It was the weekend, and for my family, that meant it was time for another wild adventure to TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) right outside of Nashville. My mom loaded my siblings and me into the minivan that sometimes doubled as our home.
The most appropriate word to describe the TBN campus is gaudy. There was a gilded gold gate, a statue of Jesus riding a horse with a flaming sword, and the interior of the main building looked like a mansion designed by Liberace.
Some prophet was on stage working up a sweat and talking about the afterlife, “I’m going to get my mansion in Heaven, hallelujah. Are you ready to get your mansion?!”
*pass the offering plate*
I’m pretty sure that preacher already had a mansion here on Earth, but he was already making plans for his afterlife real estate purchases as well. But as a homeless kid watching all the extravagance around me, I couldn’t help but think, “I’d just settle for a room here.”
It turns out my theology was pretty on point.
Unholy Sh+t: An Irreverent Bible Study
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Today’s reading: John 14:1-12
If you travel to the Holy Land, you will find many locations claiming to be sites from the life and times of Jesus. You can visit the place of his birth, circumcision, resurrection, and ascension. What you won’t find on your tour is the home of Jesus. Now, could that be because he didn’t exist? Maybe but when has that ever stopped the church from creating a fake location for tourists? There is big bucks in that!
No, you won’t find a mansion for the King of Kings anymore than you’ll find a shack. In adulthood, Jesus didn’t seem to have a house while living here on Earth. Not only do we see him constantly couch surfing, but he even said, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but I have nowhere to lay my head.”
Jesus was such a drama queen, I swear.
But for about three years, he traveled around with his ragtag group of miscreants. They were not traveling in style, either. They were hoofing it, and whenever they didn’t have a gig, they crashed at Peters's house. So imagine the absolute shock the homies of Jesus had when he decided to casually drop in conversation, “btw, my daddy has a mansion, and y’all can come hang out with me there if you want.”
Of course, Thomas is instantly all, “I highly doubt that! We don’t even have directions.”
Then Jesus is like, “Bro, I’m the directions. Just do what I’m doing, you’ll even do cooler things than I’ve done, and you’ll get to where I’m going, to my dad’s house.”
I grew up being taught that we’d all get our own mansion in Heaven and that the streets would be paved with gold. What I didn’t know at the time was that the phrase actually meant that gold would no longer have any value. At the time, streets were lined with salt that had lost its saltiness and was worthless. Jesus wasn’t saying, “God is so loaded he has gold streets” he was saying, “In the afterlife, gold isn’t important.”
He also wasn’t promising the idea of everyone being wealthy with their own palace based on how they lived their life.
What Jesus said is, “My dad has a house with many rooms, and you can live there with me.”
He wasn’t inviting us to fight for the best real estate deal in Heaven. There isn’t some gold toileted Jesus Towers in the sky where he looks down on all of us in our Heavenly McMansions. Jesus is offering a place where everyone is equal, everyone has enough, and everyone has a room.
Jesus is inviting us to a slumber party. More than that, he called us siblings. We are being adopted into the family of God and being told, “You’ve got a room at Dad’s house too.”
The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was saying at the time; we still seem to be confused about it now. The church keeps trying to build bigger and better dwelling places for God here on earth. But Jesus didn’t want or need a home here. He was unconcerned with those types of things. He already had a home to go back to.
What he did say to them was, “Soon, I’m going back home to be with my dad. When I’m gone, you’ll do the same things I’ve been doing and even better things than I’ve done.”
Jesus fed those who needed food and provided healthcare for free. Those were the things we were supposed to worry about. Caring for our neighbor.
And I think that is the big joke for Jesus. Because when he said, “Love your neighbor,” the response from the crowd was, “Who even is my neighbor?” The reply is, “Everyone is your neighbor.”
This confused folks because not everyone they met was their neighbor. Some were from other towns or countries or had different political and faith systems. How could everyone, regardless of geographical location, be our neighbor?
Because Jesus was saying that this life is a dress rehearsal for eternity, and we better learn to get along because we will all be neighbors, living in the same house, when we are dead.
The jokes not on Jesus, this commandment is a slap in the face of the devil. The devil fell because of iniquity. He doesn’t need to accuse us when we hate/accuse our own neighbors. We do his job for him.
If we love God and love each other, his job gets a lot harder. Kindness is contagious, one small act can start a ripple that spreads beyond anything imaginable.
Jesus teaching can only be understood if you raise your perspective to greater heights.