Middle-Eastern sun, and then for Jesus to stay up all night praying. Some of them had seen Jesus transformed in a marvelous and supernatural way. They had seen visitations from historic (dead) people. They had heard Jesus defend his Messiahship and dumbfound the most brilliant minds of Israel. Yet, here they are at this dinner together, and Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1-2).
“Trust in God,” Jesus said, just days before he was to die a horribly painful death. “Trust also in me.” Jesus is baring his soul to these men, as to us. This is true intimacy. When I read this passage, I take it to heart, because it was meant for me, too.
John Wimber, Prayer: Intimate Communication (Anaheim: Vineyard Ministries International, 1997), 9-10.
