“And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too.”

What does our Lord mean, when he speaks of ‘going’ and ‘coming again’?

There are two main interpretative options:

(a) ‘I am going to heaven to prepare a place for you there, and at my parousia I will return and take you there, so that you will be with me for ever.’

When Jesus says, ‘I go to prepare a place for you’ he is echoing Ex 23:20, “I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.”  In Exodus, that place prepared was the Promised Land.  In the NT, it is the renewed creation, the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Burge agrees that Jesus speaks of various ‘comings’ as the chapter develops, but takes this one to be ‘a plain promise of the second coming’ (a theme clearly present in this Gospel – see John 5:25–30.

For Calvin, this refers to the Parousia:

‘This return must not be understood as referring to the Holy Spirit, as if Christ had manifested to the disciples some new presence of himself by the Spirit. It is unquestionably true, that Christ dwells with us and in us by his Spirit; but here he speaks of the last day of judgment, when he will, at length, come to assemble his followers.’

Kruse:

‘Jesus’ going in this context is his return to the Father’s presence in heaven (via his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension), and it is to heaven he will take his disciples when he returns for them. This did not occur when he came to them following the resurrection, nor with the coming of the Holy Spirit, but will occur at his second coming.’

Kruse subscribes to this interpretation even though he acknowledges that, in this Gospel, the final return of Jesus in glory is not so major a theme as his presence through the Holy Spirit.

(b) ‘I am going to the cross.  I will come again in person for a short while, and then dwell permanently with you by the Spirit.  Thus you will dwell with us (the Triune God) and we with you for ever.

Ian Paul argues that:

(i) since Jesus is speaking to the disciples, his ‘going away’ must mean his death, and that he will return to them after he has died (this ‘returning’ will be firstly by means of his post-resurrection appearances, and then by the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit);

(ii) the ‘dwelling places’ refer to the reciprocal dwelling of Christ with his people, and vice-versa.  Note the development of this idea in the Fourth Gospel:

• In Jn 1:38, the first disciples ask Jesus about where he lives.
• In Jn 2:16, Jesus refers to ‘my Father’s house’ as the temple, but then redefines it as his own body.
• In Jn 14:23, it is the Father and the Son who make their ‘dwelling place’ in the believer.
• In Jn 15:4, Jesus urges his disciples to ‘dwell in me, and me in you.’

Ian Paul quotes Stibbe:

‘The realized eschatology in the rest of John 14 suggests that this house is not so much an eternal home in heaven as a post-resurrection, empirical reality for true disciples… To these true ones [the obedient disciples], Jesus promises both a home and a father. No wonder Jesus declares, ‘I will not leave you as orphans’ (John 14.28).’

According to Gundry:

‘Jesus’ going refers, of course, to his going immediately to the cross and ultimately to the Father, that is, to the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. And it is these events, not some architectural project after arrival in heaven, that constitute Jesus’ preparation of a place in himself for each believer to abide. Without those accomplishments on his part (and in John’s Gospel Jesus accomplishes his own death, resurrection, and ascension), believers wouldn’t have abodes in him and therefore couldn’t abide in him. Since his preparatory work lies in the future (though a very near future), the present tense in “are many abodes” underscores the certainty of their coming into being.’

Burge considers that:

‘the themes of “departure and return” are more complex than we might imagine. Jesus’ departure refers to his glorification (that mix of subjects that begins with the arrest and concludes with his ascension). His return is likewise complex: In 14:18–19 Jesus’ return seems to describe his “Easter return,” when his disciples will see him. But in 14:21 we learn that another “coming” of Jesus to his disciples will result in his indwelling them spiritually (14:23).’

Klink agrees that the term ‘going’, in the Fourth Gospel, stands for the final stages of Jesus’ earthly mission.  In his death, resurrection and ascension he ‘goes to prepare a place’ for them.

According to Kruse this expression is more about presence than place, and it is as much about the immediate future as it is about the ultimate future:

‘When Jesus said, I am going there to prepare a place for you, we should not think of him returning to heaven and, having arrived there, setting about to construct ‘rooms’ for his disciples to occupy. Rather, it was by his very going—by his betrayal, crucifixion and exaltation—that he made it possible for them to dwell in the immediate presence of God. The imminent departure of Jesus, which so troubled the hearts of his disciples, was in fact for their benefit.’

As Burge remarks, it is one thing for Jesus to depart and reserve for us a place in heaven; but another thing for us to have confidence in getting there.

(c) It may be that we should detect elements of all these ‘comings’ in Jesus’ promise

So Westcott, Hoskyns, Barrett and Gundry and others.

Carson explains that the language of ‘coming back’ is used in these chapters in various ways, and so its use here is not obvious.

It could refer to:

1. His return to them following his death and resurrection (cf. Jn 20:19-29).
2. The coming of the Spirit (Cf. Jn 14:15-23)  So Gundry and Gundry.  But, Carson says, this turns on an unlikely understanding of the word translated ‘rooms’.
3. A coming of the Lord for the individual saint at his or her death, Php 1:23?  So Lightfoot, Bultmann.  But the present verse is addressed to the plurality of the disciples: Jesus says that he will return for all of them, not each of them.  And, as Carson remarks, there is no hint in the present passage of believers’ deaths, but only of Jesus’.
4. The Lord’s second advent, when he returns to take his people to be with him for ever (Jn 5:25ff; 14:28; 21:22–23; cf. 1 Jn 2:28), following their own resurrection (Jn 6:39–40, 44, 54)?  This is the view taken by Bernard, Barclay, Hendriksen, NBC, Morris, Bruce, Beasley-Murray, Milne, Kruse, Carson, Michaels, and many others.

Old Matthew Henry says:

‘He sends for them privately at death, and gathers them one by one; but they are to make their public entry in solemn state all together at the last day, and then Christ himself will come to receive them, to conduct them in the abundance of his grace, and to welcome them in the abundance of his love.’

Barrett takes a comprehensive view:

‘John is thinking here of the whole process of the passion and glorification of Jesus as the means by which believers are admitted to the heavenly life.’

Dodd saw vv2f as a statement of early Christian belief in the Parousia, which was then corrected by the Evangelist in the later part of the discourse, where (Dodd’s thesis as summarised by Beasley-Murray):

‘Christ is the way to the Father, and so to the vision of God; he will continue his work through the disciples (vv 12–14) and the Spirit’s dwelling in them (vv 15–16), and they are to know the mutual indwelling of Father and Son (vv 19–24). Thus the “coming” of the Lord means entering into union with him as their living Lord and through him with the Father.’

Beasley-Murray counters this theory by asking why, if the Evangelist wished to correct a doctrine, he placed the incorrect doctrine on the lips of Jesus.

According to Beasley-Murray,

‘the saying appears to be a clear promise of the Parousia of Jesus, although in simpler and more “homey” language (literally so!) than representations of the event such as those of Mark 13:24–27; 1 Thess 4:15–18.’

Looking broadly at the entire chapter, Barrett suggests that:

‘It is dominated by the thought of the departure and return of Jesus, but his return is no longer, as in Mark, conceived in apocalyptic terms. By his death Jesus enters at once into his glory with the Father, but subsequently returns, with his Father also, to manifest himself not to the world, as the Son of man upon the clouds of heaven, but to believers. The coming of Jesus is conceived in different ways: he returns to the disciples shortly after his crucifixion in the resurrection appearances (vv. 18ff.); he comes in the person of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete (vv. 15ff.); he comes together with the Father to make his abode with those who love him (v. 23). Truly eschatological thought is not abandoned; Jesus prepares a place for his own in heaven and will receive them into the prepared abode. The eschatology is however modified; not so much ‘realized’ as individualized, for Jesus comes to the believer, presumably at his death, to take him into the heavenly dwelling.’

Michaels observes that this is the only place where we have any record of Jesus explicitly says, in the first person, “I will come back”, or, “I will return.”  Evidence for a ‘second coming’, so far as the Gospels are concerned, rests largely on those passages in which Jesus speaks in the third person of ‘the Son of Man’ coming.  But see Mk 13:34–37 –

13:34 It is like a man going on a journey. He left his house and put his slaves in charge, assigning to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to stay alert. 13:35 Stay alert, then, because you do not know when the owner of the house will return—whether during evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or at dawn—13:36 or else he might find you asleep when he returns suddenly. 13:37 What I say to you I say to everyone: Stay alert!” (Emphasis added)

See also  Jn 16:16, 17, 19, 22.

Michaels further observes that the Synoptics rarely, if ever, connect Christ’s ‘going’ with his ‘coming’.  They are found in separate utterances.  But John connects them in the present passage: Jesus will ‘go’, and then he will ‘come back’.

But the teaching that Jesus would ‘come back’ and ‘take you to be with me’ accords, Michaels writes, with a range of teaching across all four Gospels.

Lincoln thinks that the Evangelist juxtaposes a traditional future eschatology (here) with the more realised exchatology later in the chapter, where Christ’s coming to dwell with his disciples is emphasised.  In v23, for example, ‘dwelling place’ is no longer is heaven but is located as a presence with believers.

Gundry:

‘Naturally believers will be where Jesus is if they’re abiding in him, their abode. But when will he come again and take them “to himself” so as to abide in him? Aren’t believers abiding in him now? Yes, of course. In this passage, then, his coming again can’t refer to the second coming (as we usually call it), which is yet future, though he will refer to such a coming in 21:22–23. It must refer to his comings to the disciples immediately after his death, resurrection, and (as we’ll see) ascension. And sure enough, John uses the verb “come” several times for the risen Jesus’ meetings with the disciples (see 20:19, 24, 26; 21:13) and is the only one of the Gospel writers to do so.’ (Original emphasis)

See John 14:23 “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him.”

Borchert notes that:

‘the concept of dwelling is actually focused in two different directions: in the first the disciples are to gain their dwelling in the divine domain, and in the second the persons of the Godhead come to dwell in the disciples.’

The central truth of this passage involves not so much a place, as a person: ‘Where I am, there you will be also.’  He doesn’t say, in v3, ‘I will take you take heaven.’  Rather, he says: ‘I will take you to be with me.’  Where will Jesus be?  To begin with, in heaven, or Paradise.  But finally and everlastingly in the renewed creation.  See Acts 3:21.

Our dwelling with Christ in God has begun even now, Eph 1:3; 2:6.

Whitacre agrees that ‘my Father’s house’ denotes the dwelling place of God, now to be identified with Jesus.  He draws attention to Jn 8:35 –

“The slave does not continue [or “dwell,” ou menei] in the house [oikia, the same word used in 14:2] forever; the son continues [or “dwells,” menei] forever” (RSV).

Whitacre quotes Brown:

‘This special house or household where the son has a permanent dwelling place suggests a union with the Father reserved for Jesus the Son and for all those who are begotten as God’s children by the Spirit that Jesus gives.’

Because the word mone suggests permanence and indestructibiility, these dwelling places imply ‘possibilities for permanent union (monē/menein) with the Father in and through Jesus’ (Brown).

Whitacre concludes:

‘Therefore, he prepares a place for them by his death, resurrection and ascension, for these enable them to be united to him and, in him, with the Father; his going to the Father is itself part of the preparation of a place for them. Heaven is experienced even now through the believer’s union with the Father and the Son and the Spirit. However, this present union with God that occurs as the Father, Son and Spirit abide in the believer only comes to its complete fulfillment at the second coming, when the believer is taken by Jesus to be where he is (v. 3). While the ultimate goal is the Father, this passage (and in fact the whole Gospel) is centered on Christ—it is his Father’s house, and Jesus says he will come again to take them to be with me (v. 3; more literally, “I will take you to myself,” pros emauton).’

Bruner:

‘What we call “heaven,” John’s Jesus calls “where I am.” (Jesus refers to himself in his description here of taking disciples to the Father’s estate no fewer than nine times in two verses in the Greek text; seven times in the English.) Clearly, then, “heaven” in John’s Gospel is, most simply, the real presence of Jesus Christ himself with his people.’