Have You Entered into your "Mansion" Yet?
When our sense of connection has been ripped apartby divorce
, loss of a loved one, loss of a careeror when we feel alienated, all alone, Jesus speaks to our yearning to belong. "In my father's house are many mansions," he says. "I go to prepare a place for you."
Almost everyone thinks Jesus is describing mansions in the sky. Wasn't he promising that we'll all be with God in the "sweet bye and bye?"
In the meantime, as many see it, we are left to endure the isolation, the loneliness, and dream of our Beverely Hills-style home in the clouds after the troubles of this life are over.
It wasn't streets paved with gold, pearly gates, and mansions in the sky Jesus had in mind when he said, "In my father's house are many mansions." That's a poor translation. The statement sounds a lot less glamorous when you read a modern translation. Says the Revised Standard, "In my father's house are many rooms."
Ouch! You only get a room, not a mansion? Sort of like a motel room.
In 1611, the translators of the King James or Authorized version of the New Testament saw the Greek wordmonai, which is literally "abodes" or rooms, and interpreted it in accord with their dreams of what theyimagined heaven must be like. By so doing, they missed what Jesus was talking about.
Jesus ministered mainly to Jews, so he spoke in terms Jews could understand. What was "the father's house" to Jews?
Jesus strode into the temple, made a whip of cords, and drove out the sacrificial animals and the tradesmen who sold them. "Take these things away," he ordered, "you shall not makemy father's house a house of trade." To Jesus, a Jew, the father's house was thetemple.
"In my father's house are many rooms." The Jerusalem temple had small rooms attached to it, which were the abodes of the priests for the duration of their rotation of temple service. You came, performed your duty for so many weeks out of the year, and went home. The rooms in the father's house were the motel rooms in which you stayed while you served.
The trouble is, in the year 70 CE, the temple was destroyed and never rebuilt. So what is the father's house today? What is it that Jesus promises us?
The end of the temple as the father's house was signaled by Jesus in a conversation with a man called Nathaniel. "You will see heaven opened," he said, "and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
To a Jew, this was a stunning statement. Let me unpack it's meaning a little.
The house of God is replaced by what Jesus calls the "Son of Man." People think the Son of Man is Jesus himself. And it is Jesus, though not just as an individual but inwhat he represents.
The book of Daniel makes it clear that the Son of Man isn't just a single individual, but all who become part of the divinely conscious community of which Jesus is a symbol.
"Man" isn't an accurate translation. In Greek,aner is the word that means a "male." But the word Jesus used isanthropos, meaning a "human being."
The Son of Man is in fact anew kind of human. But not just an individual human in the way we think of a human. Rather, this is a collective, corporate terma humancommunity made up of all races,united into single body. Asserts St. Paul, this community is where God is made visible, where God is shaping the world's future.
Jesus' statement about the messengers of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Manor more accurately, the New Humanityharkens back to the Hebrew story of Jacob, who, when he was traveling, became tired and used a stone for a headrest.
You've heard of Jacob's ladder; it's a poor translation. That night, Jacob dreamed of a giant "staircase" stretching between Earth and sky, upon which the messengers of God were going back and forth between the heavenly throne room and those to whom they were sent.
We pick up the story in Genesis: "Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, Surely Yahweh is in this placeand I did not know it!' And he was afraid, and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than thehouse of God, and this isthe gate of heaven.'"
Jacob then took the stone he had used as a pillow and set it up as a pillar stone to mark the spot. The place became known as Bethel, meaning "house of El"house of God.
Again, I pose the question, what is God's house today? In Jacob's time it was Bethel. Later it was the temple in Jerusalem. But what, with the temple gone, is it now?
Jesus says it's you and methose who together form the New Humanity. We are the community of the Son of Man, the New Human Being, that replaces the temple. We are God's abode.
St. Paul says in Ephesians 1:3 that we areright now "blessed withevery spiritual blessingin the heavenly places."
Note the tense: living the heavenly life is now!Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is already ours, today.
Again, in Ephesians 2:6, Paul declares that God has "raised us up with Christ and seated us with himin the heavenly places."
Do you see the remarkable parallel to Jesus' statement, "In my Father's house are many rooms; I go to prepare aplace for you?"
Those who are conscious of the divine Presence at the heart of their being are now God's heavenly temple, God's house.
Says Paul, we are all a part of a structure that is taking shape, "built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God."
Writing to the Ephesians, Paul talks in chapter 2 of his letter about how the world's peoples have been divided. But now they are coming together as a single body, a veritable new kind of humanity.
It is a humanity that is founded on peace instead of power struggles, connection instead of conflict, harmony instead of hostility.
Those of us who participate in this community, which is the future of the world, have a sense of belongingof being "at home" with ourselves and with each other.
As Paul puts it, the point is to become "one new humanity," at peace, reconciled, free of hostility. In a word, weconnect. We really connect, heart to heart.
We'll pick this theme up next time, because it has tremendous implications for what our everyday life is really all about.
Have You Entered into your "Mansion" Yet?
By: David Robert Ord
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