Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly, and welcome to Feed Your Soul. This Sunday's reading is an epic reading. There are half a dozen lines. We could spend all week just talking about one of these lines, but one of the lines, which is sort of tucked in right at the end, is one of the most ignored lines in the history of Christianity. It's one of the most ignored lines in the New Testament, in the scriptures. We don't know what to do with it. We don't know what it means, and we should take a look at it. We'll take a look at it today. This Sunday's reading is from John 14:1-12. It starts out, "Let not your heart be troubled. Let not your heart to be troubled." Is your heart troubled today? Most days, most of us have something troubling our hearts. Most days, most of us have a question on our hearts. And whatever it is, it's important to name it. It's important to name it, it's important to claim it, especially as we approach God, come to God in prayer, come to God in spiritual reading, come to God in reflection. Because whatever it is that's troubling us or troubling our hearts, whatever that question is that's nagging away at our minds, that will be the distraction to our prayer, to our two-hour scripture reading, to our spiritual reading, to any spiritual practice. So that's why Jesus gets straight at it, "Let not your hearts be troubled." Whatever's troubling your heart, let's name it, let's claim it, let's give it to God. Trust, surrender, believe, receive so that we can really enter into whatever God is inviting us to today. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself. It's interesting. Jesus is not, "Oh, someone's taking care of this for me," or, "Someone's going to take care of you," or, "I'm going to get one of my people to take care of you." No, Jesus is like, "I am going. I am preparing a place for you." He's not saying, "Oh, I'm going to go and prepare a place for everyone up in my dad's big house back there. No, I am going to prepare a place for you," because our God is a God. He's a personal God. He's a personal God. Everything about the New Testament is an invitation into a divine intimacy, into a very intimate relationship with God. And that is one of the fundamental things that separates Christianity for most other religions on the planet. Most religions believe in a distant, anonymous, powerful God that you can't understand, is doing all weird things, and we don't believe in that. We believe in a personal God. We believe in a God who's present. And then he says, "And you know the way where I am going." And Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know?" And Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." It's one of the most quoted passages in scriptures, right? I am the way, the truth, and the life has such powerful, powerful meaning in our culture today. Why? Because everyone thinks they got their own truth. Everyone thinks, "Oh, you've got your truth, and I've got my truth, and you be with your truth, and I'll be with my truths." And let's just let everyone be with their truth and see how that plays." Absolutely disaster, that's how it's going to play out. That's how it is playing out in many, many people's lives and in our culture today. And then there's another passage in the scriptures, which I think is fascinating in relation to this and what's happening in our culture. It says, "The truth will set you free." And what's really, really important to understand and here is that the truth will set you free, not your truth will set you free.
Your truth will lead you to slavery or leave you to bondage or lead you to all sorts of bad stuff, but the truth will set you free. And we have to take that in relation to today's scriptures where Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And so the gospel is a constant invitation to make the truth, our truth. "No one comes to the Father but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. Henceforth, you know him and have seen him. And Philip said to him, 'Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.'" It's great, isn't it? It's fantastic. Because it's so human. And I love that. I love that. Give me one more thing and we'll be satisfied, Jesus. Yeah, but I fed 5,000 people, right? Yeah, but just give us one more thing. Yeah, but I healed those people, right? Yeah, but just give us one more thing. Give us one more thing and then we'll be satisfied. It's such a human thing. Why? Because we have dissatisfied hearts. Why? Because we refuse the way, the truth, and the life. And when we refuse the way, the truth, and the life we will have constantly, and endlessly, dissatisfied hearts. It's a great story. John Bogle, who is the founder of Vanguard, the mutual fund company, and obviously phenomenally successful, incredibly wealthy, he was at a party one day and some other guy, hedge fund guy, came in and this guy was standing with John Bogle and he said, "That guy made more money last year than you made in the last decade." And John Bogle smiled, he said, "Yeah, that's okay." He said, "What do you mean?" He said, "See, I've got something that he will never have." Another guy said, "What's that?" "Enough. Enough." And that is powerful, right? Because the gospel is enough. It's enough. If we've got dissatisfied hearts, what don't we have? We don't have enough because we either got the wrong things or focus on the wrong things or rejecting the right things. "Philip said to him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.'" And that is our human tendency. Just give us one more thing, God. Give us one more proof, God. Show us one more thing. Do us one more favor. "And Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak of my own authority but the father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and a Father is in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.'" It's a great scripture. There's one line left. This is the line. So many things we could keep talking about here. But there's just this one line tacked on at the end of this. "Truly, truly," this is Jesus speaking, "Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do." Whoa. Hold on a minute. So Jesus did all these amazing things, right? And what is Jesus saying? He's saying, "Believe in me and you will do great works and even greater works than these." Okay? You know what that is? That's like a report card for the church. That's like a report card for Christianity. That's like a litmus test for like, okay, how are we doing? We got all these Christians in the world, how are we doing? Well, I'm not seeing that. And that's the word of God. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, he who makes me the way, the truth, the life, completely, in an unmitigated way, will also do these works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I go to the Father. Powerful. It's powerful. What is the dissatisfaction in your heart? What is the dissatisfaction in your heart? And in what way is an invitation to return to the way, the truth, and the life? Not your way, not your truth, not your life, not somebody else's way, truth, or life, not what the culture is trying to feed us, but the one way, the one truth, the one life.