Section 149
Questions about his destination, the Father, and the Holy Spirit answered
Jerusalem, in the upper room
| John 14:1-31 |
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| 1“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God0x3B believe also in me. 2In my Father's house there are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3So when I go, it is to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. 4You know where I am going, and you know the way.” 5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” 9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long and still you do not know me, Philip? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who abides in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me0x3B but if not, believe me because of the works themselves. 12Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do. He will even do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. 13Whatever you ask in my name, I will do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. 15“If you love me, keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to abide with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he abides with you and will be in you. 18“I will not leave you as orphans0x3B I am coming back to you. 19Yet a little while and the world will see me no longer, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to manifest yourself to us and not to the world?” 23Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. 25“I have said these things to you while abiding with you. 26But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you. 27Peace I leave with you0x3B my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced that I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ because my Father is greater than I am. 29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe. 30I will not talk with you much longer, for the ruler of the world is coming, but he has no power over me. 31Rather, I do just as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. |
Notes
Upper Room
The Upper room, or Cenacle, commemorates the place where the last Supper was eaten and Holy Communion was instituted. The Gospels tell us nothing of the location of the house, but there is good indication it would have been on the western hill where a wealthy man would have had an upper room on his house. Archaeological excavations in the Jewish quarter show that there were large houses in this area during the time of Christ.
There is a possibility that this is indeed the correct location of the Upper Room. A church was built on this site soon after the death of Jesus. It must have survived the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Bishop Epiphanius wrote of how Emperor Hadrian made an inspection tour of Jerusalem in 130 A.D. and found “everything razed except for a few houses and a certain small church of the Christians which stood on Mount Zion in the place where the disciples returned after the ascension”. This church was destroyed and rebuilt many times over the following centuries before being handed over to the Franciscans who restored the room giving it its present Gothic appearance (14th century).