Humble Hero

“Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled”

This chapter is based on John 13:31-38; 14-17.

Judas had left the upper room, and Christ was alone with the eleven. He was about to speak of His approaching separation from them, but before this He pointed to the great purpose of His mission. He always kept freshly in mind His joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father’s name. This is where He first directed the thoughts of His disciples. HH 309.1

Their Master and Lord, their beloved Teacher and Friend, was dearer to them than life. Now He was going to leave them. Dark forebodings filled their hearts. HH 309.2

But the Savior’s words were full of hope. He knew that Satan’s craftiness is most successful against those who are depressed by difficulties. So He turned their thoughts to the heavenly home: “Let not your heart be troubled. ... In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” When I go away, I will still work earnestly for you. I go to the Father to cooperate with Him on your behalf. HH 309.3

Christ’s departure was the opposite of what the disciples feared—it did not mean a final separation. He was going to prepare a place for them so that He could receive them to Himself. While He was building mansions for them, they were to build characters in God’s likeness. HH 309.4

Thomas was troubled by doubts. “‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.’” HH 309.5

There are not many ways to heaven. Each person may not choose his own way. Christ was the way by which patriarchs and prophets were saved. He is the only way by which we can have access to God. HH 309.6

But the disciples did not yet understand. “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us,” exclaimed Philip. Christ asked with pained surprise, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?” Is it possible that you do not see the Father in the works He does through Me? “How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Christ had not stopped being God when He became human; the Godhead was still His own. Christ’s work testified to His divinity. Through Him the Father had been revealed. HH 309.7

If the disciples believed this vital connection between the Father and the Son, their faith would not leave them when they saw Christ’s suffering and death. How persistently our Savior worked to prepare His disciples for the storm of temptation that would soon beat upon them. Everyone there felt a sacred awe as they listened to His words with breathless attention. And as their hearts were drawn to Christ in greater love, they were drawn to one another. They felt that heaven was very near. HH 310.1

The Savior was anxious for His disciples to understand why His divinity was united to humanity. He came to the world to display the glory of God so that He could lift us up by its restoring power. Jesus revealed no qualities and exercised no powers that we may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity is what all His followers may possess if they will submit to God as He did. HH 310.2

“Greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” By this Christ meant that under the influence of the Holy Spirit the disciples’ work would have greater extent. After the Lord ascended to heaven, the disciples experienced the fulfillment of His promise. They knew that the divine Teacher was all that He had claimed to be. As they lifted high the love of God, hearts were touched and multitudes believed on Jesus. HH 310.3