Fifth Sunday of Easter 2026

John 14:1-14

Rev. Neli Miranda

 

            Today, our Christian spirituality invites us on a journey that leads toward the celebration of the Ascension, which takes place forty days after Jesus’ resurrection. To guide us along this path, the lectionary presents a series of readings that recount the intimate and moving moments Jesus shared with his disciples just before his arrest and crucifixion. For several Sundays, we listen to portions of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse in the Gospel of John, delivered to his first community of disciples during the Last Supper.

            For the Johannine community, these words held deep significance, and they were preserved so that Jesus’ message might continue to reach disciples throughout the centuries.

            Today we read from chapter 14, which follows the account of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and foretelling his coming suffering, Judas’ betrayal, and Peter’s denial. “Little children, I am with you only a little longer…” Jesus tells them (13:33). At the beginning of chapter 14, night has fallen; Judas has gone out to meet the authorities to arrange Jesus’ arrest, and Jesus has just told Peter, “Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times” (13:38).

            What a moment. What a scene. We can imagine the confusion and anxiety of these disciples, women and men, hearing that everything is about to change. No wonder Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me” (14:1).

            In the midst of this uncertainty, Jesus encourages them: “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?” (14:2). These beautiful words have often been interpreted as referring to “mansions in heaven.” Yet Jesus speaks not of “mansions,” but of “my Father’s house.” He uses the language of home and relationship to describe his return to the Father—an image of communion with God, filled with love, peace, and reconciliation.

            Later in the chapter, Jesus deepens this idea of mutual indwelling: “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (14:23). The “place” Jesus prepares, then, is not merely a future physical dwelling, but participation in the life of God—a place within God’s own family.

            Jesus assures his disciples that through his suffering, death, and resurrection, he is returning to the Father and will remain in communion with them: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also” (14:3). For us, as Christians today, this promise is not only future-oriented; it is also a present reality. Through Christ, we already begin to dwell in the Father’s house, sharing in God’s life, In God’s family.

Jesus tells them, “And you know the way to the place where I am going” (14:4). Yet Thomas responds, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (14:5). Thomas gives voice not only to personal uncertainty, but to a deeper misunderstanding that still affects the community. Even after walking with Jesus, they have not fully grasped who he is. Jesus answers with one of the most profound declarations in the Gospel: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (14:6).

            Here, “the way” is not a path or a set of directions, but a person—Jesus himself. To know the way is to know Jesus. In Johannine language, this “knowing” is not merely intellectual but relational and experiential. As Jesus continues, “If you know me, you will know my Father also” (14:7). The question, then, is not simply whether the disciples know about Jesus, but whether they truly know him.

            Philip then says, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied” (14:8). If Thomas represents misunderstanding, Philip reveals a deeper insufficiency: even after all that Jesus has said and done, he still seeks something more. In this sense, both disciples reflect a community that has not yet come to full recognition of Jesus. Jesus responds with a gentle but firm reproach: “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9).

            Sisters and brothers, this is a central theological insight of the Gospel: in Jesus, God is fully revealed. The disciples—and we today—may imagine God as distant, inaccessible, and impassible. But in Jesus, we encounter a God who is near—one who loves, heals, shows compassion, holds children in his arms, welcomes the vulnerable, and even shares in human suffering.

            Dear sisters and brothers, to live as disciples of Jesus and to remain in relationship with him is to come to know and to see God. In Jesus, God is revealed with a profoundly human face—a God who loves, who stands in solidarity with humanity, who embraces vulnerability, and who overcomes death with life.

Have we recognized this God in our midst? Are we like Thomas, still searching for the way—or like Philip, still asking to see the Father—while Jesus stands before us?

Today, Jesus invites us to trust in him, to follow him as the way, and to discover that there is room for all in the Father’s house. Amen.